Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-11-13
Questions AnsWered-SenatOr Cul
lom and the Free Trade Era Of
Depression.
u,ring the Price of Wheat-Far
mers and the Benefits OF Pro-
lection.
cleveland's Record on the Labor
Question, and Other Issues of
the Day.

A ''Stuueul, dShs. nave we ever ldQ
in this country absolute free trade ?-Is it
NOT the fact that the hard times said to
have existed in this country during free
trade periods means III those periods when
tariff was low? Did Senator Cullom, in
his speech last August, not make mis-
take when he spoke of the times following
the tariff of 1916 as a free trade timer
What was the effect of that low tariff of
1852"
Since 1889 we have never had absolute
free trade in this country. Your surmise
is correct, the times referred to are those
when the tariff was low. Senator Collum,
no doubt, meant by free trade time the
period following 1916, and if you will
read the congressional record of Aug. IL,
1870. you will see that Senator Cullom
quotes Colonel Benton for description of
the bad times following 1916 with its low
tariff. Colonel Benton said:
No price for property; no sales except
those of the sheriff and the marshal. no
purchasers at execution sales except the
creditor or some hoarder of money; no en-
ployment for industry no demand for
labor; no sale of the products of the farm;
no sound of the hammer except that of the
auctioneer knocking down property. Dis
ress was the universal cry of the people,
relief the universal del.and."
miller" Minneapolis, MIMI writes:
Democratic trade orators are all the
while telling the farmers that the price
for the wheat and other products grown
in this country is
FIXED IN ENGLAND,
chiefly in Liverpool. Is this so, or always
so?"
But for the receipt of the Milling World
Of Oct 20 we could not have as easily
answered the question, as is now done by
quoting from that excellent paper of the
date mentioned, and which see IS to clear
y convey the information sought:
Certain newspapers, politicians, and
quaCk orators are constantly asserting that
the price of the grain grown on American
farms is made in London and Liverpool '
Perhaps it is, to certain extent, but if
British markets really fix American cereal
prices, how comes il that the prices of
wheat grain, and -four have advanced
during the past two months In the United
States while remaining stationary in
England? There must be screw loose
somewhere. Where is it?'
democrat and protectionists, asks
1T has been said in some paper that the
principal or main cause of the rebellion of
the southern states was for free trade with
England. Is this SOP" The article was
simply quotation rom the confederate
constitution, prohibiting encouragement,
Or bountics to, or the fostering of manu-
flctures in the south; also was quoted the
statement made by the three southern
commissioners to England, Yancey, Mann,
and Rust, to Lord John Russell, that their
government, the southern confederacy,
whom they represented did not intend t.
perpetuate slavery, Ibut That ''they wanted
free trade with England and pointed out
that the largest imports into England
from America were from the southern
states, tobacco, cotton, etc
There is still another proof. 1t is found
IN the speech of the deeply lamented the
Hon. William d. Kelley, delivered in the
house of representatives Aug. 3, 1886. OPP
posing projected ruinous lowering of the
tariff. Mr. Kelley said:
THAT is the offspring of confederate
sentiment, principle and constitutional re-
strlction is thoroughly understood in the
SOUTH 1t is this knowledge that ELECTS
opposition to it from the men of hope and
progress, who expect to establish diversifi-
ed industries in every one of the old con-
tederate states.
In the course of an open letter to the
chairman of the executive committee of
the freetrade association of South Caro-
lima, written from this city on the 23rd
OF April, Mr.. Tillman, who having served
as private in the confederate arMy from
early in 1862, to the close of the war, and
been member of the forty sixth and part
Of the forty-se7entn congresses, aud who
now represents the second distict of his
state, said:
Shall We of the Palmetto state always
be selt-ldolitrous Bourbons, never forget
ting,
NEVER LEARNING ANYTHING?
Was 1t not our Incorporate zeal for free
trade that led to notification, and was it
not as much to enjoy free trade as pro-
tect slavery that South Carolina seeded in
1862"
Few southerners have been as candid
and truthful on the question as was Mr..
llIman. But the intelligence of the
south saw the danger to their manufacture
Ing interests should the Morrison bill pass,
hence many Acknowledgment were made
during the discussion of the bill that
otherwise would not have been uttered.
All, however, were admissions that 1t was
Tree trade with England that the south
particularly desired. and was the chief
c-use Of secession.
An Iron Worker" asks = ''Will you
2It5lge us by publishing Just what Sir
Henry Bessemer said about the amount of
money he made in making steel in the old
country; and please state whether the big
fortune lie made, was through the patent
VI from manufacturing only.
At the meeting of the British and Ger
man iron and steel makers at Pittsburg
aleIy, Sir james kttson read a paper,
Each had been prepared, expressly for
t9e occasion, by Sir Henry Bessemer,
suoWlng the origin, ETC.. of
BEssEMER STEEL,
and which concluded: "Some idea may
e formed Of its importance as a manu-
i5etnre, when state the simple fact that,
"a the expiration of the fourteen years
fsfl Of partnership of our Sheffield Trm,
Ine works which had been greatly in
.reaSed from time to time entirely out of
revenue, were sold bv private contract for