The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-12-25
Didn't Pan Out Well.

Didn't Pan Out Well.
Early last season the Detroit Nc,Cs
conceived an idea, which it proceeded
To put into operation with great flour
ish of trumpets and much black-line
and editorial advertising. 1t was a great
workingman's excursion To the coun-
tries of the old world, for the purpose
of interviewing the foreign laborer in
his own habitat and ascertaining the
real facts respecting his condition, as a
basis for comparison, no doubt, with
his American cousin in similar trades.
As the NeUS has been for several years
Il fullhedged Golden free-trade sheet,
it is fair To presume that the excursion
was organized, first, rs II great popular
advertisement to spread the fame and
circulation of the papers of the Scripps
league; and, second, that the material
might be gathered and spread through
the publication of the letters of those
workmen which would materially aid
the arguments of the advocates of free
trade here.
The pilgrims made the trip, and the
NeUS paid the expenses. Every move
ment was heralded by means of special
cables, and after having been lionized
to their hearts content, the party re-
turned, and the papers of the Scripps
league settled down to reap the profits
of their investment through the publ
cation of the observations of the mem
bers of the party.
The first two or three letters were
well received, having been freely adj
vertised; but it was quite noticeable
that they had not ring calculated to
harmonic with the music in the heart
of free-trader. Their effect upon the
league papers was seen in the fact that
the illustrative cuts were omitted, the
advertising of them soon ceased, and
some of the papers in the syndicate
ceased publishing them long before
their completion. Some of them were
copied by protection papers, but few by
democratic papers, and the whole thing
fell fiat upon the hands of its origin
ators.
1t was good scheme. Why did it
fail? Simply because those American
workmen have learned different les
son in Europe than they were expected
to. They told the facts as they saw
them, and the results were not favora-
ble to a free trade theory. The Chicago
Tribune made center shot when it
summed the matter up in statement
that in every one of them the superior
conditions of the American laborer were
eXtolled. In every one of them disgust
of the European method of "cheap pro-
ducts was manifest. In every one of
them this truth was roundly asserted:
The American wage-earner earns more
money, lives more comfortably, saves
a larger amount than his European con-
gener And from every one of them
this inference was SO plain as not to
need formal expression: If ever Ameri-
can manufacturers are brought into
unrestricted competition with products
of the cheap labor of Europe, the re-
suit will be that we shall have cheap
labor in America also. The tariff is
our bulwark.
As republican campaign matter those
reports of American workingmen could
not be eXcelled, and they should be
widely circulated.
1t is well enough to ask the people of
this country if they want free trade, but
it is the height of impudence and fool
ishness to assume to decide for them.
They know what they want, and thus
far they have strongly affirmed that
they do not want that. They know, as
well rs the workmen who travelled to
Europe last summer land they have
clearly demonstrated the facD that the
"cheap products" of Europe are not so
cheap as to be easily in reach of the
plain common people In America
plenty is the rule, and protection is the
power that enforces it.-State Repub-
iicdn.