Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-07-27

L
| gladly comply with your request for
answers to your questions.
But a word regarding your charge
that my advocacy of certain principles
is "self constituted" By that you
would clearly indicate that your own
advocacy of opposing doctrines is "ofli-
cial, that's, that you publish and edit
your paper, which is private enter
prise, as the appointed agency of some
public or special interests. | under
stand that it is not an administration
organ-hence your agency to be official
must be that of some special interests.
My advocacy is certainly "self con-
stituted and is only what | conceive
to be the duty of every American
citizen, the expression of an unbiased
judgment regarding all matters which
concern the public welfare. Your pur-
pose in asking the questions given
below is to make it appear that the
tariff is the parent of our prosperity
the cause of certain good effects which
you enumerate. You doubtless have
heard the story of the Cock who claimed
that his crow caused the sun to rise
and the trouble that befel him when he
found himself on board a ship bound
for the Northern sea. For a time all
went well as the ship sailed northward.
He devoted himself with diligence
to his great task of causing the
sun to rise. Nights grew shorter
and shorter and the Cock was viSibly
affected by the short duration of his
slumbers; but he was tough and he still
stuck to his task. At length midnight
was but the meeting time of twilight
and dawn, but the cock was game to
the last, and greeted the morn with a
weary crow. Finally the hour of his
mortal agony had come, as the sun
refused to set and swung eastward
and westward in an endless day. He
blinked at the sight in dumb amaze
ment and he went to his doom in the
stewards grip without comfort and
without hope. Many a tough old tariff
chicken finds himself at present in the
same deep trouble. Sunshine and rain.
natures great powers of reproduction,
the earth and all its fullneSS, are in
his mind tariff born and tariff bred.
Mans industry and energy would
languish and the hope and courage of
his heart would fail if the burdens
now resting upon him were removed
or reduced! But we are merely pass
ing out of darkness into more light.
We are merely learning what life will
be like without the poison of needless
taxes in our system. We wish merely
that labor may run the race without
handicap or hurdle, and find itself in
the end winner Of fair share of
the worlds prizes and pleasures, and
not be forever its slave. An ancient
legend tells us that a she wolf nursed
the infant founders of the great en-
pre- of Rome. We have reversed this
great example. This young republic
is compelled to nurse a litter of wolfish
infants who are not satisfied with their
natural nOuriShment. but who insist
they cannot live without draining the
very life blood of the nation. This. |
believe, is the real situation; and il
contains fun answers to your questions,
could you but translate them. But to
aid you in it will repeat your ques-
lions and suggest some answers; and
will undertake to avoid embarrassing
You with rhetoric" and you shall be
the Judge as to whether question or
answer contains the sophistries you
refer to.
LIST Question; " Is not the average wages of
mechanics and laborers in America as good now
rs previous to the war of the rebellion, when
there was no protective tariff?
Answer. For the sake of argument.
l will suppose they are considerably
higher. All you ask is, are they not
as good But we find that wages in
England under free trade have ad-
vanced much more during the last 80
years than they have here. VI. Emile
Chevallier in his work on Wages in
the Nineteenth Century" published
last year, says:
The English workingman has OBJ
tanned in fifty years an increase of
from 80 to 100 per cent in his money
wages and n diminution of 20 per
cent in the duration of his daily work
he has therefore made an advance in
round numbers of from 20 to 120 per
cent"
Don't you think that very young
tariff chicken might suspect trouble
when we find such condition of
things in free trade country But
before going further, l wish to say that
| do not state these facts intending to
claim them as the result Of free trade
in England. They are given merely
to disprove your assumption that all
our industrial blessings are tariff born,
and high wages in particular.
I'd Question Does not the consumer buy q
great majority of manufactured articles on
which there are protective import duties, cheap
er now than previous 10 the war -
Answer. Again, am willing to as
sumo that he does. But the English
consumer under free trade system
buys the same articles at greater
reduction still over the prices he paid
quarter of a century ago. Don't
you think the night is growing shorter
and the crow less confidents
Sd Question. lis not American labor In al
branches of industry better paid by at least one
| third than the labor Of any European country g
1t is likely that you have under.
stated rather than over-stated the ad
vantage in point of wages in this