The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-16

to exceptional industrial activity and national
prosperity. When you think about it just the
reverse is the tendency.
Look at the facts. Within comparatively
short time we can remember when steel rails
were $40 and even 1925 a ton. Every pound of
that article used on our railroads was imported
from England Our gold went out of the coun-
try to pay for it. a few enterprising citizens,
who had the interests of their country and its
labor, and not of the foreign manufacturers, at
heart, began movement looking to the manu-
facture of steel rails in the United States. All
they needed was some guarantee of price,
which would enable them to make the large in
vestment required for the establishment Of a
plant and to pay our American workingmen
proper wages, not pauper wages, for their labor.
A duty of 1923 ton was placed on steel rails.
The erection of Bessemer steel plants com
menced, and soon American capital and labor
were turning out as fine steel rails
as the English. What was the RESULT Our rail
roads, relieved from the eXtortionate demands of
foreign monopoly, could now buy rails at home
for less than $50 ton, with a still downward
tendency. A short time ago Congress took $11
off the duty on steel rails, leaving ST.. In the
meantime, with improved machinery and a re
duction in the price paid for labor which must
always attend reduction of duties, the price of
steel rails has gone down to about $50 a ton. In
stead of paying an outrageous price to foreign
monopoEsts and draining our country of its
financial resources. we are employing own
capital and our labor and distributing the
money for the benefit of our people. 1t is
estimated that not more than onetenth the
amount Of steel rails now used are imported, and
even then the foreign monopolists are forced
down to the reasonable prices brought about
through protection and the encouragement of
home industry.
Now it is proposed to destroy this satisfac-
tnTxTc ,,nff bx- 10
ment beginning with a horizontal reduction of
20 per cent, which would put the duty on steel
rails down to about $13.60 The first effect
would be a reduction of at least 20 per cent. in
the price of labor at the steel works. and at
least 20 per cent in the price of raw materials
and the labor which produces them, or the clos
ing up of our home establishments. How long
the country could live in peace under such cir
cumstances is a very simple proposition, and
one that anybody should be able to answer
With the country drained of its money, and no
employment for its working classes, industrial
prostration would be the first step, and anarchy
would follow in natural sequence
The same thing might be said of textile fab
RIGS. l remember when calico was 81 IL cents a
yard This again the period of foreign
nopoly. Our Southern planters received cents
pound for cotton which was sent al the way to
England to be manufactured and then shipped
back again. After much trouble our enterpris-
ing citizens from New England succeeded in
having duty put upon cotton fabrics;
anu WIN what RESULT Cotton mills
began to appear, the whir of the
spindles and the rattle of machinery began to
resound among the hills of New England To
day calico is so cheap the wives and daughters of
our working people will not wear it for best and
our cotton planters are getting 10 and u cents
pound for their cotton. More than this, the cot
ton mill is no longer a stranger to the South.
We hear of them sprngng up in that section
every day, and whyl Simply because of the
guarantee afforded by our American industrial
system. The free traders talk about monopo-
lists in manner which only demonstrates an
intensity of dullness almost inexplicable or the
influence of some subtle spell Steel rails at
free-trade prices ranging from $75 to 1925 ton
and at tariff prices $35 ton; cacoes at 81 IL
cents yard, free-t trade prices, and IL cents,
tariff prices and cotton at 1 cents pound. free
trade prices, and II cents tariff prices should
convince every manufacturer and workingman.
planter and farmer, that there is neither logic
nor reason in free trade, but if they choose to
call it monopoly ii were better for our own peo-
pie to enjoy the benefits of their own monopoly
than to be dependent and subservient to the ex-
tortions of foreign monopoly