Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-12-24
SENATOR MonRrL ON THE rARIrr.
From His Speech in the United states
senate, December Sth structural
Weakness of Free Trade Nilis

say SO, Il structural weakness in Demo-
cratic free trade bills. The Trainer of some
of these bulls seems to have expected that
free trade brought across the Atlantic,
like spirits after Il sea voyage, would be
mellowed rs to make it more palatable.
He began with homeopathic doses, hori-
zoutally administered, rs if dreadinG to
excite an cutlery; and, like the English
parson described by Selden, "baptised
his own fingers rather than the child"
The i'll born horizontal schemes-first
10 per cent, and then 20 per Gently which
it was at first proposed to change, but not
to amend, the existing tariff, were not
limited to few articles hut, while equai-
~ cutting and bleeding nearly all the
duties upon imported articles, copying the
SHngradO spec liC in every case, wit moth
ing of tariff reform, 'or of COmputabe
advantage to consumers proposed to re
duce the tariff lust low enough to let a
flood Of foreign producers pour in and
oVerIuu the American market These
measures not having inspired love at first
sight among members of Il House anxious
to escape "WAtellOO' ON the ldtS of
Novemb-r the juvenile play of 30 peep
COMMUNICATION the horns peep ont, now
they hide for sufrtV-and an amended bin
W ~ ltll lt'lN IlNuEl III w Nll' llOi t. lfIt
the horizontal jumped 10 the pelpendic-
ular, and all about iron dropped out Of
Slght for safety.
The architects of these various unrelated
reform tariff bil!s-the last one of which
being always at war with its predecessors
finally reached the conclusion that IRON
had more gravity and that its impact was
more to be dreaded in any political con
test thOn wool, from which, therefore,
they abruptly proposed to withdraw all
tariff protection. The farmers were ac-
cOrlingly selected as the victims of the
new experiment In order that there
should not be rag of protection left. it
was proposed that not only all woods, but
woollen rags, shoddy, waste and mungo
and all wool on the skin, should also he
admitted free. NOreveuue from rags and
shOddy What ringing watchwurds to
carry admiration without limit are those
of tariff reform Rags and shoddy free
and OleOmargarine may come next.
The annual clip of wool since 1861 has
increased from G0,0OO,OOO pounds to over
800 600 900 pounds. Protection has not
only sufficiently increased the product,
but has wonderfully improved the quail
lty and the supply of nearly every vari-
ETY. required by American manufacturers
can now be furnished, with the single
exception of coarse carpet-wools. This
vast interest, deeply identified with all
port ons of or country, is thus exposed
to absolute humiliation by the proposed
free trade reform. The huShandmen
whose f1OCkS require winter feeding can
not compete with those in Australia aud
South America, where no such feeding is
required and when American sheep
husbandry shall have been banishsd from
the fields where it now prospers, the land
can only be 'rvoted to wheat or corn, for
which there Is no profitable market visible
at home or abroad. and our prairie farm
ers would soon become the tenants at Will
Of foreign landlords.
FISHERIES, FARMS AND MANUFACTURES.
Our fisheries, from the earliest days Of
our history regarded with national pride
and sOlictude, il is now proposed by the
latest of these bills to abandon and sur
render to our atiectionate and rather de-
mOnstrative Northern nelghbOrs a free
and their only market, for which they
nave so long tiercely bnt vainly struggled,
and for which they have often been will
ing to tender many so called equivalents.
All is now legislatively offered without
any reciprocity, without money and with
out price, as boon to the parties who
have rudely seized the past year so many
of our detenceless fishing-vesseis, and so
often insulted our flag
The aggregate capital of our people, in
vested III farms, Including lands, fences
and buildings, is a tritle over 10000, 0OO,-
600 and this immense capital cannot fail
to become sadly deprecated unless the
home market for agricultural products
shall be not only maintained but aug
mented. The wheat from India and Aus
tralia produced by labOrers at une-eighth
of what is paid to labOrers in Texas or
Georgia, appears to be obtaining all those
foreign markets hitherto open to our
farmers, and at this crisis the agitators
of free trade are usidlously attempting to
- "a ma ms ~ at ~
the deprivation of large bodies of home
consumers of their accustomed means of
livelihood. So much protection as is nee
essary for the full retention of those EN-
plOyed in manufactures is unequivOcally
for the benefit of agriculture. They are
Just Il. indispensable for the consumption
of the crops as is the livestock of the
farmer,
1t may be that some of those astrlde of
their free trade hobby, guided wholly by
a British chart, and bespattering with
mud whomever they meet on their way,
underrate the numbers of those whose
occupations they would either cripple or
destroy. Most likely they have forgotten
that, while the number of lahnrers en-
piuYed III agriculture is large, or 1913, SIG,
the number of labOrerS employed IN man.
utacure- is also large, ., us sos, and only
less by 6O5,O1l. The Interests of these
laboreIs are inseparably interlaccd, and
III pitt VI an IllNItdllIIG IOltlGl tNlttS,
if the question is to he determined as a
political one, they must ere long 90 hand
IN hand to the hallOt-bOX
We have also nearly three billions of
capital lS9,ii5, AZ, 345l invested in manu-
iactures and the mechanics arts, giving
useful employment 10 large and Important
number, of our people. This capital Is
immuVHblc, and must abide the fate that
awaits it, survive or perish, inrhe general
policy of the country, whether friendly or
adverse. If that policy should continue to
ue friendly this capital will be a working
capital, a capital for wage earners, and
cover our country with countless bless
lng~. II II should be adverse all this fixed
capital will be smitten with paralysis, and
the multitude of vigorous workmea, find
INK their occupation gone, viii be an army
of the unemployed, and cXppsed either To
10 idl 'ne>S Orto Il much lower scale of
wages, with all of lis bitter train of mis-
cries
y large proportion If agricultural pro
ducts we consumed by farmers ON their
own premises; but, according Ia the cen
sus OF 1850, the amount sold was s2,2l2,-
5lU. J2i aud yet the aggregate value of
manufactures, aided 10y the giant water
and steam power or machinery, was more
-