The Portland daily press., 1888-03-20

there may be can temporarily be disposed Of
Dy the purchase Of government bonds. They
are worth as high premium to the govern
ment as to the holder. They may be sold, If
needed, or held until due. II the legal OBJ
| lection really exists Congress will remove it
| III the administration desire It, It can plain
ly be seen that there has been no contrac-
ton Of the currency incident to the tariff,
for August /, 1887, there were in the banks
and the hands Of the people, 81 ,33O, ,5S3, ,O24,
against 81, ,253, ,075, ,S41, JULY 1, 1886, an expan
sion in the circulation of S77 900; and the
net increase of the treasury holdings during
the same 13 months, was S149,708.
They say our ships have been swept from
the seas BY our protective tariff. Yet every
article entering into their CONSTRUCTION Is ad-
mitted free of duty or rebated. The tariff Is
not responsible for the decline Of our foreign
shipping. We have not protected 1t, nor
fostered 1t, but let 1t alone, and we see the
result. Our coastwise navigation would go
the same way II not protected by our laws:
There were carried from our ports last
year Q887) exports to the value OF S1O5,OoO,-
900, and brought into our ports from foreign
lands merchandise to the value OF S692, 2,O0O,-
600, making the value Of exports and im-
ports 81 .395. 600 600, at an experse for freight
of about S150,000,000, the greater Part oil
which went into the bank accounts OF for
eigners. During the last eight years our ex-
ports have exceeded our imports by $780,
100000. That entire sum has gone for freight
foreign commerce Is not enriehing us.
While we deprecate the decline OF our
navigation, yet our agriculture, our manu-
factures and our domestic commerce Is In
comparably Of more Importance. We must
not expect to rival Great Britain In the car
rying trade. Her farms are in India, In
Australia, in South Africa and Canada. She
does what her situation compels her to do.
She manufactures and distributes the pro-
ducts Of her long practised skill acquired
uudar a rff int al fbn
markets Of the world where she can gain
admittance. She wants to get into our
market.
The time was when she sold her raw
material to the Dutch and bought her manu-
factures Of that thrifty people, until IL be-
came by-ward, that ''the English sold the
hide OF an OK 10 ra sixpence, and bought
back the tail for shilling"
Protection, and her vast colonial markets
enabled her to adopt her present policy since
capital, labor and skill enable her to keep
out of her home markets manufactures to
such an extent that only per cent Of her
imports are manufactured goods. Why
should she not say to the peoples Of the
world. We will admit your raw material free.
We will buy your OK hide for a sixpence and
sell you the tail for shilling
The sugar trust has no place In tariff dis
cussion. The government should strangle
by Imprisonment, by forfeiture and by tine
lut sugar LIuobs anu ali OLlCA bAuobo WulCu
are combinations Of persons entered into
for the purpose Of affecting the prices OF
commodities.
They say that labor is not protected un-
der our tariff. If this charge is true the tar
i'll is a bad law, and ought to be repealed at
once. George Washington did not think so,
when he signed the designedly protective
tariff bill which the first Congress passed
Alexander Hamilton did not take that view
Of it. Thomas Jefferson, the only really very
great Democrat America has ever produced,
did not arrive at that conclusion. That great
authority Henry Clay did not argue so curl
ously. Nor did Webster have the intellect
to make the discovery.
The facts of business invalidate the free
trade theory at every step. Last year Q8SD
goods valued at S150,000,000. These goods
were paid for by our people at the rate of SO
per capita or about S15 for every family in
the country, every dollar OF which should
have gone into the pockets of American
labor, instead Of adding to the wealth Of the
capitalists Of the old world, who use 1t to
Cypress the labOring people and Overreach us
whenever we are foolish enough to let them.
If we find manufactured goods coming into
the country from foreign lands in any con-
siderable quantities, it Is legal notice to us
that the duty on those goods is too low. We
need not travel in Europe to inquire
whether the laborer there who made those
goods, Is well paid or i'll, whether
he is well fed and housed or not; the, COM
parison between the condition Of our labor
ers and theirs matters not. The goods have
arrived, and the fact that less American
goods Of their kind will be sold is here. The
fact that less American labor will be re-
quired in producing such goods Is here. We
need not go abroad to learn the condition Of
foreign laborers. We can learn it here;
500,O 600 Of them flee from the lower pay and
greater hardships Of their country and land
upon our shores, and we forbid them not.
We clothe them anew and put courage into
their hearts, and get them to work the next
day after their arrival. Their labor COM
petes with our labor, and we complain not.
Shall we also surrender into the hands Of
their oppressors, who drove them to our
shores, the labor of production which we
both need to do and are able to do ?'