Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-05-19
Facts Versus Fancies.


The arguments Of the Free Traders are
made mp largely with poetry fine rhetoric.
and cosmopolitan generalizations. They
cannot deny the remarkable prosperity Of
this country since the passage Of the Nor
rill tariff, but protest that Protection has
not been the cause. Nothing do they 30
much dislike as the solid array Of facts
and figures which the intelligent and
practical business men Of the country are
able TO lay before them in absolute refu-
tation Of the Golden Club theories. The
vast and continuous testimony OF ex-
perienee In this country il not only pow
erfully sustained bs the recent remark
ably beneficial results of protection in
Germany. but a strong array Of testimony
1. coming from Great Britain As to the
disastrous effect Of Free Trade on impor
tant interests Of that country. The first
| IL contained in a circular sent out by the
| British National Association for the Pre-
/ .ervation of Agriculture and other In
! dustries, which, after reviewing the de-
/ pressed condition Of various manufac-
| turing interests, and mentioning the fact
that q out Of 26 sugar refineries in Lon
| don have been closed within twelve
months, proceeds:
/ In every manufacturing centre thousands
Of thoughtful workingmen are waking up as
from a dream and asking Themselves the
| ques tion, Who has gained by this unrecipro-
e.. Il, af mol
sands Of unemployed mechanics and half
time workers or the hundreds Of thousands of
agricultural laborers who are every year
being driven into the towns already over
crowded. there TO become burden on the
! rate payersi And who have benefited by
this so-calied free trade A few persons Of
fixed income and a few importers and vendors
of the productions Of foreign labor. Thus by
the logic Of facts our present policy is ac-
commodating and helping a mere handful OF
individuals at the expense of the State.
The depression of trade has now become so
intensified by foreign tariffs and the loss of
purchasing power by the great agricultural
class that many SPECIALIZED free traders have
long been gradually removing plant and
machinery 10 countries where trade Is wisely
protected thus Ia fact unntentionally adj
hitting the mistake that had been made By
those who had held opinions similar to their
own, viz, that other nations would follow
our free trade example and that our indus
tres would need no protection"
Another contribution 10 the study of the
practical workings Of free trade Is found
in the Report Of the Chief Inspector OF
Factories and Workshops In Great Britain
and ireland for 1887 OF 20 much Of this
report AZ relates TO the condition Of the
working people at the East End of Lon
don, the London Times says editorially
1T gives evidence OF a hard. struggle fol
life among employers and employed almos
equally and this brings with il only too fire.
quenty great hardness IN the one class anc
= great hardship- in the other Ii is the i'm
mediate employers who appear to be wors
on and to be forced consequently TO press
more severely on those under them. The
; large merchant or manufacturer, the primun
/ mobile of the whole industrial movement
sees little or nothing of 1t in its working
His demand IL for finished goods, and hi,
orders for these filter down through a Ions
, succession of middlemen each of whom mus
: make his own profit on the business as i
/ passes his hands. The result is that by tbs
, time the woman or workwoman is reached
there Is but Il slender margin left from whict
wages can he drawn. The tailoring business
/ in some of its departments has the wors
record of any. The working time is long
extending sometimes to fourteen or more
hours in the day, with brief intervals at which
? a hasty meal can be snatched. The rate o
, wages varies very much. A general flu
sewer in full employment will not make more
than seven shillings week, and a common
cape liner about half that sum. In the ha
and fur cap trade, which keeps hundreds o.
females employed in workshops andesin thei
, homes. the pay is very low; four, six an,
seven shillings are current wages for domes
tic workers"