The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1884-07-31
JACKSON, OHIO, THURSDAY, JULY 81, 1884.

Of war, has gained so rapidly that it's
total wealth is at least the double of
that which it possessed in 1860, ex-
elusive Of slaves.
In these extraordinary developments
the farmers see the hel pful impulse of
a home market, and they see that the
financial and revenue system, enacted
since the Republican party came into
power. has established and constantly
expanded the home market. They see
that even in the case Of wheat, which
is our chief cereal export. they have
sold, in the average Of the years since
the close Of the war. three bushels at
home to one they have sold abroad,
and that in the case Of corn, the only
other cereal which we export to any
extent, one hundred bushels have been
used at home to three and half
bushels exported. In some years the
disparity has been so great that for
every peck Of corn exported one hun
dred bushels have been consumed in
the home market. The farmers see
that in the increasing competition
from til. 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 Of tillable land
in the Union.
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE.
Such facts as these, touching the
growth and consumption of cereals at
home, give US some slight conception
Of the vastness of the internal COM
merce Of the United States. They
suggest also that, in addition to the
advantages which the American peo-
pie enjoy from protection against for
eign competition, they enjoy the ad-
vantages Of absolute free trade over
larger area and with a greater popula-
ton than any other Nation. The in
ternal commerce of our thirty-eight
States and nine Territories is carried
on without let or hindrance, without
tax, detention or Governmental in
reference Of any kind whatever. 1t
spreads freely over an area of three
and a half million square miles-al-
most equal in extent to the whole
continent Of Europe. Its profits are
enjoyed to-day by fifty-six millions of
American freemen, and from this en-
joyment no monopoly is created. Ac-
cording to Alexander Hamilton, when
he discussed the same subject in 1870,
''the internal competition 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 en-
ployed.' It is impossible to point to
single monopoly in the United
States that has been created or fos-
tered by the industrial system which
is upheld by the Republican party.
Compared with our foreign COM
merce these domestic exchanges are
inconceivably great in amount-re-
quiring merely as one instrumentality
as large mileage Of railway as exists
to-day in all the other nations of the
world combined. These internal ex-
changes are estimated by the Statist-
ical Bureau Of the Treasury Depart
ment to be annually twenty times as
great in amount as our foreign COM
merce. It is into this vast field of
home trade-at once the creation and
the heritage of the American people
that foreign nations are striving by
every device to enter It is into this
field that the opponents of our pres
ent revenue system would freely ad-
NIT the countries of Europe-coun-
tries 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 re-
turn.
LABORER.
A policy of this kind would be dis
astrous to the mechanics and work
ingmen Of the United States. Wages
are unjustly reduced when an indus
trious man is not able by his earnings
to live in comfort, educate his child
ren, and lay by sufficient amount
for the necessities Of age. The reduc-
ton of wages inevitably consequent
upon throwing our home market open
to the world, would deprive them of
the power to do this. 1t would prove
great calamity to our country. 1t
would produce conflict between the
poor and the rich, and in the sorrow
full degradation Of labor would plant
the seeds Of public danger.
The Republican party has steadily
aimed to maintain just relations be-
tween labor and capital-guarding
with care the rights of each. A con-
fict between the two has always led
in the past, and will always lead in
the future, to the injury Of both La
Dor is indispensable to the creation
and profitable use Of capital, and cap
ital 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 Republican
party has protected the free labor of
America so that its compensation is
larger than is realized in any other
country. 1t has guarded our people
against the unfair competition of con-
tract labor from China, and may be
called upon to prohibit the growth of
similar evil from Europe 1t is OBJ
viously unfair to permit capitalists to
make contracts for cheap labor in for
eign countries to the hurt and dispar-
agement of the labor Of American cit
liens. Such policy Qike that which
would leave the time and other condi-
tions of home labor exclusively in the
hands Of the employerl is injurious.to
all parties-not the least so to the un-
happy persons who are made the sub
jects Of the contract. The institu-
tions of the United States rest upon
the intelligence and virtue of all the