The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1884-03-19

CONGRESSMAN GipsoN, OF the Fourth
Yves! Virginia District, in an interview
given elsewhere, furnishes his views on the
taril question. uc does not advance IN
Argument that is not retuted by the no.
torious fact! In truth every one OF his
Arguments has long since been refuted.
There is uo.a working nlan ia Wheeling
who couldn't put Congressman Gibson
down on the tariff q1estion-Hho doesn't
know that the condition OF the American
workman is jmmeasurably better than tho
condition Of the British workman, whom
men o! Mr.. Gibson's school would bring
into close and deadly competition with
him. There is not single branch OF in.
dusry in which the American workman is
not better paid than tho British workman.
IL the figures wers not at hand TO prove it
the TACT that the American workman lives
better would be conclusive. An earnest
inquirer Tor truth would give some heed to
the immigration statistics. :"@ ,>.g.l,g5,7,s
AS rule the American workman cup
por's himself and family by his own labor.
In England the whole family works
women and children Toll a. the forge max
ing nails and iron chains-and with the
aid olihs poor rates they eke out an exist
ence. In England one in seven Of the
population dies paupe,! ,a &
The picture which Mr.. Gibson draws OF
awofker III the Wheeling iron mills-the
wretched LOT of his family and that sort OF
lhiDg-is a cruel slander OF his own crea-
tion. g
suppose it were true p:csure-how
much doea Mr.. Gibson think that condi-
ton would be improved if English iron
mills could send their product here TO be
sold on equal terms with our own3 II Mr..
dtbsdn doesn't know any Wheeling work.
'ngman can tellhim. The industrial growth
o. THIS country is not product Of free
sade-sree trade would not maintain it.
dol FORBID tha! the country shall ever
De trlcked into the experiment. & VI
What Mr. Gibson says about the tariff
IN Its relation to tue agricultural industry
'sequally uniounded. Land is worth more
and labor higher in those States where
manufacturing has taken hold than in
States purely agricultural-.he more man.
n'acluring the higher the land and the
wages and the more valuable the product.
i1snos true that the agricultural develop.
mehs Of the country has been arrested by
.ne larltl, Tor it hs1 not been arrested at all.
ID iso0 We produced little over thirty.
seven bushels OF cereals per capita, in 1850
neatly seventy'four bushels. From 1850
10 1870 the cereal product increased 42 s
percent; from 1850 to 1870 80 0 percent;
IRON 1850 to 1850 2ll percent. From 1870
70 lsSo 1t nearly doubled, and the chieI
yam was not from the new country Of TIE
hrwest. gaS5S; e. 33I5 81 y u
nu1 "aFit'for.revenue-only" men would
'fsw our mill workers from manufactures
anu turn them adrift to find a fresh star;
III agriculture, in competition with iarmerE
an0 iarm laborers. Then England would
nave this country were she wants it--buy
,ns het manufactures and digging and dely
mS'' iutnieh her operatives with cheaper
aaa ever cheapening food-a condition .
a1Solnte commercial dependence. That Il
*a4s She tried on us more than a hundred
years ago. Nv, Z; ,5.!i.5,tS .if.5;t'