Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-10-26

them In Wheat In place of money;
or, TO put the case still differently, if we
suppos q the American steel-rail makers
10 lave sold their products in 1880 at the
same price as their European competitors
were glad to sell-from $50 to $35 per ton
and then that the federal government,
with view of rewarding their struggling
patriotic efforts, had sent out its revenue |
officials, who arbitrarily took from the |
farmers and delivered to the steel rail
makers twenty-eight bushels of wheat |
for every ton which they manufactured
and sold; it would have required 26,724,-
800 bushels (more than was grown in
1880 in the entire State of Wisconsin, Mis-
souri, or Kansas or the product of 49,
Cos acres to have given them an equiva-
lent in value to the bounty which they
actually received in money during the
same year, under the existing tariff
Now it is not pretended that these steel
rail taxes are paid primarily or exclusive
ly from the products of the fisheries, or
from the crops of the farmers-although
the burden does rest in great degree
upon the latter, who furnish the bulk of
the commodities transported by rail; but
as all taxes, of whatever name and ma
ture, must be paid out of the products of
labor, and can be paid from no other fund,
then somebody, in order to pay the en-
HANGED cost of the domestic consumption
of steel rails, over and above what passed
into the federal treasury, must have per-
formed la service equal borrowing 26, 724,
$50 bushels of wheat or of cultvating
1,7S1 ,65S acres of land. And for this
enormous amount of labor the toilers
were in no way benefited, for they might
have sold all the products of their labor
and have had an exemption in addition
from the tax, to represent profits or sur
plus in their pockets.
"We have here, therefore, an illustra-
I, ton in the nature of demonstration of
the manner in which protection interferes
with the natural distribution of wealth
!, enriching the few at the cost of the many.
"But this record of the greed ana rapa.
city of the steel rail manufacturers of the
United States is not yet complete. Not
content with the exclusive ownership OF
= the patent right to manufacture; moi
satisfied with the enactment of an exor
= bitant tariff on the import of all compel
,, ing products, they sought and obtained
- from Congress, in conjunction with the
iron manufacturers, the right to forcibly
y compel the purchase of these commodi
trs by certain great domestic consumers
Thus they would not consent to tn,
granting of charters by the government
to the several Pacific railroads, ever
: when the construction of these roads wa
i regarded in the light of doubtful ant
/ dangerous financial experiment, eXcep
IL the builders were saddled with the re
IS striction that in all their purchases o
5. iron and steel they should be obliged II
l. take, irrespective of kind or quality, sucl
re products as the American iron and stee
II manufacturers might offer to sell, ant
e none other. Now it might natural,
u have been supposed, in conformity witt
the old proverb, what is sauc
It for the goose is sauce for the gander
e that the American iron and steel manufac
e tories, having prohibited the transcontin
l. entail railroad companies from using any
a thing but American iron and steel TO
= their constructions, would have them
e selves rigidly refrained from using any
IS thing in turn in their iron and steel work
II except the products of American labor
d But if any one had INDUCED in an hypo
). thesis he would have been sadly disap
d pointed. For these special iron and stee
J. friends of American industry no soone
Is found out that in the absence of hun
IS dred per cent duty on foreign pig iron
= scrap-ron and iron-ore, they could sup
h ply themselves with these raw material
= cheaper in the foreign than in the domes
}. tic market, than they deliberately turne,
a their backs on their fellow-American irol
d miners and pg-metal smelters, and pro
Y ceeded to take advantage of the paupe
" labor of Europe by purchasing and i'm
II porting large quantities of iron ore from
:, Spain, and old rails and scrap iron from
l. England and other countries, the impor
l. tation of foreign ore for 1880 having
1t amounted to 493, 40S tons; and old raj
II and scrap to the value of Sl4,705,S 79
a Whereat much harsh language and not
2, few threats of smashing the protective
a machine have been INDUCED in on TIN
n part of American workingmen, who hav,
IS always been told by the protectionists o
lie the Pennsylvania school that good Amer
/ leans must only buy and manufacture
r American products, and never omit t.
5 frown down severely the products of tn
e pauper labor of Europe. Another resul
Is of this absurd legislation has been t.
l. put at least one of the Pacific railroad
J. in very awkward position. This is tn