Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-11-07

gy. Mr.. Bookwalter is something more
than q theorist. He owns some 200
farms scattered over five States Of the
Union. He is largely engaged in the
manufacture of machinery. He has
travelled all over the world. He has
seen the wheat fields of India and of
Russia. He has visited the great fac
tories of England. His mind is both
acutely perceptive and profoundly re-
fiective, yet the result of long and
successful career has been to convince
him more than ever of the fallacy of
articifial protection as benefit to this
country.
"Seven years ago." continued Mr..
Bookwalter, ~ visited India. l then
saw that high prices for wheat were at
an end. The cheap labor of the Indian
ryot was beginning to compete with
our farmers. The price of wheat for
the whole world is fixed at the London
Corn exchange. AS long as our farmers
have surplus of wheat to export, its
price at home is fixed by what can be
got for it in the open markets of the
world.
"Since then the price of wheat has
steadily fallen. The farmers here have
a hard stuggle to pull through. This
struggle will become more and more un-
equal as the wheat lands of India and
Australia are developed.
I'm one way only will the farmer in
this country be able to pull through.
He must be able to exchange his thous-
and pounds of wheat for commodities
at uninfiated prices. He can never
make money until the purchasing pow
er of his wheat is increased.
"There are two ways in which this
can be done. One is to pay the farmer
q bounty on his wheat and so raise its
price to the level of other commodities.
The other is to reduce the prices of
these commodities to the same level as
wheat. If you want to protect, why
not protect all alike-the farmer as well
as the manufacturer?
"Why should we not have free wool?
The farmers in Ohio get annually about
$4,000, 900 out of their protected sheep
and pay more than double that in
amount for clothes. No one III Ohio,
SO far as I am aware, attempts to make
living out of sheep farming by itself.
The sheep are kept much like towels in
ether countries, as source or by profit.
Yet it would be cheap bargain for the
farmers of Ohio, if they would throw
every sheep in the State of Ohio into
Lake Erie in return for the cheaper
clothes which would follow free wool.
One of the greatest evils of protection
is that it makes money scarce and dear.
An English manufacturer can do as
much with 500, 900 capital as an Amer
ican manufacturer can do with $500, 900
both paying the same price for labor.
The inflated values of raw material in
this county make the difference. Not
only has the American manufacturer to
pay more for his raw material, but as
every other manufacturer is in the
same box, double as much capital is
locked up in such purchases as need be.
The result is that the American manu-
facturer has to pay five or six per cent.
on his borrowed money.
"Now, the English manufacturer
needs only half as much capital to be-
gin with, and he borrows that at q
lower rate of interest. Think of the
millions upon millions of dollars which
would be released, if manufacturers in
this country had only to pay the same
in Europe. But that is where the rich
have the best of the poor.
''To my mind, the slavery of trade is
only one degree less iniquitous than the
slavery of human beings. 1t was q
great thing for this country when the
feelings of righteousness and justice be-
came so strong as to free the slaves
even at the expense of the great war.
"But out of that war came one bad
result. Men forgot the true principles
on which government Is founded. 1t
ought 10 exist solely as the protector of
life and property. It Is not the funct-
ion of government to step in and say
what price one man shall receive for
his goods and what price another man
shall receive for his goods. i'll work
ten hours day it is intolerable that I
am'allowed to exchange my labor for
its natural equivalent in something else,
but to exchange it for something the
price of which is fixed by government
at the instance of few rich manufac-
turers.
"Some day another group of men
will arise like the New England abOli-
tiOnists who will teach the people the
economic absurdities of the doctrine of
protection. Atpresent, men cannot be
found to teach it in the best universi-
ties in the country. 1t is even pointed
out by the protectionist party as an ar
gumeni in its favor that college theor-
lists are against it to man. The side
which adopts such an argument as this
must have pretty hard case.
"For the rank and file of the protec-
tion party have the highest respect.
The majority of them are earnest and
sincere in their belief, that the restrc-
tion of commerce is a good thing
for this country. But many of the
leaders of the party must be rank hypo-
critics. They know better than to be-
lieve what they profess. Think of a
man with the financial ability of John
Sherman, standing up and repeating
that the farmers of the United States
are the gamers by the imposition of a
high tariff.
HThere are two ways of looking at
this question. One is expediency. 1t
is violation of the spirit of the consti-
tuition to take more money out of the
pockets of the people than is needed to
carry on the government economically.
"The attemp to spend the surplus in
O reckless and improvident manner is
one of the most disgraceful things that
ever happened in a civilized govern
ment. The money should be left in
the pockets of the people to whom it
rightfully belongs. There Is only one
way to do this, and that is to reduce
the tariff.
lHWNl q IL