The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-02-01
Of Maine. IN ths United
States Senate.
How One Of Mr.. Clevsland's Free-
Trade Friends Was Made q
Protectionist.
Democratic Incapacity the Cause Of
the Large Surplus Now In
the Treasury.


Mr. Frye made vigorous speech In the
Senate, on the 23d of January, on the issue
OF protection and free trade which the
President makes. In the course of it he
showed how Mr.. Charles p. Kimball, Of
Chicago, Cleveland's Consul at Stuttgart,
Germany, has been converted by European
pauper labor to the doctrine Of protection.
MIR. Frye said: AT Stuttgart, an important
manufacturing point, there is an immense
corset factory, and the wages actually paid
werc not one-third of those in like con-
Germ in the United States. The entire
product was shipped to this country and
inyoiced at one-half its market price
The Hon. Charles p. Kimball, formerly
! Democratic candidate for. Governor of
Maine, received the appointment from Mr..
Cleveland to the consulship nj this city.
Three months after his arrival he wrote me:
Il came here free trader; am now high
protectionist. With present wages in Am
erica, the attempt to compete with these
! Germans is absurd. Why, the wages are
mere bagatelle. Our party should be
looking to an increase rather than de-
crease in duties l quote this letter from
memory, but the substance is correctly
given. Mr.. Kimball paid first-class
coachman marks (4S cents) day, and he
boarded himself. From careful inquiry
addressed to our consuls, TO gentlemen in
vestigating the labor problem, to employers
and employed, / am entirely satisfied that
the average annual earnings of able-bodied
men in Germany will not exceed S115, and
of women SS5, while the agricultural lab
orers and the women employed in out door
work earn still less" The following report
J 80 l1a AIo..< Iii
perusal
Mr.. Frye called up the motion to refer to
the Committee on Finance the Presidents
annual message and proceed to discuss the
message in which he said the President had
clearly thrown down the gauntlet of free
trade. There was an attempt, he admitted,
at disguise, but so feeble that il ought not
to deceive any one. The message had
been received with unbounded Joy in Great
Britain. And why not! England had
been seeking the American market for years
with persistency which never tagged, O
courage which never failed, faith never
hopeless, although for o quarter of Gen.
tury she had seen her aggressions met by
strong defenses. But now the President
Of the United States declared hat these de-
/ lenses were to be erased. The British
press had at once proceeded 10 self-con-
gratulations and to strip off mercilessly the
Presidents disguise. These congratula-
tions, he said, would have continued if q
voice of warning had not been heard. The
warning was that such English expression of
| opinion had to be curbed, or the full frui-
ton of English hopes never would be en-
! joyed. He quoted from the Pail Mall Ga
Sette to that effect. and said that immedi-
ately there had been transformation. The
free trade papers of Great Britain had
dropped, at once, their self congratulations,
and had proceeded to congratulate the
United States, and to prophesy unbounded
prosperity for this country. Great Britain
had seemed suddenly to recognize the fact
that this country was her daughter,
: and to evince her friendship and
affection. He declared emphatically that
England had never in one single in
stance evinced any sympathy for this
country, and that she never had per-
mitted an opportunity 10 injure this coun-
try to pass unimproved. He declared that
the counsel, the advice, the friendship of
Great Britain to any nation in commercial
matters had invariably and inevitably re-
suited in injury to the nation which had
accepted it. Ireland was au instance of
that. Andyet, said he, Great Britain hoped,
and the Democratic party expected, the
Irish votes next fall for Mr.. Cleveland as
the Democratic candidate for the Presi-
dency. Ono of the leading free trade
speakers in England had declared years
ago that the greatest triumph OF Great
Britain would be the subjugation of the
markets of the United States. In the
promise of the Presidents message they
could see that subjugation nigh at hand.
Great Britain to-day had her market open
10 the world, while other countries had
their markets partially closed to her. She
found now, within her own borders, the
fercest kind of competition aud her in
dustries were falling off. Her silk in
dustry, for instance, had been absolutely
destroyed. Fifteen years ago there were
$4,000 persons employed In the silk in
dustry In London, and o-day there we're
only 5000. Her cotton manufactures
were crippled, Germany and Belgium were
Selling her iron and steel industries, and
were already controlling one half of her
foreign trade in that line. Her agricul-
tural lands we're decreasing in value, and
from one third to one-half of her agricul-
tural laborers were out of employment,
while those who had employment only
earned from shilling to one and six
pence a day.
But England heard the President of the
| United States declare in his annual mes
sage that the tariff (the only obstacle to
English possession of the American mar
ket' was vicious, illogical, inc quitable, and
what wonder that the English people deaf
ened American ears with their cries of
"Hear, hear?" They saw him adopt as the
slogan of the Democratic party, for the
Presidential battle of 1885, the old fundl-
mental doctrine of free trade, that duty is
a tax paid by the consumer" What won-
der that they hailed Mr.. Cleveland as their
champion2 The saw him promise to open
to them participation in the American mar
ket, and they know that that participation
would start their hating looms and feed
their hungry, unemployed men and women.
What wonder that the approval of the
Presidents message went ringing over the
world?
But the attitude of the Democratic party
of this country was Of more importance
practically than the attitude of Great
Britain. Would the Democratic party of
the United States, he asked, indorse their
new chief? He was strongly inclined to
think that it would. He knew that men,
bers of that patty had been masquerading
for years as reformers, favoring tariff for
revenue only, with incidental protection, I"
or a tariff for revenue exclusively" and
that in manufacturing districts of New
Jersey and elsewhere they masqueraded as
mild-mannered protectionists.