The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-07-28
The Magazines,

,
nature from noted writers Of short stories.
However, the Railway series continues to
grow in interest, the section for this month
being on locomotives, which 10 fully dis
cussed. The illustrated article aside from
locomotives" is drivers and Valleys"
with pictures showing some Of the most ro'
mantle scenery in this country.
The August Popular Science Monthly has
done q splendid service in publishing an
article from the pen Of Prof Jordan of the
University of Indiana, entitled "The Octroi
at Issoire: A City made rich by Taxation"
No more complete exposition of the absurdity
Of tho protective tariff has ever came under
our notice. 1t is as interesting reading as
the breeziest Of novels, replete with humor;
but it reaches the bottom Of the case. One
extract may not be uninteresting. though it
is unfair to the author to select an extract,
since its connection with the whole is OBJ
to bring about the common experiences Of
America, the formation Of trust, lock outs
of native workmen and the importation Of
outside men, while the bosses pointed with
pride" to the happy condition Of the laborer.
So workman asks the great man, the
mayor, who fathers the system:
How is it, if the lot of the workingman
is so pleasant in Issoire, that there is not q
single workingman from Issoire in one Of
the factories in this city! How is it that
the mills are full Of paupers and rats from
Clermont and Jonssi neighboring towns
which had no octroi. How is It that the
census shows that Issoire is actually poorer
today than she was ten years ago; that her
psuper roll is ten times as large, and the
only citizens who have grown rich are the
city officers and the members Of Issoire's in
liquitous Equitable Confidence Society," the
local "trust."l Ifthe octroi is to benefit the
laborers Of Issoire, why do you put it on
the Issoire laborers' food and clothing? 1t
seems to me, sir, that when city begins to
fix things to help one set Of men and then
another, rather than to consider the common
good of all, it is on dangerous ground. Once
started on this sort of thing, everybody
clsmors for his share. Every man too lazy
to work, and every man whose business does
not pay, seems to think that the rest Of the
town owe HIM living"
Warming up with the subject, he contin'
ued:
"Take this milestone business Of yours, for
example. 1t is all folly TO talk of the wealth
in your stone'quarries, if you have to hire
their owners to work them. If we can buy
millstones in Clermont for less than it costs
TO cut them in Issoire, it is money in our
pockets to leave them in the ground. If any
| lire of business needs to be constantly
propped up, and cannot live except at the
expense Of its neighbors, it is no industry at
all. 1t is beggary. And this octroi of
yours has made beggar or brigand Of
every Industry in Issoire!"
To help the workman, bounties were paid,
and the bounties emptied the treasury. Then
more octroi was levied. Whereas it had
been levied at first only on boots it was
gradually levied on 1872 other articles. This
filled the treasury again, and it stimulated a
large number of infant industries, which
had previously been unable to compete with
established industries in surrounding towns,
on account of the high prices of raw mater
ials, and especially Of labor, at Issoire. 1t
is true that workman Jacques and some OF
the other laborers complained that these
high wages were high IN name only. In
Clermont, men worked for three francs day,
but these three francs would buy twelve
yards of calico or ten pounds of sugar, while
the FIVE francs received in Issoire would buy
ten yards of calico or eight pounds of sugar.
But the school master wrote another letter
to the Gazette, showing that the question Of
wages was solved by an estimate of what
the labor saved, not by what he could buy
with his wages. every workingman, said
he, las statistics show, saves thirty per cent
of his wages. In Clermont, therefore, the
laborer lays up one franc per day, or three
hundred francs per year. In lssoire, he
lays up one franc fifty per day, or four hun
dred and fifty francs per year, difference
of one half in favor of the workman at
Issoire as compared with the pauper labor of
Clermont."
The workman Jacques read this aloud in
the bar room of the Lion dor, and pondered
over it q good deal, for the logic was irrefut'
able, and yet after all these years he had not
four hundred and fifty francs which he could
call his own.
The August Forum has another survey
Of the sources Of our national wealth'by Mr..
Kelley, theI authorized exponent Of high
tariff: the nestor Of the House and the sys-
tenn: typical protectionist per Sc. Mr..
Kelley relies on sectionalism to prove the
righteousness Of his protective theory. He
says: "Slavery never was the virtual cause
Of dissention between the North and the
South" The question naturally arises
whether Mr. Kelley is crazy or fool. The
other contents of the Forum touch several
important questions Of scientific educational
and economic interest. We can but repeat
the statement that the Forum is scarcely one
of the most valuable Of the periodicals.
The Magazine Of American History opens
with valuable study Of the career OF Ros-
cos Conkling by Rev. ]. 8. Hartly of Utica,
n. Y, the text being illustrated with a
portrait of Mr.. c., and pictures Of his home
~ IT,;oa Tbara oro alao Recoll actions of