Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-09-29
WHAT FREE TRADE dbl

Were times g00u before the war;
Read President Buchanan's Message
to Congress, dated Dec. 8, 1857:
"Our country in its monetary in.
terests is at the present moment in
a deplorable condition. In the midst
OF unsurpassed plenty in all the pio.
auctions and in all the elements of
natural wealth, we find our manu-.
features suspended, our public work
retarded, our private enterprises Of
different kinds abandoned, and
thousands of useful laborers thrown
ont Of employment and reduced to
want.n
In his message of Dec. 6, 1862,
President Fillmore said:
Our manufacturing establishments
are broken down by competition
with foreigners, the capital invested
in them is lost, thousands of honest
and industrious citizens are thrown
ont of employment, and the farmer
to that extent is deprived of home
market for the sale of his surplus
produce. The destruction of our
manufactures leaves the foreigner
without competition in our market,
aud he consequently raises the price
of the article sent here for sale, as
now seen in the increased cost of
iron imported from England.
After the repeal of the Tariff act
of 1912, and when the revenue free
trade) tariff of 1916 was in full force,
President Fillmore said,-Message
of Dec. 2, 1851 -
The value of exports of breadstufTs
and provisions, which it was suppos.
ed the incentive of a low tariff and
large importations from abroad
would have greatly augmented, has
fallen from SOS, ,921 in 1S47, to
s56,051 1913 in 1850, and to S21 ,SlS,.
653 in 1851, with a strong probabili.
ty, amounting almost to certainty,
Of still further reduction in the eur.
rent year. - The policy which
dictated low rate of duties on for.
eign merchandise, it was thought by
those who promoted and estab-
lished it, would tend to benefit the
farming population of this country
by increasing the demand and rails.
ing the price of agricultural products
in foreign markets. The foregoing
facts, however, seem to show lncon
testably that no such result has fol.
lowed the adoption this policy.
What use, then, for the Democrats
to talk about the markets of the
world 7" When they were open to
this country the American harvests
remained in the farmers barns I'M.
threshed.
Are we to invade England and
undersell her manufacturers Eng.
land has more than she wants now.
Her warehouses are full to overflow.
ing, her markets glutted, her factories
idle, her working people hungry.
You will not go to France, Germany
and Belgium, will youg 1t may seem
strange, but it is true that those
countries have now driven England
to the wall with the products OF their
cheap toll.
Will you so to Ireland for a mark
, etP Better go there for a warning.
The industries of Ireland were once
comparatively as prosperous as ours
are now. Now she has neither home
industries, home markets, nor home
rule. She was forced to cease man.
ufacturing and to purchase from
England, to accept British free trade,
to become the victim Of the English
system. The silk trade of her city
OF Dublin was once her glory; it has
ceased to be. The lace trade oil
Limerick and the wooden trade OF
Waterford and Cork sent the fame
of the Irish manufactures to all lands,
and all lands, save British lands,
mourn for the desoIation of Limerick,
of Waterford and Of Cork. The
blanket factories of far.famed Xii.
kenney once commanded the mark.
cts of the world, and now no market,
not one, knows them. England has
them all.
Will you go to Spain, Italy, Rus.
STA aud Indiaf Not there, / pray
you. God save the free people Of
this land from such competition,
from such degradation
| We can only reach those markets
| BY reducing our labor, not to the lev.
ell OF, but below the level of those
countries. And so it is with the
markets of the world that we find
out in the sea. We are different
from all other countries in habits,
institutions, inclinations, education,
resources and capabilities. The ma.
ton does not exist, the people do
not live to whom, with whom we can
be compared and found upon tho
same plane. BY the Protective sys.
tenn we have become the graudest
nation on earth, nation of free.
men, whose army of expert,
educated, liberty.loving toilers,
is the hope Of its future and the
pride of its civilization, and whose
60,000,000 citizens, monarchs all,
supreme in their happy homes, gov
erned by impartial laws, dread no
master, fear no king, and kneel to