Huntsville gazette., 1884-07-26

ony on the island of Manhattan, and the out
break of the civil war,in 1860.
AGRICULTURE AND THE TARIFF.
The agricultural interest is by far the largest
in the Nation, and is entitled in every adjust
ment of revenue laws to the first consdera-
tion. Any policy hostile to the fullest devel-
must be abandoned. Realizing this fact the
opponents of the present system of revenue
have labored very earne stly to persuade the
farmers of the United States that they are
robbed by the protective tariff, and the effort
is thus made to consolidate their vast influence
in favor OF free trade. But happily the farm
ers of America are intelligent and cannot be
misled by sophistry when concu i've facts are
before them. They see plainly that during
the past twentyfour years wealth has not
been acquired by one section or by one in
terest at the expense of another section or
another interest. They see that the agrlcul-
tural States have made even more rapid
prOgre than the manufacturing States.
The farmers see that in 1860 Mas sachusettS
and Illinois had about the same wealth-be-
tween S00,0000W and 100000 00O each-and
tfNt in 1880 Massachusetts had advanced to
$4,000, 600. They see that New Jersey and
Iowa were just equal in population in lS6O,
and that in twenty years the wealth of New
Jersey was increased by the sum of $3.50 00O,-
the sum of $1,500,C0D000. They see that the
nine leading agricultural States of the West
have grown so rapidly in prosperity that the
aggregate addition to their wea tn since 1860 is
almost as great as the wealth of the entire
country in that yeM They see that the
South, which is almost exclusively agricul-
tural, has shared in the general prosperity,
and that having recovered from the loss and
devastation OF war, has gained so rapidly that
its total wealth is at least the double of that
which it possessed in 1860, exclusive of slaves.
In these extraordinary developments the
farmers are the helpful impulse of a home
market. and they See that the financial and
revenue system, enacted since the Republican
party came into power. has established and
a nd or fhr hon nDtl-af 10
see that even in the case OF wheat, which is
our chief cereal export they have sold, in the
average OF the years since the close of the
war, three bushels at home to one abroad,
and that in the case of corn, the only other
cei cal which we export to any extent, 100
bushels have been used at home to three and
half bushels exported In some years the
disparity has been SO great that for every
peck exported 100 bushels have been cOn-
sumed in the )me market. The farmers see
that in the increasing competition from the
grain fields OF Russia and from the distant
plains of India, the growth of the home mar
ket becomes daily of greater concern to them
and that its Impairment would depreciate The
yalue OF every acre of tillable land in the
Union.
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE
Sucn facts these touching the growth
and consumption of cereals at home, give us
some conception of the vastness of the i'll
ternal commerce of the United states. They
suggest, also, that in addition to the advan-
tages which the American people enjoy from
protection against foreign competition, they
ENJOY the advantages OF absolute Tree trade
over larger area and with a greater pOpula-
tiOn II an any other nation. The in ernal
commerce OF our thirty eight lStaEeS and nine
Terri. lies Is carried on without let or
hindrance, without tax. de ention or Govern
mental interference of any kind whatever.
1t S reads freely over an area of three and
half million square miles-almost equal in
extent to the whole continent of Europe. Its
profits are enjoyed to-day by 56,0OJ,v00 of
American freemen, and from this enjoyment
no monopoly is created. According to Alex
ander Hamilton when he discussed the same
which takes place does away with everything
like monopoly, and by degrt es reduces the
prices of articles to the minimum of a reason
able profit on the capital employed" 1t is inn
possible to polnt to a single monopoly in the
United States that has been created or
fOstered by the industrial system which is up
held by the Republican party.
Compared with our foreign commerce these
domestic exchanges are inconceivably great
in amOunt-requIring merely as one instru-
mentality as large mileage Of railway as ex
lists to-day in all the other nations of the world
combined. These internal exchanges are eS-
timated by the statistical Bureau of the Treas
ury Department to be annually twenty times
as great in amount as our foreign commerce.
1t is into this vast field of home tra1e-at
once the creation and the heritage of the
American peOple-that foreign naions are
striving by every device to enter. 1t is into
this field that the opponents of our present
revenue system would freely admit the coun-
tries of Euiope-countries into whose inter-
nal trade we could not reciprocally enter;
ing every advantage of trade; from which
we should be gaining nothing in return.
EFFECT UPON THE MECHANIC AND THE LA
BORER.
A policy of this kind would be disastrous to
the mechanics and working men of the United
States. Wages are unjustly reduced when an
industrious man is not able by his earnings to
live in comfort, educate his children and lay
by a sufficient amount for the necessities of
age. The reduction of wages inevitably con-
sequent upon throwing our home market open
to the world, would deprive them of the power
to do this. 1t would prove great calamity to
our country. 1t would produce conflict be-
tween the poor and the rich and in the sor-
rOwful degradation of labor would plant the
seeds of public danger.
The Republican party has steadily aimed to
maintain just relations between labor and cap
ital-guarding with care he rights of each. A
conflict between the two has always led in the
past and will always lead in the future to the
injury of both. Labor is Indispensable to the
creation and profitable use OF capital, ard cap
ital increases the efficiency and value of labor.
Whoever arrays the one against the other
is an enemy of both. That policy is wiSeSt
and best which harmOnizes th2 two on the
basis of absolute justice. The Republican
party has prote tied the free labor of America
SO that its compensation is larger than is
allied in any other country. 1t has guarded
our people against the unfair competition of
contract labor from China and may be called
upon to prohibit the growth of similar evil
from Europe. 1t is obviously unfair to per-
NIT capitalists to make contracts for cheap
labor in foreign countries to the hurt and dis
paragement of the labor of American citizens.
Such policy, (like that which would leave the
time and other conditions OF home labor ex-
clusively in the control of the employer is in
furious to all parties-nOt the least so to the
unhappy persons who are made the subjects
of the contract. The institutions OF the
United States rest upon the intelligence and
virtue of all the people. Suffrage is made
universal as a just weapon of self-protection
to every citizen. 1t is not the interest of the
Republic that any economic system Should be
adopted which involves the reduction of
wages to the hard standard prevailing else
where The Republican party aims to elevate
and dignity labor, not to degrade it.
As a substitute for the industrial system
which under Republican administration has
developed su h extraordinary prosperity, our
opponents offer policy which is but series
of experiments upon our system OF revenue
"a policy whose end must be harm to our
manufactures and greater harm to our labo :.
Experiment in the industrial and tina nc al
system is the country greatest dread, as sta
biity is its greatest boon. Even the uncer-
tainty resulting from the recent arF agita-
ton in Congress has hurtfully auected the
business of the entire country. We can
measure the ha m to our shops and our
homes, to our farms and our commerce, if the
uncertainty of perpetual tariff agitation is to
be inflicted upon the country? We are in the
midst of an abundant harvest; we are on the
of lpfe