The Portland daily press., 1888-05-21


prices of of 1873.iTo what does the world ,9, owe
this gain of S545, 100000 In a single year Who
was the fruitful mother Of all TINS gain
She whom In your short sighted wisdom
you have always called barren, tarlH .oso' ta@es'
and facing your most Opprobrious phrase.
the one you roll most lovingly under your
tongue, / dare 10 asseverate that II the wnole
world will repeal its tariff taxes England
will reap in the next ten years not only Ten
times these FIVE hundred and fOrty-hye mll-
lions, but thousand millions more every
year. Tariff taxes How men like TO fool
themselves with phrasesl Because the tax
ing power Is used not only for revenue but
as the barrier, and taxes are OdlOus, there
fore the barrier must be OdiOus also. How
can taxes produce? This Is only mere tri-
fling. Can you keep cattle out Of the corn
held by sticking wood in the ground? Yes,
DO you mean to tell me, said the wise
| pumpkin TO the engineer on the banks Of the
| Merrimae-do you mean to tell me that you
| can make that stream useful by putting rocks
| into it? Yes, said the engineer, as he pro-
ceeded TO build his dam and set In motion
| the water wheels OF mighty Lowell.
have said that the professor Of political
economy treats man as s0ulleSs aggrega-
ton OF foot-pounds. Let me give you
striking example Of this humanizing science.
Speaking Of shorter hours Of labor the
| British commission report from which |
have quoted, says, page XXI, paragraph 50:
II must be for the country and the workman
himself 10 decide whether the advantages OF short
er hours compensate for the Increased cost Of pro
| duetion or diminished output, We believe that
| they do, and on social as we'll as on economical
grounds we should regret 70 see any curtailment
| Of the leisure and freedom which the workman
now enjoys No advantage which could be expect
| ed TO accrue 10 the commerce Of the country
would, In our opinion compensate for such a
| change.
On the commission was Bonomy Price, the
| only recognized professor on 1t, and here Is
/ his sole contribution 10 this volume:
| beg to express my dissent from paragraph 80.
/ Itcontains specified Reputation Of the great
i Ephesians.l Shorter hours OF labor do not and
can not compensate 20 nation for Increased cost
| Of production or diminished output. Iney tax
the community with dearer goods IN order 20 con
| fer special advantages on the working man. Ihey
/ protect him, and that Is direct repudation OF
/ and fewer goods. BoNosY PRICE.
He is right, the dear professor, though
/ rather crisp and brutal. Shorter hours and
| higher wages are direct populations Of free
i trade"
Let me now treat you to an argument for
/ protection in America out Of Bastiat. Fred
| erick Bastiat Of France, was the brightest
/ free trader that ever charged down the lines.
| No man can refuse the tribute Of admiration
70 the wonderful play Of that subtle intellect.
| He has furnished the other side most OF its
| brains and all its dialectics.
| Yet while he Is arguing free trade for
/ France, i think he has proved protection for
| America. TalklngtQ Frenchmen, he says:
L
| two countries find themsetges placed in une-
| qual conditions OF productiOn;lt Is that Que
| lohich is the least .far0red Of Hat1re 1htch
| has the most 70 gain by liberty o. erehengeS.
He proves his case this way. Labor Is The
/ sole cost. All the rest Is the gratuity OF ma
ture. Whatever laber produces in one land
mere than the same labor In another land Is
| difference Of gratuity only, IL Is the meas
ure of relative richness Of the two countries.
| III one man should discover rich soil he
/ would alone reap the gratulty. IL ten thous-
/ and men discover II, the principle Of .c0mpe-
| tion comes in and the gratuity goes to con-
sumers. If one farm could double It's tertili-
/ ty, the owner would be richer. IL all
/ the farms doubled their fertility,
/ the whole gratuity would 90 over to the
| consumers. Let me illustrate that by some
| thing which Bastiat never knew, for he died
| II one railroad alone in this country had
| had steel rails, all the benefit Of that would
have gone TO the company. But when all
the companies had them, and thereby could
| do their work cheaper and so save vast
| amounts of money, some railroad presidents
/ looked for big dividends. What happened2
Why each one said can get little more
business II | do II cheaper, and get the same
| results. Then they began to compete and
/ the final result now IS that that magnificent
i gift OF nature, through Sir Henry Bessemer,
| the difference between the strong, long-lived
| steel rail, and the weak, shOrt-lived iron rail
| has, every dollar Of it, gone to the people,
dividends.
Let my poor scared friend, who covers his
| head with the bed clothes at night lest he
| should be deVOured by monOpolies take
| courage. The Great Maker OF this universe
| knows how to get His gifts distributed to
| His children. Since, then, the gratuitOuS
| part must be distributed, 1t follows, as Bas-
/ tiat claims, that exchange Is the barter Of
values, and value being reduced by compe-
| tition to represent work, exchange Is the
barter Of equal works. and. therefore, In free
| trade the richest country gives the most; ain
fact i levels itself down and levels the other
| countries up.
Now, which is the richest, Europe or
| America? We are all agreed on that. We
| say America because our eyes behold 1t.
| You say so because your eyes behold 1t, and
| you see one thousand millions wasted be-
| sides. What do you mean TO do? viii tell
you what we mean 10 do. We mean to keep
| this wealth here. We mean TO do IL even II
we build Chinese wall Of tariff taxes
Let me give this great truth Of Bastlat's
| another application. Nature produces all.
That is the origin Of the mneh-abused phrase
| ''The farmer pays all" Whenever the farm
| er goes beyond his farm for the qualification
| OF his desires. Bastiat, the free-trader, shows
| that he must then share his riches. Now
| whom shall he share 1t with, the mechanic
| at home or the mechanic abroad his fellow
| citizen or an alien2 Which Is for his inter-
| est?
Let me put it in another phrase Which
| Is it better for farmer TO do, send his sur
/ plus wheat q thousand miles to the sea-
| coast, three thousand miles across the water,
| pay the freight, sell 1t TO the mechanic who
| gets less wages, or sell 1t right here at home
| to the mechanic who gets more wageSP The !.
/ answer seems obvious. ~1
| exceedingly simple Reasoning In circle
| always is. There is nothing so compact as
begging the question. Truth is difficult.
Easy as lying. ..Is + proyero;, ..,y says
| buy for bushel Of wheat in Liverpool the
| same articles for which pay In New York
| a bushel and peck, will anybody tell me |
| don't lose peck of wheat, and lose 10 by
your tariff" Looks so, doesn't it?
But there are two assumptions you per-
eeive ON examination; first. that under free
trade American wheat will be as high at
Liverpool and British wares as low. In
other words the learned professor assumes
that two bushels Of wheat biding for one set
Of wares will get them at the same price as
when two lsets Of wares are bi iding for one
bushel Of wheat. Verify this seemeth TO be
the very thing we are discussing. This was
the very point the learned professor started
out to prove.
Mr.. Frank Hurd, the melodious child OF
free trade, is now traversing this country
founding great Grafton on the same con-
vincing argument. III laborer with two
| dollars in his pocket won In day In protec-
| ZIONIST America can buy in Liverpool for one
| dollar what he wants, and you make himpay
TWO dollars 10 Lne hhOde lsianu hduuldc-
| turers don't you cheat him every day out Of
| half his day? Dear, departed friend, first
great martyr in this great cause. why not put
| II the other way? If a poor labOring man In
/ free trade America without a cent in his
pocket, and perhaps no pocket In his
| trousers, should find out that things cost the
same in Rhode Island and Liverpool, would
the happiness he would undoubtedly feel be
anything more than an intellectual delight2
There are only two fallacies in this founda-
tiOn stone of the new Jerusalem. The little
one Is that what costs one dollar In Liver
pool will cost two in Rhode Island. This Is
rhetoric. Let us pass the rhetoric. The big
one Is that the laborer Will get his two dol
lars under free trade, and goods at Liverpool
will be as cheap. This Is assumption. / not
only point out that all this is assertion and
not proof, but think / can prove the con-
trary.
You asseverate that II part Of the people
now there left manufactures and went on
the land and produced more wheat we could
supply ourselves thereby with the manufae-
lures we failed to make and have prOht,
because on our fertile lands we can make
wheat cheaper than hardware. Perfectly
true, If prices would obligingly keep the
/ same.
What makes wheat so cheap today? So