The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-07-30

StOWH 80 idpluiy III prosperity tud
the aggregate addition to their wealtl
since 1860 is almost as great as tn
wealth of the entire country in tina
/ year. They see that the South
which is almost exclusively agri
cultural, has shared in the genera
prosperity, and that, having recoy
cred from the loss and devastation
OF war, has gained so rapidly tina
its total wealth is at least the doubl
of that which it possessed in 1860
exclusive of slaves.
In these extraordinary develop
ments the farmers see the helpful
impulse of a home market, and they
see that the financial and reyenu,
system, enacted since the Republi
can party came into power, has es
tablished and constantly expanded
the home market. They see tha
even in the case of wheat, which j!
our chief cereal export, they hav,
sold, in the average of the years since
the close of the war. three bushel;
at home to one they have sold
abroad, and that in the case of corn
the only other cereal which we ex-
port to any extent, one hundred
bushels have been used at home tc
three and a half bushels exported
In some years the disparity has
been so great that for every peck o1
corn exported one hundred bushels
have been consumed in the home
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 market becomes daily
of greater concern to them, and that
its impairment would depreciate the
value of every acre oftilable land in
the Union.
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE.
Such facts as these touching the
growth and consumption of cereals
at home give us some light concep.
ton of the vastness of the internal
commerce of the United States.
They suggest, also, that, in addition
to the advantages which the Ameri-
can people enjoy from protection
against foreign competitor, they en-
I Joy the advantages OF absolute Free
Trade over a larger area and with a
greater population than any other
nation. The internal commerce of
our thirty EIGHT States and nine Ter
ritories is carried on without let or
hindrance, without tax, DECEPTION,
or Governmental interference of any
kind whatever. 1t spreads freely
over an area of three and half mil
lion square miles-almost equal in
extent to the whole continent of Eu-
rope. Its profits are enjoyed to-
dav by fifty-six millions of American
freemen, and from this enjoyment
no monopoly is created. According
TO Alexander Hamilton, when he
discussed the same subject in 1890,
''the internal competitor which
takes place does away with every
thing like monopoly, and by degrees
reduces the prices of articles to the
minimum of a reasonable profit on
the capital employed" tits impos-
sible to point to single monopoly
in the United States that has been
created or fostered by the industrial
system which is upheld by the Re-
publicon party.
Compared with cur foreign CON-
merce these domestic exchanges are
inconceivably great in amount-re-
quiring merely as one instrumen-
tality as large a mileage of railway
as exists to-day in all the other ma
tions of the world combined. These
internal changes are estimated by
the Statistical Bureau ofthe Treasu-
ry Department TO be annually twen-
ty times as great In amount as our
foreign commerce 1t is into this
vast field of home trade-at once the
creation and the heritage of the
American people-that foreign na-
tions are striving by every device 70
enter. 1t is into this field that the
opponents of our present revenue
system would freely admit the coun-
tries of Europe-countries into
whose internal trade we could not
reciprocally enter =; countries to
which we should be surrendering
every advantage of trade; from
which we should be gaining nothing
in return.
EFFECT Upon THE MECHANIC AND THE
LABoRER.
A policy of this kind would be
disastrous 10 the mechanics and
workingmen of the United States
Wages are unjusily reduced when
an industrious man is not able by
his earnings to live in comfort, edu-
cate his children, and lay by suf-
ficient amount for the necessities OF
age. The reduction of wages inevi-
tably consequent upon throwing our
home market open to the world,
would deprive them of the power to
do this. 1t would prove great ca
lamity to our country. 1t would
produce conflict between the poor
and the rich. and in the sorrowful
degradation of labor would plant the
seeds Of public danger.
The Republican party has steadily
aimed 10 maintain Just relations be-
tween labor and capital--guarding
with care the rights of each. A con-
fiict 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, and
capital 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 the two on the
basis of absolute justice The Re
publican party has protected the
free labor of America so that It's
compensation is larger than is realiz-
ed in any other country. 1t has
guaranteed our people against the
unfair competition of contract labor
from China, and may be called upon
to prohibit the growth of a similar
evil from Europe 1t is obviously
unfair to permit capitalists to make
contracts for cheap labor in foreign