Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-06-29
FORTY YEARS AGO.
THlNGSIHAT HAVE BECOME CHEAP
AND PLENTY AS A RESULT
OF PROTECTION.


A lady OF Providence, r. l., the
wife of a retired admiral, furnishes
the following statement to the New
York Press in regard to prices in
the days OF English free trade with
the United States:
"FOrty years ago, when ] was a
young lady, ! remember what prices
we had to pay for the things we wore
and the cloth we used. We paid 81
a yard for French calico, and it was
considered then quite IA dressy arti-
Gle for young ladies to wear, too
We bought English cambria for 70
cents "A yard, and | well remember
that when we were hemmiDg our
handkerchieis we used TO break Our
needles by the dozen there was so
much lime in the goods. But we
had to take what the English and
French would send us, and we had
to pay for it pretty much whateYer
they were disposed TO ask for it,
1t seems to me very strange that
any one who has lived long enough
to be able to compare those times
with these should be free trader"
Those were the days, also, when
the farmer had very little market
for his produce. 10 took two dozen
eggs or a pound Of butter to buy a
pound of sugar, and tea and coffee
were too expensive to be INDUCED
in 10y those who had mortgages
upon their farms. No farmer kept
a larger number OF sheep than was
need to supply the family in wool
and mutton, for there was absolute
ly no market for wool, and there
are those who remember how the
surplus was tied up in bundles till
the next year and the extra sheep
put to death and eaten for the crime
of loading their backs too heavily.
A dress coat was worn almost a
lifetime, and we can recall one
well.tO-dO farmer whose blue coat
with high shoulders, broad collar
and brass buttons did service tor
his first wedding, the funeral of
his first wife, and his second wed.
ding, the three events covering a
period of twelve years. In those
days wheat brought 70 cents a
busbel, corn 80 cents and oats 20
to % cents, the sole market for the
latter being the canal.
Those were the days of free trade.
There were no great manufacturing
cities to consume the products OF
the farm and the only salable crop
was wheat, which could be export.
ed. England had a monopoly of
our trade, and there was no induce
ment to the capitalist 10 invest in
manufactures, or to inventive &C.
MUS TO devise labor saving machin.
cry. Enterprise was dead.
The change came when a prOtec.
tive tariff was put upon American
products. How great that change
has become in forty years can be
understood by a comparison of
prices and conditions. The com.
mon people of the United States
are immeasurably in advance of
their ancestors in everything that
pertains to prosperity and civlliza.
ton. Has the same progress been
made in free trade Englandl The
move has been in the opposite di.
rectiOn. The working people there
are poorer, more ignorant, more de.
based, and there Is a larger proper
ton living in almshOuses, work
houses and other charitable institu-
tons than there were forty years
ago. Is it any wonder that one
whose memory goes back forty
years should dread a return to free
trade and dependence once more
upon England for both our supplies
and our marketsl