Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-10-16
SENATOR MITCHELL. OF OREGON.


SENATOR MITCHELL OF OREGON.
Mr.. President let the doctrine Of free
trade or a tariff for revenue only, which
is the same thing, as insisted on by the
Democratic party be inforced as our
American policy and the result will be
that only those foreign products
which can not be produced in this
country will be taxed, while all others
will be permitted to come in by
the shipload free; and while for short
time the cost of some of these articles,
both domestic and foreign, may and I'M
doubtedly would be reduced to the con-
sumner, very soon the tables would be
turned, American produce 3 would be
driven to the wall, factories, mills and
machine shops would be closed, the
fires of furnaces would die out hun
dreds of thousands of laborers would be
thrown out of employment the agri-
culturist, the wool grower, the cattle,
hog, sheep and horse raiser, the dairy
man, the manufacturer of butter, cheese
and kindred products would all be COM
PEELED to compete with the unrestricted
and unrestrained importation Of these
articles from foreign countries, for all
of which the United States would be-
come the dumping ground-the free and
open market
And then what would be the result
further? Simply this: The excessive
importations, having crushed out Amer
lean production and having wiped out
American indus tries, would at once con-
troll the markets in this country, and
Immediately prices on the necessaries
of life would advance all along the line
to the consumer, and, as a result the
great masses-the mechanics, laborers
and artisans-would be menaced and
smitten with two-sided, double-edged
sword, one that would cut down I'M
mercifully and relentlessly the rates of
wages, if not indeed in many instances
cause an entire deprivation of employ
ment, while the other would carve on
the rate board of the consumer marked
increase in the price of every one Of the
necessaries of life. And not only so, an
other lamentable fact and one which
must not be lost sight of, would result
from such state of things, and that is
the money thus paid out by the Amer
lean consumer in such state of affairs
for the necessaries of life, would, in
stead of going to increase and aid in
paying the wages of these same con-
sumers, instead of going to our manu-
facturers and farmers to the producer
of this country, would go to fill the ex-
chequer of foreign importers, and to
swell the Golfers of the producers OF
England, Canada and other countries
When, therefore, it is insisted that
the tariff is tax and is paid by the con-
sumner, the answer is that this Is only
the case, or at least most generally the
case, when the tariff is a Democratic
tariff-that is, one for revenue only, and
not Republican tariff, or one primarily
not only for revenue but which fosters
and encourages American production,
and the result of which is not to increase
the price of the commodity to the con-
sumner to the amount of such tariff, or to
any amount, but which prevents de-
struction of industries by a ruinous COM
petition from abroad, and which, in
fact by stimulating competition at
home, reduces it far below in many in
stances, and in fact most instances, that
which it would be but for the tariff.
SENATOR PADDOCK, OF NEBRASKA.
Protective tariffs do not operate in
foreign countries to Cypress the farmer,
and yet he has greatly suffered and
many have been ruined, while our farm
ers throughout the West have at least
measurably prospered 1t is therefore,
the widest vaporing for our Democratic
friends to charge this worldwide de-
preston in agriculture to the American
tariff. 1t is quite as absurd to constant
ly ring the changes upon the alleged
burning of corn in the newer States on
account of poverty from high tariffs
Why, Mr.. President there has never
been any general burning of corn in my
State because of poverty. Convenience
and choice have been the incentive in
the vast majority of instances This
story originated in the hard experiences
of frontier settlers during some Of the
severe storms which occasionally pre-
vail in that section in winter, when the
railroads and wagon roads are obstruct-
ed and the cold so severe that it is i'm
possible TO move a rod in any direction,
even without wagon. At such times
corn, which makes the quickest and
hottest of fires, is the richest blessing
which wealth could command, because
without it the farmer and his family in
many cases would perish, and at such
times it is freely burned 1t would be
so burned il it were worth four dollars
bushel instead of twenty-five cents,
which is remunerative price to the
ia rmer in that section.