It is said by some of our opponents that a protective tariff has no influence upon wages; that labor in the United States has nothing to fear from the competition from pauper labor; that in the contest between pauper labor and high priced labor pauper labor was always driven out. Do such statements as these fall in line with experiences of these workingmen who are before me? [Cries of "No, no!"] If that is true, then why the legislative precautions we have wisely taken against the coming of pauper labor to our shores? It is because you know, every one of you, that in a contest between two rival establishments here, or between two rival countries, that that shop or that country that pays the lowest wages--and so produces most cheaply--can command the market. If the products of foreign mills that pay low wages are admitted here without discriminating duties, you know there is only one way to meet such competition, and that is by reducing wages in our mills. [Applause.] They seek to entice you by the suggestion that you can wear cheaper clothing when free access is given to the products of foreign woollen mills; and yet they mention also that now, in some of our own cities, the men, and especially the women, who are manufacturing the garments we wear are not getting adequate wages, and that among some of them there is suffering. Do they hope that when the coat is made cheaper the wages of the man or woman who makes it will be increased? The power of your labor organizations to secure increased wages is greatest when there is a large demand for the product you are making at fair prices. You do not strike for better wages on a falling market. When the mills are running full time, when there is a full demand at good prices for the product of your toil, and when warehouses are empty, then your organization may effectively insist upon increased wages. Did any of you ever see one of the organized efforts for better wages succeed when the mill was running on half time, and there was a small demand at falling prices in the market for the product? [Applause.] The protective system works with your labor organization to secure and maintain a just compensation for labor. Whenever it becomes true--as it is in some other countries--that the workingman spends to-day what he will earn to-morrow, then your labor organizations will lose their power. Then the workman becomes in very fact a part of the machine he operates. He cannot leave it, for he has eaten to-day bread that he is to earn to-morrow. But when he eats to-day bread that he earned last week or last year, then he may successfully resist any unfair exactions. [Applause.] I do not say that we have here an ideal condition. I do not deny that in connection with some of our employments the conditions of life are hard. But the practical question is this: Is not the condition of our working people on the