The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1870-09-29
Protection to Home Industry.

! How 1t works - The IOOFcT
Glasses Benefited - A Few
Plain Facts for the People.
The following letter appeared in the
Portsmouth (Ohio) Republican of a
late date. Its plain, practical, COM
mon sense facts and arguments in IA
vor ofbuiIding up home manufactures,
by tariff sufficient to protect them
against the cheap labor of Europe,
cannot be controverted, and are suffi-
cient answer to all the sophistries of
the free traders. II is worthy of care
| full reading and remembrance:
SCIOTOvILLE, Aug. 1st, 1870.
ED. REPUBLICANS IL am mortified
and grieved when 1 consider the at
tempts of Democratic editors to de-
ceiYe and mislead our honest and con-
fiding citizens in regard to the policy
of protection to home industry. They
tell our farmers that the government
rObs them; that the government taxes
and oppresses them, merely to benefit
the manufacturers. And they are so
earnest in their appeals that one would
almost suppose they must believe their
false statements and false appeals,
which is a matter extremely doubtful.
They must know that by advocating
this free trade policy, whether paid
with British gold or not, they are
working in the interest of the manu-
facturers of England and against the
interest of their own State.
To prove this l shall present few
simple and plain statements for the
consideration of our farmers in this
section. And first, l remember that
fifty years ago, farmers could only
get twenty-five cents for their wool, but
had to pay eight or ten dollars yard
for their broad cloths. That was be-
cause we had but few wooden factories
in this country. What is the fact
now? We have hundreds of factories,
and the consequence is that farmers
are getting fifty cents per pound for
wool, and paying only from two to
five dollars for their brOad-cloths.-|
And yet these INSCRIPTIONS, false
sheets tell them that they are obliged
to sell their products for half their val
ue, and pay twice as much as they
ought for their manufactured goods!
The very reverse of this is true, and
they are actually getting twice as
much for their products and paying
only half as much for manufactured
articles as they did fifty years ago,
when we were dependent on Eng
land.
1 remember that fifty years ago, be-
fore we had a cotton mill in this COun-
try, common calicoes, sold for twenty
five or forty cents per yard, and a young
woman at domestic service would
get but seventy-fve cents per week for
her wages, and it would take a months
wages TO pay for a common calico
dress. But what is the fact now,
since we have got. cotton mills of our
own? Why the price Of calico is
down to fifteen cents a yard, and any
young woman with a months earn
ings can buy half dozen calico
dresses. In this connection let me
state another fact for the attentive
consideration of our farmers. If itl
had not been for the American pro-
tective tariff, we should not have had
a cotton mill, nor wooden factory in
this country to this day. We are in
debted to that system for the innu
merable manufacturing establishments
that have sprung up in the Eastern
States, and made them so wealthy,
and which are now springing up as if
by magic throughout the West. But
for that system we should have been
the slaves of England still, compelled
to pay her former high prices for all
manufactured goods, and to receive
the former low prices, or whatever
she chose to pay, for our raw products.
Our fathers wearied of the CALLING vas
salage and threw of the yoke, and let
there be none so mean and servile as
to seek to subject their necks to that
CALLING yoke again. o. NJ.