The National tribune., 1888-05-24
The Owen Electric Belt and Appliance Company,
1911 SITE ST., lPALmER HOUSE CHICAGO. Ill.
foreign importation aud to that extent would 1
increase the revenue
1911 STATE ST, palm

foreign importation aud to that extent would
increase the revenue.
The gentleman from Texas (NIr. Mills had
said that in order to insure National prosperity,
foreign importation must be encouraged. How
much did the gentleman want imported into the
United States? Last year there had come into
the United States SGS3,0JD coo of products and
manufactures How much did the gentleman
want that increased? Fifty million dollars
worth of manufactured iron and steel had come
in. Was not that enough How much labor
did the gentleman suppose that represented It
would require $3.50 men working for 300 days
to produce the $J00000G0 worth of iron and
steel that was imported last year. That was
| 900 days work taken from the American
labOrer, every day of which he could have per
formed the work and was waiting and ready to
perform it. He did not know what the other
gentlemen might think about it, but for him
self he would not permit a single ton of steel
to come into the United States if our own labor
could produce it. Applause. Let American
labor manufacture American products, and If
gentlemen did not like that they knew what
they could do. They could ally their interests
with somebody else who believed some other
way. This Government of ours was made for
Americans, native born and naturalized and
every pound and every busheI and every ton
of foreign products that competed with ours
that came into this country drove just so much
American labor out. Was there o be no limit
to these foreign imports? The United States
would have to bring the cost of its products
down to the cost Of the products on the other
side Of the ocean, and when il did that under
free trade it could limit importation, but it
could not do so without it. Free raw material
would not do it. The principal trammel Oh the
American manufactures was the high price for
labor in the United States, and If the Demo
cratic party intended to enable our mauuiac-
turers to compete with foreign manufacturers
in a neutral market it could do it in only
one way, and that was By reducing the scale of
wages in the United States.
Proceeding, Mr. Mckinley said that the
country was ready for free trade the moment
European producers would bring their labor to
the American standard. Whenever competing
countries would recognize the manhood and
dignity Of labor and pay equal compensation to
that paid in America the United States was
ready for free trade the world over. 1t could
! compete with the world in the American mar
ket and in the neutral markets and then let
the fittest survive. Applause. The gentle
men or the other side talked about cheap cloth
ing. Cheap clothing was too narrow for ma
tionaI issue. 1t was not big enough to run a
national campaign upon. lie had never had
any complaints from men in his district that
their clothes were too high.
Mr.. Mckinley quoted many figures to show
! that prices were cheapcned by the tariff. A
blanket that sold in 1850 for SO could be bought
now for 1886, and that which sold in 1860 for
| $13 could now be obtained for $3.50. This was
| true all down the list In 1850 the spinner got
| So a week to-day he gets $15. The weaver
III 1860 got 81, the unskiiled fnisher $3.50 and
/ the skilled inisher Sc per week. To-day they
/ got respectively SO, 50 and SIC per week. The
weekly earnings Of spinner n 1860 would buy
| three pairs Of cheap blankets. The spinner of
| 1883 could buy 10 pairs of blankets for week
work. [Appiause.I
! Mr.. Scott said that he had voted for the con-
sderation of the Morrison bill, and that his peO-
| pie had sent him back with a decided majority.
/ Mr.. Mckinley said that he knew that, but
! that q man who had between 10000 and 10000
| miles of railroad coal mines all over creation
| and plantations in Virginia could come to Con-
! gress in an off year on almost any issue.
! Laughter
Mr.. Scott replied that he had come to Con-
| gress in Presidential year from district
| which gave Blaine 5000 majority and gave him
| 600 majority [Applause.l
| Mr.. Mckinley said that what he could not
| understand was how it was that a district
which believed in free trade and was against
| protection gave Blaine, one of the most pro-
nounced protectionists in the country, 5000
majority. Laughterl
Mr.. Breckenridge followed with an
| argument in support of the Mills bill.