The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-02-08

Treasury was by that sum depleted. Even
In respect OF wholesale prices no change
can be attributed to the repeal.
The price OF tea rose as did the price of
coffee such as is chiefly used by the great
mass of the people, though the price Of
Java coffee Was less.
Allowing for all conceivable accidents
and incidents OF production or trade. it
must be apparent that the abolition of the
duties upon tea and coffee was substantially
purely IA benefit to the producer and ex-
porter, and not to ourselves.
But IL it be not true that in respect of
things produced in this country, the aboli-
ton Of duties works no fall in prices TO the
consumer, it must be because the foreigner
may then undersell the home producer and
manufacturer and still have margin of
profit This, of course, means the in
creased consumption of foreign commodi-
ties, and by so much the diminuton of the
consumption Of domestic products and
manufactures; and consequently there
must be a corresponding diminution OF
home production and manufactures, or
production that cannot be consumed. What
does this mean, and who desires it? Will
the iron master or the textile fabric worker,
however wealthy, employ as many men
and women or pay as high wages as
'efore if his sales are thus diminishe,s
ertainly not If he does not, what
Is to become of the people he now
employs? Let them leave the occupation
TO which they have been bred, and go
West" to farming, says the Free trader. If
they knew how to do this, and could do it,
farm products would largely increase, but
where would be the market for these in
creased farm products? The home market
among the manufacturing classes would
have been diminished, while the farm
products would have increased, and the
farm laborer, whether owner or hired,
would find for the results Of his labor a
market already overstocked, and there
would be general failure of all who were
not already Independent, and for them a
pure stagnation, for there are now pro-
duced more farm products than can be sold
at much profit in all markets, both domes-
tic and foreign. How could such course
increase the prosperity of the whole people?
But what is the capitalist and where is
the monopoly that free is expected to
overcome? The capitalist, rs such, is, SO
far as any active effect on social progress
or his own is concerned, the most helpless
of any member of a community. His cap
ital is simply the saved and stored-up fruit
of previous labor, and it is as inert as the
metal in the heart of the mountain Cor, as
the paper money men might say, as the
pulp in MILL until the brain and the arm
Of the workman, by whatever name he is
called, put it into active motion, and en-
able it to exert its force by combination
with labor. The days labor of the work.
man, whether of brain or pen or muscle, is
only turned into capital as wages, be it so
cents, as may be the average in other coun-
tries, or one dollar, as may be the aver
age in this tariff ridden" country, and
that capital of days work is then
only useful as it comes into contact
with the product of other labor
in the form of food, clothing, house, or
whatever its possessor may want. On the
other hand--and not an adverse but CO.
operative hand-the labor Of man is more
than one-half lost unless it has the ben
eft Of capital already accumulated to aid
it in its operations. Who can well
begin the simplest farm operations
even with free land such as our country
gives to every citizen honestly desiring to
work tor open a mine. or build a mill,
without some capital, the stored-up fruits
of previous effort? And if the laborers of
q country seized all the capital, and the
"liberty of anarchy" had its wish for a
day, the Interchangeable law would remain
the same, and the relations of labor done,
which is capital, and labor to be done,
would be just what they were before. The
argument, therefore, that the accumula-
ton of capital is injurious 10 the interests
Of the workingman is destructive Of all
personal liberty and the right Of personal
advancement. 1t puts the lazy and the
vicious on the same footing Cor better as
the Industrious, honest, and economical.
The one class take what they have not
earned, and the other lose what their labor
has achieved.
The disturbance of the occupations Of
labor in the United States would affect a
great-very great-proportion of our in
habltants. There are, i'll round numbers,
now engaged IN agriculture, 100000;
engaged in professional and personal SER
vice-justly embracing, as the census puts
it, lawyers, doctors, and the hired help Of
every domestic kind in one Glass;. 000,-
900; engaged in trade and transportation,
1000, 900; engaged in manufactures and
mechanical industries, 4, 700, 900; total Of
10000 900.
This total represents III families q num-
Der not less than 100000 900 directly de-
pendent upon agricultural pursuits, and
not less than 100000 900 dependent upon
manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.
If, then, by importing more of the pro-
ducts of foreign labor, we diminish the
consumption of the products of home Ia
Dor, we would shorten not only the total
wages upon which IA, 1000, 900 of our peo-
pie subsist, but also the earnings upon
which 100000 OF food, etc., producing
citizens, who now supply their wants from
the wages earned in manufacturing and
mechanics, depend. The probable out
come Of such step ought to appall every
working man, and every capitalist, and
all others who desire the welfare of all the
people Of their country.
If the whole internal revenue system
were abolished except the tax on national
banks, and the customs laws were left sub
stantially as they are, the revenues would
be diminished 10 the point land perhaps
below of the absolute necessities of the
government, and we should have only in