The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-09-21

brother Jonathan ON the Tarin one
ton.
TruS Labor Advocate.
John Bull:-Brother Jonathan, whei
are you going to reduce your blarsted tai
if down to free trade basis? have
surplus Of several hundred millions Q
dollars worth Of goods which 1 viii sell L
you one.thitd cheaper than you can man
ufacture. You see, can hire my peopl
TO work atabout one.hat the wages yOl
are paying, and it will beisE your interes
to buy OF me. l allow your. wheat ant
-four and all your products to come to ny
dominions free Of duty and fair play de
mands that you should admit mn, steel
rails, iron, wooden goods, and ~. my
other manufactured products here.
Brother Jonathan My dear Mr.. BSIl
you seem to ignoIe the fact that / hAyel
large family TO provide for. must create
work for them. / cannot afford TO have
them idle, for, II l do, they will become
hall starved. My plan TO keep them in
employment % TO have them exchange
their work with each other; in that way
enable them 10 help themselves. II they
have any surplus manufactures we can
then 20 into the markets Of the world and
sell them. Now, II j open my door by
adopting free trade tariff and let you fur.
nish US with your goods, cheap as you may
say you eau furnish them, how shall
manlgeto keep the members Of my family
supplied with work? How can they earn
money TO pay you for your cheap goods
We dig good deal Of gold and silver out
OF the ground. l propose to keep that
gold and silver, to be used for our hard
money currency, and not pay 1t all to you
for your cheaply manufactured goods
merely because they are cheap. raise
an immense amount OF wheat, corn, beel
more than my people can consume.
want portion Of my people to work al
something else than raising wheat, and
thus be able to become consumers.
want them 10 make all our own
goods. By so doing | can employ
about ten millions of my peo.
pie, and they will then become good GUS
toners for our farmers. So don't you see
that it Is better for my. people to make
their. own goods even II It does cost more
than 1t would be for you 10 manufacture
them? For instance, lshoemakers charge
my tailos higher price for shoes, perhaps,
than you do; but my tailor charges equally
Us much more for his coats and pants,
and that makes il just as broad as it isloDg
for both. But when some OF my non pro.
ducing rich boys buy their shoes and
clothing Of my shoemaker and tailors, they
have TO pay more than they would II they
bought them Of YOU and the extrs price il
clean gain to them sand in that way my
shoemakers and tailors are enabled to
have extra comforts which your shoe
makers and tailors cannot have, owing TO
your open policy OF compelling them 10
work for half what my boys receive. No,
Mr.. Bull, l must decline to buy your
cheaply made goods. Charity begins at
home, and must look after my children
first.
John Bull:-Brother Jonathan, you are
very selfish. According to nv beautiful
free trade theory, you viii be much bene-
tted by reducing or abolishing your pro-
tectiye tariff. You admit l can make
goods cheaper, and you can furnish me
with wheat, corn and beef cheaper than !
can produce them. Now, you Just let ME
furnish you with my goods, and | will con.
tinue 10 take your food products as far as |
can. II you should be compelled to close
your shops and mills on account OF not be.
Ing able to sell as cheap az can, why, let
your operatives 20 out West and take up
land and raise wheat TO pay for my goods.
In that way yon can buy where you can
buy the cheapest, and can buy my bread
stu1s where l can get them the cheapest,
thus carrying out the divine doctrine Of
free trade beautifully.
Brother Jonathan;-Yo talk sounds
very fine-very fair apparently But you
forget that am now selling to Europe
about 200, 000, 900 bushels Of wheat. That
Is all the people OF Europe can eat with
what they raise themselves. Now, II ]
should close my shops and mills and have
my people 90 TO work raising wheat, we
would raise two or three hundred millions
Of bushels more wheat than we are now
raising. Now, will you please inform me
how and where eau We sell that surplus
amount? We can't make your people eat
any more than they need. And what
would make matters worse, IL we closed
our mills and shops and let our mill men
20 TO raising wheat, We would lose our
home market for wheat, for they would all
become producers. Our home market Tout
side what the wheat producers consumed
annually uses up 100000 bushels Of
wheat. That quantity would be added to
our surplus If our mill hands should raise
wheat. What they raise themselves in
addition, amounting 70 two or three
hundred millions, would make the amount,
added TO what we already are raising, 80
great, that we could not sell for want OF q
market, for Europe can only eat so much
and no more. Tie result would be, our
farmers would have three.fourths Of their
wheat on hand, and could not buy your
Tor II we could not sell our SOC, 1900
bushels surplus OF unstable wheat, how
could We get money! No, Mr. Bull; our
true course is to manufacture our own
roods, thus giving employment to our
people, o good reliable home market to
our farmers, and keep our gold and silver
at home to furnish Us with good reliable
hard currency, and in this way kill three
birds withone stone.
John Bull.-I- admit I did not think oil
the vast surplus oil wheat you would ere
ate by having YOUR men all go TO work
raising whestsnd buying their goods Of me.
But think you had better try the system
Of free trade, and see If It won't be a
benefit to your people. They can then
buy goods so much cheaper, ,
Brother Jonathan:-Yes, don't doubt
can buy your goods cheaper; but II j
can't sell all the wheat We would raise,
where are we to get the money to pay
you? l tried free trade thiIty.four years
ago. What did you do? You went to
| work, broke down all OF our manutac'
turers, and compelled them to turn theil
men out in the cold and close their works
As soon as you closed our shops aud thus
abolished all competition then you pu
the price Of most Of your goods up to
high point, and made US pay more thar
we ever paid under the highest kind Of a
tariff. When any branch OF our manu-
lectures undertook TO take advantage o
your having raised your price, yor
would then put down your priet
on that particular article Manufactured