The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1870-11-15
What Free Trade Means.

IN speech at washington, Della
ware, a few evenings ago, the Hon.
Leonard W. Myers, M. O., presented
the case against Free Trade in the fol-
lowing light:
Let me tell you what free trade
means. We in Pennsylvania know
all about it. 1t is nearly twenty-five
years since the Democrats fooled us on
this subject, but the wound was deep
one and is remembered. After get
ting the vote of favoring protection,
they gave us q low taraf, which is
very little better than free trade. 1t
quenched our forge fires and furnace
blasts, it closed our rolling mills, it
hushed the busy whir of our factories,
and turned thousands Of our people
adrift with want staring them in the
face.
What would free trade do for Will
mington5 l will tell you. 1t would
bring in British ships, and close your
great iron ship yards 1t would under
sell your cotton and woolen fabrics.
Your looms would lie idle, and the
hum Of industry, sweetest of music,
would give place to murmurs Of dis
content. 1t would bring to mind the
the days of colonial dependence, when
Great Britain imposed $500 fine
against manufactures in this country,
with this contract, that our own statues
would infiict the wrong. 1t would de-
prive the National Treasury of the
duties which now help so largely to
pay off the national debt, and while
inficting this wrong on the Govern
ment it would drive your people from
a hundred occupations which could
not thrive in competition with fabrics
made abroad, where living, such as it
is, is cheap and wages poo=. Would
there be no remedy? Oh! yes; one
remedy would remain. Free trade,
have said, means buy at the cheapest
rate; that means, also, buy labor
wherever you can get it the cheapest.
If you will work at pauper wages the
workshops might be opened again.
The boast of the Republican party is
that it tends to elevate them. 1t as.
serts that labor is not degrading, and
will not drag it down. The American
workman has useful career, which
opens to him every avenue to wealth
and distinction. He may be humble,
but he can rent comfortable house ;
our school system educates his children;
with his earnings he may hire piano,
whose music shall keep the family
about the domestic hearth-yes, he has
enough money to buy the foreign coat
if he wants it. His lot is perhaps the
happiest, for labor we'll rewarded and
needing few extravagances brings least
care to dampen and pale the glow OF
health.
But apply the free trade remedy
work at small wages! The wife must
give up her music and song-the chill
dren must be recalled from school and
take hand at work. If the rent can
not Se met you must so into tenement
houses, where families huddle together
and exist-I will not call it living
Yes, perhaps work at coolie-contract
wages for remember the party which
prefers fabrics made by pauper labor
abroad because they can be bought
cheaper-will prefer them if they can
only be manufactured cheaply here by
the same labor. II is part and parcel
Of the same doctrine. Are you ready
for this, citizens Of Wilmington Ii
you are not, invoke you to vote the
Republican ticket, for l do assure you
if ever the Democracy should regain
power nationally--a catastrophe which
believe will not happen soon-they
will enforce free trade or very low
trrif, to the great injury of the Amer
lean people,