PROTECTION AND WAGES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1815, 14 April 1888, Page 2

PROTECTION AND WAGES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— ln your leader on the fourth page of Thursday night's issue yon make a lot of comparisons between Amerioa and England m regard to the rate of wages paid, and you put down the high rate ruling In Amerioa to Its protective tariff ; but I think if you had made a comparison between the rate paid m Eogland before she adopted the Freetrade principle and that paid now, also between the rate paid In Amerioa before that ooontry had Protection and the rate paid now, it I would have been more to the point. You finish up with the assertion that Freetraders simply Ignore the faota ; but while admitting the trath of the saying that "faciß are ohlels that winna ding," we may at the Bame time fiud that when viewed from another standpoint the faots have sprung from other oansaß than we at first imagined. Now as I intend In another letter to state my opinion hb to the reason why America can pay higher wages than England, I only want In the present latter to show the fallacy of the Protection theory. If that theory ia correct ac between America and England, when we apply it between England and other European countries (which are all more or less protected) the result ought to be England's paying the lowest wages, whereas the facts Bhow that she is paying the highest rate. Can you explain this m the f roteotion theory 1 Again, since England adopted the Freetrade principle her rate of wages m fifty years has risen 125 per cent. According to your ideas it ought to have come down that much. Now jaatlook up the same official authority as you got your figures from, and give as the rate of wages m the United States and Melbourne for the twenty years previous to their adoption of the protective tariff, and you will find that wages m both oases hava dropped about 40 per cent. Now these are the facts whioh 1 think you ou?ht to explain before charging ua with wilfully ignoring the truth when that seems to be against us. I am, etc. , Freetrade.