Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-01-10
A-K,nd Word with Our reishbor

The Kennebec Journal sagely remarks |
that through all the period Of our railroad |
expansion rails have been dearer ann
freights cheaper than in ether countries
The inference the Journal seeks i that the
more rail- cost the cheaper freigilts become
redgetio I'D eJsurdam.- = Portland Argus.
Ouran-wer to our Free Trade contenpor-
airy shall he given in crystaiized facts.
The United States have nearly one half Of
the railroads Of the world. Much the
larger portion has been huilt since tho
enactment OF the Republican Morrill, tariff
Of Protection. During the past year this
country has laid more miles of railroad
track than all other nations united. This
enormous expansion Of the iron line at
travel and commerce has bo,n made ty
labor paid at American price>-far higher
than the cost Of European labor. TIE
iron and -icsl rails laid on the roads co-t
more than the European reads paid for
their iron and steel rails. Why did these
rails cost rhe American roads more than
the European roads paid for their rails:
The cost of tine rails az the factory was
mainly the labor. and the American work
men obtained the advantage Of this in
creased price Of labor. Thus allowing
that the labor Of building the roads and
the rails for the same cost more thaI they
do in Europe, what il the compensation
far more than counter,alaEcing this
Under the remarkable -timuiatiug force
of the Republican system If the Protective
tariff manufactures and all the varied in
tere-t- of business. have Increased in such
| colossal proportions Il. the world never
saw before. The result of this has been
the building Of towns an cities, manufac-
tories and narts, TO such degree that the
freight and passenger traffic on these rail-
roads have augmented SO enormously that
they have been enabled 10 make their rates
! low-much lower than they possibly could
have done but for the -tiin dating influence
Of Protection Ia creating owns, cities and
business along their lines and in all the
sections the roads tap and accommodate.
| Thus what extra the American roads pay
for their rails, and the increased price they
pay their conductors, engineers, firemen
and other laborers they employ, far more
than comes back to them in the vastly in
creased freight and travel they receive
under the American protective system.
We are entirely willing the Argus should
have the redactiy I'D absariaa to its hearts
content, but there stand the solid facts that
the protective system which gives good
| prices to the American labor in steel rails,
enables the owners of the railroads to fur
nish the public with cheaper freightS and To
| give their employees better pay. Whatever
doubles and trebles freight and passengers
on line Of railroads operates to reduce
the cost of the passenger ticket and the
ton OF freight. This truth is illustrated
in the familiar history of all the principal
railroads of this country.
| Plus the Argus may we'll understand
what the Free Trade professors, editors,
and agitators all seem to overlook-that
| the Free Trade doctrinaires abstractly
reach certain conclusions and then try to
make the facts confirm To theory, where
/ a. the American Protectioni-ts make their
theories confirm to the fact. Professor
James Russell Lowell and Professor VIM.
| 6. sumner may better un ierstand the
purity OF the litin--red~ctio NJ abSUrJum.
than Alexander Hamilton. Henry Clay
and Horace Greeley, but thc brain power
and practical common sense OF the latter
/ three tucriCln statesmen were vastly
superior to that of the two classic pro-
pounds avoirdupoi- of Grover Cleveland
throw II III A. adenda.