The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-08-21
DISASTERS OF FREE TRADE ERAs,
CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE.

other things in proportion by virtue of their
supply OF abundant and cheap labor At
present we exclude that labor from immigrat
ing 10 TINS country upon purely protectionst
principles. We will not have the wages and
standard OF Lying. of our workmen pulled
uoWn Dv IL. IL Will not matter whether we
admit 1t or not il we throw our markets open
10 It's products. Then there will be no reason
Tor Its further exclusion; and if .he dealer Is
to buy. his goods in the cheapest market with
out reference to who makes them, we shall
have to let the producer buy his labor in the
cheapest market also. whether that be China
or Italy or Hungary.
Mr.. Harrison was quite right when he said
that the final outcome of the worship OF
cheapness, which Free Traders preach, must
be the cheapening OF men. That Is the sore
experience of the laboring classes of Europe
under legislation which cares only for the
consumer and not for the producer. That is
why they fly in millions from the areas of
greatest cheapness to the Opposition" Of our
Tariff. They find that, instead of the Tariff
taking from them with one hand what it
gives with the other," it gives nearly seven
times as much as it takes. And they decline
to believe that American wages can be main
tanned at the present level after we have Of
fered to buy our supplies from the cheap
capital and laber of Europe and even OF Asia
All the favorite arguments of the Free
Traders turn on things and their cost, not
on men and their welfare. They take up the
latter only when driven to it by the facts
alleged by Protectionists. Logically, the
Free trader is bound to hold that the CON-
munity has to consider only the former, and
that we owe nothing to labor but such a
chance as the competitions of the worlds
markets furnish. 1t would establish in the
and survival of the fittest' which is the law
of savage life, but which civilization super
sedes as the essence OF barharlsm. The
Scotch saying, ''Deil tax the hinmost" is
its ultimate evangel," as Carlisle would
say.
Lastly, as to this argument from cost
Mr.. Edward Atkinson finds that the prices
of necessarIes have fallen from 26 to 46 per
cent. since our present tariff was enacted.
How does this compOrt with the idea that
the manufacturers have been adding to the
cost of the homemade product nearly the
whole amount of the duty on the imported
article? 1t is Mr.. Cleveland and Mr.. Springer
who makes that assertion, and nobody but
convinced Free Traders ever make it. If the
duty were . thousand dollars ton on iron,
would iron go up accordingly? Ii some great
cataclysm were to annihilate Great Britain,
would we witness an indefinite rise in the
price of all those commodities in whose pro-
duction she now completes with us? Ii there
were not another country in the world besides
ourselves, could we not manage to supply our
people with all the great staples of necessary
use in ample quantity and OF quality and
price determined by fair remuneration to
| ldDUI DO VIC nSSQ buO companions VI
Europe to give us grip en- the Eighth Com
mandment?
When protective tariff is new the prices
and profits under it are high but when home
competition has had its full scope these fall
to as low level as the cost of production
admits Of The Free Traders had little or
nothing to say of these effects of home COM
petition until they took up the question of
Trusts; then they discovered that it was
nothing less than crime for any manufact-
ureer to deprive the public of the benefits of
that home competition. They wished to
punish the guilty manufacturers by ABOLISH
ing Protection for all, whether guilty or in
n0cent, The Protectionist feels the evil of
Trusts to be great, because they deprive the
community of its great safeguard against ex-
cessive charges and unfair profits; but he
looks to legislation for some juster and less
revolutionary method of suppressing the in
EQUITY He believes that it is possible to
secure fair play for consumers without burn
ing down the house to roast the pig, and that
the era of high prices and excessive profits
can be brought back only in one way. 1t is
by adopting Free Trade now, and then, when
it has done its bitter work of ruin, beginning
the work of industry building once under a
new Tariff.