The Press., 1885-02-26
A'onso Howards2osebse

but indulgent smile. sThe truth is," he said, manufacturing had acquired de- velopment in New England. under the high-tarif policy of the last twenty-five years, which is in no way justified by the normal demand for goods, and the day of collapse and reckoning has arrived. Pro- lection guaranteed for the next twenty years could not avert it. The facilities for production are in excess of what the mark cts call for at any price, and at least one- third of the mills must shutdown perma- nently.
 ''The whole thing was mistake. If the manufacturing interests in New Eng land had not been stimulated by high tariff beyond the needs..of the country, half of these mills would never have been built, and the poor operatives would have been doing useful work in peopling the lands of the west, instead of finding themselves, in middle life or later, with habits of indoor life formed and settled, without employ ment, and destined to become paupers. If I had my way, would start right here in New England, an emigration society similar to the two in operation to promote Irish emigration, providing farms in the west on favorable Eterms, and beginning the work of transplanting such of these people as are able-bodied and willing to commence life anew. see no other means open to repair the maldistribution of pop- ulation which protection has systematical- ly fostered. As with all great mistakes of this kind, the readjustment will be attend ed with great suffering almost catastro- phe. But the thing must be, and the sooner our people take hold of the subject in earnest, the better it will be for the fu- ture of the country. Mark my words. The next ten years will show that this crisis IS not merely one of overproduction, but one involving fatal imitation of the manufacturing interest Say so at once in the newspapers, and stop paltering with a great problem"
 have made it point to talk with prac- tlcal manufacturers as widely as possible, and to obtain their view of the situation. its causes and possible remedies. Nearly every one has his panacea, which. trans lated into intelligent terms, may be de- scribed as complete exclusion by duties of European competition; and all for the sake of the working classes, they say, who will be impoverished by stopping the mills. When met by the argument, or the fact. that the results of the protective policy of the last quarter of century have not in ured to the benefit of the working people at home, but have rather served to bring in immigrant labor, the only answer of the mill owner IS that such consequences are inevitable to the operation of the law of supply and demand. In the town of Staff ford, for example, in the year 1864. the ratio of native American to immigrant op- eratives in the mills then existing was to 1-80 per 100 of the one to 20 per 100 of the other. Twenty years of protection, instead of increasing the wages of oper- atives, as politicians have improperly as- serted, have completely reversed the ratio indicated by the preceding figures, and " in every 100 operatives are now of foreign origin. In other words, protection has not benefited the operative class, but has simply served to attract competition, to reduce wages thereby, and to eliminate the native American from manufacturing, | while filling the coffers of the mill owner, and stimulating the erection of mills be- yond the normal dsmand for fabrics. | Such being the fact, it is not difficult to understand the caution to investors inn piled in the declaration of the hard headed, keen-sighted old banker, that he "would not take shares at half price in the best managed woolen establishment in Holland County"
 "What mean is, ;" he said, "that, as I l twenty years has developed in New Eng land at least one-third more woolen mills than the demand of the market can SUD- port at paying prices that contraction IS inevitable, and redistribution of popula- ton necessity if our people would avert the impending curse of large crop of paupers. The situation, in this opinion of an intelligent witness, possesses all the elements of 8 genuine industrial crisis. It IS not the mere temporary consequence of an production that the market will absorb in few weeks, but an imitation of the manufacturing interest itself, in the correction of which many factories must not only stop, but be permanently abandon ed to ruin and dismantlement; while pov- erty and famine decimate and desolate their gradually decaying villages The capitalists will sell out; get out by failure in business any way to save themselves.
 But what is to become of operatives aban- doned by hundreds to pauperism, unless far-sighted and public spirited men initiate a movement for redistribution before it is too late?
 Of course, issues like these are delicate questions for the local newspapers to handle. They prefer to moon and mar mur and utter vague lanents, rather than give offence by bold and incisive discus sion of the facts, .their causes, and the remedial measures still available; while the tramp and pauper question becomes more and more urgent month by month, and poverty deepens into squalor and famine.
 Even if Athlophoros-the champion reme-