Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-08-31
The Mills bill declares for

The Mills bill declares for
Free Trade in lumber, which is produced
to the amount of $500, 900 annually
Free Trade in wool, of which we produce
300,000,O 900 pounds annually.
Free Trade in salt, of which we produce
nearly 40, 900, 900 bushels annually.
Free Trade in fax, hemp, jutes and other
fibers.
Free Trade in cement, potash, lime and
brick.
Free Trade in meats, game and poultry.
Free Trade in vegetables, peas and beans.
Free Trade in stone.
Free Trade in at least 100 other articles pro-
duced in this country, most of which could be
produced in sufficient quantities for home
consumption if properly protected.-VaIIey
Viagi7,iGn.
Let us take few of these specimens of
free admission.
The Republican tariff now In force adj
mits free of duty all the fancy woods,
cedar, mahogany, &C., all timber used in
ship building, and all the railroad cross
ties, cut by the ''pauper labor' of Canada.
There is almost free trade in lumber now.
But when it comes to the pine boards of
which the poor man builds his house, that
has on it a tariff tax of So a thousand
feet The wealthy for their furniture;
the ship builders who build no ships, and
the great railroad corporations, get their
lumber free, but the poor settler is COM
PEELED to pay government tax OF $2
thousand on his pine boards to build his
cabin. And this is done because the great
railroad corporations have been given
millions and millions Of acres of public
land by the Republican congresses, and to
make the lumber on those lands still more
valuable to the big railroad corporations
these same Republicans have made tariff
taxing at so per thousand feet the lumber
that comes in competition with it. Free
lumber for the railroad corporations, but
So tax for the poor man The Demo-
Gratis in the Mills bill sweep all this
away and make lumber absolutely free for
all the people.
The Democrats make wool free. Wool
is like hides, which the country can't or
doesn't raise enough of to supply the
people. It lacks 300 100000 pounds OF
enough to supply its own people and has
to buy the rest from Europe. A High
Tariff don't increase the amount of sheep
nor increase the value of the clip. Under
q low tariff from 1850 to 1860 the October
price of wool was 51c,; from 1877 to 1886
under high tariff, the October price was
500. The high tariff was put on wool in
1867. Two years after that, the Republi-
can Secretary of the Treasury sent in to
congress the report of the Republican
Special Commissioner of the Revenue.
That report said that the number of sheep
had decreased 25 per cent. since the pas
sage of the wool tariff, the importation of
foreign fabrics had increased, and the price
of wool had been slower in gold than has
almost ever before been experienced" In
the opinion of the Commissioner the bust
ness OF making wooden cloths had been dis
astrously affected by the high tariff. The
report of this Republican Commissioner is
given in full on page 1910 of the Soon
gressional Record" In the great wool
raising State of Ohio the number of sheep
has decreased under high tariff from
1855, 507 in 1867. the year the tariff was
put on, to 1922 900 in 1886. So much for
what a High Tariff does for sheep and
wool. One might come much nearer
home for the effect. In Loudoun county,
In our own State, in 1880 there were
32,277 sheep valued at $109. SOB; in 1887
they had decreased to Is. 444 with value
of 1886, $3.50. So much for what a High
Tariff does for sheep in Virginia. AS
taxing wool has failed to help that Amer
lean industry. the Democrats will make it
free and see what that will do. This
country has had IS good years of free wool
and 10 good years Of nearly free wool, and
1t is going back to try the good times over
again.
And there is free salt. The duty on salt
is simply an imposition on the people and
is absurd. Salt sells in East Sagina ",
Mich, at $2,7 ton, $50 says Hon. q. Il.
Grosvener (Rep.) OF Ohio, in speech
opposing its being made free). and in Liv-
erpool it is the same price, 1918. It takes
81, 40 more to land the Liverpool salt on
the American cost, thus making home salt
protected up to the price of 81 Is ton.
What the protection of IL cents 1.-THE pres
ent duty is wanted to be continued for is
to keep up the margin of profit that much
higher, to be taken out of the pockets
of the people not to be returned to them
in the wages of labor or in any other way.
1t ought to be free and it will be.
Flax straw is admitted free. There was
little opposition to that line in the Mills bill.
But when the next paragraph reducing
the tax on flax thread from 40 per cent.
to 25 per cent. ad valorem came up. fight
sprung up which, under recent evidence
before the Congressional Investigating
Committee on Labor in New York, ought
to let the working people of America see
whose benefit the present high tariff is for.
A letter was read in the debate, from WIN.
Barbour of the great Barbour Bros, fax