The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1866-04-19

vite the skilled artisans Of the Old World
to the comfort and competence to be found
in the New. The question of our national
independence and readiness to meet any
domestic war or foreign invasion leave
to be decided by the following selection,
which needs no comment, being both fl
nancial lesson and apolitical caution and
warming: ~ - is stEa "
ECONOMY FROM AN Ex-REBEL.
A sagacious rebel general; recently re- re-
mark ed:
ave made tive great mistakes. Had we
avoided them we should haye conquered
you. The first was that we did not sub
.stantially destroy the protective features
of the tariff in the winter season of 1888
by an act which, provided rapid annual
sliding scale to free trade. AZ < pemocrat-
~ measure, we could haye passed such a
law, aud held it tight OH YOU till it had
clbsetl the furnaces, work shops, woolleR
and cotton mills, and steel and bar and
iron works of the whole North and West,
and scattered your workmen over the prai-
ries and Territories. When the war was
ready fot you you wouldn't have been
ready for the war. You could. not have
armed and equipped and put in the field a
large army, nor built anavy. You would
have been without supplies, machinery and
workmen, and you would have been with
out money anf credit. Our second mis-
take was in withdrawing our Senators and
Representatives from your Congress. Had
we left them there, their vote, combined
with the northern Democratic, would have
thwarted every military and financial
measure necessary to, cradle. you 10 carry
on the war Tor a Sufficient length of time
to enable us to seize the Government, oc-
cupy some of your States, obtain recogni.
ton abroad, and dictate nard terms te you.
How the - we biunderei in these two re-
spects / can't understand, except upon the
hypothesis Of an overriding Providence
He who now, under the guise OF frielHl-
ship for labor, protfe free trade or even q
reduction of our tariff, save to make it
equal, and shouts Monopoly! TO decry
our manufactures, strikes at our infant en-
terprises, builds up mighty rivals, and de-
serves execration. L Venture a reply, and
propose to ..... .~ ,s4at.;s.1al ". d
l, Examine the charge OF monopoly, na"'
2, The theory and practical. results OF
free labor. ..''.' :. .hn'd@% ."y.
g. The true policy and just demands of
the agricultural interests Of the North
west. ...... .gas.g.' -, z 30 t.-qs
. 'a.8. .......s...., MONOPOLY, z... r.aF u
Monopoly is most convenient term of
rerroach on the lips of free traders who
find it more convenient TO excite prejudice
than TO answer arguments, it meaning eN-
elusive advantages or control by produc-
ton or sale., 1t is. easy to prove that free
trade. tends directly to establish foreign
monopoly, while protection will distribute
the benefits OF trade ana production at
home. ''' '
n hundred wears of direct and indirect
protection, by the British Government, oi
their manufactures, has brought together
wel!skIlIed labor, and making All alliance
with Il moneycd power has secured colos-
sal features whichLat the first opportunity
would be launched upon infant .enterpris7
es, paying larger interest for money and
meeting heavy internal taxes, and without
governmental protection, ''.'s"
Great Britain has hadn long experience.
She controls her own markets, and has the
power to- combine ller merchants, ship
masters, and capitalists to break bowman
rivals. She has nothing to fear from un-
friendly legislation, and experience has
given technical and business skill which
sways capital rhatfwil forego returns TO-
day, if on the depression or ruirsof our IN
dustry she can i'll the future diotate prices
to her rival as in the past.
The power OF capital entices the strong
and controls the weak. In the language
of Edmund Burke, THE large capitals OF
Great Britain are tie great instruments OF
warfare against Tie competing capital OF
foreign countries, and are the. most essen
tial Instruments now remaining by " hich
the supremacy OF our manufactures can be
maintained" Our labor costs thirty per
cent, more than hers, and cash capital is
fifty per cent. dearer; but by protection our
workmen became so far skilled, and aid to
such an accumulation capital by skill
ful management that certain articles are
made cheaper here than in any other conn
presses, sewing machines, India-rubber
goods, reaping and moving machines,
forks, hoes, axes, shovels, cut nails, combs,
tacks, and clocks. Who believes that if
Great Britain alone manufactured these ar
ticles that they would be as cheap as now
when We can defy her competition in the
markets OF the world? Repeatedly has
she broken down rivals to cqntrol the mar
kets, and nothing is palmer than this, that
the spirit which forbade the colonies to
manufacture before the Revolution, and
has used the power of genteel bribery to
break down our tariff, was to establish a
foreign monopoly, whose establishment
could be measured by the dependence of
labor, and their regard for us by the pros
pect of national destruction.
If, then. tariffs create monopoly, it is
one in which the Government and the
whole people have an interest, furnishing
articles for taxation and scope for enter
prise and diversifying labor, establishing
independence and thrift by those methods
approved in the history of The strongest
and wisest governments of earth. 1t is
our first duty TO secure to the nation those
privileges to which the endowments Of pa
ture give title; to discriminate against an
other Government is TO invite labor on our
own soil to be better paid, and where the
citizen may lind fair field for his indus
try and skill. Is it then the monopoly of
trade or section' Not at tall. lie may
at his option work in leather, at the forge,