Arizona republican., 1891-07-18
AN AMERICAN FEAST.


 The Great Protection Dinner of the
 American Protective Tariff League.
 American ideas prevailed exclusively at the banquet of the American Protec- tive Tariff league in New York, April 29. Everything used was the product of American material and labor. No effort was spared to make the banquet mem- orable one in every respect. A new era was inaugurated in public dinners. It was fitting that the occasion of such an innovation should be the banquet of the American Protective Tariff league, an organization that is doing so much for American labor and industries. The linen, the crockery, the glassware, the cutlery, the silver, the tin plate, were all the product of American labor and made of American material. The wines, too, were American wines, and so were the cigars. There were some foreign products on the bill of fare (which was printed in English), but they were such as can not be grown in this country.
 Over 600 guests were present, and the utmost enthusiasm prevailed. Addresses were made blC. N. Bliss, who presided in the absence of President Ammidown; Vice President Norton, Major Mckinley, Senator Aldrich, Senator Hiscock, Sena- tor Dolph, Congressmen Deliver and Farquhar, Robert P. Porter, General George A. Sheridan, William E. Curtis, Colonel Hanson, of Georgia, George Gunton and others. Secretary Noble re- sponded to the toast "The President of the United States"
 E. H. Ammidown was called away to Europe the day before the dinner by the illness of his son. His address had been prepared, however, and contained among other things the following:
 ''The Mckinley prices humbug is no longer the subject of Mugwump edi- torials-to continue them would be too grave an insult to the intelligence of their readers, and too violent contra diction to advertisements. The venera- ble farm mortgage bogie has vanished before the statistical columns of the eleventh census. The oft repeated story of abandoned farms is shown by the same authority to indicate the gradual
 
 older forms of agriculture, of better in- dustries for poorer one, as competition with the virgin fields of the west has made the cultivation of cereals nnp-ofis- 2 able in the east. This process of trans formation is now as evident in the great farming states of Ohio, Indiana and nli- rois as in the eastern and middle states. The result is concentration and rapid growth of population in industrial cen ters which furnish profitable, sure and larger markets for local agriculture. The history of this movement, as recorded in the eleventh census, will prove to be one of the heItrongest defenses of the Ameri- can protective system.
 "The effects of the tariff of 1890 on American labor and industries have been shown from week to week in The Ameri- can Economist. It has pointed out the rapid growth of manufactures, an aver age advance in wages resulting from a larger demand for workmen and in- creased prosperity in agriculture. It has shown that foreign commerce-both i'm ports and exports-is increasing, and, as predicted by the friends of the new tariff, half of all our imports are now coming in free of duty, instead of one third un- der the former tariff.
 "It is characteristic of our methods of discussion that we do not deal in glitter ing generalities. When it is asserted that staple manufactures are dearer now than before the new bill was passed, we quote from trade journals the prices now and year ago, and show that prices now are lower. When the 'reformer' shouts that the tariff is tax we offer him pound of wire nails with the trade price list, and it seems to be quite suffi- cient for his digestion. When we are told by the organs of Free-trade, as we are every day, that American tin plates are myth, we send the doubter a speci- men of tin plate, the product of Ameri- can ore, American skill and American labor"
 The last number of The American Economist contained all the speeches in full, and any one who desires copy can have one by sending for it.