The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-02-11
A GOOD Night FOR TALK
1contsn..e f,.ou,. First Prnel

the large assemblaSe present were noticed
William f. Albeit Judge Albert HoT-
mann. Judge Black, Flavell MCGEE,
Henry Lembeck, Charles w. Laws,
Clarence Linn, DR.. Leonard J. Gordon,
DIR. Benjamin Edge. Herman Bennett,
Otto Krause, the Rev. G. w. Herr, James
L. Ogden, William Curtis, Isaac Struble,
w. Z. Pearson, William Grattan, Mayor
Benton, II. Lohsen, John S. Menagh, q.
N. Rice, James McGregor and Robert
Campbell.
George A. Heaney introduced the
speaker Of the evening as one who was an
authority on the question TO be consld-
erred.
Mr.. Shearman started in by declaring
shat the tariff question was q simple one
if common sense were brought to It's soIu-
ton. Tariffs were invented because it
was easier to collect taxation by indirect
than by direct methods. TIL idea orlgi-
mated in the desire of the wealthy class
to avoid taxation and to put it on to the
poorer class.
A TAX ON ooR
A tariff was a tax; the S22O, 00O,0n Wnlch
was raised annually must be paid by
somebody. Those who paid the taxw were
evidently the OF the articles
which were taxed. AS the poor by rea-
SUI I'll JlOl1 hhblOC1O III N"CNAJ
more than the rich, this taxation was
levied about ten times more in proportion
on the poor han it was on the wealthy.
Some time ago the richer class gave their
poor fellow citizens votes, but tney dls-
tributed their dollars afterward to con-
troll those votes.
After the tariff system started it was
discovered that the taxation went to the
Government. Sc a system was devised OF
making the tax SO high that the goods
could not come in at all. When q We'll
known Senator advocate of this tax sys-
TEN was asked, What is the principle
that lays at the foundation of protec
tion?" He replied:-"Principlel why,
there's none in 1T; it's practice" 1t was
urged, in behalf Of protection, that it was
necessary to shut out pauper-made goods
to keep UP the wages of American work
ing people.
~RoTECTIo AND WAGES.
The truth was that the protected indus
tries do not pay any higher wages than
the unprotected. When they shut out
goods from this country they kept Amer
Jean goods from going out. We used TO
export pig iron, but from the day we laid
on the tariff there was no more exported.
In the days of wooden ships the American
flag was seen in foreign waters. But
when the ships began to be built of iron
n steel, those products were ta2eds SO
highly that the ship builders of the
IllhIilGS duQ JIG OlyOC ran US Jul VI u
business. The census of 1880 showed that
Jersey City had the uneviable notoriety
of paying lower 8 h ~neighbofing
cities. 1t would be supposed that all the
manufacturing concentrated mere n
that the unfortunate workmen of New
York were clamoring for protection
against Jersey City. But the reverse was
the case. In New York the workmen
were paid higher rates of q and the
manufacturing increased in proportion.
1t wal a fact that our manu-
facturcrs in the unprotected in
dustriesr made more profits than the
foreigners even though the American
workmen received much higher wages.
Protection means the imposition of a
heavy duty which necessarily blotS a par
ticular industry out of existence. Five
years ago muslins were protected, but not
sufficiently, SO it was said, to establish
IN branch of that industry. After the
imposition of this tariff on muslins three
thousand women in this country were
thrown out of employment at ruching
making, as the foreign manufactured
article somehow was overlooked by the
tariff. The greater bulk of the tariff was
laid on unfinished materials. The reduc-
ton in the cost of clothes which had gone
on here was not owing to the tariff, but
to the improvements in machinery which
enabled American workmen to turn out a
great deal more work than their under
palu european DreJnren.
Low ARIFF AND PROSPERITY.
The woollen manufacturers never pros
pered so much as under the low tariff of
1851, when a large amount of wool was
admitted free. Where the manufacturer
had no competition to fear but that of
pauper labor there was no cause for
alarm. In reply to Mr.. Blaine's argu-
ment that the country had not suffered
from panics and depression of trade un
der a high tariff Mr.. Shearman instanced
1887, when there was a tremendous panic,
although the rate of protection OF most
goods was higher han it is today. When
the tariff was at it's very highest notch in
1868 there was a terrible depression of
trade, thousands were thrown out of
work and the tramp was invented. From
1884 to 1886 there were thousands of
miners in Pennsylvania working for fifty
and sixty cents a day. And that was the
period which Mr.. Blaine told them was
n Of ~unbounded prosperity.