Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-04-02
Ex-MayOr Thompson, Of Detroit, De.
clares for Tariff Reform.

Ex-Mayor Thompson, of Detroit,
who has been a leading Republican Of
that city, and who was one of the
noted 500 who voted for Grant, at the
Republican Presidential convention in
1880, has left the Republican party,
and become a supporter Of the tariff
reform doctrin. His reasons, as given
to the Detroit Free Press, are good
ones, and are rs follows:
"The questions growing out of the
civil war are closed forever, and n
reopening of them will find no favor
with the masses. On these questions
] agree with the Republican party.
The financial question was settled by
the successful resumption Of specie
payments, and the great questions be-
fore the people to-day are economic
ones, and the one oyorshadowing all
is the tariff question. 1t cannot be
denied that the Republican party is
irrevocably committed to high pro-
tective tariff There is at the present
day an immense surplus in the ma
tional treasury, and the national
revenues are annually $100,000,000
in excess Of the expenditures of the
government, conducted on liberal
scale.
81 think that twenty years after the
close of the civil war there is no
necessity of maintaining war taxes,
imposed by reason of the necessities
of the government. Nor do | think
that this high tariff is justifable on
the ground of protection. Whatever
protection protects, it does not adj
equately protect the laboring classes.
The proprietors of the great protected
manufactures and monopolists grow
rich out of protection. There is pro-
lection for everybody except the poor
laborer, in competition with whom
the labor of Europe is dragged from
one end of the continent to the other,
and the lowest classes are imported to
compete with the citizens of our coun-
try. Contracts are made in Italy and
Hungary for periods of years with
laborers on very small advance Of
prices paid in those countries. The
laborers are brought here to compete
with our own people. Nor do / think
that protection in the long run is
beneficial to industries themselves.
The country is suffering to-day from
over production, arising among other
causes, from the introduction of steam
and labor saving machines and cheap
labor. The manufacturers must find
a foreign outlet for their goods, or
they. must shut down. A committee
of shoe manufacturers of Massachu-
sets went before the committee on man
ufactures of the Legislature Of that
State, and said that they could stock
the entire country in six months with
their plant, but asked what they were
to do with their labor and plant, in
the other six months. One showed n
shoe worn in tropical climates, and
said that if the raw material Of which
it was made was not taxed by tariff
in being brought into this country, so
that the manufacturers here could OBJ
tain the material free of duty, they
could proftably use their labor and
plant in the production of the shoes
for export.
1t is equally notorious that the iron
mills can oyerstOck the country by
running to the full capacity seven
months in the year, and this applies
to almost all industries in the country.
Again, the high tariff laws have pre-
vented the building of our foreign
marine, and as a result the entire for
eign marine carrying business is done
in foreign bottoms, and the enormous
profits arising from this goes to foreign
ship-owners.
| insist that we should have reci-
procity, yet know that wealthy mo-
nopolists and lumber kings who exer-
else political influence in the Repub-
lican party prevent this. Nothing
can be expected from this party in the
way Of reduction of the tariff. l be-
lieve this is the paramount question
before the people, and therefore / diff
fer radically from the party of which
have been q member. This obliges
me to sever my connection and rela-
tions with it. A man who does not
follow his honest convictions is q
coward or a knave-a coward because
he lacks the moral courage TO speak
his mind as he feels; or a knave be-
cause he allows selfish considerations
to govern him."
@what party will you affiliate with
z, H. c,tu.o