Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-04-12
TARIFF AND LABOR.
Hon. Joseph 4. Manley and Hon.
5. W. Matthews
Address Augusta Young Republicans Up
on GreIt POlitic'l Questions.
Two Able. Eloquent, Practical and In
structive Speeches. Abstracts OF
Which are Given.

Notwithstanding the inclemency of the
weather last evening large number were
present at the Young Mems Republican
club room at Novelty Hall, for the purpose
of listening to the vigorous and eloquent re-
marks of the speakers who were to address.
the meeting Hon. Joseph H. Manley was
introduced by Chairman Southland as the
first speaker Of the evening.
Mr.. Manley commenced his speech by a
graphic description of the country, showing
its vast wealth, its unrivalled resources and
its great development in every direction
especially its growth during the past twenty
five years. He compared the condition Of
the United States not only with the condition
of the Free Trade countries of the old World
but he compared our history under a pro-
tectiye tariff with those periods of our history
when the tariff was so reduced as not to af-
ford protection. His descriptions of the
agricultural, manufacturing and mining in
terests of this country were full of illustra-
ton and replete with facts. Mr.. Manley
| argued that protection built up the great in
dustries of the country which were absolutely
necessary to its development, reducing the
cost of he article to the consumer and in
creasing the price paid for wages. He
showed conclusively, by illustration after il
lustration, referring particularly to the great
silk industry, the carpet industry, the iron
and steel trade, cotton AID wooden manufac-
lures, that these interests had all been built
up in this country by wise system of pro-
lection; that the cost of the articles produced
had been constantly lowered to the consum-
er, and that wages had increased and were
much higher here than in any country in the
world.
In referring to the course of Great Britain
in regard to this question, Mr.. Marley said :
The island of Great Britain is particularly
fitted for manufacturing country. England
by long supremacy upon the seas, has ships
sailing in every port, carrying out the manu-
featured articles and returning crude mate
rails, because Great Britain herself contains
but comparatively small amount of raw
materials necessary for manufactufi g. But
Great Britain built up its manufactures by a
policy of protection, which 1t adhered to for
more than five hundred years. and only aban-
Toned it in 1916. after she believed she had
become the greatest manufacturing country
Of the world; and she assumed this policy
b cause she must have market for the sur
p US of her manufactures. She adhered to
The doctrine of protection for her own indus
tries and introduced the free trade system by
Commercial treaties wherever she could with
weaker powers and foo Is to-day the markets
of Portugal. Spain, Turkey and Egypt with
her cheaply made goods to the total destruc-
ton of the native industries of these coun-
lries. Her own colony, lying along our Dor
lers. under the system of free trade was
simply scattered provinces without any unity
left to decay and impoverishment. Rejecting
the heresy of the theory of their mother
country, under the lead of Sir John Mac Don
aid, the provinces formed a dominion, eslab-
hshed upon the theory of protection, and the
dominion of Canada at once moved to the
forefront. and strides of advancement and
improvement are seen upon every hand.
England is to-day losing her power and pres
tige. for many reasons; first. because of her
absolute denial of Home Rule to the people
of ireland, and because of her adherence To
free trade, thus degrading and pauperiziug the
labor of her own people,
To-day she is not the largest manufacturing
country in the world, aud her supremacy on
the sea is only maintIned by the most liberal
and Z ,nerons subsidies ard bouuties to all her
lines of steamers. Surely if we woul see the
benefit arising from a government founded
upon the theory of f ee trade, Ireland ought
10 furnish an example. But under the bened
cent iutiu nee of English free ira lie, the man
ufaciores aud the fisheries of Ireland have
been bestowed. and Ireland. although pos
sessng the hes, harhors in the world has no
shipping and her rich soil does not raise
sufficient product to pay the rents upon her
farms.
In her different colonies and on her own
island are over three hundred millions of
people-barbarous half civilized and civilized
with whom she has her way in all trade
matters She supplies the Egyptian. who
works in the field for fifteen cents a day,
her manufactured articles, and takes in eX-
change breadstuhs; she supplies the people
of India whose daily toll is rewarde | y eigl t
cents day, with her manufactured articles,
and receives the agricultural products of that
country in return, fixing her own price upon
her own wares England Free Trade flag
i floating over about one-Scventh of the en-
tire surface of the earth, not covered by
water, and you cannot find a single province
of Great Brtain's that has not thrown off the
incubus of Free Trade, but that the people
of that d ovince are cursed with misery
starvation and famine. The official r. cord
of the Register General of Great Britain,
shows that as late as 1850 about one seventh
of Great B it in's popuat on en- their days
as paupers. and the cost of maintaining ITS
paupers is eighty-two millions per annum.
l. il any wonder that no nation except Eng
land has ever thoroughly engrafted as its
policy the doctrine Of Free Trade?
In referring to the wooden industry, and
the clamor of the free trader that the cost of
WOODEN goods is increased by a protective
tariff. Mr. Manley said If we had Free
Trade il might be for short time that some
cla.s s of WOODEN goods could be sold cheaper,
but after our manufactures were broken and
crippled and destroyed, the price of the
foreign manufactured article would go up,
and no person would be the winner, while
Thousands of our citizens would be the losers
ON the other hand it is denied by those who
are familiar with every fact connected with
the history of the manufacture of WOODEN
goods. that the great bulk of WOODEN goods
can be purchased any cheaper IN any market
of the world than they can be purchased in
the United States to-day, taking into con-
sideraton the way in which they are made
am we'll aware that in some of the fashion
able tailoring establishments of this country,
the gentlemen who have aesthetic tastes and
A tendency to dule-ism. pay fabulous prices
for suits of clothes. am glad of it; if peo-
| pie desire to CRAFTY such tastes, let them pay
for il. somebody gets the benefit of it. But
| the great bulk of the American people who
are possessed with sound common sense ana
who only desire to be warmly and properly
and neatly clad, find no difficulty in procur-
ing WOODEN garments TO properly adorn the
body, neatly made. at prices as low as they
| ought 10 be purchased consistent with proper
price paid for the labor which enters INTO the
manufacture of the garments worn, and they
nurchase them at as low rate as goois OF
| ike quality can be purchased for in any OF
| the great markets of the world. TWAS Johu
Randolph of Roanoke, who is credited wltf
saving that he would go a mile out OF MS
way to kick sheep. Indicating not so muc'
~; ha,r,d IN the animal as his great oppo