Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-06-06
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 20.
Everything used was the product OF
American material and labor. No effort
was spared to make the banquet men,
orable one in every respect. A new
era was inaugurated in public dinners.
1t 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
we're made by C. n Bliss, who presided
in the absence of President Ammidown;
Vice President Morton, Major Mckinley,
Senator Aldrich, Senator Hiscock, Sena-
tor Dolph, Congressman Dolliver 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 1.-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, aud contained among
other things the following;
"The Mckinley prices humbug j. no
longer the subject of MugwRnp 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-
BILE farm mortgage boyle 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
substitution of manufactures for the
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 unprofit-
able in the east This process of trans
formation is now as evident in the great
farming states Of Ohio, Indiana and Hi
nois as in the eastern and middle states
The result is concentration and rapid
| growth of population in industrial cen
tiers which furnish profitable, sure and
larger markets for local agriculture. The
! history of this movement, as recorded IL
the eleventh census, will prove to be one
of the strongest defenses of the Ameri
can protective system.
THE effects of the tariff Of 1890 OF
American labor and industries have beer
shown from week to week in The Ameri
can Economist. 1t has pointed out the
rapid growth of manufactures, an aver
age advance in wages resulting from {
larger demand for worllmen and in
creased prosperity in agriculture. Ii ha
shown that foreign commerce-both i'm
ports and exports-is increasing, and, &
predicted by the friends Of the new tariff
half of all our imports are now cominl
N free Of duty, instead of one third IN
der the former tariff.
at is characteristic Of our methods 0
discussion that we DO not deal in glitter
ing generalities. When it is asserte'
that staple manufactures are dearer nov
than before the new bill was passed, W
quote from trade journals the prices nov
and a year ago, and show that price
now are lower. When the 'reformel
shouts that the tariff is a tax we offe
him pound of wire nails with the trad
price list, and it seems to be quite suff
cient for his digestion. When we ar
told by the organs of Free-trade, as w
are every day, that American tin plate
are a myth, we send the doubter a spec.
men of tin plate, the product of Amer
can ore, American skill and America
labor"
The last number of The America
Economist contained all the speeches
full, and any one who desires copy ca
have one by sending for it.