The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-05-06

protection has made the United States
the largest producer of manufactured
goods IN the world. Again:
But for the protective tariff we should
not have these great industries.
Does the Journal expect any rational
being to believe that the people of the
United States with al their intelligence,
energy and progressiveness-and with their
well-nigh inexhaustible natural resources
with their fertile fields, and rich mines
and wonderful forests-that with all this
generous equipment they would not
fashion iron and wood into useful articles,
would not spin, nor weave, nor mold, nor
build, nor grind, nor forge, but for the
tariff No man whose thinking apparatus
is in reasonable repair could harbor for
moment so grotesque an idea
Once more:
The establishment ofthese manufactures
has accomplished two things: First, it
has absorbed the population that would
have tiled the soil and produced great
surplus, making millions OF consumers
rather than producers; and second. it
has made market for millions of dollars
worth OF farm and garden products for
trlticb there lCOuid hare been no demand II all
the people engaged in manufacturing U6re
tIieTs Of the soil, thus reducing the area
that would otherwise be devoted to cereals
and other farm products which can be ex-
ported or shipped long distance.
Are we to understand from this that
people who till tine soil do not consume
the products of the soil? That the men
in mills and mines and factories eat meat
and bread, and that the men who plough
and SOW and reap do not? That when a
man leaves the workshop for a farm he
ceases to take nourishment? This, appar-
emily, is the Journals notion, for it de-
clares in so many words that ii people
engaged in manufacturing were to 60 TO
farming there would be mo demand at ali"
for tie farm products they consumed be-
fore they changed occupations. This is
very drolll We quote some more:
Furthermore, the people engaged in
manufactures and the emplovments de-
pending upon them in this country re-
ceive, by reason OF protection, from 30 to
100 per cent. more wages than do those
in Europe who would be depended on
to purchase our farm products under free
trade.
Now it so happens that there has never
been moment since the Mayflower ar
rived at Plymouth Rock when wages
were not higher in this country than
in Europe. This has been the case
under protection, and also I'M
der free trade. Thirty years ago,
under the Walker free trade tariff, tine
difference between English and American
wages was greater than it is today. There
is no possible warrant for the assertion
that "by reason OF protection" wages are
higher in this country than in Europe.
Every fact in our history bearing on the
subject bellies this assertion.
Finally:
That is, under the policy Of protection
the home market has been built up which
absOrbs 80 per cent. of the products OF the
farm, and has turned millions of people
into consumers VINO would otherwise be
producers. These agencies have had a
powerful influence in preventing immense
sufpluses and in advancing prices. But,
then. the ADglo-maniac editor will not
see it.
MI gNcs NtAlt ~ 81 ilhNptur Nllbl
the American farmer is today, after
thirty years Of excessive taxation, more
largely dependent on the foreign marke ct
than ever before. The high-tariG editors
know this, just ms they know that protec-
ton is a fraud and a crime, but they are
compelled by their hard task-masters TO
write against their own knowledge and
their own convictions and spread before
the people, day after day, such absurdi,ies
as those we have quoted from the Journal
OF yesterday. Theirs is, in Iced. a sad lot
BY the way, it must be three weeks
since we propounded series Of tariff
questions to the Journal. That paper has
ignored these questions. Does it not feel
strong enough now TO tackle them-say,
one at a timer