Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-06-06
More rar,f Talk.

up by the small-bore politicians and is
passed along the line from Posey to
Tom McNeal and the mass of the party
that has become so used to following
their file leaders and believing whatever
is constantly dinned into their ears be-
gin by believing it without questioning
the facts, which are all assumed with
out any proof or reason. Mistaking the
zeal of these self appointed leaders to
get for themselves share of the offal
of Office. for sincere desire to benefit
the laboring class, and unfortunately,
too many of the laborers take this
hypocritical cant fol wisdom and
craftsmanship.
They tell you that you owe all your
prosperity to this Blessed tariff; that
without this blessed tariff it will be
vain for you to work long hours or exer-
else care, wisdom and economy. Skill,
industry and foresight are good for
nothing without this blessed, blessed,
tariff according to them. 1t is the
source of all good things; from it flows
all wealth, peace. plenty, wages, cloth
ing and everything the human soul may
desire. Without it will come disaster,
poverty, tramps, beggars, strikes, lock-
outs, riots. mortgages and Indebtedness
of all kinds and finally national death
and night and chaos.
Our wOrking-men with haggard looks
and starving wives and children would
be bowling for bread; no more would
The farmer plant his land or SOW his
seeds; the cows would refuse to have
calves, the mares to have foals, the sows
TO have pigs; wool would refuse to grow
on the back of the sheep; no more
would the carpenter, the mason, the
smith, the weaver, the tailor go forth
to his daily toll, but all would sit and
ring their hands and implore God in his
wisdom again to send down from heav-
en- an omnipotcnt tariff
And yet, there was a day when we
had no tariff at all, and we prospered;
yes prospered and grew with tariff in
every nation on earth against it.
With our products shut out from
every country in the world, with all
kinds of English goods allowed to pour
in, and yet 1T is fact that they actually
grew and prospered more rapidly under
that system following for the smallness
of immigration than they ever did
under high tariff.
1t is hard to believe, but yetit is true,
that America had no tariff until 1885,
They got little tariff then, about five
per center, just to get little revenue to
run the government. Those old fellows
| did not go much on protection; they
knew what it meant; they had been
living under the fastening and protect
I've care of Great Britain: they knew
what it meant and they wanted free
trade aud sailors rights. And yet they
prospered under this little tariff for
revenue and still Judge Howe, c. l..
Long and Tom McNeal and the whole
pack of political quacks will tell you
that the only thing that will save the
country from bankruptcy and ruin is
20 build custom houses and revenue
cutters and raise protective wall
around the land.
notwithstanding the fact that the
American people, land when L say the
American people l do not mean the
Andrew Carnegies and such vandals
and mllliOnaires, but the people, the
whole people, farmers and ALL were
more prosperous from 1889 to 1908 than
any time since, with the exception of
the period between 1916 and 1860.
When, in 1916 the tariff was reduced
about one-third, the IRON manufacture
was never so great as it was in the
first two years under that reduction; it
never increased so rapidly as it did
after the duty was cut down, and what
is more, it went on with healthy de-
velopment until 1860, Notwithstanding
we had the most wretched monetary
system that ever was adopted by any
government-the old state banking sys-
tenn that was enough to bring ruin to
any people on the face of the earth; and
under all this, under the lowest duty
since 1916, the manufacture of iron in
this country increased rapidly and there
was less English iron imported into this
country than before or since.
Why, do you know that the tariff of
1916 cut down the duty on many articles
from forty to fifty per cent? Did the
mills all shut DOWN. Did the fires all
die out? Did cob webs grow over the
furnace doors? Were the laborers all
thrown out Of employment? No, sir.
Read the books of the protectionists;
read Henry Casey's book and he says
| that the manufacture of iron increas-
ed fifty per cent. and it went on with a
a healthy development until 1850, under
the lowest rates OF duty that had been
known in the history OF the country
since 1915, and we only imported one
fourteenth of the iron we consumed :
whereas in 1880 we imported about one
fifth. In other words, about three times
as much under high tariff as under free
trade. Yes, and wages rose mnTe ran
idly than they had done for thirty wears
before and the rise was constant
steady and unbroken except for six
months in tho autumn of 1857 and be-
ginning of 1853 and the reason was the
same that threatens US as the present
time: A contraction of the currency
for then, as now, there was, for the
times, an enormous surplus In the
treasury, Wages had risen from S247
per annum, in 1850, to $3.50 in 1860, that
IS S42 in ten years. And now mark
this: If wages had gone on increasing
in that ratio, they would have been just
$50 higher in 1880 than they were; and
yet these pot-house politicians will have
the cheek to tell US that projection