The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-05
THEN AND NOW.

THEN AND NOW.
II want to say to those members who are
talking about robbery, and plumber, and cor
ruption, and thievery, that there is not sin
gle article that goes South which Is not nifty
per cent. cheaper than it was fifteen years ago.
No matter how wrong protection Is, the TACT
remains it has cheapened everything under
Gods heaven that man, woman or child uses.
This is an extract from the speech in Con
gress of ex-senator Eaton, of Connecticut,
and its truth cannot be denied. 1t is none
the more significant because Mr.. Eaton is a
Democrat nor any the less significant. 1t is
a simple statement of an historic fact which no
man can deny, paradoxical as it may appear to
a careless observer. The American idea for
more than half century has been protection
of American industries, yet there has not
decried protection and clarnored for free trade,
pleading that all protection was a tax upon the
purchaser and in favor of monopolies, Forty
to fifty years ago the stock question for dis
cussion in all country debating clubs, no less
than before the sovereign people on election
occasions, was 'FWho pays the duty-the i'm
porter or the consumer" Yet all along
the years everything that was pro-
tected has become cheaper and cheaper
Comparing present prices not only with the
prices fifteen years ago, but with those prevail
ing twenty, or thirty, or forty, or fifty years
ago, any sane man can see the benefit of
the American system. Forty to fifty years
ago the laboring man who wanted an ak had
to pay three dollars for it at the country
blacksmiths, and then spend half a day in
grinding it and another half day in making
handle. Wages were then about fifty cents
per day 1t took six days to pay for the ak
and one to fit it for work. To-day, under our
American system, one days work buys an AK
already handled and ground. Forty to fifty
years ago calico was thirty to forty cents a
yard, and the wages of domestic were sew
enty-fve cents week. 1t required her to
work full month for skinny" dress-pat-
tern of ten yards. To-day, at present prices
of wages and of goods, she can buy four such
patterns in one week. A pair of boots, forty
to fifty years ago cost ten dollars, and the av-
erage wages were six to eight dollars a month,
so it took more than a month to pay for pair
of calf-skin boots To-day boots can be had
at half the price of forty years ago, and wages
are more than three times as great 50 that for
less than weeks work labOring man can
buy as good an article as then required six
weeks work.
This list might be continued indefinitely,
and always show the same result. Glass and
glassware, cutlery, plows, shovels, pitchforks,
chinaware, mems clothing, and women's
clothing-there is not an exception. There
is nothing but labor that commands so high
rate as it did thirty, forty, and fifty years ago.
Wages in every branch of industry, from the
unskilled laborer to the best mechanic are from
three to five times as high as they were when
the demagogues of half century ago whined
about monopolies and decried protection, while
every product, except the product Of the soil,
has declined from 50 to rs per cent. Agri-
cultural products of every class have advanced
from 100 to 500 per cent, while everything
that farmer has to buy-nails, glass, axes,
hoes, plows, wagons, calicOes, clothes, hats
shoes-everything has declined, and yet the
Democratic party appeals to farmers to again
suspend protection, and to bring on such
panics as those of 1887 and 1857, which were
the legitimate and inevitable results of the
free trade policy OF Calhoun. We commend
the above extract from Mr.. Eaton to the
Democracy of Indiana, and we especially ex-
pect them to labor with the laboring men who
have been so wronged by protection that they
not only have plenty of work but remuner-
alive wages and cheap goods. Free trade
was a good thing in theory when capital
owned labor as it did in good old Democratic
times but since labor has been emancipated
it has wonderful liking for protection.
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A PERFECTLY senseless statement of the
,,-oforanoao Of tba Indiana da1aoatioD m Cbi.