By George.

Southland Times, Issue 9543, 13 June 1887, Page 3

By George.

a The following, from the pen of Henry George (the famous working man's advocate) on Protection in America, will be read with interest : — " In spite of all oar Protection — and for the last 24 years at least ithe advocates of Protection have been free to carry their experiments as far aa they chose — the condition of the labouring classes of tho United States has been slowly bat surely sinking to that of the ' punpor labour ' of Europe. It docs not follow that this is because of Protection, but it is certain that Protection has proved powerless to prevent it. To discover whether Protection has or has not benefited the working classes of the CJoitedJStateß, it is 'not necessary to 3rray tabled of figures which only an expert can verify and determine. The determining facts are notorious. It is a matter of common knowledge that the capitalists' corporation?, rings, and combinations to whom we have given powar to tax the American people for the protection of American industry pay their employes as littlo us they can, and have no scruples of importing the very foreign labour against wHoro .products the tariff is imposed. It i« notorioua that \vag6B iv the protected industries are, if anything-, lower than in tho unprotected industries, and that although the protected industries do not employ more than oto fifth of tho working population of the United States, there occur in them more strikes, moro lock outs, more attempts to reduce wages, than in all other industries. la the highly-protected industries of Massachusetts, official reports declare that the operative cannot get a living without the work of wife and children. In the highly - protectsd industries of Now Jersey, many of the ' protected' labourers are children whoso parents are driven by their necessities to find employment for them by inisreprc-Bentiog their ago, co aa to evarie tho State law. In iho highly-protected iadnsrriss of Pennsylvania, labourers — for wlioee cakes, we are told, the high protection ia imposed — are working for G5 cents a day, and halfclad women aro feeding furnace fires. ' Pluck me' stores, corporation tenements, and boarding housee, Pinkerton detective* and mercenaries, and all the forms and evidences of the oppression and degradation of labour are, throughout the country, characteristic of tho .protected industries."