Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-07-05
The Home Market.

gtuuSly increased during the present hlgn
tariff period And this in spite of the
faci that the country has been growing
older. its population increasing by the
natural process and by immigration and
its soil gradually growing poorer by
natural exhaustion.
1t is true that within very recent years
the tide has turned. and our farmers are
not exporting so much rs before But aside
from the fact that the decline is still far
from independence of that market, its
causes are nothing to eXult over, but
rather bode i'll TO the farmers. 1t is
not because we are getting independent OF
the foreigners but bccau,e they are get
ting independent of us. They have found
other sources of supply. Hearing us
boast of our success in protecting our
manufactures. they have concluded 10
try the plan Of protecting on: farmers.
In one way and another they are giving
us the shake.
And so, after suffering one evil added
10 another, this last punishment has been
visited upon our farmers for their folly
in supporting tariff which robbed them
aud their children TO build up the in
dustries of other people. Is tunmeritedg
At this point comes forward the mo
nopolist, with his pocket full of tribute
wrung from the farmer. and says: I'VE
haven't robbed you. You are getting
your manufactured goods cheaper than
you did before you gave us this protec'
ton"
But not as much cheaper rs you arc
getting mine" the farmer might retort.
You promised that if would vote for
your scheme you would give me your
,N,nJ,,ae. oh nd ~. hiuhar
prices for mine. That was safe prom
ise because one of the very earliest dis.
coveries in the science of political ecOno.
my was that the strong natural tendency
of mill products is to decline and of farm
products To rise in price as civilization
advances and the world fills no with PEG.
pie. Instead of that my selling prices
have declined faster than yours in many
cases. And now you won't give me a
cent more for my stuff than the foreigner
will, both of YOU paying the freight. and
you won't sell me your goods nearly as
cheap as he will. q"
The claim Of the tariff monopolist that
his policy is what has cheapened goods is
the browning impudence Of grasping hui
mainly. 1t is not exactly theft. but il
is bold rape of credit that belongs to
ization The farmer himself, by furnish
ing cheap raw material, has contributed
good deal toward it. Still more has
been done by the railroads, which carry
these materials to the factory for less than
q twelfth part of what it would cost by
team and wagon.
Another part is due to the inventors.
who have usually been rather poorly paid
by the monopolIsts who have Ieaped the
rewards of their brain labor. These
causes account for nearly all the cheap
ening of the factory prices Of things, and
the wonder to me is that they haven't
cheapened them still more. We all know
they have chcapened them more in Eng.
land than here, and the protcctionist who
denies it is the first to prove it by filling
his trunk with cheap English goods when
he crosses the ocean, and the most cum
ming in smuggling them through the Gus.
tom house when he gets back.
a large part of the reduction in retail
prices is due again to the railroads; TO the
natural growth of capital, which has to
put up with smaller profits; to the enter
prise and improved methods Of the job.
bers and retailers; TO the bankers. who
have facilitated exchanges and helped
nightly to systcmatise trade; to a stead.
Ter money system, free from wildcat
issues, and TO the increased general intel
ligence of buyers, who know a good
thing when they see it.
Now, with all these causes operating,
and the railroads alone employing nearly
three times as much capital as all the
protected and unprotected manufacturing
and mechanical pursuits put together, |
cannot conceive of anything more mon.
strorsly absurd, or requiring more un
blushing assurance on the part of him
who utters it. than the assertion that the
tariff has chrapened manufactures in this
country. The fact on which this cheeky
claim is based is that the tariff has not
quite robbed us of all the benefits OF
thirty years of civilization which is ri g..
in Europe as here, and is spreading
over the world. In every department Of
industry the civilized world over labor
saving devices have chcapened the good
things Of life. Is any American crazy
enough 10 say that this printed copy of
The Herald isl protected product2 And
yet what IN incredible miracle of cheap.
ness it is as compared with similar pro.
ducts thirty or forty years ago.
And think how long this cheapening
process has been going on; hundreds and
hundreds of years; and yet because they
didn't stop it and keep it stopped for
nearly whole generation the protected
monopolists claim that they organized it.
Was there ever holder appropriation,
for a wickeder purpose, of credit due to
other men?
Why, they would by this time have
quite tleeced us into bankruptcy but for
their foreign competitors, who, in spite of
the tariff, have crowded them all the
time in their own markets. Those wick.
ed foreigners. who are not only wicked
but poor and ignorant. saved our country
from universal bankruptcy in 1882 by
increasing their purchases of our farm
stuff Ia the extent of a couple of billion
dollars or SO, paying us the top OF the
market for them. and by selling us their
own wares cheaply they have kept our
monOpolsts down to the limit of the
tariff, and kept them bowling around
Congress for more protection, at the very
same time when those monopolists were
sending agents up and down the country
proclaiming that it owes all its prosperity,
all its good markets for bread. meat and
cotton. and all its cheapenlng of manu-
r. ~