Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-08-09


ducer have to pay more for wages and
for everything else they buy, than is paid
in other countries, and the man who
pays the 10 cents gets his full share of
these increased wages, and is able to pay
not only the extra 10 cents, but much
more, for he gets employment, and has
the money in his pocket with which to
pay. If the farmer gets more for his
cattle, he buys more of the manufactur-
er, which enables him to pay higher
wages, and in this way one helps the
other and they all prosper.
As a result of this policy this country
has grown with rapidity that has no
parallel in the worlds history. And if
policy like this has, during period of
nearly thirty years, given to this country
greater wealth, greater growth, and
greater prosperity than was ever given
to this or any other country in the same
time, it seems to me we ought to trem-
bic at the thought of such signal change
as is now proposed. Our protective sys-
TEN has made us the greatest producer
of agricultural and manufactured pro-
duets in the world. Our national credit
and financial standing are not excelled,
if equaled, by any people on the globe.
The masses of the people are better
housed and clothed and fed and educat-
ed than the people of any other country
beneath the circle of the sun. They
have more money, use more, handle
more, and spend more than any other
people who live. move or have a being.
hope, Mr.. Chairman, that the ques-
tion is now satisfactorily answered.
The gentleman from Massachusetts
also said that he lost five times as much
| in his business twenty-five Years ago as
he does nOw This is another result of
the protective tariff. We have brought
back by our protective system the eight
hundred millions of gold that were mined
and minted in California and carried out
| of the country for foreign goods by
Democratic revenue tariff. When the
war came on we had no money; our
Treasury was empty. Our gold and sill
yer, under a revenue tariff, had gone
abroad for foreign goods, but our pro-
tective system has brought it back and
given stability and prosperity to our peO-
pie. Free trade had distributed it among
European and Oriental nations, but pro-
lection has brought it back. The bal
ance of trade has been in our favor in
stead of against us, as it was before, and
we have grown richer as well as wiser,
and to-day our nation is at the head of
all the nations of the earth by reason of
this policy.
The gentleman from Massachusetts
also said that when he came to this
country he had nothing, and l infer
from what he says that he has grown
rich. He has done so under protective
tariff established by the Republican par
ty. He says further that he had to pay
when he went into business from to II
per cent. interest for money. That is
free trade. When was boy the lend
er of money took his 10 per cent out of
the head of the heap and turned the re-
mainder over to the borrower. Iremem-
Der this very well, for belonged to the
class who had the interest to pay and
was not one of those who loaned the
money. l recently met a New England
Mugwump, who said to me: ~ am a
free trader" l said: Why are you a
free trader? The answer was, 81 have
two reasons; one is because it will give
me a higher rate of interest for my
money, and the other is because it will
give me cheaper labor; the help l now
employ costs me too much"
These are both valid reasons, and they
tell the whole story. If you put wool
on the free list, in a few years you will
hn hnn
out of the country for wool and woOlens,
and in this way the bulk of the gold we
now have will go abroad, and our wealth
will be diminished as rapidly as we ac-
cumulated it, and instead of our having
surplus in the Treasury, and the banks
of the country, and in the pockets of the
people, we will be paying 10 per cent.
interest again on money and selling the
bonds of the Government at 10 or II
per cent. discount as we did before the
war. And men will labor for 40 or 50
cents day, as they did under Demo
cratic revenue tariffs.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania
Mr.. Scott says that political economy
is science and that the true principles
of taxation are as definitely ascertained
as are any truths not susceptible of math-
ematical demonstration. If this be true,
what becomes of the Mills bill? 1t must
be very strange science that puts wool
on the free list, product that is grown |
in every State and Territory in the I'm
ion, and which, if adequately protected,
can be grown in sufficient quantities to
supply our entire demand, while it leaves |
sugar, which is only grown in one or
two States, and which produces less than
one-tenth of the sugar we use in this
country, on the dutiable list, to pay 100
per cent. duty, and also leaves rice, that |
is grown in only two or three States, on
the dutiable list, to pay duty of 60 per
cent.
Sugar and rice, which are necessaries
of life, and constitute large portion of
every mans food, are left on the dutia-
BILE list, sugar to pay 100 per cent. ad
valOrem and rice 68 per cent. ad valorem.
And he is anxious to have tin-plate on
the free list in order to reduce the cost
of six tin cups cent, and to have salt
on the free list in order that the salt
that salts 25 pounds of butter shall be
icooeueu III pIlCe d HILL CeuI, DuG Is Will
ing to let the people pay S58,0O0,000 a
year to protect the sugar plantations of
the South, and he calls this science. He
is very much afraid of free whisky, and
yet this scientific bill is framed for the
express purpose of giving immunity to
the moonshiners of the South. A bill
that protects the South and Furnishes the
North, bill that cruSheS the farmer and
enriches the planter, is scientific in his
judgment and worthy of support.
If the gentleman's science had been a
little more perfect he would have noticed
that the bad effects which he says are
from the accumulation of
surplus in the Treasury are neutralized
by the fact that while surplus is accu-
l,.anr.....- is.