PROTECTIONIST COMBINES.

Evening Star, Issue 11606, 17 June 1902, Page 3

PROTECTIONIST COMBINES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Wan'd it be treason to say these are the worst—vide the Acting-Ptenvier’s references—“ to extort excessive prices from the people”? Let me illustrate a working man’s wages in.the boot trade and the price of his boots. On boots there is a duty of 22£ per cent. This becojnes 25 per cent, for retail price, or, sav, a working man is, by this iniquitous tariff, obliged to pay 20s for a pair of boots worth only 15s. No trade workers are paid worse than boot workers. As the protective tariff' increases so'do' the wages decrease. The profits of Protection', go to the manufacturer and not to the worker. Wages (Freetrade or Protection) are paid from profits, but more equitable under the former than the latter. Abraham Lincoln used to say: “You can fool all the people part of the time and part of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Cqbden agitated and succeeded in giving is cheajier food and clothing through Freetrade ; and the question we have to answer is: Have the wages of the bootmakers increased as Protection has increased? If not, as I contend not, tben less commodities are available for the purchasing power of the wages earned. —I am, etc., F.M. June 16.