Transcript Eco 24: Competing Philosophies

THE OPENING OF THE CONGRESSIONAL SESSION
Tariff Monster: “Here I am again. What are you going to do with me? (Joseph Keppler, Puck, 1887)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
THE KEEPERS AT THE GATE [McKinley & Monopolies] (1896)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Effects of a Tariff
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Sources of Political Cartoons:
http://www.iberia.vassar.edu/1896/tariff.html
http://www.natcorp.com/museum/quiz4cartoons.html
http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/pc_intro.html
The last site has an index of cartoons on all topics,
including a large collection on woman suffrage:
http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/suf_intro.html
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
FOR MONDAY, 2/5
READ:
Martineau; Sumner; deToqueville; Gage (Truth)
Prepare a response.
Imagine that Martineau and deToqueville visited
Union College today.
What that they said then still applies?
What that they said then would they take back?
What new things might they say?
Be prepared to present your answers on MONDAY.
If you want to ask each other (or me) questions, there is a
SUFFRAGE discussion board.
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Condition of Women
Harriet Martineau, Society in America, 1837
“American civilisation appears to be of a lower order than might
have been expected…” (226)
“…indulgence is given her as a substitute for justice.”
“The intellect of woman is confined.” (227)
“The morals of women are crushed.” (229)
“Men are ungentle, tyrannical. They abuse the right of the
strongest…. Women are … weak, ignorant, and subservient…”
(235)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Condition of Women
Harriet Martineau, Society in America, 1837
“…governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed. How can the political condition of women be
reconciled with this? (148)
Jefferson and John Mill dismiss women’s rights. Jefferson lumps
women with infants and slaves; Mill with fathers and husbands.
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Employment of Women
Helen Sumner, PhD Senate Report, 1910.
Why do women work in the textile industries?
“scarcity of labor supply and the high price of male labor”
“it was their [women’s] occupations which were being transferred
to the factory, and naturally they followed”
“ ’There is in fact no other market for this description of labor;
there is no other mode in which … it can be made productive at
all.’ ” (51)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Employment of Women
Employment and Female Employment per 100,000
in the textile industries, 1831-1900.
180
160
140
120
All labor
100
80
60
Female labor
40
20
0
1831
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
Employment of Women
Why was female labor replaced by male labor?
Immigration
Change in the quality of output, requiring more complex
weaving
Introduction of new technology:
“the operation of some of the modern machines requires
the care of men, because it is beyond the physical and
nervous capacity of women” (58)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
De Toqueville on Women in America
“Americans … admit that as nature has appointed such
wide differences between the physical and moral
constitution of man and woman, her manifest design was
to give a distinct employment to their various
faculties…” (222)
“[American women] attach a sort of pride to the
voluntary surrender of their own will and make it their
boast to bend themselves to the yoke, not to shake it off.”
(223)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
De Toqueville on Women in America
“As for myself, I do not hesitate to avow that although
the women of the United States are confined within the
narrow circle of domestic life, and their situation is in
some respects one of extreme dependence, I have
nowhere seen women occupying a loftier position…”
(225)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Mrs. Gilbert Jones on Suffrage
“The plea of the Suffragists is for the equality of the sexes…
The Anti-Suffragists grant the equality of the sexes. Men are
no better than women … But the ‘Anti’ insists that the
difference between the sexes shall not be ignored.” (158)
“…there is still a chasm between them [the sexes], in spite of
the fact that the heights on either side are equally majestic.”
(169)
“It is clear that in trying to prove the equality of the sexes
they [the Suffragists] are encouraging one of the greatest evils
society has to deal with in this twentieth century.” (165)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
B. T. Washington, “Up from Slavery”
“No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of
this section [the South] can disregard this element of our
population and reach the highest success.” (218)
“Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the
load upward, or they will pull against you the load downward.
We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and
crime of the South, or one-third its intelligence and progress;
we shall contribute one-third to the business and industrial
prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of
death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to
advance the body politic.” (222)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
B. T. Washington, “Up from Slavery”
“In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as
the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to
mutual progress.” (221-222)
“The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of
questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that
progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come
to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather
than of artificial forcing.” (223)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
W.E.B. DuBois
Felt that Booker T. Washingtion was, as paraphrased by
Dinesh D’Souza, the original Uncle Tom.
“DuBois argued that basic legal rights were the indispensable
pre-requisite for exercising those virtues [of duty and
responsibility], and ‘until we get these rights we will never
cease to protest and assail the ears of America.’” (D’Sousa,
“Up From Dependency,” Wall Street Journal, 3/25/92)
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Race Relations
At stake are issues of mandated integration vs. segregation.
Affirmative action, set-asides, and welfare vs. “judging
people on individual achievement rather than race”.
(D’Souza)
Many of these debates apply to gender issues as well as race.
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein
Economics of Discrimination
If only some firms discriminate, they pay lower wages,
making an opportunity for other firms to gain a competitive
advantage by hiring away skilled workers at low cost.
If all firms discriminate, then a two-tiered economy evolves
with many of the same welfare losses as exist with trade
barriers. If each race (or gender) tries to be self-sufficient, all
lose the benefits of specialization and trade.
© 2001 J. Douglass Klein