The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-10-31
FREE TRHeE NtAG&HK.1

by giving our manufacturers free raw wool from
abroad but how can this benefit you or them
when our WOODEN goods must be ruinously
cheapened TO meet the low-priced foreign goods
that will then glut our markets?
But, will admitting foreign raw woods free
make these woods any cheaper to our manufac-'
turersp Not at all SO long as they must COM
pete with our three hundred million pounds OF
home raised wool they will be somewhat cheap
ened, but only until they have driven our WOOL
growers to the wall then the foreign WOOL
raisers, having our markets all to them selves,
will demand their own prices for their heeces,
and thus fleece closer than their own sheep.
Thus at single stroke the free-trade Mills bin
will destroy our wool-raising industry and at
the same time close every woolen-min in tho
country. Are you ready and willing to meet
and suffer such a calamity? You can avert it
only by voting for Harrison.
Free traders tell you that free raw materials
will protect our industries as we'll as a tariff
Pay no heed to the falsehood. We have free
cotton and free iron ore, yet except for the tar
if, our cotton mills and iron furnaces would in
six months be all at a sheriffs sale, and then
where would you be? Surrounded by q starv ng
family OF tramping through the country without
home. In highly manufactured goods the cost
OF the raw material is, within reasonable limits,
of secondary Importance. The iron ore that
costs 80 cents a ton can by labor be worked upi
into material worth from fifteen hundred to two
thousand dollars an ounce. In the making OF
such goods it would be OF little consequence
whether the ore cost so cents or 50 ton. The
further the goods are from the condition Of the
raw material the less important few cents
one wa or the other in the cost of the raw
teria, and IL IS the making Of these superior
goods which brings yol the highest wages.
Therefore, treat all this free-trade twaddle about
free foreign raw material being such great
boon to you with the contempt it deserves.
Free-traders try 10 deceive you with the false
assertion that protection increases the cost OF
manufactured goods, and therefore the cost OF
living to you. But see now how, on the con-
trary, protection tends constantly to cheaper
goods and raise wages. AS late as 1872 free
trade England charged a duty Of from $50 TOT
500 ton on imported iron. ;. @ made IL felony.
punishable with imprisonment and transporta-
ton, for any American colonist TO erect n blast
| furnace in this country, and she levied duty,
on all raw wool exported from her own borders.
BY these, and other high protective means, she
| so perfected her own industries that she had to
preach free trade to secure markets for her sur
| plus products and we aud other nations were.
and are obliged 10 resort 70 protection to guard
ourselves against her rapacty while building up
| what happy results? you will ask. Well, to-
nS1 0n WOODEN blankets 't are only half
the price charged US by England for
tariff a suit of wooden clothing which costs now
$40 could not be bought ten years ago for less
| than SIS or $50. In 1867 We paid England Sl66
| ton for railway iron; but, thanks 10 the good
| tariff we now make all we need, and the price
| rangesfrom S31 to S35 ton, saving to OF
| over S130 n ton, which but tor protection We
| would be still paying the English ironmasters.
| In 1874 paid 1879 cents a pound for English
| car axles now, owing to protection, make
them ourselves and the price is AZ cents pound.
And thus you will find 10 throughout the entire
| list of our protected industries. As soon as we
got fairly started the prices o. their products be-
| gan TO fall, and, curiously enough, your wages
began TO rise. in proof OF which YOU have only to
1 compare the wages and hours of labor twenty
| five years ago with present wages and hours OF
| labor for the same kind of work. Ii is to again
| make us tributary to England, with high prices
and low wages, that Cleveland has bargained,
through the Mills bill, with his British support
! ers for a second term