The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1888-02-10
SENATOR sHERMAE's sPRKcH,

thank you Tor the hearty reception you
have given to stranger from distant
State, but stranger akin to you by many
ties Of association, and, more than all, by
a hearty sympathy with you in the line ot
public policy which has done more than
any other to develop the resources and to
promote the prosperity Of our common
country.
l like the name OF your club, for 1t is q
name that describes your principles; 1t is
q creed in itself: home market for home
productions. 1t has the flavor of patriot
ism. When you use the word "home"
you do not mean your household, your
business, not even Boston or Msssachu-
aetts, bnt your whole country from ocean
to ocean, from Canada TO the Gnlf ol
Mexico. Ths market you refer to Is the
interchange Of the products OF aixty mill
lions OF people, the most free, intelligent
and prosperous on tho globe, engaged not
merely in manufactures, bat agriculture
and commerce, and embracing almost
every employment OF civilized men. You
use the phrase "home market" to distin.
guish it from the foreign market, not to
exclude the foreign market, but to EN-.
phSsi8s your preference for the home
market as infinitely greater, more vGlua'
BILE, more productive than the foreign
market.
The home market deals with over eight
thousand million dollars annually OF sgri'
cultural products and six thousand mil.
lion OF manufactures, while the foreign
market deals with only fifteen hundred
million dollars OF exports and imports an
nually, and moro than half OF these arc
home products. This is not all; every
part OF the capital and labor employed in
the productions OF the home market is
AMERICAN LABOR AND CAPITAL.
These productions are by American
farmers and workshops and they are trans
ported on American railroads, steamboat.
and wagons. They are exchanged fol
each other by American merchants
tradssmen and middlemen, and more thar
ninety per cent Of them Is consumed BY
the American people. It ia the homt
market that gives employment, life
strength, health, wealth and comfort to
the people OF the United States. 1t is thiI
home market that, take it, you wish tc
foster, protect and diversify.
On the other hand, our foreign msrke
is conducted entirely by foreigners. Near
" one.halt OF 1t Is in foreign products
made by foreign labor, largely by people
whose daily wages would not buy thl
food, saying nothing about clothing ant
shelter, that ia consumed by the American
workingmen; and yet the price oil sill foot
is Contessedly cheaper here than in Eu
rope. These products are transported IL
foreign vessels; they are consigned mHin
ly to foreign agents as a device to securt
undervaluation, and, to large extent, ar
consumed as articles Of luxury and orna
ment. The aggregate Of imported good
in the highest years Of importation iS les
than six. per cent OF home products. Nor
than one.third Of this, the great body tha
enters into the consumption Of our peopl,
is free OF duty, and the rost is only chRrg
cd such reasonable duties as will inCitl
home competition without destroying
home industries.
As 10 our exports, mostly Of food, whel
they lesve our shores they are carried II
foreign vessels, and are only taken to sup
ply absolute wants. They are taken b.
our European neighbors as We tske sugu
from the Weet Indies, and coffee iron
Brazil; because they must have them. al
the while thay arc trying to get Cheape
wheat from India and Russia, and Cottor
from Egypt. Even what they do take II
the way oi food Ia lees than seven per cen
Of our production, while the home marke
consumes the balances.