The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-02-29

90 IN Oh10 or Mn11oohuo0otA
!. The truth =. our entire exploration Of agri-
our domestic production, and the foreign
market for such productions IL = most un-
certain, unstable, aud variable market de-
pending entirely upon the accident Of . good
or . bad crop or war Ia Europe, while tho
home market consuming more than % per
cent Of our agricultural productions, il
steady. unchsnging and permanent The in
crease Of our population for the past three
years will consume more Of our agricultural
products than the aggregate exported The
far more Of the products Of the Western
farmers than all Europe. It is strange. in
deed, that such decisions will misead an in
telligent American statesman.
Mr.. Morgan says that @The farmers reject
the threadbare falsehood that the bounties
restored to them in the benefits Of this Wis
ionary home market" @The only
home market the existing tarif has built up
has been for the manufacturers.
Gentlemen, our farmers in the West have
got far beyond the reach Of this appeal to
prejudice, and it will not be long before the
farmers Of Alabama and the South generally,
and even tho cotton planters, will learn by
experience that the hungry mouths of work.
ingmen, engaged in varied pursuits in every
part Of our country, furnish the best market
for their productions. And you in New
England, even your professors and free-trad-
ers, will learn that the steady demand made
by millions OF your countrymen in the West
and South for textile and metallic fabrics fur
nishes you hundred fold better market than
you can find with all your ingenuity and en-
terprise in the overstocked markets Of
Europe and Asia. II you join in breaking
down this system in order to increase your
foreign market for manufactures from to
10 per oent, you will destroy the goose that
lays the golden egg.
Now, let US drop our post-prandial friends
OF the league and consider what we mean by
protection and one or two matters upon which
we may differ.
The policy of protection is founded upon
the idea that it is best for us as nation to
produce, by American labor, as many of the
articles essential to human life and comfort
as possible; that to encourage their produc-
ton We are just titled in levylng upon foreign
articles that come into competition with ours,
such reasonable rates of duty as will induce
capital to embark in such industries, and Sc
cure to American workingmen reasonable
wages consistent with the higher wants and
the better food, clothing, and shelter de-
manded by American worklngmen The OBJ
ject of all this is to secure the greatest diver
sity of employments by the substitution of
American products for foreign products
When this policy was first adopted there were
practically no manufactures in America, and
the principal object was to develop the sim
pier and ruder forms of manufacture and the
features have grown to such q marvellous de-
gree that they amounted in 1880, according
to the census, to $5. 400, 900, 600, and accord
ing to an estimate made three years ago to
over $4,000, 0OO, 0OO, and now to nearly ST.
000,0O0,000
Of protection should extend to raw mate rails
produced on the farm and from the mine, or
whether these should be admitted free OF duty.
We all agree that all crude articles necessary
for manufacture that can not with reasonable
labor be produced in this country ought to be
admitted duty free. More than 500, 0OO, QUO
in value of such articles are now admitted
duty free; but the crude materials for manu-
facture raised on our farms or in our mines
which come into competition with foreign Ia
Dor, have been considered just objects of pro-
lection.
free list and continue the protection to manu-
features, The principal articles Of this kind
are wool produced by the farmer, iron ore by
the miner. and pig iron by the furnace.
Now, if this question is to be determined as
q mere matter of local interest according to
Gen. Hancock, or, as Mr.. Lowell suggests,
with aces in the sleeves" the men Of Boston
might selfishly say that as they want wool
and make the woOlens, they will vote for no
duty on wool, because they can buy wool
cheaper in South America and Australia; and
they might say they will vote for nc duty on
iron ore because they can import it cheaper
from England and Wales. But such deci-
sion would be an abandonment OF the whole
principle Of protection. The benefits OF this
policy must be reciprocal and the system
upon which it is founded must be universal
The American farmer produces wool with the
same competition that the manufacturer pro-
duces woolens, and should have the same
consideration and protection in his employ
ment that is freely conceded to the manu-
facturer, no more no less. His product Is the
ka1 tnla <>fh Ia1N And wit ia
the mining and smelling Of ores, the rich re-
sources planted by Providence in every part
of our country The labor bestowed In their
Is as much entitled To the
friendly aid Of the Government as the finest
fabric of the loom, or the completed work
of mechanical skill. When you remember
that more than million farmers are engaged
in raising wool, and produce 2S2, QUO UOO
pounds, and hundreds of thousands of
laboring men are required to mine more
than ten million tons OF iron ore, from
Alabama to the borders Of Lake Superior and
from Lake Champlain to the Pacific Ocean,
you must see that to leave these industries
unprotected against the competition of the
poorest paid and most degraded labor Of
Europe and Africa would b indefensible and
expose the whole system to overthrow. All
that the farmer or the miner asks Is that
reasonable aud proper protection which is
cheerfully extended to all branches OF manu-
featuring coming into competition with foreign
tnat tnelr laDor anu employmeDts
receive the same consideration in framing
your tariff laws given to other industries
They only ask enough duty to compensate for
the difference in the price of labor here and
the country with which they compete. Nor
do they ask duties on grades Of wool they can
not produce. / confess that in reasoning
about this matter I can not help expressing
my profound contempt for the selfishness OF
the policy declared by Mr. Mayor Hewitt in a
letter to tho league, in which, while demand
ing increased duties for the articles that he is
producing, he insists on the repeal Of duties
on materials he uses
Now, gentleman, you may asked me what
/ have to say about tariff reform. l answer
that am decidedly in favor Of tariff reform,
always have been and always will be. l have
partic pated in tariff reform since 1855; but
my idea of tariff reform is not especially to
make our duties acceptable to ioreign ma
tions but rather TO promote the interests of
our own people; not to take lessons from tho
Golden Club or the English aristocracy, but