St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-29
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.
A p,ea fer Protection.

must be Democrat 1t makes no dlHerence
how big-brained senator may De, as long as
he is identified with party that is controlled
by the Pennsylvania proteotion1sts 1t is I'M
possible for him to be loyal TO to the interests
Of Minnesota A policy that suits the
Pennsylvania iron manufacturer is not the
policy to promote the welfare OF Minnesota
farmers" In the opinion OF the Glooe,
then, LOYALTY, first to the Democratic party,
second. to the interests of Minnesota, would
require Minnesota representative to
march under the free trade nag, or, as the
free traders are fend OF putting 1t, the
revenue reform flag. meaning all the wh1le
a governmental policy that discards absolutely
the principle OF protection to American indus
tries. But is it true that loyalty to the
Democratic party, and to the interests OF
Minnesota requires these things! Let US see.
Was there not plank in the last National
Democratic platform favoring protection!
We thought SO, when we read it, and the sue
ceeding campaign was carried on, under that
Interpretation of it. Leading Democrats, In
different parts of the country took that
ground The vote of New York, 1T is ad-
mitted, would never have been given to the
Democratic candidate upon any other under
standing. This position, too, is remarkably
confirmed by the vote given in congress last
month on the Morrison bill. Thirty-four
Democratic representatives voted against
that bill. OF these, ten were from New
York, three from New Jersey. i've from
Pennsylvania, six from the Southern states
and ten from the West. Eight of the eleven
Democrats from Ohio voted for protection.
Really it looks as if there were plenty of
protectionists out side of Pennsylvania, and
a good many also inside of the Democratic
party. and quite well distributed also over the
entire country,
But what of loyalty to the interests of
Minnesota? Is it true that policy that en-
courages the manufacturing interests of the
country, is not equally promotive Of the in
terests of Minnesota? Where is the antag-
oniSm between those portions OF the coun-
try when manufacturing Is the principal
occupation and the farming sections!
In fact have we any exclusively manufacture
ing and exclusively farming sections? Are
there not manufacturing centers rapidly
growing up all oyer the land, and to just the
extent this process advances, does not I'M
mense advantage accrue TO the farming IN
terests OF the locality? Is this not true also
of Minnesota? Are not manufacturing and
farming the necessary compliments of each
other? Does not each furnish market for
the other? Cleveland is manufacturing
city. but your Minnesota farmers feed US. SO
it is with thousands of manufacturing CEN
tiers throughout the entire country. They
furnish an enormous home market for the
farming interest. Farmers, then, and espec-
tally the farmers of Minnesota, whose pro-
ducts, being principally cereal, will bear dis
tant transportation, are profoundly interested
in a governmental policy which gives employ
ment to and feeds upon our own soil, instead
of upon foreign soil, the millions OF workers
engaged in supplying the wants OF over
&c, G00, 900 people. Abandon this policy, with
draw encouragement from our home indus
tries, and how long would the farming inter-
est have reliable home market? Threaten
these industries every winter with with re-
duction of duties, a tariff purely for revenues:
open wide the gates, finally, stitle and choke
them with the nrO1llctS of foreign labor. maid
for at rates which American manhood ought
to, and does refuse What then becomes of
the farmers best market-the home market?
Can the small crops of the farmers, which
now are absorbed by our manufacturing pop
ulation, be shipped abroad at all? And will
Europe ever take beyond modicum OF our
cereals and our animal products, and what
she does take must it not be at prices fixed
by the miserably paid labor OF the Eastern
world? What, then, becomes of the farming
interest, when its home market can no longer
be relied upon, a result which will as surely
follow a reduction of duties below the pro-
lection point, as the night follows the day?
But is Minnesota never to have diversified
ton of industries? What of her forests and
her mines? Already the process has begun.
Minnesota is equally rich in the treasures of
the forest and the mine with her neighborS,
Wisconsin and Michigan. 1t must be simply
suicidal for Minnesota farmers to persist in
sending representatives and senators to
Washington who will vote for a policy which
would operate to prevent, or at least to re-
tard. their development. The opened mine
and the forest would give our farmer his best
market.
Not long hence Minnesota farm products
will be wanted to feedNhe hundreds of thou
sands who will in various manufacturing
centers, within the borders of Minnesota's
magnificent domain, so employed in working
I'D her own raw products. Michigan and
lDl-
two millions of tons of iron ore. Minnesota
has now Joined the procession. Out of
the Vermi lion district she sent down last
year 225, 4S4 tons. The wilderness was pene-
trated by the railroad, the Duluth Iron Range,
to the mines OF our Minnesota Iron company
only three years ago, you know, but this year
800, 900 tons will be sent out. Under favor
ing conditions, Minnesota can send out five
years hence, 100000 tons of iron ore; but
what do l mean by favorng conditions? The
principal thing is, to let the tariff alone, be-
yond what may be necessary for reducing the
expense and for the more efficient collection
of the revenue, and for the removal OF all I'M
certainty about its actual provisions. Under
our present rates of duty, we are importing
heavily of iron and steel products. During
the last eleven months we have imported of
iron ore, pig iron, scrap IRON, scrap steel, bar
iron, steel rails, cotton ties, hoop, band and
scroll iron. hoops, bands, strips, sheets
and plates of steel, ingots, blooms, billets, and
bars, tin and ziuc plates, wire rods, ETC., l.
500, 1893 tons. Every ton OF this could have
been produced here, and greatly
to the relief of our industries
would have been, only that American citi-
Zens cannot and ought not to accept and live
upon the wages upon which these commodi-
ties were produced in Europe. But our rev
enue reformers" are not satisfied with such
displacement of American labor as these i'm
pOrtations involve, OF commodities almost the
entire constituent of which is labor. They
want duties reduced below the protective
point, and the gates wide open. Some Of the
iron ore included in these New York importa-
tons, you will remember. displaced at one
single point $4,000 tons of our own Minnesota
company's ore. You will recall the fact that
one of our customers could not buy OF us last
season when we applied to him because he
had just bought $4,000 tons of Spanish and
African ore. He did this because the foreign
ore was produced by the labor OF Sh1ftleSS
Arab at rs cents to 40 cents per day, and Min
nesota companys ore was produced by the
labor of men who get American wages. What
do our 1,500 men up there IN the woods, at the
mines, aud on the road. and the Minnesota
farmers, whose products feed them, think of
a policy that would as the Morrison bill pro-
posed break down even existing defenfes of
our home labor? But l am weary
ing you with too long letter. 1t
is certainly true that the working
interest of the farmer equally with that of
every other portion of our population. 1t
insures him the best of all markets-a home
market for all he can raise. The exchang-
able value of his products for manufactured
goods is very much increased under tariff
that is protective above what is ever reached
under revenue tarif
remember well the operation of a revenue
tariff upon the exchangable value of farm
products. Then it took pound and half
of butter to buy pound of tenpenny nails
Now a quart of skinned milk will buy a
pound and half of nails. l remain, res
pectfully, GEORGE ID. ELY.
Cleveland, O., July "a.
Lovely Has No s'BoOdle.''
To the Editor of the Globe:
The assertions of correspondents of the
GLOBE that Mr.. Lovely is carrying On a
doodle" cam paign are wholly untrue. Mr..
Lovely has no sshoode' He is q man of