Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-01-11

thus affording a basis for cheap production,
he quoted from speeches by Bright, Gladstone
and others, giving specific instances of an in
crease of 40 per cent. in some industries and
that as to farm labOrers, as stated by Bright,
wages, accounting for the hours they worked
and all particulars, had doubled since free
trade was established, and that this policy
which had increased trade four fold
had made extraordinary improvement in
the pay of mechanics, factory operatives and
agricultural laborers. In addition, the neces-
stiles of life had been reduced from SO to so
per cent, population had increased from 49,,
100000 in 1S41 to 81, 0O0, 900 In 1881. English
exports had increased $50 per cent. since 1910
aud the annual saving Of her working classes
from e24 100000 in 1910 to $500, 900 in
1880. English laborers and mechanics
like labor or skill commands in any European
country, yet her manufacturers COM
pete successfully with all Others. Re-
ports by Secretary Blaine, based on the
statements of consuls and by other
authorities showed that as compared with the
English purchasing power the wages of AMER
leans was reduced by our tariff from 80 to so
per cent.
Among other considerations Beck suggested
the following: That = failure of our harvests,
or a war between nations who are our ocean
carriers, thus cutting off the means of getting
our exports to market, while causing the ruin
of many more people, would have the effect
of breaking our miserable protective system
as it did in England, that protected manufac-
turers could not fairly claim credit
for cheapening the prices of
goods because some protected articles
cost the consumer less now than when the
tariff was imposed, as this was due to i'm
proved machinery and like goods were made
by machinery in other countries at a rate so
per cent. cheaper than that at which Ameri-
cans were willing to sell them.
The success of infant southern cotton in
dustries demonstrated that the only protec-
ton such industries require to compete with
old and established ones was proximity to
raw material and market for the product.
Georgia, in this direction, was more sue.
land than would the latter in a free
trade contest on cotton products with Great
Britain. He would cheerfully vote to exempt
all cotton machinery from tax by way of en-
couraging home competing industry, and
would also make iron cotton ties free. He
would do this in compensation to the cotton
planters for the $50, 000, 900 of which they were
robbed by the unjust cotton tax of 1865 and
1866, and to make them even with the New
England manufacturers, who had for fifteen
years had thebenefft of the war tariff.
After detailing at much length the incon-
gruities of the present system and advocating
a tariff for revenue, framed SO as to be readily
understo Cd and adjusted upon advalore m
principles, as far as practicable. Senator
Beck closed by criticising with some severity
the recommendations of the secretary of the
treasury for the withdrawal of silver certifi-
Gates and placing the currency in the hands of
national banks. He incidentally referred to
what he called the absurdity of any effort to
abolish internal taxation in view of the
present wants of the treasurer.
At the conclusion of Beck's speech the
chair laid before the senate unfinished bust
ness, the Sherman funding bill, and ad-
iournnd