Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-05-06

it's so'e object is to keep ON the peopl
the most monstrous system of taxs
ton that has ever existed. under th
pretense that IL helps the laborin
man. 1t is no more OF disgrace t
leave the ranks Of party than it is +
destroy watch dog that has gon
mad with hydrophobia. What a queo
scheme the Protectionists have of max
ing the common people rich-th
more tax you pay the richer you get
the more you pay for food and chothe
the richer you are If the day lab
orer can only pay enough for th'
necessaries Of life he will soon saw
enough to buy farm. 1t is not 81
surprising that men who work as day
laborers and have little time to read
are deceived by the cry Of Protection
but what seems strange is the fact
that the farmers of the central States
and the West worship at the shrine ol
Protection. Men who represent SC
much intelligence and have time to
read and think, why are they SO
blinded to their own interests and
consent to tax themselves year after
year on everything they use, until
their farms are being gradually taxed
away from them and into the hands
of moneyed corporations Let us see
how Protection affects them. The
price of farm products OF Iowa is es-
tablished in foreign country. The
Iowa farmer sells his wheat in Liver
pool, but when he thinks he
would like to buy some English
products for his family-clothes
for himself and children-a silk dress
for his wife and articles OF food that
are produced there. The Government
of this country, run by combination
of Protectionists, steps up and tells
him that he must not buy any of those
things in Liverpool, where he can get
them cheaper, but he must buy them
in New York or Chicago of the pro-
lection ring in America, where he has
to pay 500 for the same goods that
he could get in Liverpool for $50. And
the Iowa farmers mildly submit and
say: "It must be all right, as the mil
lionaire Senators and millionaire man
ufacturers in Congress tell us so."
These farmers are paying hundreds of
millions of dollars every year more
for their necessities than they would
have to do under free trade, but they
don't receive a dollar more for
their grain, as the price of grain
depends upon circumstances and con-
ditions outside OF the United States.
The statement that protection makes
high prices for farm products is abso-
lutely false. For example: In the
high protection year of 1887, wheat
sold in the fall at Chicago for 6S and
20 cents per bushel, while in the years
Of light protection of 1856 and '57
wheat sold in western New York at
81 per bushel. Is it any wonder that
while the farmers of Iowa are wor-
shipping at the shrine of protection
they are mortgaging their farms
beyond redemption? There is no
power on earth that has the
right to say that you people of Cali
fornia can not sell your fruit, wine
and wheat where You will, and stand
here on the Pacific ocean and
bay ad ibitum of any nation
who may offer you their products
without being moested by q custom
officer. There is no power under the
broad canopy of Heaven that has
just right to de rive the Iowa farmer
Of the privilege Of buying his goods
and household needs in Liverpool,
where he sells his wheat and bacon.
To compel him to buy his goods of
the American ring of Protectionists is
a parody on the constitution. 1t
makes the constitution of the United
State mere jingle OF sentences for
the Fourth Of July orator to practice
on and of no meaning whatever. Is it
any wonder that men who live on the
border become smuggiers? 1t is
enough to make Saint smuggler
when you see the tremendous power
Of the Government a partner in the
outrageous scheme of taxation
and plunder, under the pet phrase
to labor. The farmers
suffer the worst of all by the tariff.
You people Of California can see how
the lumber monopoly is great wrong
and detriment to your progress; but
while you would like the lumber tariff
removed you are willing to take
your tax on fruit from the Iowa farm
ers. The farmers have to stand the
tax right and left. The Protectionists,
from Dan to Beersheba, look upon
the farmers as common prey. The
only proper remedy is to sweep away
the whole iniIuitous system OF Pro-
lection, and let the products come
and go as free as water, you will then
see an era Of prosperity ia America,
such as has never been known. The
Protectionists tell you that everybody
can be made rich by taxing them;
that by taxing each other the commu-
pity can all get rich. If it will work
in that way on the nation at large, it
will certainly work so on q small
Suppose you figure out
how long it will take TO make every
person in Los Angeles rich by shut
ting off the products of the rest of the
world and then go to taxing each
other by doubling the price of every
thing you consume. 1t will be good
deal easier to figure out the time it
would be when half dozen corpora
tions would own all the property in
Los Angeles, and the masses merely
be getting living by the severest toll.
Yet that issjust what the Protection
lists have been trying to do in the
United States in the last twenty-five
years. The Protectionists tell us the
country is very prosperous, and say
that the tariff is the cause of the great
development in America. / deny the
statement in full. In the first
place the United States is not
in a prosperous condition, but the
great de elopment has gone on in
spite of protection, on account of the
cheap land which has been open to
settlement by people Of all nations,
and also on account of the deYalop-