The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1889-09-14
FILTERED At PosToFFJcE As SECOND CLASS IlffE1
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER, IA 1889.
TACTICS OF TARIFF REFORMERs,


Under the promise of getting more
American, products into foreign markets
the free trade preachers urge that all
barriers against foreign competition
shall be removed from our home mar
ket. The unfairness, the hollowness, of
their proposal becomes apparent when
all the facts of the situation are given
consideration. Our home market is the
best market in the world; best, not only
for the reason that our people are the
most liberal buyers in the world, but for
the further reason that it is the only one
in which they can trade and have all
the profits Of the transaction inure to
the national wealth. The proposal is
further unfair because it demands the
giving OF certainty for an uncertainty
"a consideration of tangible and enorm-
Gus value for a chance to contest for
something already in POSSESSION of COM
mercial rivals. European nations, whose
'teeming peoples crowd the narrow mar
gin between poverty and starvation, al
ready have subsidized lines of ships
pushing the products of their factories
and mines into the harbors of every for
leigh country able to buy anything. To
secure any portion of this trade Ameri-
cans must supply similar products for
less money, or better ones for prices
now paid Europeans. The fact that
their customers in other countries are
unable or unwilling to use and pay for
the products already available is what
occasions the solicitude of European
manufacturers for better hold upon
the markets of the United States. Not
content with the nearly 100000 900
worth of manufactures annually sold
here, they seek t. still further supplant
domestic laber in supplying the wants
of the American people. The fact that
this would give work to idle people in
foreign lands and profits to foreign capt.
tai, is with them a potent argument,
while that.other fact, that increased for
eign purchases means enforced idleness
for thousands in this country, is deemed
to be outside OF those results they are
called upon to consider.
Not content with the decision against
free trade last year, the champions of
this unpatriotic policy have begun agita-
ton for reversal of the verdict in favor
of giving the people of this country the
first right in their own markets. With
out regard for consistency in their pleas,
these crusaders are again seeking the
ears of those who SO lately repudiated
their teachings. While one set repeats
to the farmer that competition in foreign
markets will swell the prices of his pro-
ducts, another assures the mechanic that
free trade will enable him to live cheap
err, Notwithstanding the fact that the
greater part Of his expense is for what
must be bought from the farmer. One
"reformer'' will tell the wool-grower
that under free trade the impulse to
manufactures will insure higher prices
for wool, while another goes to the la
borer with the promise that free wool
will bring cheaper clothing. Anything
to secure a reversal of last years verdict
at the polls. It remains to be seen
whether this effort will be more success
full than the multitude Of its predeces-
so1e.