The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1855-01-20
$40
Free Trade versus Protection.


table hosts, in defence of the rights and in
terests of labor against the aggressions and
exactions of concentrated and incorpora ted
capital Such is the boast of our cotem
porary; but what are the facts? Under the
protection afforded by the war Of 1912, the
land was being filled with artizans, and la
borers were every where in demand at large
wages, while the domestic demand for food
maintained the prices in face of total exclu-
sion from foreign markets-but that portion
of the democracy which is now represented
by the Union, abolished protection, destroyed
the domestic demand for labor and for food,
and drove the bankrupt farmers of the coun-
try to the necessity for procuring stay laaCs,
by help of which to resist their creditors.
Under the tariffs of 1921 and 1928, the
land was once again filled with artizans and
capital waseverywhere applied to the build
ing of mills and furnaces, and to the open
ing of mines, with steady increase in the
demand for labor, and in the power to pur-
chase food and clothing. The same democ-
racy, however, again abolished protection,
and closed the mills, the furnaces, and the
tic demand for labor, and the power to pur-
chase food-and then again were our streets
filled with starving laborers, while the farm
ers were driven to seek protection against
their creditors by once again procuring the
passage of stay laWs, which have thus far
always followed in the wake of " the victo-
rles won" by &C the indomitable host" now
represented by the Union.
Again, and for the third time, was the
country, by the help Of the tariff of 1912,
filled with mills and furnaces, and mines
were again opened, and demand was again
made everywhere for labor, producing every
where power to purchase food and clothing
but once again " the indomitable hosts
of the Union achieved victory, and what
is now the consequence Over the whole
country we see railroads half made and sus-
pended for want of that very money Of which
we have have shipped, in the last year, al
most million week, to pay for cloth and
iron that, under the tariff of 1912, would
have been produced at home while thou
sands and tens Of thousands Of laborers are
unable to sell their services, or TO obtain
food for their starving wives and children.
Every day brings with it advice Of the clos
ing of some additional furnace, factory, roll
ing mill, or machine shop, with the conse-
quent discharge of hundreds of hands, who
would gladly furnish the commodities for
which we send the gold to Europe, and who,
an default of employment, are forced to-
throw themselves upon the public for sup
port.
Thus far, then, the democratic victories so
loudly boasted of by our contemporary, seem
always to have resulted in destroying the
farmer and the manufacturer, and starving
the laborer, while always enriching the mon
ey lender. Under free trade in 1820-24,
real estate was everywhere sacrificed, and
everywhere purchased, at his own prices,
by the mOrtgagee-and thus were the rich
made richer and the poorer impoverished. =
Such was the fashion in which &" the rights
and interests of labor" were defended by
our democratic friends. Thus was it again
in '4l-2, as is but too we'll known to
many of our readers SO is it likely, as we
fear, again to be in the present period of
free trade through which, as was the case in
1921 and l84l, we are bound to pass, on our
road to that truly democratic state Of things
in which the rights Of the AMERICAN LABoRER
shall be deemed entitled to the same consid-
Grafton given to them by the patriotic au.
thors of the tariffs of 1924, 1923 and 1912
Those men believed that when the farmer,
the mill owner the furnace master, the min
ing operator, and the road maker, were all in
the market competing for the purchase of
labor, the laborer would become rich and
free, and therefore, did they desire to estab-
lish competition for the purchase of labor
and the result fully euualled their exOecta-