Saint Mary's beacon., 1888-04-12

tiles estimate the steam and water
power Of America equivalent to the
labor Of thousand million men. Our
laborers are not therefore confined to
the number Of seventeen millions re
TUNED by the census; but for energy,
force and productive power they
number q thousand and seventeen
millions Of men, a number greater
than dwell in the hives OF India and
the East. These, with our vast and
virgin resources, are the conditions
which render production 50 cheap in
America.
II it be true that protection OF itself
protects the laboring man and gives
him higher wages, why does he find it
necessary under the operation Of such
laws to enter into labor considerations
and unious--to go upon strikes-to
remain almost half Of every year an
idler? 1t is not true that tariff taxa
ton is blessing to him who learns
his bread in the sweat Of his brow =
instead, it hangs as dead weight, a
mill stone, about his neck.
AS last argument, the protection
ist, to reconcile the people to payment
Of tribute to industrial enterprises
proclaims that protection benefits the
American people as whole, because
it gives to them cheaper produce than
they otherwise would have, and in
this way evens up the injustice that
seems apparent at first blush.
HORACE GREELY's OPINION.
Horace Greedy, lifelong and con.
sistent protectionist, declared years
since that If protective tariff did
not cheaper produce it was a curse
and crime. Every protectionist now
AYERS that it has materially chsarened
produce, and that the prices Of many
things are lower now than thirty years
ago they aver il proof Of it. The
householder is asked by the protec-
ZIONIST to look about him and comTar
prices now with those of the period
from 1850 to 1860 under low tariff
and then explain how all this he sees
with his own eyes can be true If the
assertion of the free-trade dreamers
be not utterly false. In the same Vein
he declares that protection has cheap
ened consumption of every kind; for
example: steel rails, which few years
ago sold for $3.50 per ton now sell for
less than $40, and so on, and that
"at the expense of a temporary in
crease in prices, permanent cheapnvss
and industrial independence has been
secured"
Just at this point We would remind
the protectionist that free traders from
1916 to 1860 used precisely the same
arguments to advance their cause
that he now uses as to the cheapneas
of production through the effect o.
! comparative free trade. They truth.
fully said that the Walker free trade
tariff of 1916 had cheapened proluc,
ton and prices everyw here, aLd il
proof of il asked ''the people to look a.
bout them and see" The effect Of the
comparative free trade tariff OF 1916
was so beneficial that Mr.. Blaine him,
self admits that it converted even the
protectionists themselves 10 the doc.
trine of free trade. The protective tar.
itf of 1913 forced prices up. The com.
parative free trade tariff in lS4G
forced them down. The Morrill, pro
tective tariff Of 1861 forced them W
again. Ii it was not the expectation
that a tariff would force prices q
goods consumed up, where is the pro
tectlonist who would 20 to the expense
of keeping lobby at Washington tc
maintain intact the high protective
system? Certainly he would not do SC
if he believed it would force price!
down"
Improved methods of production
will cheaper product under any sys.
tenn. aud when through such improve
ment prices are forced down, it is no
because Of protection but in spite o
protection. The first steel rails mad,
cost more than a thousand dollars 1
ton. Improvement in the method O
making them brought the price dowl
to Sl60, and at that figure they begar
TO enter general use. Our tariff o
SIS per ton kept them that mac!
higher here all the time than the,
would have been, though improve,
methods of production chsapenet
them constantly. The chsapenin!
/ process went on faster in England un
der free trade than here under pro
lection, and as a result foreign fre.
trade forced prices here down 50 that
it was despite the tariff of SIS a ton
it WAS impossible to keep the price over
SIS, plus freights, higher than it va.
in England. And though the mill.
1 pooled and combined here, and made
every attempt possible to hold the
price Of rails at SlO0 per ton, even
going SO far as to hire many mills to
shut down, it was Of no avail. When
IN the open market under free trade,
they fell to $50 per ton, the English.
man paid his S2S tariff and s. freight,
and sold IN our markets for SSl, and
no combination here could keep our
domestic made rails above that figure
or If It did, It gave the foreigners the
market.
TRICKS or THE NoN.roLIsTs.
When steel rails were made for S2S
per ton under free trade, the foreigner
paid his ST. duty-the duty had been