Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-02
How MUCH PROTECTION /?
IMMENSE PROTECTIVE Tariff
MEETING IN NEW YORK LIST
EVENING.
Cooper Union Crowded-Speeches by Peter
Cooper, VIM. f. Dodge, and William NJ.
Evarts - The Proposed Tariff Measure
Analyzed-Address to the Country and
Congress.

New YORK, Feb. IA mass meeting was
held at Cooper Union tonight under the
auspices of the New York association fol
the protection of American industry. TIE
great hall was so crowded that it was al
most impossible to find standing room
Peter Cooper presided, assisted by YIN
Dodge. Among the vice presidents VIE
Hamilton Fish, John Jacob Astor, Hon.
Edwin D. Morgan, A. A. Low. Whitelaw
Reid, Judge Noah Davis, Jesse Seliginan.
Hon. John Jay, Hon. VIM. Fl. Robertson.
Jacob D. Vermilye. Russell Sage, Clinton
B. Fisk, Hugh j. Hastings, Hon. Seth Low,
| David Dow, John FL. Starin.
Mr.. Cooper said he was glad to see the
attention of the American people fixed on
the question of free trade and protection.
! The free traders of other countries have
tried to persuade US to adopt their teach
ings. Should they be adopted our me :
chanics WOO be forced to work for star
walton wage. C abandon their trades and
become com itors of the agricultural la
oorers of the ,untry. Our country would,
if those theoTi are adopted be reduced to
the condition 1t Ireland, Spain, and Mex
leo. We would produce ~ the raw
materials and others would do the manu-
featuring. Such policy would bring
ruin upon hundreds of thousands of Amer
lean workmen who have snothing to sell
but their labor. Should the tariff be re-
duced 25 per cent. it would cost US at least
ID
had produced condition of wretchedness
among working people and gave wages
barely sufficient to maintain life. The eff
feet in America would be similar.
VIM. E. Dodge followed and said it was
time to let the country know what
they meant, and what thy
meant to do. Labor had been made
to believe capital was its oppressor when
| it was protector. Capital did not need
| protection so much as labor. In the south
| Of Wales can be seen at the great iron
foundries men naked to the waist at their
tasks, and waited on by Welsh girls FROM
sixteen years of age upwards, who work
| side by side with men. And those men re-
ceive as wages but a pittance of what we
| pay here in American foundries, where we
| do not employ women and girls. Those
men may be seen Sunday wearing
clothes in which they worked week days.
In this county, on the other hand, at Scran-
| ton, for instance, you may see workingmen
with wives and children, Sunday, clad like
gentlemen and ladies, and do we wish now
to take from our workmen protection,
which permits them to live like men and
| ~ 10 NH toll fha Of
| Europe.
VIM. NJ. Evarts said he was very glad an
organization that knows its mind and
possesses reasons for the work
| it means to accomplish, is engaged
in presenting the great question whether
or not the laborer of this country is to be
protected. The late elections have proven
if they have proven anything, that the
people are to be the masters; that extrava.
gance and wilful misuse of public money
| by public servants must be stopped. These
were the only points emphasized by the
voice of the people at the late election
| The question now comes whether, in re-
ducing the revenues of the government
the tariff system shall be so arranged as to
be benefit to our own industries or
those of foreign countries. American
| laborers know on which side their bread is
buttered, and there can be no doubt what
their answer to the question will be. In
| the days of the colonies they wanted US to
| devote ourselves to catching fish and kill
ing bears, while they furnished US all our
manufactures. After we had gained in
dependence, the English, chagrined at the
loss of our trade, tried to regain their DOW
er over this country by what they term the
laws of trade. Mr.. Evarts then gave
a sketch of the cause of the
panic OF 1887, and traced
the ups and downs of tariff legislation
from the time of Henry Clay. He said
the war of the rebellion gave us debt
which it was necessary to pay, we were
thus obliged to raise large revenue and
this gave US protection. Our kind Eng
| fish friends thought we stood in our own
light when we attempted to pay our debt
But the truth is we appear to be always
standing in their light. Having estab
lisded our political independence and hav-
ing established our industries, the question
arises shall we keep labor at the high
standard it enjoys in this country or shall
we level it to the standard of countries in
which the laboring man is not
!
the government. If revenue is to be raised
| or to be taken off, the matter must be reg
ulated by one OF two systems either a
tariff for revenue only or one so regulated
as to protect home industries. Free trade
would reduce Us to the position III which
we stood before the revolution and our 100
years of progress would result in nothing.
Tie system of protection IS said to be
monopoly, but if it is, it is monopoly of
the American laborer over foreign capital
lists. If our country we're threatened with
invasion by foreign foe would we not
raise up as one man to resist it, and are
we so foolish as not to put up peaceful
barriers of duties to resist the disastrous
invasion which free traders would invite
The methods of the American consti5atio-
should be used in favoring every locality
in the country and every individual in the
country. The country has but one inter
est and one destiny. When the issue
comes between the people and these repre-
sentatives there can be no question as to
the manner in which it will be deter
mined.
Dexter A. Hawkins followed with an adj
dress mainly, devoted to statistics, to show
that during the periods when the tariff had
been the law financial distress and panic
afflicted the country, while prosperity has
offopdod tho pariodc of our history in