The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1868-01-16

thousand men, women and boys. Mil
lions worth of our productions went
through the hands of those great mer-
chants, Barring Bro, Thompson, and
Foreman, and Peabody & 20. Those
and many others grew enormously rich
on your backs. | fancy know how, but
it will be foreign in this place. and so
proceed by saying that if your free trade
notions are going to prevail in the same
way as they have heretofore, then don't
want to sail in the same ship.
Hitherto American free trade policy to
wards England, take care [ don't say
English free trade towards America for
mutual beneft) has always resulted in
the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of England, and the
depression of America-on this point
there seems to be considerable amount
OF Ignorance in this country. England
protected her home INDUSTRY until it suit
ed her convenience to be partially free
trade. Her enormous manufacturing es-
adjustments were built up and fostered by
protection; even the farmer was protect
ed, for remember we'll the time when no
kind OF breadstuff was admitted free of
duty until wheat had attained certain
price per quarter Thirty-fve years ago
the English manufacturer was protected
to the extent of prohibition. It was un-
der this kind of fostering care that Eng
land grew rich and powerful, for money
Is power However, it must be admitted
that the English had an immense Coloni-
al Gu om which they controlled, and
which no doubt helped to greatly encour-
age manufacturing. 1t is also true that
under this protective system some few
made rapid fortunes, but the question is,
did this have a bad effect? No, quite the
reverse, it was encouragement to bring
competition into play; skill and ingenuity
followed, and prices gradually came lower
as for instance, [ remember land [ am
not yet forty years of agel yard of COM
com calico worth fifteen cents reduced to
four and half cents, also a pound of
merchant iron reduced from four cents to
one and one-fourth cents, without any
material difference In wages or raw mate
rails. and the manufacturers doing well all
the time
About this stage in their manufactur-
ing history, when they had immense
establishments built up, and an enormous
capital expended, skilled labor, bred to
the work, In abundance around them,
they agltated for the repeal of the Corn
Laws, arguing as a matter of course that
If they could get cheap bread, they could
get the wark done for less, and so still
cheaper their goods to further extent
This was the entering of the thin end of
the wedge. A few years ago, Mr.. Cob
den went as commissioner to Napoleon,
to reason free trade matters with him
and some of the German States, and
promised on behalf of England that she
would reduce the import duties en- wine
and silk, if they would also take off duties
they had On some Of the English staple
manufactures. 1t was DONE But Eng
land has found out already to her cost
that it has been a losing game.
In short we maintain that protection
to home industry would benefit the whole
country and gradually cheaper the man
uttered article, and we can prove it right
here in Chicago to-day From 60 to the
beginning OF last year, we have had pro-
lection in this country. The result has
been that large number of manufactur-
ing shops have gone up; competition has
been brought to bear so that you can buy
a pound Of sheet iron or boiler plate in
Chicago to-day for less than it was ever
sold on those halcyon days of free trade
and bankruptcy. taking gold as a basis
We are also making and laying down
new railroad iron cheaper than any
brought from England in those charming
days Of old referred to- on the same basis.
L may also refer you to one or two other
articles, or class Of articles; say, for in
stance, agricultural implements, nails
sewing machines, which are all made in
this country through American ingenuity,
cheaper and better than they can be got
elsewhere. Factories are put up all over
the country, and | am looking forward
to the day when we shall largely supply
other countries with those and Others
through the remarkable facilities we have
for manufacturing cheap. We dom
want any protection on these things, but
on other articles where heavy outlay is
necessary in the first place, and after
wards the trouble Of getting artisans on
the spot, protection is necessary before
they can be developed
In conclusion, [ ask what kind of A 3
& logic is that which advocates growing
cotton down South so easily accessible
to our Western farms by navigation for
any surplus food they may have to SELL
and then ship it to England and follow it
with this Western farm produce in the
shape of flour and concentrated corn
(pork, to feed and employ these half
starved, down trodden Europeans, and
bring 1t back mere for wearing apparel :?
Would 1T not be better to encourage and
develope It's manufacture on the spot, and
it we have not enough of hands, fetch a
few millions of those people over here
nd 10, -