Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-10-05

DG Shft III I6NbS VI kAok S0iIc AAeooS&n W
commerce with the nations Of the earth
which exists among the sovereign states Of
thi. union; freedom of s-sds which has
made the newest states and the oldest, The
richest states and the poorest, the smalles,
and the largest, prosper alike together
which has brought the infant manufactures
Of Wisconsin, started within my lifetime,
into successful competition with those Of
New England and the east, many Of which
have been established over half century,
and have millions of dollars Of accumulated
wealth back of them; which has prospered
the new manufactures of the west equally
with those of the east, even with wide differ
ences in the price of labor; differences
which, when found existing between labor in
this and labor in other countries, prevents
our manufactures from competing with
foreign manufactured goods. 1t is free
trade between the states that has made them
prosper, and which has covered the great
lakes with large and constantly increasing
commerce. If | were defending the prin-
ciple of free trade l could point to the
wonderful effects of our reciprocity treaty
with the Sandwich Islands which gave US
free trade with those islands, and which in
ten years time caused our trade with them
to rise fromSl 500 900 in value to over $l2 0OO,
OOO. l could point to the removal of the duty
on quinine which doubled the production of
that drug in short time and lowered the
price three-fourths; of the removal of the
duty on hides and coffee largely imported
trade with that country fourfold in few
years, and yet in no wise diminished the
prosperity of our cattle raisers, who have
covered the western prairies with countless
herds during the last fifteen years. If
were talking free trade might suggest that
there was something wrong with a system
that has driven our ships from the high seas,
in consequence of which we pay out to the
seamen of other lands over 800, 900 600 per
annum for doing our foreign carrying trade.
To the men who have dared to find fault
with this protection deity, it looks inconsist-
ent that we should be perfectly willing to pay
out over 800, 0O0, 600 every year to the "pau-
per seamen" of other lands for transporting
our commerce. and not be willing to pay a
dollar to ''foreign pauper labor" for produc-
ing the necessaries of life for us.
But the chief grounds of defense of the
present tariff are, that it protects the Ameri-
can laborer from the cheaper labor of Europe,
and that it gives to the American farmer a
home market. The truth is that it utterly
fails to do either one of these things. 1t has
never for one hour protected the American
laborer. On the contrary, the price of nearly
everything he buys is increased by the tariff,
and yet he completes directly with the tens of
thousands of foreign lab Jrers who come here
every year. Ii there was ever a lying trick
and juggle that deserved unsparing exposure,
it is this pretense that American labor is pro-
tected from the competition of cheap foreign
labor by means of the taxes that are placed
on the products of such foreign labor when
produced abroad. The large majority Of
men who live by manual labor in this
country do not work in industries that
are protected. / refer to the millions
who build and work upon railroads
and upon our streets and public improve
ments; to our masons, plasterers, black
smiths, carpenters, household servants and
farm laborers. If all this vast army is pro-
tected at all, it is by means of some magic in
The tariff, which, by protecting from foreign
competiti IN and products of one mans skill
and toll, protects ten other men. If any
proof were needed of the absurdity of this
theory, other than what it carries on its face,
such proof can he found in the evidence given
before the emigration commission recently III
session in New York. Laboring men in
different trades came before that commission
of foreign laborers during the last few
years wages have fallen from 20 to 60 per
cent The president of a labor society in
Pennsylvania testified that wages in the coal
mines in his state had fallen so per cent in q
few years, owing to the large number Of
foreign laborers who had come over in re-
Spouse to the advertisements of the coal
barons in foreign papers, and there was no
corresponding decrease in the price Of coal.
The fact is the American employer of labor
buys labor duty free in an open and unpro-
tected market, where laboring men from all
parts of the earth come in by the shipload
and compete with each other and with those
already here.
1t only needs little of the manufaC aurer's
logic to determine this question. These pro-
tected classes so highly favored by our bene-
fcent tariff, tell US that they cannot allow
Americans to buy cheap goods abroad and
bring them into this country unta1ed, be
cause their products cannot survive this COM
petition. On the other hand the laborer,
while he sees the employer in protected in
dustries who employ not one-tenth Of the la
Dor of the country, sheltered from competi-
ton by the tariff wall, finds himself obliged
to sell the only commodity he has to sell-his
labor, in a market where men from every
land on earth are jostling him in the rush for
work. So great is this competition among
the unprotected laboring men in this coun-
try, that there are ,0O0, 900 men out OF
work all the time according to Mr.. Powderly
With these facts before them how long can
the laboring men be gulled by the theories
and distractions of the high tariff advocatesi
But it is the labor that tlls the soil that
has been the special pack horse Of this high
tariff iniquity, and l am sorry to say that
the farmer in many parts of the country
still patiently bears the illusion that it gives
him home market for his products. The
quack nostrum of protection is sugar coated