Wichita eagle., 1886-09-10
A STORY WITH A MORAL.
From M Blaine's Speech at South Paris. Ne.

From Mr. Bialne5 speech al SOutn raIL. sie
The Republican party has stood steadily
against great odds, in the teeth of great
opposition, and has made great contests in
support of protective tariff. 1t has en-
countered obloquy, it has encountered every
form of hostility, and thus far it has tri-
umphed in its tariff policy. Let me tell
YOU one incident, and l think it is very
striking one. As lately as 1S7O-that was
nine years before we had specie payments,
and gold was somewhere from % to 80
cents premium, if remember correctly
the railroad mania was at fever heat;
we were building in all directions,
money was plenty, we were importing
rails and the older railroads of the east,
such as the Vanderbilt roads of New York
and the Boston and Albany, and the roads
west of Boston were beginning to put steel
rails down They paid for those steel rails
from $50 to $S5 in England. They paid
the duty, and then they had to add the pre-
MUM on gold, and by the time they got it
reduced to greenbacks it cost all OF 500
ton to put steel rails down, while it cost
Just 100 times as much per mile. In the
teeth of that high price, staring everybody
in the face. the Republican party had the
nerve, the foresight and courage to put 1928
ton gold duty on that. DO you not re-
member how all the free traders in the
world, how all the free traeers in this coun-
try, denounced the Republicans as lunatics.
protection gone mad, violating every prin-
cipal of economy, gone, as the Scots say,
absolutely clean daft Well, it went on.
Twenty eight dollars ton gold. Thirty
per cent premium made $40 So that
the duty in our own currency was between
$50 and 1877 ton. | remember myself
that it did look little hazardous. l was
little afraid of it, but l supported it with
the rest of my party What is the result?
The Democrats said: ''You are going to
put a price on steel rails where no railroad
can afford to buy them.' and then they be
gan all their talk about duty being added
to the cost and going to be paid by the
consumer This very last year, this win
ter, steel rails of American manufacture
were laid down in this country that cost
$27. so at the mill, only half a dollar more
for the ton than the duty we
put on them in 1870. That was
only sixteen years ago, and prac-
tically we were not making any steel rails
at all then There was a little of the ex-
pertinent at the Cambria iron works in
Pennsylvania and little in Troy, N. Y.
Under the stimulus of the duty eight, ten,
twelve, thirteen great establishments were
built, and in a little while were turning out
a larger amount than the combined works
of England and Belgium today. (Cries OF
"Goodw and applause.) If there were
genuine free trader present he would get
up and say: Eyes, that is true. You did
sell these rails at $3.50, but you
did not state that they are selling
them in England at $40 and $50
Yes, do state it, but state the other
thing, that they never would have sold
them in England for $40 Or $50 if they
had not forced them down by the com
petition Applause And we would
have been paying $50 or $50 if England
could have had the monopoly of our
makers during the whole of this time. l
do not propose to take up the tariff in de-
tail and go through the thousand and one
articles, but l satisfy myself with the
point of strongest accusation with the Dem
ocrats, for the steel rail duty has been the
one which they have held up everywhere as
protection gone mad, as said before. Well,
if that is madness, commend me to insanity.
IRapturous applause. You know when
they said that Grant got drunk in the
Vicksburg campaign, Lincoln sent down
for some of the same kind of whisky that
he might give it to the others Laughter and
applause. So, if they say this is insanity,
let us communicate it to every other indus
trial form in this country. We can stand it.