The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-05-03

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and II 1t Is cheap in London and Liverpool
it will be cheaper still in Chicago, He &C
knowledges an inter-dependelce between
the two markets that as the price in the ont
rises or falls, SO does the other, though thou
sands of.miles interven yet do they vibrate
in unison. Let us suppose that tomorrow
wheat in Chicago TO be selling for thirty
cents per bushel, its influence is at once fell
at both London and at Liverpool, and it can
be purchased there at about the same price
plus the cost of transportation.
| In 1888, we raised in round numbers 500,-
100000 bushels of wheat, out of this vast
number we exported about "a, 000, 900 bushels
or about one fifteenth of the country's prod
uet. III came into competition with the
wheat raised by pauper labor in India and
Egypt, and as Mr.. Wheeler acknowledges,
| we could "only get that price which is al
lowed them in the face of the worlds compe-
tltlon." Ii we open up our markets thous-
| ands will be obliged to leave their crafts,
must vacate our mills and turn their atten,,
tion to the soil. They must raise wheat the
| great staple-the staff of life; suppose we
should then raise 1000, 100000 bushels of
| wheat-0ur valuable home market would be
partially destroyed, and what are we going
TO do with II? Where can we sell 1t? Inter
| nal competition will decide the very small
price to be paid in our own more than
glqtted market, and Mr. Wheeler practically
acknowledges that our supply here will in
tiuence the markets In London and Liver
with free trade probable. VIII the farmer
then be enabled to pay an obean freight and
make a fair exchange for what he needs +?
Wlll prices In London and Liverpool rise in
iluenced by such circumstances? Then such
policy would be continually taxing the
strength of a virgin soil, our new lands
would soon grow old. That is condition not
troubling us much today but Ii must the gen.
eratiOnS to follow.
The price Of any commodity is regulated
by the laws of supply and demand and by
the cost Of labor required in its manufacture
Ii the supply fails to meet the demand, the
price OF the commodity rises; on the other
hand IL the supply IS greater than the de,
although it is staple and necessity, IL we
have an over production the price falls. Yet
under the proposed system of Mr.. Wheeler.
we might be successful in driving the wheat
OF India and Egypt from the markets Of Eng
land, but in so doing we should bring our
farmers under yoke Of serfdom too horrible
to contemplate Let the farmer understand
the facts in their true light, and he will be a
protectionist every time.
Mr.. Wheeler states that, "a protective
tariff unduly stimulates improbable indus
tries" He means we have industries manu-
featuring articles which could be purchased,
were 1t not for the high protective tariff
cheaper in foreign market. Let us ex-
anime the result of protection and see for
ourselves: Take iron and steel: In 1862,
steel-rails of English make could be pur-
chased, landed in New York for S1O3.44 in
gold, with duty Of As per cent. unpaid. In
1870 protective duty OF S2S per ton was laid
upon them, and from that time we have held
our own markets, and have produced our
steel rails as cheaply here as we could have
purchased them from England. That Is in
stead OF paying out our gold to England's
iron kings and being dependant upon their
generosity for prices, we furnished employ
ment to thousands of men, and manufactured
our own steel rails at cost less than they
could be purchased from England. Today
they are cheaper in this country in point OF
fact than in Great Britain. The effect of our
own low cost OF productions-caused by the
discovery of new processes and by internal
competition, resulted in an almost CORE
spending reduction in the English price. In
1870 only 10000 tons of steel rails were man
ufactured in the United Stated. In 1888 our
country produced 1856, 277 tons or over 400
600 tons in excess of the product of Great
Britain herself. In the face Of such statis-
tics we can afford to be generous, and for the
moment allow as MIR. Wheeler would have
us believe that "a protective tariff unduly
stimulates improbable industries" Yet
what glorious resultsl Now does Mr..
Wheeler candidly believe, for do not think
he can have many followers, does he believe
1t would have been better for the country, to
have kept on exporting her gold to Ecgland
at on exorbitant price in exchange for steel
rails? Does he believe that this would have
built up our merchant marine? If it had,
would not the entire country have been pay
ing dearly for it? And are we not justified
ito pay an unnatural price for the products
of such industries in order to make them
profitable?" Were the first steel manufac-
turers spending their energies in what Is
for the country at large Improbable labor?"
No answer is needed; the conditions Of such
manufactures stop denial and reply.
The same might be said of many other
manufacturing industries that have been
fostered under the powerful arm Of protec-
finn And in a1nnOcf limo ha afraaf 81
our own competition has made itself felt be-
yond the seas. And even should free trade
become our policy, we must all acknowledge
that protection has made 1t possible.
MIR. Wheeler cites the instance of the
Maine farmer as purchasing his corn in the
West: Why it is one of those innumerable
benefits of our protective system to both the
Maine and Western farmers. The Western
corn producer is encouraged to find that his
Maine brother will purchase his corn-a crop
which, owing to natural conditions, he can
produce cheaper than his brother Here he
finds ready home market at a better price
than he would get If 1t must be sent across
the sea "in the face Of the worlds competi-
tion." And on the other hand the Maine
farmer, finding that his Western brethren
can furnish his supply cheaper than he can
raise it himself, willingly turns his labors to
other and more valuable crops. What better
illustration could be found favoring the
maintenance of home markets?
Diversified industries are elements OF ma
tlonal greatness, indivisable and inseparal
Bile: Industrial dependence is industrial
serfdom.
Mr.. Wheeler thinks that our "high tariff
ls adding silently, remorselessly, far more
largely than We realize, to the cost of living
OF every man, woman and child in our land"
1t is a too we'll recognized fact that our labor
ing men. women and children receive greater
wages, than do the less favored English
people; furthermore it is well recognized
that the staples of life are cheaper here than
in Great Britain Suppose we do pay little
more for the hat and clothes we wear, can
not We. well afford il? Our laboring popu-
latlon live better, enjoy more of the comforts
and luxuries Of life. than our contemporaries
across the sta, Protection keeps up the
standard Of wages, enables us TO pay out in
good hard money over S1,000000000 in wages
to the 100000 men, women and children
engaged in our manufacturing enterprises,
which to-day in this country number over
100000. And yet we are told and expected
to believe, by such gentlemen as Mr..
Wheeler, that all the new fits Of protection
are unreal that its duties are nDjust-that
its, results fall far short of the glorious
millennium. which free trade would but in
tr0duce. On the other hand we must cast
aside the policy that has made this country
what it is-the richest and greatest manu-
featuring nation on the Globe-all in a little
these new fits, the system has not as yet
reached perfection fOl slight
changes are continually arising. yet it does
seem to fulfill the Utiltarian doctrine of
John Stuart Mill, of THE greatest good to
the greatest number" and accomplishing
this, it is indeed system deserving of uni
versal Endorsement.
join issue with Mr. Wheeler when he
says, "but the claim that labor is protected
in this country is utterly without foundation
there has been free trade in
labor .. The one great fault of
our system Is the very evil 1t pretends, In
measure to ameliorate. Labor in and of it.
self isl wanting in the first Vestige of
protection. While our system protects and
encourages manufacturing industries and
the manufacturer, 1t fails to discriminate in
our labOring classes-the refuse of European
cities, having once set their feet upon our
soil, citizens or not, are granted unstintiDg,
place equally favorable with our own and
native born beneath the benefcient shade
OF wide-spreading protection. And to the
influences of AN unnatural immigration may
bet aced the causes of many of our recent
labor disturbances. But we must not dis
pair, time and the continuous agitation of
public opinion upon this point, will some
day initiate the evils of this ungainly prob
lem, and our debtor will still remain-pro-
lection. When the system shall open its
arms and receive the working classes as its
nearest, dearest and most cherished charge.
when the pauper labor, the human refuse
of European cities shall no longer be per-
mitted to stand stumbling block to the
higher prosperity of our wOrking-men. when
our laborer's stand beneath the fostering
shade of the Government and their destinv