Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-07-26
Badly gelr'tebet Journal.
Augusta. weinesi , Morning, July 20.

A4&uStes Wo1nes1 M0fnlnG, July 70
Mr.. Blaine's Statement in Reply
to Mr.. Randall.
We print Mr.. Blaine's reply to Mr.. Ran
dali in full on our first page. The Foreign
Affairs committee has voted unanimous
" to receive It.
A Protective Tarifr-Its Benefits
Ought American working men TO be salts
fed with the fact that they are not after all
quite ~ badly of ~ the half starved ienan
Try Of Ireland or the scantily paid iaborerI
Of England Is this the entertainment tt
which protection invites american labor 2
And do Intelligent American laborers' be
lieve that they owe their better condition a,
compared with the ''pauper laborers Of Eu
rope" 10 "a republican protective tariff OIL
IL il not attributable to causes over which
protectionists have no control "a compara
lively sparsely settled country-abundanct
Of unoccupied land-and the larger oppor
.unities always open to labor and enterprise
IN new and growing community. The
prosperity which the country enJsys-it'
progress in art and ia science, its advance In
all departments Of industry, its boundles'
agricultural wealth the excellence Of its an
nuai crops, the salubrit, Of its climate-al
10 attributed to the workings Of "a republ
can protective tariff" by its worshippers.
The Nev Age.
The New Age admits in the foregoing
that American workmen are better off thar
laborers in Ireland and England. Mr.
Hewitt Of New York, democratic mem
Der of the national House, estimates wages
in this country to be fifty per cent higher
than In England and Ireland. This is moi
q small difference; it is the difference be.
tween half starvation and good, comtorta-
BILE living. This fifty per cent additional
wages which the American labcrer gets is
what draws from Europe the great crowd
Of emigrants which are continually seek
ing the shores Of America. They come
from free trade countries to a country
which has protective tariff; to larger
their children, larger independence and
manliness, this is the entertainment to
which they are invited by protection, and
this the reason why they are coming in
such great numbers upon every vessel
that will bring them across the Atlantic.
But the New Age ridicules the idea that
the prosperity of this &C untry is due in
any measure to protection and attributes
1t to other causes. But facts do not agree
with the position taken by our neighbor.
This country has been living under the
present protective tariff since 1861. Dur
ing the time since it was enacted we have
had four years of bloody and expensive
war. This tariff not only supplied sim
ews to carry the government through that
war, but when the war closed it furnished
means to pay the interest on the national
debt and reduce the principal year by
year. to pension the soldiers and support
the widows and orphans made by the war;
and to give such an impetus to national
growth and development in all material
directions as this country and no other
country ever saw before in an equal period
Of time. Let us mention few facts.
Before the tariff OF 1861, under the ad-
mnistration of Mr.. Buchanan. the govern
ment had to pay twelve per cent. interest
upon loan which it was obliged to make
Now, after twenty years trial OF the pro-
teetive tariff and a great war with the ire
mendous burden of debt it brought upon
the country. the government can obtain
all the money it desires for three and one
half to three per cent. Without protec-
tive tariff the government would probably
have been bankrupt 10y this time.
When the war closed in 1865 the nation
al debt. July l. was $2,756, 43l, 81 43
The debt July 1, 1882, was Sl,675.0 23.
474.25. The debt has been reduced in
seventeen years more than one thousand
million dollars. The annual interest
charge on the debt in 1865 was $3.50. 977,
697. 81 in 1882 it is S57 1850. 1915. The
interest per capita of the population in
1865 was $4.29; in 1882 1t is $1O9.
Without a protective tariff such a splendid
exhibit of reduction of debt and interest
would have been impossible.
The production of our agricultural sta
Piles has also been largely increased Our
production OF cotton increased from A..
s23.710 bales in 1859 to $3.50. 329 bales in
1879; wheat increased from 173. lO4 .924
bushels in 1859 to 459. CO.. 1884 bushels in
1879; corn from s3S. 7e2. 74O bushels in
1859 to 1854. 449, 435 bushels in 1879
wool from 10000. 900 pounds in 1861 to
2S2 500, 900 pounds in 1879.
In the expectation of our agricultural
staples there has also been an increase I'M
der n protective tariff. In the fiscal year.
1859, We exported 1856. 1866 pounds
of cotton. and in the fiscal year 1881. we
exported 2.l9l.O7s,772 pounds. In the
fiscal year 1859 we exported 3.002. 0l6
bushels of wheat, and in the fiscal year
1881 we exported 15o.565.477 bushels
In the fiscal year 1859 we exported LIS,
99S bushels Of corn. and in the fiscal year
1881 we exported 9l.9os. l75 bushels.
Our foreign trade under protection has
been healthy. The total, including net i'm.