The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1890-10-01


by the law of supply and demand. For
the past two years crops have been good,
the supply has been great while the de-
mand has been correspondingly weak,
and low prices has been the result. The
conditions have recently changed, and
as consequence prices are good. At
these times Of depression the man who
wants an office is active. He pretends
10 be on the side of the common people,
and he goes 10 those who have been un-
fortunate i'm business. 10 those i'm dis
tress, and tells them that the party In
power is responsible for their misfort-
unes. Over the wrongs OF the laboring
man he sheds biennial tears freely in ex-
change for votes at the polls, and Is will
ing To swear that all the ills the farmer
is heir To, from the ravages of the
chinch bug To the ruin wrought by the
devastating cyclone, is directly traceable
To political causes, and that his immc-
diate elevation To Office is the only
remedy for existing evils. Such persons
have i'm the past been able TO do much
harm To the best
Interests of Agriculture
and TO the real cause of the laboring
man. Happily men like these have, in
large measure, been shorn of their
power for evil by the dissemination of
knowledge and the growing intelligence
of our people, and Othcllo's occupation
is practically at an end.
am we'll aware that many good peo-
pie honestly differ respecting the tariff.
Our free trade friends insist that the
tariff builds up vast mOnopolies, and i'm
poverishes the many To enrich the few;
that il takes money from the pocket of
one class and puts il into the pockets OF
another; while the protectionist claims
that il does nothing of the kind, that IL
diversiiies our industries, keeps our
home market for home production, and
at the same time protects the American
laborer from the unpaid labor of the old
world. These are the views held by
many honest men, men who are not
seeking and who do not desire office.
The frcetradcr insists that if his ideas
prevail all manufactured articles will be
cheaper, and | am bound To admit that
in many instances, temporarily at least,
this would be true. But the goods
would be cheaper simply because they
are manufactured by the cheap labor OF
the old world, and the effect would be To
reduce the wages OF the American Ia
borer 10 the European standard.
Cheaper goods can be had, | grant you,
for a time, at least, and until our home
industries are broken down and home
competition destroyed. But you cannot
have cheaper goods and living wages for
the American labOrer at the same time,
and il is for the American voters TO say
which they will have.
One would naturally infer from read
ing democratic platforms and speeches,
that the tariff is for the protection of
class and not for the whole people, and
that as consequence few are accumu-
lating fabulous wealth, at the expense OF
the other classes Of citizens. | am will
ing to say now that if protection is for
an individual or a class and not
For the Whole People,
then | am opposed TO it, and will favor
its immediate repeal. But our tariff
laws do not discriminate against any of
our own people. And If our manu-
featuring industries are amaSSing great
wealth. as our democratic friends would
have us believe, there is nothing TO pre-
vent any individual or class of indvid-
uals from going into the same business
and getting rich also. Money is cheap;
IL can be had for and even per cent;
the track is clear and | advise our demo-
cratic friends to combine and go into this
lucrative business of manufacturing.
They will receive encouragement out
side of the tariff laws. There is no inn
pOrtant city i'm Illinois to-day that would
not pay a bonus for locating some thrv
ing manufacturing industry within its
borders. There are several articles that
we have natural facility for manu-
featuring i'm this country and which we
are manufacturing SuCcesSfully-and eX-
perienCe has shown that in manufacture
Of these articles home competition can be
trusted to reduce the price 10 the lowest
point at which the article can be pro-
duced in this country, and this is as cheap
as any patriotic citizen should ask
To buy it. We have learned
from experience also that in the
manufacture of many articles which
we should and now do manufacture, we
can not compete with the manufactures
of the old world There are so many
reasons why we can not do So They
have a larger accumulation of capital
i'm the old countries; their industries are
better established. and interest is
cheaper. But the chief reason why the
European manufactures can undersell
the American is the cheapnesS OF labor
on the other side of the water. And,
mark you. we cannot compete with them
in the manufacture of these articles UNI
less wages i'm America are reduced to the
European standard. And furthermore,
the moment we allow our home indus
tries To be broken down by foreign COM
petition the monopOheS and trusts about
which we hear so much, will lin that
event be removed TO the other side of the
Atlantic ocean, and we would then learn
by sad experience, as has been already
learned by the nations trying the expert
mcnt, that we would be compelled To pay
more for the manufactured articles than
they cost before. under the policy of pro-
lection. And again, if our manufacture
ing industries go down, what is 10 be-
come of the labOrers they employ? They
will be thrown out and must seek other
lines of industry. If they engage in
farming. as many of them would prob
ably do. they become producers instead
of consumers. and that sensitive law of
supply and demand would be disturbed.
and depression and hard times would be
the result.
The people should know by this time
that no great industry of this nation can
be stricken down without the conse-
quenccs of the act being visited by an
unerring natural law upon every other
"a NO pap not baVa