Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-04-29

ernmenG, as nurse and doctor, feQ Gne pull
ing infants OH pap that we farmers paid for.
Every cent given thesesickly industries was
taken from our hard earnings, and, my
brother farmers, these sick weaklings ale
as sick and weak to-day as they were twen-
ty-tive years ago. We are assured that if
the paternal government were to remove
the stays and crutches and give them an
ounce less of pap to-day, they would all
tumble down and die.
The theory and progress of the fostering,
as it is called, is about this:
There are two sorts of labor in Europe
One is known as common labor, and the
other as skilled labor. The first is called
pauper labor, and against this we need pro-
lection. 1t is called pauper labor because
| the laborers work for a bare subsistence
This is not the condition of skilled labor in
Europe. 1t is better paid than with us, for
while the wages are somewhat less, the cost
oflving is not so high; so that the laborer, all
| things considered is better off than in the
| United States
The experiment has been tried of
| fetching skilled labor from abroad to our
shores, and had to be abandoned. One hun
dred and twenty were taken to Cleveland,
| O., and put to work. They remained a year
and then returned home, saying they could
do better there than with us.
| You see, therefore, when protective
tariff advocate says that it is necessary to
pay our manufacturers bounty to prote ct
them against the pauper labor Of Europe,
he is either very ignorant man or one who
counts on our ignorance.
| With that, however, / have nothing on
this occasion to dol am only striving to
make the process familiar. Let me Illus
trate. Some years since, as you will remem-
Der, I started a hickory handle factory on
the Mac-c-cheek. Laughter. 1t is fun
to you, but it was anything but fun to me
in the end. l ran across fellow who had
learned the process ofconverting the healthy
second growth of hickory into handles in
the Ohio Penitentiary. Renewed laugh
teri He was the best workman and the
biggest scoundrel unhung. Laughter and
applause made him foreman over two
men, and gave him my confidence. He
made beautiful handles. They were as
tough as the conscience of county COM
missioner, strong as Limburger cheese, and
smooth as ivory.
1 made money for awhile, but soon
found that the pauper labor of Canada was
making as good handles for less money
than my convict. They undersold me at
my own door. said "Here's an infant
industry that needs protection" and so
boarded the cars and rode to Washington,
on free pass. l saw our Senator, Ben
Wade, and stated my case. He called in
the Hon. Pig Iron Kelley. "Here,'' cried
Senator Wade, sis an infant industry that
calls for our fostering care"
ga great industry" replied the Hon.
Pig Iron; ''and it must be protected. y
There is nothing mean about old Pig Iron.
| And so they slapped high protective
duty on foreign-made hickory handles
Not content with that, they put another
duty on foreign hickory; did not object,
for l grew the hickory. Laughter
returned home and my infant industry
prospered. For awhile made money hand
over handle. We raised the price of handles
far above what it had been, and every wood
chopper demanded more wages, as did the
carpenters and all others using handles -
The Canadian paupers did not pay this, for
they were producers, not consumers, and
we had shut down on their trade. The
good people at home paid it all, but we
were fostering an infant industry-indus-
tries of growing hickories, and the industry
OF my capital. / was careful to follow 9th
er foster children, and paid no more to my
convict and his force of two men than had
before.
Soon, however there came a blight
The increased price of hickory handles
stimulated capital all over the land, and
every overshot country saw-mill in the
Democratic hoop-pole region, where owls
fly around at noon and the mails are chased
in by wolves ahead of time laughter was
converted into handle factory, and Excess
sive competition brought down prices low
er than the Canadian pauper labor had
done.
AT this critical moment l had strike
My convict foreman wanted higher wages.
In vain told him of the depressed condi.
ton Of trade" 'the shrinkage of values.''
and that if he persisted I should have to
close my furnace, that is, shut down the
head gate and stop business. He took me
to one side and said in Sammy Tilden
whisper: 81 say, boss, this ax-handle bus.
mess is played. know it. Now I'll tell you
what to do, get a big insurance ON the old
rattle-trap, and I'll stick chunk under
her, and we'll divy." Laughter. I de-
clined this business ending of fostered in
dustry, and that night my foreman stole
my best horse and disappeared. [Great
laughter
The mistake I made, my friends, was in
not seeing the other manufacturers Of hicll-
Dry handles and getting up combination
and lessen the production to the demands
of the market. That is what is being done
by other foster children, who are as wise as
serpents, if they are not as innocent as
doves. Applause
The trouble about all this lies in the fact
that the labor in this country is, as I have
said, agricultural, and, although it comes
directly in competition with the worst form
of pauper labor in Europe, it is not protect
ed.
This labor makes, at rough calculation,
eight tenths of the labor of this country
AS against the protective class, it is nine
tenths.
Now, what happens to us? Let us take
our great staple-wheat. 1t costs to day
dollar here on our farms to raise bushel |
The surplus that we have to sell we are
forced to cart across half a continent, sail |
il over the wide seas, and sell it in Europe. !
This is the surplus that with the surplus |
of other farm products, such as corn, pork, |
tobacco cotton, &C., makes the underlying
so much talked about. IF we |
had no surplus we would have no prosperi-
ty-see? [Cries, eyes, we do."]
What happens to us in Europe? At Liv-
erpool our wheat comes in competition with
bue Wuedt VI tuc DdiIlC, WucTo luS ldUOTor
works for $1S a year and goat skin coat;
with the wheat of Egypt, that is to-day
the house of bondage, having slavery in its
worst form; with the wheat of India, where
abor is in as bad a condition; and, worse
yet, of Australia, where the shipper takes
articles back home in pay
exchange denied us by law.
You see we sell under free trade, and are
eft to the mercy of the worse form of pau
Der labor.
What is our condition when we come to
purchase? Why, we are met with protec-
ion. All that we buy, from a horseshoe
o mower, all that we wear, all that we
,uild for shelter, all that we use over and
bove our products, from the cradle we are {
ocked in to the coffin we rot in-the clothes {
re wear, the single that shuts off the ,
torn, the glass we look through, the blan- I
ct we sleep under to the tombstone that {