, 1890-07-03
BLUE FOR NEW ENGLAND
NJ. MILLS NTERPRETs THE m'KIN-
LEY BILL TO HER.

The Bill Lays Heavier Burdens on New
E~nElsnd'sI Industries, Increases the Price
Of Her Food and DIaEes Her Raw Ma.
teriaIs Dearer.
Hon. Roger Q. Mills has an article in
the June Forum on New England and
the New Tariff Bill. in which he cham
pions the of New England against
Mckinley and the congressional pesti-
hence" which the latter has created
Mills sees in the Mckinley bill a great
menace to New England manufacturers;
il serves on them a notice to quit as re
CARDS many forms of manufacturing,
New England had but few voices in con-
gress to speak for her interests on the
tariff question; and the pugnacious Texan
comes to her rescue in a way that will be
welcomed by hundreds of her manufac-
turers who nave been pe%titioning con,
gross In vain for the very measures that
he advocates in this article.
Many men in New England nave felt
for some years that her supremacy in the
manufacturing industries of the country
is waning. James Russell Lowell has
cast a prophetic look into the future OF
his beloved New England, and the things
he saw in store for her were not pleasant
to tell.
The Texas congressman calls attention
to the peculiar situation OF New Eng
~lAnd-north, east and south the tariff
wAn-only the west open to her. But
her population has moved west and
south, and has taken the manufacturing
spirit and skill into those parts OF our
land. Manufactures are developing in
those regions with wonderful rapidity,
and they have a tariff wall Of freight
charges serving as protection against the
New Englander. Distance does for her
what the national tariff laws do for the
foreigner.
The position Of New England is pecu-
liar TO herself; nc other part of the coun-
try Is so situated. The materials which
she must nave for her mills 10 manu-
facture are not produced within her
own limits. She does not produce wool,
cotton, fax, hemp. silk, coal ores, and
many other things which she must have
or go out OF business. A great part Of
h food upon which her people subsist
must be brought over long lines OF rail
way. n the freight charges must be
paid by the consumers. The chief neces-
saries Of life are more expensive to her
people than to those OF the west and
south, from when she procures them.
Evidently she n n buy her raw ma
terials from them, pay cost of transpor-
tation back 10 the DroduceIk and sell in
competition with local rivals. She can
not import hides from west of the Miss
isxippi river, manufacture them into
leather, and then transport tho leather
back to the west, and sell 1t in competi-
ton with the manufacturers of Chicago
and St. Louis.
But what can New England do? She
cannot farm-her lands are exhausted,
many of her farms deserted. In the south
and west the lands are new and fertile.
Her forests have disappeared, and she
has no mineral resources. She is ALSO
lutsly restricted to manufacturing. She
must live by manufactures, or Ego west
and grow up with the country" With
rivals ut home and abroad calculating
closely every item of advantage over
her. she must clay aside every weight
and run the race.
In labor she has the advantage of her
competitors: in the cost OF raw materials
b is at . great disadvantage; and this
burden she must unload. To continue to
carry 1t is to abandon tho contest and to
contract the circle of her trade. With
free raw materials she can dislodge mo
competitors which now feel a~-
tablished.