St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-09
PLAIN TALK.
Hon. w. M. Campbell Expresses
His Views on the Tariff.


His Views on the Tariff.
Hon. William M. Campbell, one of the
leading Democrats of the state, is so
earnest for tariff reform that he hits
from the shoulder in the following
fashion:
Replying to your inquiry regarding
my position on the question of the pro-
tective tariff. [ am opposed to pro-
tective tariff for the following reasons,
among many others that might be given:
Because a protective tariff, under the
false pretense of being for the benefit OF
the workingmen, is their greatest posi-
BILE enemy, and is fast reducing the
workingmen of free young America to
a state of poverty and dependence
bordering closely upon the condition
of the working people of the
densely populated countries of Europe,
by increasing the cost OF the neceSSarieS
of their living and by limiting The OPP
portunity and certainty of their employ
ment by limiting the market for the
sale of their productions.
am opposed to protective tariff be-
cause, under the false pretense of ere
ating home market for our surplus
agricultural products, it is destroying
the foreign and only market for such
surplus, and thereby injuring and de-
pressing the industry of one-half OF the
entire people of the country by thus
diminishing the returns from their
labor, while at the same it increases the
cost of their living from 40 to 100 per
cent.
am opposed to protective tariff be-
cause it binders the general and proper
development of our manufacturing in
dustries by taxing the material out of
which their product is wrought,
thereby hindering and limiting
the demand for such product
in the home market. / am opposed to
protective tariff because its logical re-
suit must always be what twenty-eight
years experience of its operation in the
United States has proved it to be-solely
for the benefit of the few at the expense
of the many; it means few hundreds
of millionaires while it means millions of
poor people; it means loss and waste
and scarcity, which means want and
high prices: high prices mean large re-
turns to the few who control the pro-
tected industries of the country, and
high prices mean diminished returns
and diminished consumption to the
masses who have to pay the increased
cost: and, finally, | am opposed to
protective tariff because of the con-
stantly increasing uncertainty of en-
ployment, and the poverty and distress
Of the working people engaged in the
protected Industries, which is now
plainly resulting in aspirit of discomfort
among our working classes, which
is to-day bordering on communism and
anarchy, and for which the protective
tariff laws that have unjustly attempted
to make the business of a few people
profitable at the expense of the masses,
are undoubtedly responsible, and Of
which we have an additional recent
proof in the combinations of the men
who have been made millionaires by its
operation, who are now combing and
organizing the so called ''trusts" to en-
able them to further control in their
own interests legislation, production
and prices, and by the menacing aspect
of the counter labor organizations COM
posed of the people, made hungry and
desperate by its operation. | feel con-
WINGED that the necessity for change
of this unjust policy is becoming so APP
parent that it cannot be very much
longer delayed.