River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1888-08-30

trial experience enabled Congress from
time u time 70 correct and adju It its work
ings Hsw, then, stands the ma ter at the
end OF twenty eight years protectioni The
wage workers of New York and New En-
gland have S7I5.OO0OO0 to their credit
or nesrly eight times the amount
gained under twenty eight years Of free
trade in the same States The popu-
latiOn Of the seven States at the close of
the long era of free trade was :. 25O, 600
and their population in this twenty-eighth
year Of protection is presumed to be II,
OoJ.Oo0 The wage-worlIers OF these States
tOiling under a revenue tariff such as is
recommended BY the President had earned
a surplus amounting 20 S13 30 for each per
son of the entire population, while the
wIge-wOrkers for the later period under a
protective tariff have earned s65 per head
for the total population; or, in other
words, the average wage-worker under
protective tariff in the United States has
been enabled to save five times as much Is
the revenue wsge-worl1er under a mere
revenue tariff But the Democratic advo-
cate Of free trade thinks that he can es-
cape from the crushing force of these fig
urcs by his fayorite cry. that these earn
ings Of the laboring rian in New York and
New England have been made at the ex-
pense OF the agricultural States in
the West | first answer that manu-
features are so rapidly spreading that
there arc no longer agricultural States,
in the sense in which that term
was used a generation ago Under pro-
tective tariff manufactures are springing
up everywhere, and already some States
in the West-notably Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois-havc an annual product from
manufactures amounting high up into the
millions. But, secondly. | answer that
have ne need to interpose tie man
ufacturing interest in stating the
progress and Development OF the
West For in twenty years of protective
tariff wealth has increased in far greater
ratio in the agricultural States of the
West than in seven manufacturing States
which Ihave adduced in the East. In 1861,
for instance. the six Western States of
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa,
Kansas and Nebraska had population of
two and half millions e, 5OO,OOO) and an
aggregate wealth by the census of 1860 Of
eight hundred aud seventy millions of dol
lars (SS7O,0Ol CO., To-day they have a
population of perhaps eleven millions a.
e0,0O0l, the equal Of New York and the
whole of New England. We can not give
the statistics Of aggregate wealth either
| IN the West or the East later than the cen
sus Of 1880. but in the twenty
wears between 1850 and 1880. these
SIX Western States had increased
their aggregate wealth from eight
hundred and seventy millions (sS70,-
0JO0l0) TO six thousand three hundred
/ and seyenty-fve millions (S6.375, 900, COO. an
increase of more than seven fold. New
York and New England had three times
the population of these Western States in
1860, with an aggregate wealth Of thirty
seven hundred million (S3 200, 600, OOO). To-
day the population of these States is about
the same as the Western States, while
their wealth in the twenty years, between
1850 and 1880, increased only three fold.
amounting in 1880 to eleven thousand two
hundred and eighty-six millions (slI,2S6,
| O0OO00l. The ratio of development between
the manufacturing States Of New York
and New England has therefore not been
one-half so rapid as that of the six agri-
cultural States which have named. They
have not, It is true. the same amount to
cash 10 the credit of the wage workers but
they have in great and fiourish;ng cities,
long lines Of railways, in improved farms,
in the increased values in great cities, in
new towns, in the prodigiOus products of
grain, in the countless fiOcks and herds. an
increase of agricultural wealth 70 which
the expense Of the Western farmer under
9 Il a
son that il can hardly be stated.
Lastly, the objection to the conclus ions
presented come from the Southern Demo
crat who, forgetting the interests of his
section, is urging the revival of free trade
/ He considers that he has been robbed for
the benefit of the North, and hugging this
monstrous delusion, he strives to place the
Union back under the old free-trade sys-
/ TEN Of the ante bcllum period. Yet the
/ benefiCcnt effect Of a protective tariff can
/ be even better illustrated by the recent
/ history and development of the South than
/ by the progress Of the North By the
| census Of 1860, seventy-one years after the
/ Federal Government was organized, the
| Southern States. or to describe them more
accurately. the slave holding States of the
I Union, had acquired property amounting
Z in the aggregate to $500, 900 600 One
third Of this total amount, or certainly
/ over 5000. 0O0, 900, was reckoned as the
value of the negro slaves. Eleven of these
I States went into rebellion, at the
end Of which they had lost the
/ institution of slavery, with all its
assured money value. They had used
/ up four annual crops for war pur-
poses They had lost their ready money
and their stocks. They had lost quarter
of million of the youth of the land, and
/ had disabled as many more. They had
subjected all their fair and blooming sec
ton TO the blighting and devastating infiu-
I enee of the sword to as great a degree as
the seven years war had afflicted Prussia,
/ or the NapOleonic struggles had France
| Coming out of the war in 1865. defeated.
discouraged. almost destroyed, the South
/ ern people set 20 work, and under the in
I fiucnce of the protective system made good
/ the 81, 600 600 900 which they had lost in
| slaves. repaired the ravages aud damages
/ of war, and IN the short space Of fifteen
years they had acquired by the census Of
! 1880 8. 100000 900 Of properly more than
I they had possessed By the census of 1860
4 II the financial and industrial condition of
I the South could be ascertained today, il
would be found to have two and a-half
I to three times as much property as they
7 had on that direful day when they rashly
I fired on Sumter.
! Nor must omit in this hasty review Of
Z the condition of our community, under a
protective system, TO call your attention to
/ our splendid States on the shores of the
I Pacific In 1880 the mines of California
I had greatly diminished in value; immi-
I grafton had fallen of; agriculture had not
Z been largely developed; manufactures
Z were not fairly started The total property
I of California and Oregon was but S&S,
/ OOO.OC0. 4 new career opened TO them
with the enactment of the protective
/ tariff in 1851. The ranch, the farm, the
vineyards were everywhere developed and
/ cultivated: manufactures grew rapidly,
7 and the region which few years ago had
been one great miners camp became one
+ Of the most prosperous and promising Of
I the whole Union. California and Oregon
had in twenty ye2rs, by the census of 1850.
added mora than 81. $50 600 600 to their
wealth and have been accommodating far
greater ratios during the last eight years,
. Of whose results we have no official
return. Besides an immense product of
/ cereals and an enormous growth of wool,
California l. entering upOn the cultivation
Of the tropical products, which have been
brought home TO Us over both oceans, and
If not arrested in her industrial progress
in the work shop, on the farm, and in the
orchard, she will acquire a prestige and
wealth which will put her in the front
rank Of the States of the Union. Imperial
in extent the Pacific slope is destined tC
be imperial in the strength and splendOr OF
her full development.
Fellow citizens of Maine. I have said
nothing as yet specially concerning our
own State Argument is not in fact need
full in the presence Of these thousands Of
witnesses TO the progress which she has
made since 1850 Upheld. encourage. siam
ulated by the protective system, Maine has
increased her wealth more than threefOld,
and i daily rrogress-nu in An even