The Forrest City times., 1891-05-01
THEDESIRE FORREFORM
EX-COV. MORTON ON THE
 FEELING IN THE WEST.

TarifY Reform still In tho Front-Why the Farmers Are Not Deceived by Talk About Pauper Labor--Work of the Reform Club and How to Sustain it.
 Ex-Governor J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska, has recently spent several weeks in New York, making his head quarters while there at the Reform Club. It will be remembered that it was this club which took so active a part in the Congress elections last fall in Iowa, Michigan, Illinois and other Western States.
 Governor Morgan showed while in New York deep interest in the tariff reform propaganda which the club has undertaken. Being himself non-resi- dent member of the cub, he was de- lighted to find that all the money paid to the club in the way of annual dues by out-of town members goes directly into the work for tariff reform.
 To a member of the club he said on this point: "Every earnest tariff re- former in the West ought to be mem Der of this club. Every man who can pay $1O year will have the satisfaction of knowing that every penny of this goes towards supplying the sinews of war in this fight against an iniQuitous tariff system. There are great many men in the West who are able and willing to pay this sum, and would gladly do so if their attention were only called to the matter.
 "The protectionists have the advan- tage over us in one important respect They can fry the fat to an almost un- limited extent out of those who have large financial interests in protection. Now with us the case is different. On our side the financial interest in abolish ing protection is not so great with any one individual There are many manu- lecturers who are interested to the ex- tent of thousands of dollars a year in keeping up protection. The opponents of protection have financial interest in abolishing the system; but as with them the interest of each man is less than on the protection side there is less disposition to contribute money to carry on your educational campaign.
 "Now it seems to me that there ought to be many men who gre willing to join this club and give S10 year to help you to keep up this agitation. The legiti- mate expenses of your work of organiz- ing meetings at distant points and send ing out speakers to them and also in supplying taritf-reform matter to'a large number of newspapers must be very great The country should come to your help"
 Gov. Morton was asked whether the desire for tariff reform was growing in Nebraska.
 "Yes," he answered, "the yearning for commercial freedom is becoming more and more general and more and more t,@ t,af for of nrfb h. west.
 "They find that protection compels them to buy of American manufacturers their farm implements at artiticially en- hanced prices The Oliver steel blow, made at South Bend, Ind, sells for less in Canada than in the United States and so very often do Diston's saws And while the Northwestern farmer buys in protected he sells in a free trade market His meats and bread stuffs are fixed, as to prices, by the Liverpool and London markets. He sells against all creation, and he buys where all creation is shut out from com peting with the pampered protectees ol the Mckinley tariff.
 "The farmer sees that the profits 0. capital are the leavings Of wages. Aftel operatives are paid off the dividend funC is left, as is also a sinking fund, better ments and other incre ments, for the man ufacturer. The farmer knows tha under protection millionares, in manu featuring ventures, have spawned anc throve, like shippers in cheese, al over the Middle and Eastern States And 1t follows logically that the grea1 fortunes-made with greater celerity il America than elsewhere on earth--likt Carnegies, must arise from very large leavings of wages for division among the capitalists
 "For this reason farmers, mechanics and laborers generally are beginning tt discriminate between high wages ano high cost of labor. It is plain to then that skilled laborer in the United States, who gets in steel-rail manufact uring S4 8 day, may leave the finished steel rail with less cost of labor in i than less-skilied, less-alert artisan il England leaves in the steel rail mad, there by labor costing only S2 day.
 "Denominational wages are one thing and the cost of labor is another; tn, former may be very high and the lattel very low. Some farm hands are cheapel at 1925 month than others at Si5. Tn, cost of labor in grain grown by tn, 1OrmeT IS ltSS luGu budt COSb III STdll grown by the latter sort of labor On, good farm hand will cultivate well fort, forty acres of corn in Nebraska, and ge from that area 2,0oo bushels. But lazy, inefficient, slovenly man will hal till the same acreage and produce onl. 1000 bushels. If the former is paid $2, and the latter S15 a month, the cost o labor in the 1000 bushels is much greate than in the 2,000. The Alliance peopl, are now thinking upon this economi question, and will not easily be bam boozled by the Mckinley assumption and assertions about protecting tn, wage-earners
 "Alliance men are among themselve absolute free traders. They Sell to tn, merchants who will pay highest for farm products, and then they buy of thos, who will give the most commodities fo those products, direct or in cash I'm farmer and his merchant trade with eacl other just as long as they each find i advantageous to do so. The momen either finds the exchange improbable trade between them stops-unprofitabl commerce always dies. All legitimat, exchanges are mutually advantageous both between persons and between peo ple-nations.
 "The United States had growing trad with Europe. Her merchantmen ecket every sea. Transoceanic scommerc, grew apace. It must have been profit able, or it would have perished of it own unprofitableness. But it grew ant grew until the Morill taritf-and nov the Mckinley tariff-was enacted to xiii tito abolish that which was mutuall, proiitable--to eradicate the commercial advantages which-under comparativ, freedom-were mutual, natural, just an,