The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-10-27

Sale county democrat on Thursday, made
before Mr. Cullom began his speech: tina,
he would rather know Senator Cullom than
any man In the Us. Senate Senator Cul.
Ions defense OF Melville w. FuAer when
appointed Chief Justice will alao be re.
membered gratefully by the people Of I'LL.
uois In Washington, looked at from afar,
Senator Cullom Is great man. Seen and
heard from the platform of the speakers
box In Washington Square In Ottawa, one
Is amazed at the drivel II Is possible for a
great man TO utter. The utter indefensi-
bility of the republican position on the
tariff before an audience of farmers was
never made more manifest than on Thurs
day. The sophistries employed 10 defend
il would not deceive well read school
boy.
The Senator cited number Of instances
where the price of protected articles had
largely declined In price, which decline he
attributed entirely 70 the tariff Now, the
Senator In his private conversation would
not be guilty Of such statement, for he
knows too we'll that the universal decline
of prices Of all commodities for the past %
years has been one Of the most distinguish
Ing features Of the comm ercial world. No,
alone has this been true In America, but /,
has been true the world over, IL has been
universal since the introduction of machin
cry, of specialism in manufacture, Of the
steamship, the railroad, and the telegraph
the great eoualizers of prices the world
over. Man has obtained through them a
greater control over the forces of nature
which is utilized both in production and
redistribution; and given amount of la
Dor, acting through machinery, produces
and distributes at least third more pros
duct on the average than ever before. In
America prices have fallen in spite of the
efforts of tariff thinkers to keep them up;
so that effort of the Senator to impress up
on his hearers the idea that the tariff has
done all this for them is nothing more or
less than pure demagogism.
Yet having the consciousness that the
American farmer has not, because of the
tariff, resped the full benefit of the decline
In prices of the articles he consumes which
has been enjoyed the rest of the world
over, the Senator undertakes to show tina.
because of the tariff his grain brings a
better price now than 1t did in the fifties
when the country had lew tariff. This
deception has been exposed so often tina,
II seems incredible that a man like Senator
Cullom could be guilty of repeating II. 1t
is unquestionably true that prior to the
days of railways corn in this state di ]
bring very low prices, because of lack of
transportation facilities. Not over six or
eight years ago corn was burned as fuel in
Kansas and Nebraska for the same reason ::
railroads to carry II to market to exchange
It for coal had not yet reached the parts of
those states where corn was so consumed.
But II is not true that the price OF grain
has increased at the exporting port of New
York, where the ultimate American price
Is xed,-that of the surplus, which regu.
lates the price of the whole. The differ
ence in price between that port and any
part of the country is simply the cost of
getting II to New York, and that cost has
always regulated the price paid to the
farmers of the west. Put II in figures and
see how the comparison of prices look,
New York figures In all cases-the conn.,
parison is on corn, highest and lowest