Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1888-08-31
HOW PROTECTION BENEFITS
FARMERS AND MECHANICS.

manufactured goods at low prices, the
condition % American farmers and OF
: other labOrerS was one OF great hardship
, and many privations. The following bit
of personal history in the life OF A. IL.
Wrenn OF Mount Gilead, Ohio shows
some of the results which followed a gen
eral dependence on foreign workshop 30
years ago
In lss9 my fathers family emgratcd
from Alexandria, Virginia, and settled
near Salem, Columbiana county, Ohio. y
large portion of the inhabitants were thrifty,
hospitabe Qualers. Let us take a view
Of the prices of articles in those days The
farmer would sell, when he could, wheat at
81 cents; corn and rye, IL TO 20 cents pota-
toes and oats, 10 cents per bushel; apples
and peaches he would give away; eggs, 8
cents per dozen; butter, ; cents per pound !;
pork and beef, cents per pound; hay, 50
10 - per ton; cows, - 10 $40; oxen, per
yoke, $50 10 $50; good horses, $50 TO $50;
sheep averaged about 81 wool 20 TO -
cents per pound. The above were the usual
prices for several years, except when the
scarcity Of some article caused higher
prices. Farm and other laboring hands,
81 10 $40 per month and board; in harvest "a
little higher. The writer cut many an acre
of wheat at - cents; cut and split rails at
40 cents per hundred; cut wood at 20 10 -
cents per cord. II any OF us youngsters
happened 10 be qualified 10 teach school in
the little log cabins, and put in our full
time, we thought we were doing well 10
get Sl2 per month; mechanics Of different
| kinds got 80 cents To 81 per day. We had
generally 10 be on hand before sunrise.
Money was very scarce article in those
days
Let US look ~ what we had TO pay for ar
tices bought from the merchants. Tea,
and that not the best, e. To 81 80 per pound.
! The writer once took three bushels OF
wheat and traded if for half-pound of not
very good tea. Coffee, 35 To 80 cents; pep
per and spice, 90 cents; satinets, az all suit
able for IA decent suit OF clothes, from 81 10
8 per yard and those who could afford the
luxury Of broadcloth paid from 8 to s. per
yard for none OF the best; salt, - per bar
rel; shifting, 25 TO 40 cents; calico, 80 to A.
cents; all dress goods in the same ratio.
The following is an extract from a
speech delivered at Great Falls, New
Hampshire, February 81, 1872, by Henry
| Wilson. afterwards vice president OF the
| United States:
The first month | worked after was 81
years OF age | went into the woods, drove
| team. cut mill logs, wood, rose in the morn
ing before daylight and worked hard until
after dark at night, and i received for il
| the magnificent sum of six dollars. Each
OF those dollars looked as large 10 me as the
moon looked tonight.
On the farm on which served an appren-
I
put scythe ia the grass working for from
fifty cents 20 four shillings "A day in the
longest days Of summer. Yesterday ] Wis
tied that farm. / asked the men who were
there what they paid men in haying time
last summer, and they said from two dol.
lars 70 two and "a hall day This was paid
on the same S-olhd where men worried
forty years ago for from fifty cents TO four
shillings, and took their pay in farm pro-
ducts, not money. | have seen some of the
brightest women go into the farm houses
and work for from fifty cents 10 four shil-
linCs week, milking the cows, making
butter and cheese, washing, spinning and
weavins-doing all kinds of hard work. |
was told yesterday that many young women
were earning in the shops dollar a day,
and that those who worked in houses were
getting from two dollars aud half week
10 three dollars and "A hsf
Hon. Thomas Ewing of Ohio in speech
delivered in the United States senate In
February, 1872, male the graphic state
ment given below concerning the hard
ships Of the American farmer before pro-
lection had built up manufacture, lip our
western states!
In short, every portion of the world was
searched by our intelligent merchants, and
all combined did not furnish market ade-
quate 10 our surplus productions. Every
farmer in Ohio long knew and felt the
pressure consequent upon this state OF
things Year after year their stacks o.
wheat stood unthreshed, scarcely worth
the manual labor OF separating the grain
from the straw. so low was II reduced, ia
comparison with manufactured articles,
that have knQyn t2rty bushels OF wheat
given Tor q PAIR OF boots, such was the
state Of things in the western country prior
Ia and at the time of the revision Of the tar
III il 1874. . Our manufactures
were aunihilated: our home market was
thus cGt of.
The foil, wing notice of the GOOD old
times in Illinois, when there we no
manufactures and no railroads in the state,
occurs in bioyra .hical sketch Of General
u. -. Cotton OF San Francisco, who in
1856, while q Toy, became a resident OF
Galesburg, Illinois. The sketch appeared
In tie San Francisco News Letter;
Gaiesburg was then a wilderness. Black
Hawk had Just been driven west of the
Mississippi In short and decisive campaign
in which Winfield Scott was general and
Abraham Lincoln a private soldier Bat
the country was rough and new, and
normal condition OF the inhabitants thai
Wrctched poverty in all things save that "a
mere food OF that they had enough How
poor were the people OF the northwest from
1887 TO 1850 no one but an eye witness can
conceive. The present prosperity OF that
Il
| false impression Of It's former condition. II
was in the days Of almost unrestricted free
! trade when the corn had u BE- carried 20 Liv-
erpool and mat 7Gcturcd goods brought from
! Manchester, and all at the farmers expense
Corn they had plenty Of, and they could eat
! it; therefore they were not hungry. They
| could also burn il for fuel, and 40 kept them
| selves warm enough in winter, but there
| its use practically ended. To export il was
! worth five cents the bushel, and all the
! bushels any farmer could raise would bring
but small quantity Of goods from Man
| chester.
A well-known Michigan citizen recently
! gave a little OF his experience OF the good
old times" OF fifty years ago. He lived
where Burr oak noT stands, and, wanting
10 get some barrels Of salt, he put thirty
bushels of wheat I'm his wagon and started
for Adrian, eighty IA les away. AS he
could not get cash there he went on TO
Palmyra mills and sold his wheat for fifty
cents bushel. Going back ~ Adrian he
paid SO for two barrels OF salt, and got
back to Burr oak after being five days
gone. being delayed by the exec-a ie
roads.