The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1855-01-20

DelleVeQ, 100, lndI Wuell LHe ldTlleT ldu u
great domestic market to supply, he could
obtain higher prices than when he was
wholly dependent upon foreign one--and
here, too, the result answered their expecta-
tions, for the tariffs of 1894 and 1928 re-
deemed the farmers from the distress into
which they had been plunged by the free
trade measure of 1918, as that of lS42 re
deemed them from that in which they had
been sunk by the free trade measures Of
1834-42. AS yet, on this occasion, the de-
struction of the domestic market for food
has but commenced, and we have now ar
rived only at the point at which we had, un-
der the compromise tariff, arrived in 1888.
That year, however, was speedily followed
by 1912, as 1854 is destined to be followed
by 1856, when in all probability, we shall
see food as cheap as it was in 1912, and hear
around us the same clamor for the passage
of stay laWS that then was heard. Like
causes always produce like effects; and as
such laws have always heretofore followed
in the wake of free trade, we can see no rea-
son why they may not again be looked for.
We are told that there is great excess Of
revenue, and that the tariff must be reduced,
in order that the people may cease to be
taxed. So were our predecessors told in
1918; but four years after these 1tntdred peo-
pie suffered for want of food and the treasu-
ry would have been bankrupt if it could not
have borrowed money. In 1888, too, we
had a surplus revenue, but four years later
the people starved and the treasury was
bankrupt, for starving people could pur-
chase neither cloth nor iron, by help of
which to contribute to the revenue. We
have now surplus, but are surrounded by
people who, if not yet actually starving, are
totally unemplyed and wholly unable to-
purchase any Of those commodities the con-
sumption of which helps the revenue and
if the present system be maintained, we can
see no reason why the bankrupt treasury of
1886 shall not follow in the wake of the &C
tually bankrupt one of lS42, and the almost
bankrupt one of 1922.
Thus far protection has performed all her
promises. She carried the country triumph
anty through the war of 1912, and delivered
it over in state of the highest prosperity.
She found the country poor in 1924, and de-
livered it over in ten years later more pros
porous than it had ever been before. She
found it bankrupt in 1912, and restored it to
prosperity by 1916. Free trade, on the con
trary, has redeemed not a single one In
1918 she promised the farmers the great mar
ket of the world in return for destroying the /
manufacturers, but flour fell to half the
price it had commanded during the war, and
wheat in Ohio fell to twenty cents bush'l. |
She promised them, in 1884, high prices for
their products, and food sold, 1912, at lower
prices than had, we believe, ever been known.
She promised the nation in 1916 that they
should supply all Europe with food, and
that our exports Of it should by this time
amount to hundreds Of millions Of dollars
and now we have been driven to make re-
ciprocity treaty with Canada, by which our
farmers are to be sacrificed, in order that we
may obtain for ourselves supplies of food
She told US in 1913 that all the gold we had
exported would come back again in payment
for food and cotton; and yet we have from
that hour to the present been exporting gold,
until money has become so scarce, that 1t
commands two per cent. per monlh,and even
at that price can be obtained only by those
who are supposed to be rich. She told US
that New York was to be the centre of the
commerce of the world, and yet trade is
now being driven from that port by the i'm
possibility Of obtaining means to carry III
on, except at such ruinous rates as forbid
the extension Of commerce. The victorious
democracy thus protects . the rights and in
terests of labor by sacrificing the active,
industrious and energetic men Of the COun
try and adding to the fortunes of those who
are already rich. and is therefore most pro
perly rcpreSented abroad by the agent Of tha I