Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-08-23
1890 To 1900
Commercial Gazette.

] 1
Those who favor a tariff for revenue
only, or, what amounts to the same
thing. an era of free trade, have but to
reeleet Mr.. Cleveland, give him Dem
Ocratic House, and make such changes
as will place the majority in the Senate
on the other side, and before the close
of 1890 their wishes will be gratifed.
Then the effect of the policy advocated
in the message of the President and par
TALLY embodied in the Mills bill will be-
gin to be felt. But the bright prospects
of ''plenty of work and better wages"
which the free trade leaders are now
holding up to the gaze of the working
people, viii not be realized. The seiz-
ing of that shadowy bone, 1.-The markets
of the world" will not be accomplished
by American manufacturers as a result
of free raw materials and lower wages.
Not one of these anticipated advanta-
ges will be reaped.
What, then, will happen? Judging
the future by the experience of the past,
there will be a decade of severe depreSs-
ion and stagnatiOn. 1t will be history
repeating itself the history of 1850 to
1860 over again. And what was that
story? As Mr.. Blaine has recently said,
the protective tariff of l842 was destroy
ed through the treachery of George NJ.
Dallas, and that, too, after this State
had been carried by the Democrats un-
der the battle-cry of "Polk. Dallas and
Skunk, and the Tariff of ~" The low
tariff of 1876 was ushered in, and the
decade which ended in 1862 was one
which, in financial business sense, can
only be recalled with a shudder.
Let the record of the time speak for
itself. In December, 1S49, Messrs.
Cooper & Hewitt, speaking of the do
meStic iron trade, declared that ''the
great majority of the establishments,
judiciOusly located and managed with
proper skill and economy, had been
compelled to suspend work throughout
the land for want of fremunerating work"
President Fillmore, in his message to
Congress, December, 2, 1851, showed that
exports of breadstuffs and provisions,
(which it was supposed the incentive of
low tariff would have greatly augment
ed, had fallen off many millions annu-
ally. One year later he said to Con-
gress: "MOst of the gold of California,
as fast as it is coined, finds its-way di-
rectly to Europe in payment for goods
purchased. AS our manufacturing es-
adjustments are broken down by COM
petition with foreigners, the capital in
vested in them is lost, thousands of
honest and Industrious citizens are
thrown out of employment, and the farm
er, to that extent, is deprived of home
market for the sale of his surplus pro-
ducts.
Coming down five years later, to De
cember, 1857, President Buchanan Dem
Ocrats all know what manner of man he
was) said to Congress:
SIN the midst of unsurpassed plenty
in all the productions and in all the ele-
ments of National wealth, we find our
manufactures suspended, our public
works retarded, our private enterprises
of different kinds abandoned, and thou
sands of useful laborers thrown out of
employment and reduced to want"
Shall the decade of 1890 to 1900 be
one of low tariff, with all its attendant
evils? The way to repeat that sad chap
ter Of history is to reGlect Cleveland and
his free trade allies. The way to avert
such a calamity is to elect Harrison and
return Republican majority to the
House. The wOrkingmen of the country
hold the issue in their hands, and they
will decide it so as to protect their own
interests and promote the prosperity of
the whole country.