The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-03-17
CANTON OHIO. SATURDAY MARCH II. 1883.


| life, You can hardly get town man
now to help you cut your harvest by
paying double wages and feeding him
on the best food your farms produce.
The panic of 1873, as you recOlleet,
threw hundreds OF thousands Of city and
town wOTkmen out Of employment.
Most Of them for years were unable TO
find work at their trades in the towns at
any lwages. Did these destitute multi
tudes Of wOTkmen with their families,
rush into the country seeking labor as
farm hands and servants2 No, not one
In hundred. Did they swarm out West
into the new States and Territories,
and squat on Government hOmesteads,
and go TO breaking up new land and inn
proving itp No, not one in q hundred
did anything OF the kind. The few that
sought farm employment were persons
who had been reared on farms and had
for a time drifted into the towns, and
under the stress Of the hard times re-
tnTned temporarily To their former aVO-
cation. You will remember how the
country roads from 1873 to 1879, years of
the panic, iswaI med with town tramps,
begging, dead beating, and stealing for
a living, but refusing almost every man
Of them to hire out as farm-labOreTS, OF
to take mp aud occupy homestead land
in the Western Territories. II was esti-
mated that this class OF city labOFers out
of work numbered more able bodied men
than the Union armies which crushed the
rebellion. but they would not farm
preferring begging to tOiling at tilling
the soil.
Pay no more attention to this fradu-
lent threat, bat look at your own inter-
asts and study how the tariff Affects you.
The tOwn-peOple will take care of them
selves. Don't lie awake at night max
ing yourselves miserable on their Rc-
count, il they are not pap fed at your ex-
pense on high tariff.
ANOTHER OBJECTION ANSWERED.
But I am met at this point by the reply,
"If you take down the bars, IL you re-
move any of the protection, foreigners
will pour their cheap goods into this
country by hundreds OF millions OF dol
lars aud destroy all Of the American
manufacturers, and the American arti-
sans will no longer be able to furnish
the farmers home market. And hence
it is to the interest of the farmer to pay
two prices for his store goods and imple-
ments for the sake of keeping these
foreign goods out and retaining the
hOme market"
Gentlemen, l was raised on that fal-
lacy, and believed 1t for a length of
time, but finally noticed that "pro-
tected" man did not eat or drink Rny
more than nOn-prOtected man. / saw,
in looking about the cities and towns,
that no more than One-third of the peo-
pie really belonged to the protected
classes; that two thirds OF more of the
urban population have no more prOtec-
tiOn for their industries than you have
for your cotton or corn, beef or pork. A
little further reflection showed me that
If this artificial protection that Is the
power by Congress Of leVying 90 to 100
per cent. on farmers purchases were re-
moved that, instead of all the manufae-
tuTeTs going to wreck and ruin and
shutting up their factories, and furnaces,
and their mills, they would simply
manufacture cheaper, and continue to
supply you as before; that wOrkmen in
stead of charging 50 IA day would work
for 81; or instead Of wanting to make
20 or 30 per cent. year clear profit the
capitalist would be willing to take 10 or
Is. Think you the steel mills of the
United States could not live IL their 100
per cent. of protection were reduced to
so; or that the cotton factories who pay
but little larger wages than those OF
free-trade England could not exist on
less than 40 to 80 per cent; or the WOO
len factories on less than 70 to 100 per
cent; or the earthenWaTe and pottery
to l20; or the silk-weaVers 60 to 70; or
that the steel used for barbed-wire
fences, or wire for grain binding, or
steel for wagOn-tires, or for plOws and
other agricultural implements, need 100
per cent. protection" tax on farmeTs2
What do these cOrmorants want with a
tax of two and half cents per pound on
tin n-plate, as tin is not produced In this
country. There is only one tin.plate
factory in the United States--a Pitts
burg cOncern-and in order to enable 1t
to rob yOu 1t is proposed by the Tariff
Commission to double the tax OIL tin
cans, tin cups, and all tinwaTes. This Ia
protection with vengeance!
1 understand the truth when | say
that the farmers of the West and the
planters Of the South are charged 800
millions of dollars a year on their goods
for the profit OF protected Eastern manu-
factuTpTs more than is fair or necessary.
But am asked what would the man
ufacturers do IL their protection was
cut down for the purpose Of cheApening
goods to the rarmersp There are q mil
lion of men. boys, girls and women en-
gagged i'll protected manufactures, and
there are good many thousand capt.
talists who furnish them employment.
What would they do IL protection was
lOWeTedP "0h, gOltO farming" they say.
No truth in that, az / have shown You.
They would just keep right along Ss you
do. They would continue producing
and selling their stuff at the best price
they could get, as you do, and as they did
from 1S46 to 1851, when the duties were
to One-third as high as they
are now. But 1t is said they would be
beggarsd; that it would make pauper
labOr-a ruined and discouraged people.
Not bit Of It'll That is another prOtee-
tion delusiOn. The present system Of
BACK-TAXRs AND wATRRLoGs
EVERY OTHER MANUFACTURER,
The whole system is mutual plunder,
one of another and all of each. Suppose
I have a protection Of 80 per cent,
levy that much extra for my goods on
my neighbOrs. But my neighbOTs also
have protection of 40 to 100 per cent,
and they levy back on me, and when,
we come TO balance books at the end of
the year we find that, so far at least as
the wOrkingmen are concerned, what
they have gained in nominal wages they
have lost in the artificial cost of living.
The ufacturtng capitalists, 1t is true,
have increased their profits, but it has
been done at the expense Of the nnpro-
tected farmers who cannot tax back by