Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-10-10
READ AND REMEMBER.
Thurman's Mastery Presentation OF the
Tariff Question at Port Huron.

READ AND REMEMBER.
Thurman's Mastery Presentation OF the
Tariff Question at Port Huron.
For nearly twenty-seven years we have
had the highest tariff that this country
ever knew before-an average fully twice
as high as it was before the war. We have
had that high tariff all this time, and if it is
so much for the benefit of the working-man
why have not the laboring men grown rich
in these twenty-seven years, would like to
know. Have theyl lCries of s'Noi Nor'l
If they have they are very unreasonable
men, for not year passes over our heads
that we do not hear of strikes of laborers
because of demands for more wages, on the
ground that they can not live on what they
receive. Again and again we hear of what
are called loczouts-that is when the en-
ployers suspend operations and lock up
their mills, because, they say, they can't
afford to pay any more wages than they
have been paying. Now, why are these
strikess Why are those lockouts! Why
are there such institutions as labor unions
to secure better wages! Why is there such
an institution as Knights of Labor to pre-
vent the laboring men from being imposed
upon and to increase their compensation?
What is the necessity for all these things
and all these costly and expensive and
troublesome organizations if high tariff
gives high wages to the laborerl No man
can answer that question satisfactorily even
to himself. If what these men say is true
about high tariffs and their effect upon
wages, why, all these labor unions, all these
knights of Labor and every body else en-
gagged in that kind of business, are simply
wasting their time for tariff does the whole
business for them. Applause. 1t does
the business for them, but not in the way
they like, not precisely in the way that
they feel it for their benefit, and therefore
they have to resort to other means to get
wages which their employers will not will
mgly pay. While am on this subject of
the laboring man let me call your attention
to something else. They say that the tariff
does not raise prices. Well, if it does not
raise prices, would like to know why the
manufacturers, or so many of them, are in
favor of it. Do they want high tariff to
lower pricesl Laughter and applause
There are instances in which a high tariff
has lowered prices for special and peculiar
reasons, but as general rule, as l have
already shown you from what read from
Mr.. Adams report and from other author
tiles, the tariff increases the price.
If it did not increase the price you may be
would not want it, and If it does not in
crease the price, pray what is the protec-
ton! Where does that come inl They are
so much afraid of our getting things cheap
er in this country than they can be man.
ufactured here by reason of the pauper
labor, as they call it, of Europe. Well, if
the tariff does not increase the price of the
articles which we buy and which are man
ufactured here, where is the protection to
the American manufacturer, and how, if
theprice is not raised, can they pay better
wages to the laborer! But there Is one
class of laborers that l want to call your
attention to especially. There is one class
OF laborers who have been, according to
the claims of the Abolitionists and Repub-
licans, their especial wards, who have been
especially under their guardianship and
for whose interests they feel the most pc
culiar and earnest solicitude. These are the
negroes. The result of the war was to free
about 100000 Of negroes, and 1 am glad
they were freed
They have increased now to about 6.OOO.-
600 or 100000, for the negro is a prolific
animal. Laughter. Now, how do these
negroes make their living! A great many
OF them go to town and pursue any kind of
handicraft they can. They go into domestic
service, black shoes, shave faces, or do
other things of that kind. But the country
negro makes what he gets by cultivating
the earth throughout the whole South. How
does he cultivate ita He either has bought
some land-and some of them have bought
good deal-or he rents land. Whether he
cultivate his own land or whether he rents
it, the crop he gets from it is the remunera-
ton for his toll. That crop in the main
consists of cotton, some corn, some
wheat hIlf ai,,lr- %
Now, how can the high protect
i've tariff benefit that negrol He raises
cotton and has for his share of the crop four
or five bales each year. There is no tariff
on cotton, gentlemen. 1t comes in as free
as air. The price of cotton, therefore, is
not raised, as they say, or lessened bv this
tariff tax, and yet this is all the negro has
for his labor. He can not get cent more
for his cotton by reason of any high protect
i've tariff, and he doesn't get a cent less.
He has to sell at the price fixed in the for
eign market, the price made in Liverpool or
London, which places the price upon cotton
exported from the United States.
1t is there that the price of his cotton is
nxed, and for that price he has to sell it.
tariff or no tariff How is it on the other
nanos Although he is living in a pretty
warm climate, the negro wants to be decent
and comfortable, and he wants his wife and
children to be comfortable. They need
clothing as well as other people, but upon
every thing tho negro buys to clothe him
SELF, TO clothe his wife and little picka-
ninnles, he Is taxed by the high protective
tarln and Is compelled to pay higher price
than he otherwise would have to nav. so
tnat so lar as he Is concerned there can he
no pretense whatever that the tariff is auv
thing but an unmitigated injury to him He
has nothing to sell which is benefited nv Il
he performs no labor that by anv kind of
argument can be shown to be benefited bv
It, he sells his cotton at price fixed In a
foreign country, because he can not sell II
Tor any other price, and upon every thing
he consumes, every thing he purchases for
MS consumption. he has TO pay an increased
price, and is thereby injured. Now, do
think our abolition friends especially ought
70 take this into their most careful eonsid-
GRAFTON.
They say that they freed the negro from
slavery. am willing TO grant them all the
credit, although there might be something
said about who did it Perhaps 100000
Democratic soldiers in the army might have
had something TO do with it. But give them
all they claim Do they mean after giving
him freedom to make him slave by COM
pelling him to pay higher prices upon every
thing he haa 10 use, not for his own benefit,
but for the benefit of somebody elseg Is it
not enough that they made him slave by
requiring him to vote for them and swear
not to vote for Democratic Isn't tnat
enoughi Must they also take all his little
earnings by compelling him to pay for
every thing he wears and every thing his
wiie and children wear more then he ought
to be required to pay!
New York World. The highest indoraa-
ment that can he criua., "a .Ia r.