A. On account of the fact that they pay so much higher wages than foreign manufacturers do and to compel them to pay still higher wages.
Q. Is this necessary?
A. It is very necessary to the Republican Party; for it gives it an issue and its chief cause for existence. When it saw accomplished, by the fortune of war, the freedom of the slave, what could be more natural and glorious than its ready espousal of anti-freedom for commerce?
Q. Are “protective” duties always just equal to the difference between our wages and foreign wages?
A. That is what our argument implies; and, if our argument is true, that is all we can ask. But how is a noble army of patriots to be maintained, and how can election expenses be met if we do not—in our tariff—treble and more than quadruple this difference often?
Q. Are high wages given by our manufacturers without an equivalent advantage in return?
A. It is true of wages, as of other things—that they are ordinarily worth their price, so that our high-priced labor is really labor of low cost. But it is a mighty convenient subterfuge to keep this fact out of sight and by this means hoodwink the poor laborer for his vote.
Q. Do manufacturers keep a lobby at Washington for securing a tariff that makes them pay high wages and yet sell their goods at low prices?
A. That is what we very often say, substantially.