Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-08-16

FREE TRADE PLEA OF CHEAPNESS
Tariff League Bulletin.
The Free Trade attorneys claim as the
chief merit of proposed Tariff reduction
that it will reduce prices. And in this
they are at least partially, correct. The
recent experience of England under the
fiscal policy now advocated for this
country shows that cheaper wheat from
India, cheaper meat from America
cheaper wool from Australia and South
America have made Improbable lands
at home; that values of English farms
have fallen off 40 to 20 per cent, while
each year large tracts are withdrawn
from tillage.
If like result of cheapneSs is to fol
low an approach to Free Trade here, an
alternative is presented which it is well
for large class Of our people to serious
ly consider before aiding to strike down
the policy under which our country has
hitherto made such advances in wealth
and greatness.
We may well be appalled, in contem-
plating a shrinkage in real estate values
in the United States to One-half the ex-
tent experienced in England, and the
losses of farms and homes it would en-
tail upon those industrious toilers who
have incurred debts in securing homes
for themselves and families. Under a
decline of one-fourth its present value,
the man who had bought home for
$1,000, and by years of industry and
saving paid $1,000, would still find him
self owing $1,000 for property worth but
$1,000. In the midst of the cheapness
with which he has been cajoled the pay
ment of this sum would be more diff
cult than the original $1,000 under ex-
isting conditions of ready sale of pro-
ducts and fair returns for labor. If the
adoption of the English policy by the
United States should be followed bv
one-half the reduction in real estate val
ues that England has experienced with
in the past few years, mortgaged farms
and homes would revert by thousands to
creditors, who, like the landlords of
England, would permit what could not
be rented to go out of tillage
In no other country than ours does so
large percentage of farmers own the
land they cultivate. In no other coun-
try is there so large a proportion of
workingmen who own the homes they
occupy. In no other country does the
fiscal policy so decidedly favor the man
who honestly and industriously endeav
Ors to better his condition in life. No
where else in the world can the laborer
get so many of the necessaries and COM
forts of life for a days work as here in
the United States. All this we are asked
to menace by adopting policy that has
thrice brought disaster to the business
of this country-a policy with but one
aggressive advocate among all the ma
tionS of Europe, and that one nation to-
day presenting within her borders some
of the strongest possible arguments
against the policy she seeks to enforce
upon others. While the Golden Club
and leading British journals are preach
ing the benefits of Free Trade, the Brit
ish farmer is depressed, 100000 work
men are idle, and the police of London
are kept busy suppressing uprisings of
men made desperate by hearing their
cry for bread. Nothing can be
dearer than "cheapness" bought at such
q price; nothing more un- American than
a policy which makes such a condition.
JOHN PORTS writes TO South Missouri !
editor to stop his paper for reasons
which he thus explains: - hey pade to
much alredy and yu don't sig MS enhy
funny eyetems yu are awl the time rltinc
IN unllYtyalyp - |