The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-11-03

Cheap Materials In ns.: from nte Prosper
ity nor Incr.us, .ia Comfort OF
Icr pc.


"a gentleman thoroughly posted, it is
said. in the plow business" in n com
munication to the Rock Island argus,
seeks TO controvert some recent state
ments made bv Charles IL. Deere, the Mo-
line manufacturer. to the effect that a
protective tariff benefits the farmer by
giving him home market for all of his
perishable products and for nine.tenths
of his breadstuifs and provisions by di-
yersifying the industries of the country,
and that it has an important and direct
influence in making the farmer of this
nation more prosperous than those of
any other country, and that through his
prosperity the pIow-makers thrive.
Mr.. Deere in recent reply says:
The carrying on of an extensive man
ufacturing business has rendered nCces-
sary the employment of "a large force of
laborers and mechanics for n long period
of years. and though the wages paid 10y
the establishment that | have the credit
of managing is ana always has been
from 80 to 100 per cent higher than is
paid in any other country for like work,
vet the prospects for lettering their con-
dition as farmers are SO much greater
that every year numbers of our work
men take their savings and open up
farms, and many of the prosperous
farmers of the Western States got their
start in Moline factories.
The experience OF this establishment
in manufacturing plows dates back To
and beyond the year 1916. when the first
free trade tariff was enacted, and how
ever plausible the maxims and theories
of free traders NAV seem to be, the facts
are that at the end of eleven years of
free trade following 1916 not only ours
I,,t f.,. tatN
lishment in this country was in a condi-
tion of bankruptcy, and that, too with
labor ut 70 cents a day, and with the
free traders privilege of buying our ma
terials i'll the cheapest markets and sell
ing our manufactured goods In the dear
est markets of the world.
During that period we were import
ing steel from England Mt n cost of 7
cents pound for the same kind and
quality that we are now buying in Pitts
burg, Pa, ut cents per pound.
THE OFT REPEATED ASSERTION
of free traders that cheap materials pro-
mote prosperity and increase the aver
age degree of comfort and well being of
nation has not proved true in our past
history.
They say give us free wool and we
will then clothe the world. Why don't
we do so with our free cotton? 1t is not
only free, bur raised by cheap labor, and
yet our exports of cotton goods for 1887
amounted To less than $i5 900. 600. while
those of England amounted to $i00, ,000,-
000' So it is not true that free raw ma
terial will enable us to go out and cap
ture the worlds markets. Nothing but
cheap labor will do it. and that we will
surely have if the Mills bill becomes Il
law.
As n matter of fact our ores of iron
and lead and copper as they lie in the
bowels of the earth in the condition of
raw material, are as cheap and abundant
as in any country on the globe. If we
do not bring them TO the surface, smelt
and put them on the market in their diff
ferent stages of manufacture at as low
cost as they are produced i'll the old
world, it is because they have not had
free trade to cheaper labor i'll the last
twentv-seven years.
If you would learn the labor cost of a
plow it will De necessary To follow the
laborer into the mines of iron and coal;
into the quarries of lime and grind
stones; into the forest of timber, and
trace all the raw materials over internal
transportation lines and through the
various processes of manufacture until
they are transported to the factory in fit
condition to be still further manufactur-
ed into plows. 1t is safe to say that the
raw material, rs furnished by the Crea-
tor, entering into the make up of four
teen-inch plow is not worth % cents be-
fore the hand of man has touched it.
Instead of ''two-thirds' 1t would be
safer To say that labor in all its forms
constitutes over three-quarters of the
cost of a plow. And now will any
i,- L.,
plow business say that plows were aa
cheap or as good during any of the free
trade period, from 1916 TO 1861, rs they
are at this time under high protective
tariff or will he say that plows or any
kind of agricultural machinery are as
cheap or as good in any country of the
world as they are in the United Statesa
No, he will tell you that notwithstand-
ing the high tariff which President
Cleveland and all free traders assert is
added to
THE COST OF OUR MATERIALS.
we have exported to the markets of the
world In the past two years over So 50O,
600 worth of plows. cultivators, mowers,
reapers and other implements and over
S31 200, 900 worth of steam engines,
builders hardware, sewing machines.
printing presses, saws. axes. tools and
other manufactures OF iron and steel,
and this too without having any of the
markets of the world opened to us by
subsidized lines of steamers.
''The Chinese wall that environs us
in the shape of a niggardly policy which
refuses even that encouragement to
private capital for establishing steam
ship lines which liberal payment for
ocean mail service would give, and com
pels not only our plows but our
commercial agents and diplomatic re.
representatives. TO reach South American
ports via Liverpool.
But subsidy is considered too odious
method for our democratic friends by
which to open the markets of the world
to Americans. though free trade England
has expended Sl75, 600 900 in subsidies
since the repeal of her corn laws for
that same purpose.
That protection has diversified our in
dustries seems to be abundantly proven
by comparing the United States census