The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1888-07-01

TAings sAas Have Dses0s Cheap
sni rlensy - . Resalt ~ Fre-
teestsa.
Kingston Freemsn-
A lady Of Providence. r. l.. the wife
Of . retired admiral. furnishes the foi-
lowing statement 70 the Sew York
Press In regard 70 prices in the days Of
English free trade with the United
states:
Forty years ago, when xas young
lady, / remember what prices We had
20 pay for the things We wore and the
cloth We used. We paid 81 = yard for
French calico, and il was considered
then quite . dnessv article for young
ladies' 70 wear. too We bought Eng
fish cambria for rs cents yard. and
well remember that when We were
hemming our handkerchiefs we used 10
break our needles by the dozen there
was 20 much lime in the goods. But
We had 70 take what the English and
French would send us. and We had to
pay for il pretty much whatever they
were disposed 70 ask for IL II seems
10 me very strange that any one who
has lived long enough 10 he able to
compare those times with these should
be free trader.
Those were the days. also, when the
farmer had very little market for his
produce. II took twosiozen eggs or a
pound OF butter 70 buy pound Of su-
gar, and tea and coffee were too ex-
pensive TO be INDUCED ia by those who
had mortgages upon their farms. No
farmer kept larger supply Of sheep
than was necessary to supply the fami-
IL wool and mutton, for there was alb
solutely no market for wool. and there
are those who remember how the sur
plus was tied UP in bundles till the
next year and the extra sheep put to
death and eaten for the crime OF
loading their backs too heavily.
A dress coat was worn almost
a lifetime. and We can recall one we'll
TODD farmer whose blue coat with high
shoulders, broad collar and brass but
tons did service for his first wedding,
the funeral Of his first wife, and his
second wedding, the three events COW
ering q period Of twelve years. In
those days wheat brought seventy-fve
cents bushei, corn thirty cents and
oats twenty to twenty-five cents. the
sole market for the latter being the
canal
Those were the days OF free trade.
There were no great manufacturing
cities to consume the products of the
farm and the only salable crop was
wheat. which could be exported. Eng
land had monopoly OF our trade, and
there was no inaucement TO the cap
italist to invest in manufactures,
or 10 inventive genius to devise labor
saving machinery. Enterprise was
dead.
The change came when protective
tariff was put upon American proiuc-
ton. How great that change has bt-
come in forty years can be understood
by a comparison OF prices and condi-
tons. The common people of the
United States are iinmeasurably in adj
vance of their ancestors in everything
that pertains to prosperity and ciyiliz-
alton. Has the same progress been
made in free trade England? The
movement has been in the opposite
direction. The working people there
are poorer, more ignorant, more de-
based. and there is a larger proportion
living in alnlshouses, warehouses and
other charitable institutions than there
were forty wears ago. Is it any wonder
that one whose memory goes back
forty years should dread return OF
free trade and dependence once
more upon England for both our sup
plies and our markets?