Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-07-11
THE FREE TRADE FALLACY,

To the Editor of the EAGLE.
To the average and more credulous
American no issue can be looked upon
with more disfavor than that of free
trade which is now being 50 ably argued
by the potentates of that faith.
As national issue this tariff sands
first and foremost In importance to the
main interests of our country; nor is it a
subject that should properly be placed IN
the hands of the more inexperienced
legislator. The free trade orator, in ex-
pounding his faith to the Kansas farmer,
says: Remove your existing tariff laws,
and then the whole world stands ready
with outstretched arms offering you a
market for your every production at
prices higher than possibly can be Sc
cured with the tariff remaining on i'm
ported goods" If this be true then all
precedents fail to establish it as SWELL
founded assertion; for throughout the
whole history OF our country, the periods
of low tariff have proven the eras of
greatest disaster and general depression;
whereas. the periods of higher and pro-
tective tariff have given TO the country
eras Of great advancement and general
prosperity such as has never been known
elsewhere"
No patriotic. home-loving citizen of
the United States desires such state of
affairs to exist IN America as surrounds
the home of his would-be competitors of
the Old World. The American minds
possess a higher and nobler ambition,
nor will their dignity allow them to be
gradually brought down 10 the degraded
condition so characteristic of the work
ingman of Europe. And in the event OF
such a reduction of wages and business
interests as must necessarily follow the
adoption of free trade, even our educa-
tlonal institutions, now the pride and
beauty of our land and the very radical
Of its prosperity and grandeur, could not
receive the support which they necessi-
tate to maintain the station of its citi-
Zens. And why? Because no working
man with the meagre pittance allotted
to the average foreign laborer could
then possibly afford this-the greatest
privilege within the reach of the citizen
of the United States. These are facts.
and all the Democratic oratorv found
within the halls of congress, if exercised
till Harrison's inauguration next March.
would not alter matters IN the least.
Tampering with the tariff means moth
ing more than advantage to the foreign
manufacturer; it means to food our
home markets with great influx of for
eign goods, and that can only be to the
exclusion of an enormous amount of our
own internal production; and displace-
ment of home productions means the
shutting up of our large factories and
mills now giving employment TO the
thousands who in the event of such an
occasion must seek the agricultural sec
tons of the country for employment,
when we would most basely surrender
our most fostered rights to the CONNER
cial advantage and upbuilding of foreign
and disinterested countries; then. as in
our early colonial days, we would sup
ply the thriving industries of England
with the raw materials, and at the same
time trust to their veraclty and discre-
ton the privilege of marking at fabulous
prices the manufactured article which
we would be compelled to buy.
This is truth precedental, and veri-
fled by the recent history of our own
country. Intelligent minds have a nobler
aim than to render the laboring people
little more than paupers. We do not
recognize caste, and while ''lord" is a
word calculated to inspire reverence in
the Englishman, it is spurned and held
in contempt by our liberty loving people.
Of so vast an amount of
production will at once tend to
make the overthrow of home industries
for to the great army of en-
ployes from the large manufactures and
other relative industries that would be
to stop their machinery, the
only alternative is the agricultural pur-
suit; and with so great number of
producers depending entirely upon the
elsewhere, it is safe to say
that with the half paid labor of Europe
and Australia offering competitors, the
general depression Of the country would
reach point even equal to the earliest
lays of our independence; the wheels of
would be clogged and the now
telling energy of the American people
would lie dormant beneath the baneful
influence of the Old Worlds pauper
abor. L. y. 3.