Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-12-25

twenty years have been in these sugar
districts, and the point is mad That
they are not entitled to a bounty on
crime from the national treasury"
The self contradiction of protection
lists ought to put you on your guard,
for YOU have no interest at stake but
those of better paid labor. Protection
lists begin and demand protection.
What for? Against the cheap goods OF
foreign pauper labor. We can't make
goods so cheap, because we have to pay
higher wages. Ere long when we ag-
r%iculturists begin to object, they tell us:
Don't YOU see that you are getting
goods cheaper than ever? We are now
able to undersell Europe. Why! Be-
cause of protection. Then if 80, is not
this %cheapness against the interest OF
labor; are they not reducing nome
labor to paupersm. But the truth is,
the more consumption there is the
higher is labor, aud nothing increases
consumption like cheapness. The less
the consumption the lower are wages.
Show me any business that has grown
up under free competition until the
masses of the people greedily consume
its products because of their cheapness
and d~esirability, and l will show you
we'll paid coutented labOrers. Show me
a monopoly and 1 will show you a
tyranny. 1 fought to insult your COM
mon sense to tell you that employers
divide their good luck with you. You
might as well be told that people pay
higher prices for goods than they are
asked to pay by sellers. "What's
the price of this. p ''Ten cents a yard"
SO, good sir, that is too little. 1t is
worth more. Here is rs cents per
yard" Did you ever hear the liksT
And is not labor a commodity in the
market as things are? Is not the hard
est labor the most dangerous and inju-
rious to health the worst paid? Is not
every advantage taken to depress it
more and more. Two bosses seeking a
man make labor higher. Let trade be
free, let our commodities go freely to
ailthe world, and just as sure as we
live, though it will cause a shock at
first to undo the great wrong that has
been done, there will be quick large
sales at small profits, which really
makes two bosses run after one man.
One would think, to hear the talk,
| we never manufactured till after we had
our tariff. But under our low
evenue tariff from 1850 to 1860
| our manufactures were so pros
porous and prolific. We increased
from 1850 to 1860 over $4,000 IL num-
Der, and doubled the investment, when
we had about one-thlrd our present
population. Under the tariff from
1870 to 1880 we increased less than as
many hundred (see census of 1880,
second part, among the first pages at
head of columns), and the investment
Increased but So per cent, AS Kansas,
| Nebraska and New York City increas-
| ed several thousand from 1870 to 1880,
| some states must have lost enormously.
Protected Pennsylvania lost thousands.
| Never was the word tramp heard in
our early days of 1850 to 1850. 1t was
heard in England during her time when
| she protected her farmers under the
| corn laws. Aud who were her trsmps?
Farm laborsrs b%yhundreds of thousands
because she protected them under this
humbug. Who are our tramps? fac
tory hands by hundreds Of Thousands
our protected laborers.
Two states of Australia ought to
settle this question-New South Wales
and Victoria. New South Wales, free
trade; Victoria, protection. Both
began their careers about the same
time. Victoria with all the advan-
tages Of some larger population, mor
| wealth, better soil and advantages, and
| both are new countries with abundant
cheap lands. How is it with them2
Victoria has increased less in every
way save in poverty, distress, tramps
and general irritation. Even In manu-
featuring, New South Wales is going
ahead of her.
Protection is restriction on the arti-
cles protected and on things they are
traded for. Remember that interna-
| tionai commerce 10 exchange of imports
money. You may take a cargo to
Europe and sell it for cash and come
home with your cash, but some person
loads the ship and brings it back So
the result. to your country is
Away thHs-that it ends in trade of
cargo for cargo. Our country exports
farm produce. Now the result OF the
tariff is it falls on the farm produce. If
cloth is a dollar a yard and wheat u
dollar a bushel-one yard exchanges
for one bushel. Put a tariff of one dollar
on cloth, now N yard exchanges for
two bushels, or the wheat is worth so
much less. Hence our tariff distresses
the farmers. That is not the worst.
1t keeps ships away from our ports,
and stops the outflow of our farm stuff.
Just think, little England, with half
our population, exports fifteen hun
dred million dollars worth per year,
and imports two thousand millions
worth, while we, with so much greater
advantages, export at miserably low
prices too, some five or six hundred
millions only, and import but two or
three hundred millions worth.
Although protectionists claim that i'm
ports should be less than exports, the
very reverse is true and can be proven.
For nearly forty years England's i'm
ports have every year exceeded her ex-
ports by from two to eight hundred
millions, aud her wealth has been con-
stantly increased. Commerce, being
trade, if we get less than we give we
grow poorer. CLARKE IRVINE.