Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-09-27

jItc SI<O,OOO,OUO " tHtitOftttt pIOuuctS
Of foreign labor, n0lC annually imported,
the most Of ,rhich compete iR a greater
degree JCith our labor. Imported laborers
would at least be fed here, but if the
products of their labor is imported there
is no set off. Ninety per cent of all prod
uctS is labor in some form, and nearly all
national wealth is the product of labor.
When the labor Of q country is steadily
employed at TemEner0tj0e 1rdges, that
country is getting rich, and its people
are iRdicidUdlly prosperous and happy.
Why should lot of mere theorists,
without practical experience or wis
dom, be permitted to interfere, and by
change of policy turn back the tide of
prosperity which has made us the rich
est, most productive, best educated and
happieSt people on the globe?
OF the S723,0000OO and over of foreign
labor products imported last year, OhiO's
share, according to population, would be
about fOrty-three and twO-third millions.
If Ohio was obliged to hire fOrty-three
and two third million dollars worth of
work each year where is the statesman
who would advocate giving such a job as
that to England, France or Germany in
stead of our own cOuntrymen as con-
tractors and labOrers because it was a lit
tie cheaper? Y ou can figure out the share
of the work which each county is Ell
titled to have as its share.
This is parallel case. The real g,Ges-
tion is, 1cho shall hare the 1Cork to dot
Shall american citizens, 1C1to support the
government and all our institutions, local
and national, and 1Oho defend them in
1CGr, hGce the lrOFk to do? Or shall for
eigllers 2OhO lice abroad, do their 1C0rk
abroad, support other governments and
other institutions and .fght against us in
case Of 1CGT, haze 1T TO do and enjoy its
ddcantGgeS, protected by our lars, tCith-
ont taratjon7 When applied to the wool
industry, 80 per cent. of which is labor in
some form, the question is whether
Americans shall have the privilege of do
ing the work at fair American prices, or
whether Australians and South Ameri-
cans shall have it to do at prices which
they will fix from year to year for us to
pay.
The present free-trade agitation is
largely the off-shOOt of the cheap labor
system, which was destroyed by the late
war, as well as the cause of the war, and
is fOStered by England through her Cob
den club and otherwise.
Let me give you a qnotatiOn from a
couple of American members of the Brit
ish, free-trade Golden club. One is from
John G. Carlisle, the speaker of the House
of Representatives in the Congress of the
United States, and the other is from Hon.
Henry Watterson, the brilliant editor of
the Louisville COUrjeT-JOlT7lGl.
On February 7, 1888, the same year that
he joined the Golden club, in a speech in
the House of Representatives on the sub
ject of the duties on iron and iron ore,
Mr.. Carlisle said (COn. Rec. 47th Congress,
I'd session, page 2242):
'If you will remove those high protective duties,
the skill, the capital and the enterprise 0f the
Northern states instead Of locating manufacturing
establishments in Pennsylvania, NCiU JeTSey and
etselchere, lchGre the material condtions are al-
and Vest lChere all the conditions are favorable,
and establish their industries there. repeat, if
you will take eff these high duties. remove the
bountieS which the government eXacts from the
people for the benefit of the rolling mills, blasting
furnaces and steel Tiilway-mills i'll places where
they can not successfully be operated without the
bounty they will go to the West and South and
build up that country. The only cOmpe- |
tition which they (the South need to fear is the
competition of New England-nOt that of old Eng |
land If you want to help the South and the West |
remove those high protective duties from the
articles which they have to use encourage the |
capital and skill of the North to locate in those
sections, and they will be developed without any
expense to the people who consume their proc
uctS."
now quote from recent number of |
Mr.. Watterson's paper as copied in the
New Y ork Sun:
"SOutiern furnace men should bear In mind that
high duty on imports UU keep up dctiue competi-
ton in Northern furnaces lrIiR a rCfy moderate |
duty lco'dd protect fair profit from fOrGigi COM
petition, IUIle greatly enldTJing their field by |
closing many Northern furnaces on account Of the
cost Of production"
Both quotations breathe the same
thoughts, and though they relate to sin
gle protected industry would with equal |
grace cover any and all others. They
would reduce the tariff so low that the |
North with its high wages could not pro-
duce, but leave it high enough to enable
the cheaper labor of the South to control
the market
Such narrow, sectional and unpatriOtic
sentiments ought not to guide either the
legislation or the administration in this
great republic. Instead of building up,
they would strike down, by indirection,
the great industries of the North, where
three-fOurths of all in the whole country
are located, where three-fourths of the
labor and the voting population reside.
and where three-fourthS of the capital of
the whole United States is owned and in
vested.
Are not the Southern iron fields as well
protected as Northern? Is not Southern
wool as well protected as Northern? If
the nOn-Striking cOlored labor of the South
is cheaper than the white labor of the
North, does not the South enjoy its profits
and corresponding advantage against
which no lover of his country will com
plain?
Such sentiments would divide the
profits of the iron industry in the best
market of the world with old England,
rather than Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
New England or the North. l wish to
call your attention and that of the coun-
try to the absence of craftsmanship and
to the presence of intense sectionalism
in the sentiments which | have
quoted. Mills and his committee were
selected by the gentlemen whom l have
quoted and their advisers to take the first
step, and they constitute the power be-
hind the throne, direct the legislation, and
make up the political issues for the citi-
zens of the great American republic.