The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-05-02

ing the we'll being of 60. 0O0, 900 people, re-
fusing to enter into any consideration or
its provisions, or disclose any data on
which its action was based, steadily refus-
ing TO answer any questions propounded by
the minority, submitting TO no modihca-
tons except those suggested by the major
ity; declining to listen 10 any member OF
the House in behalf of the people he
represented, refusing audience to Sena-
tors, the industries of whose States were to
be destroyed, rejecting all appeals from
manufacturers, denying to the farmers a
word in behalf OF their focks and fields,
shutting the door of the committee room
in the face of the laboring man who came
to plead for the protection of his home and
family-imagine such conduct on the part
of q committee of the House of Repre-
sentatives, and there could be faint con-
cepion OF the Committee Of Ways and
Means of the Fiftieth Congress.
The pending bill exposed to foreign as
sault many OF our principal industries.
The great wool growing industry of the
country, only in the infancy of its develop
ment, was to be exposed to ruinous for
eign competition which would surely
prove its destruction. The majority tried
to delude the people into the belief that
cheap wool meant cheap clothing. He ad-
United that wool would be cheaper while
our foreign rivals were trying to destroy
our industry, but when they had elimin-
ated from our market the production of
800, GOO, 900 pounds of domestic wool We
would find ourselves bound hand and foot
at the mercy of the foreign producer.
What restraint would there be then on his
power or cupidity? In the exuberance of
the Presidents zeal for free trade he
wanted the entire reduction secured by
= Al
trade wing of the Democratic party lacked
the courage TO move on that line and occupy
this advanced position.
The President asserted that the duty on
imports enhanced the price of both the
foreign and domestic articles TO the con-
sumner, and that the removal of the duty
would proportionately reduce the price.
He (Burrows) would have thought that the
insentinent pen with which the President
wrote that paragraph would have refused
10 record the error. Could it have spoken
to him, it would have said: The very pen
with which you write this folly is cheaper
by half than before the duty on it was i'm
posed" The Presidents argument had
been echoed by every free-trader in the
United States, and had been hailed with
delight by every free trader in England.
There was a comprehensive and complete
was not true. He commended to the Presi-
dent his own admonition: 1T is a condi-
ton which confronts us, and not theory"
and that condition was an absolute refuta-
ton of the Presidents theory. He chal-
lenged any man to name product of q
single we'll established American industry
that could not be bought cheaper to- day
under the protective system than at any
period under free trade. The difficulty
with the Presidents theory was that he
forgot that the price of a commodity did
not depend upon the rate of duty but upon
the great law OF supply and demand. The
gentleman from Texas Mr.. Mills had
stated that our taxes were higher to day than
during the war. He spoke only of dutiable
imports, emitting those received free of
duly; therefore his calculation was not only
misleading but entirely yaluee less. The same
miscalculation destroyed the force of his
argument that the average rates of duty
to- day were heavier than during the war.
Taking our entire imports the average to-
day was 81 per cent, while during the war
it had been 30 per cent. That | per cent.
increase was largely attributable TO lower
prices following the memorable law-as
prices declined the percentage of the ad
valorem rate increased Efforts were be-
ing made persistently TO induce the Ameri-
can farmer to believe that protective tariffs
were hostile to his interests. Mr.. Burrows
argued that the farmer was directly inter-
ested III maintaining the protective system
and home market. This home market
should be to him the object of the deepest
solicitude, and upon II the future of the
agricultural interest of the country hung.
Here was lesson TO be drawn to the South
from the history of the past. Protection
had enhanced the value of the land in the
! North; il would bring it to the South. 1t
would bring an era of une1ampled pros
perity. 1t would develop her mines, light
| the fires of her furnaces, construct her rail-
roads, invite capital, employ laborers,
| plant cities in her waste places, and lead
| her people into the highway of industrial
! prosperity. During the last ninety days
| $50, 900, 900 capital had gone into her man
ufacturing industries. There was not an
| industry in the South which he would not
cherish as though il were an industry of
| Michigan He believed in protection, not
for his State alone, but for his country. He
believed i'll American industry, in American
capital, in American labor, against the
whole world.
The Chairman of the Committee on
Ways and Means expresses the hope that
| the measure will pass. He is not alone in
this desire. There is not a member of the
AdDlntl VI lTtO III luc I nlltu
States who Is not in sympathy with him.
More than this, free trade England stands
on tip-toe of expectation, and screams with
delight. Let me warn you, gentlemen of
the South, that this measure BODIES no good
to you. 1t will arrest the investment of
capital, and bring your industries to q
standstill. There is no portion of our
| country where this measure should meet
with more united and determined oppo-
sition than in the South. Untoward cir
cumstances have heretofore retarded her
material progress, but the way is now open
for her to march unimpeded to a splendid
industrial future. The advance is already
sounded. He who does not RESI- ond TO its
inspiring summons will soon find himself
without party and without following.
rejoice that there is new South, new
industrial South, born of the throes of war
but full of hope and courage. She stands
to-day with uplifted brow, facing the d rwn
of a mighty future. Her loins are girt for
a new race. With unfettered hands she
smites the earth and fountains OF unmeas-
ured wealth gush forth. Beneath her feet
she feels the stir of marvellous life. Her
pathway is already illuminated with the
! light of blazing furnaces. Her heavens
are aglow with the break Of q new day. All
| hail its oncoming.
Aid its dawning, tongue and pen;
Aid its hopes OF honest mon;