The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-01-09

plausel Of course, we want them here
but when the Protectionist manufacture
talks about the benefit which accrues to the
laboring man from projection, let US ask
him, why do you not protect labor
also? Why should the foreign-the pau
per labor they talk about-be brought in
to compete with the labor of our own cit
liens. Why do they refuse to pro-
/ tect labor and in the same breath
claim to be the friend of the laboring mani
They believe in free trade in the matter of
| labor and nothing offends them so much
as to suggest tax upon it. They are free
| traders so far as the labor which they buy
is concerned, but protectionists on the
| goods they have to sell. Mr. Beecher said
IN his lecture in this course that fully one
third of the wages of the laboring man
was consumed by the extra price he pays
for his goods by reason of protection. /
think he has underestimate the figures,
and that the amount is considerably more
| than one-third.
| How does protection strike the farm er!
What effect does it have upon him? One
half of the people of the United States
draw their sustenance from the soil, and
they are deserving of the highest consider
alton. Protection has got hold OF
the farmer by telling him that if free
trade prevails the factories will close,
and the men therein employed
will be driven out upon the..land, and the
result win be an over production, which
will bring down the price of his products.
| They begin with fa1sehood. Free
trade would not shut up single factory.
| Applause. Manufacture are as natu-
| raj and spontaneous as agriculture, and
where one exists the other cannot help
sprlnging up. 1t is not true that free
trade would stop the mills, nor is it true
that protection ever started single mill.
The protectionists say, Give us pro-
lection for little while, and we shall be
able to go along without assistance" They
have been protected for ninety years, and
still claim they are unable to go alone.
Ii nearly century OF protection has not
established them, when will they be estab
lishedaaa Wesshonld have a care for the
farmers, for they alone put their shoulders.
to the wheel, and got us out of the slough
We were in few years ago. In Berkshire
County where | live. nine-tenths of the
manufacturers failed and all ran on short
time or closed their mills. Where was
boosted friendship for the laboring man
then? They send him out to
tramp, to beg his livelihood
from the farmers back door The farmers
helped us out by sending their corn and
cotton and pork abroad year after year until
the balance of exchange was changed and
the gold flowed in, upon which we resum-
ed specie payments. During the last fiscal
year the cotton and grain exports amounted |
to five hundred and seventeen million of |
dollars-on these two items alone to say |
nothing about the pork exports and other
articles.
In cotton fabrics only sixteen millions
were exported, and in 1860 we had over
eleven millions. In twenty years of pro-
lection they had only gained about five
millions. BY reason of protection the farm
er has to pay more for nearly everything
he consumes If it were not for protection
our export trade would be larger. We
have to take our pay for our exports in the
wares of the countries to which our pro-
lucts are sent and if we refuse to admit their
goods they cannot afford TO buy so large
y of us, for we will not take the pay they
nave to offer
Ship building was the next theme taken
Up by the speaker, and he pointed out how
has driven the American flag
rom the seas. The time was when the
American marine was our proudest boast,
when the Baltimore clippers were the fast
st ships in the world. In 1926 ninety per
eDt. of our carrying trade, our exports and
IMPORTS, was in American bottoms, and :
low it is only II per cent. American ship
ing has been the most perfectly protect
q industry on the list and after nearly
century of this sort of protec-
ion, see where we are. What
as become of our traffic in
his direction? There are sos steamers
INNING between our Atlantic coast and c
europe, yet not one carries the American d
ag. If there is one | would like to hear a
er captains name That is the result of Il
rejection carried to its natural and legiti- +
ate conclusion. It is the old evil Ii we 4
annot buy we can sell. Here and there Il
may be-probably is--that some indus 8,
y has been abnormally built up by pro-
elton, but the great mass of our manu-
cturers suffer under the curse, al
The speaker next pointed out how the q
is injured. He is obliged to 70
sl
" higher price for his raw material, for eli
e machinery which works it up, for W
indeed, except labor, and no
e can expect he will pay more for that
an he can help. He cannot SELL because -
e people are forbidden to buy of the
DDS which others have to SELL The
eaker alluded to the record of the polit-
Il parties on this question. The demo
ats started right. They had revenue re- n
RIM in their platform, a good, sound
INK, but soon they chopped it to pieces.
icy did not face the music, accept TIE