The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-09-01
THE TARIFF ISSUE,
The Condition OF Affairs when FREQ Trad
Had Free Sway-Some Hard Facts.

At recent mass meeting ut Mattoon,
Ill.,. Dir. John +. Scanlan the eloquent
Irish orator, who has made political
economy n study for years dealt out
some hard facts among which were
these:
1t is not necessary to burn our custom
houses 20 reach n Con .iGfon OF Things
practically worse than free trade. reVe-
nue. tariff destroys our home Industry. A
revenue tariff in 1920 reduced the country
To abicct poverty, threw the workingmen
into idleness and removed a home market
from the American farmer. During that
period -four sold in Pittsburg for I'll n
barrel, lumber for 81 per thousand. IL
took twelve barrels OF fl ,ur To yard OF
foreign broadcoth. Tea was worth 81
pound, or one barrel OF -four and farmer
took home two pounds of coffee for 2 bar
rel of flour, and sold five and half bush
els of oats for IS cents and took IN eS'
change reign-manuf2ctured 1awsharp.
took these fl cures out of the 5ook OF
country grocer. \ revenue tariff reduced
our country TO like condition in 1897,
closed our factories, and for the first time
in the history of the United States opened
sonp-huuses to feed American merchants.
The panic Of 1887 lost to this nation as
much money rs it took to suppress the
last r. ballion. and left the country so
poor that in 1910 an agent was sent TO Eu.
where he could find no person who would
take the loan, and when the government
advertised for a popular loan. after his re-
turn. a few hundred thousand dollars was
offered by citizens at modest rates OF inter
est mt from TO 50 per cent per annum-
Tue CRY of the workingmen was, accord
ing tc p,ttsburg newspaper OF that date;
Give us work, give us work mt your
own terms. Our families are starving
We have nothing for them TO eat!
The whig party, coming into power IN
| 1Si0 gave the country II prote tive tarifl
| i'm 1912 and brought prosperity TO the
| American people, work to the working
| men, and u home market to the farmer
| In 1916 the Democrats again introduced q
| revenue tariff and with the assistance o.
| another reduction in 1856 brought on thu
| panic Of 1851. During this revenue tarif
| period, from 1850 to 1860. the wages of th'
| workingmen OF this country, for laborers
was so TO - cents; for mechanics, 81 I,
81 80. Corn was burned for fuel IL. Hi
| nois AMI Iowa. The money of the countr.
| was SO poor that in travelling from ont
| State into another one had to pay ant
sometimes 10 per cent. exchange on TIL
| money To do business with. Out OF tn
no banks in Illinois, when all of them 4
| nancialy failed five of them only redeemed
| their notes mt par. While men wer
| working for 80 cents day in 1889 fiou
was quoted at -. 80 Il barrel. All forelgi
| manufactured goods were helu mp at
| high price because the competition O
| American factories had been wiped on
| by driving them into bankruptcy.
The Democrats now claim that tney ar
not for free trade The history, of thei
party il more truthful than their claim
In the lS+S platform they congratulate
themselves lin the noble impulse given
the cause of free trade by the repeal OF th
tariff of lS42' The platform of 1852 o
which Mr.. Pierce was nominated pro
claimed for ''unequvocal free trade.
The platform of 1896 on which Mr.. Bt
chanau was nominated declared I'm fave
| of free seas and progressive free trad
throughout the world and when tn
Southern wing of the Democratic part
went into rebellion n section of thel
Constitution prohibited them from eve
having a protective tariff.
A still greater evidence of the Demo
J racy's tendency toward free trade lies
the fact that there has never been an
| fetal proclamation issued by that pPrt
in favor of protective tariff. Our DEM
cratic friends claim that the farmer
robbed by reason of the high tariff on ste
rails and railroad material by paving hi2
{ freights To compensate the company, an
! ! vet the London ironmonger OF 1881 SHOW
; that the freight rates III the United stat,
, are cheaper than i'll any other country
the world as the following rates on CO
per ton per mile for the following name
&, countries prove: Belgium, | l-2 cents p'
/. ton per mile: France, 1874: Germany, j.
{ England, to cents; United States,
q cent.