Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-08-13
Of Evidence Show
ing the Beneficial Results Of
our Economic System.
A Liars Trust on the Tapis-Tm :
portations-Tin-Jobn Bright's
Wish-Free Trade.


IF we don buy we can't SELL" and that
the Mckinley bill will shut out all foreign
trade. Read a free trade statement and
then believe the opposite always.
Twenty-f years ago the idea of pro-
ducing silks in this country was laughed
at; to-day we are one of the largest manu-
facturers of silk goods in the world, and
the prices are about one half what thew
were, and the goods themselves much
better.
During the Is years ending with 1889.
we sent the sum of 1920, O37, 1862 to Great
Britain for tin plates. A good portion Of
this amount will soon go to American la
Dor aud for American material.
I'll new tariff on tin plate did not go
into effect until July l, and the duty on
pig tin, which is now free, will not be i'm
posed till January l, 1898. Moreover, our
manufacturers have till October |, 1897,
to show whether they Can produce tinplate
In sufficient quantities to warrant the in
creased duty. In view of these facts,
would it not be we'll for the free trader to
wait awhile before claiming what we can
do and what we cannot do?
Our population is five per cant. or one
twentieth the population of the globe
We consume " per cent. or one-third of
all produced Why should we give up
this market to foreigners? Why should
we not manufacture for ourselves?
Our agricultural products and manufaet-
ures amount to about $50, 000,000,000 an
ually. We import only about $S00,0OO,-
900 worth half Of which comes in fee.
What a tariff lesson there is in these
figures. Why should we lot protect all
that we can make and produce ourselves
Millions upon millions of dollars have
been spent for the construction of rail
roads to take productions of the interior
to the seaboard. Why should not some
thing be done looking toward the trans
portation of our surplus to foreign lands
in United States ships?
One of the strongest planks in the re-
publican platform for 1892 will be the
protection Of American shipping, and
every true American would like to see the
Stars and Stripes respected the world over.
Great Britain has spent 1915 000,0O in
bounties during the last 100 years Why
should not the United States show some of
this generosity to the crippled shipping
industry?
Several foreign firms are sending circu-
lars to this country offering their goods at
the regular list price, carriage and duty
paid; and still the parrot screams: The
tariff is a tax.
Three fourths of the tin now used IN
Great Britain is imported from Australia
and the streets of Malacca. We can i'm,
port tin from the same sources and with
it coat our iron and steel, which constitute
81 per cent. OF tin plates, and we can as
II IL I,4a
the Welshmen call theirs English tin
plate. Five cents worth of backing and
labor may make polished shoe, but the
leather and labor on it still continue SO
per cent. of the finished product.
The gates of all our ports still open in
ward, and with proper discrimination
against undesirable immigration ou1
home market will grow larger every year
We are nation of high wages and large
consumers, and a protective tariff will keep
rs such.
In 1861 we made 635, 1874 gross tons OF
pig iron; Great Britain made 1903, 1870
tons the same year. Last year we made
g. 1000 gross tons, and Great Britain
made less than 100000 tons.
We consume over 80 per cent. of our
agricultural products at home now, and a:
soon as we got to making tin plate, linen,
pushes, buttons and many other things
made possible by the Mckinley bill, ou1
farmers will find market right at theil
doors for all they can produce and at good
prices, too.
Last year we imported about $500, 000.-
900 worth of farm produce. This will be
considerably lessened in the future, thanks
to the new tariff.
Subsidies are paid annually to the
amount of $500 100000 by England, S2,.
100000 by France, 81, 100000 by Germany
81, 100000 by Italy, $4,000 by Spain
and more or less by every nation having q
merchant marine.
81 wish that cursed country (America,
had never been discovered" said John
Bright, because" added the great free.
trader, they have no taxes in proportion
to their population. The farmers in Amer,
lea have no rent, no tithes, no poor rate
in short, They till the soil, but own the
land they till.
OF the 10000 hands in the jute mills OF
Dundee, Scotland, 1900 belong to famil.
les whose homes are single rooms.
The failures of the year 1857, after lC
years of free trade, exceeded those Of 1890
after 80 years of protection, by 100000
although the amount of capital invested
than was not more than third what il
is now.
Some idea of the magnitude Of our home
trade can he had from the traffic of the
Sault Ste. Marie canal, which connects
Lake Superior with the waterways to the
eastward. The freight carried in 1890
was valued at slO221 $4,000. This, re-
member, is a single island lake with half
a dozen competing railroads.
The tariff is a tax-on foreign goods
which come in to silence American mills,
to drive American labor from employment
and to turn a stream of money from
domestic circulation to foreign shores.
Our annual average foreign trade in the
wears 1856-'60 under free trade was $685.
1913, 600 or $50 90 per capita, and during
the period 1386-'90, under a protective
tariff the average was 81 Ass, $40, 900, or
S24. 80 per capita.
Now that the courts have sustained the
appraisers in their decisions against the
importers of pearl buttons, several mills
have started up, giving employment to
thousands OF workmen at high wages.
This is another fruit of the Mckinley
bill.
Mr.. Mills is so anxious to be speaker
that he is willing to be free trader, a
protectionist or ''reformer," according to
whom he is talking with. But Congress
man Johnson of Ohio says: Il am for
Mills for speaker of the house, because l
want an out-and-out free trader in the chair
held by Reed" Johnson also said recent
ly: Let democratic leaders, then, be
men. They acknowledge free trade in
private. Let them stop talking in public
of percentages only" Will Congressman
Johnson repeat these sentences when he
takes the stump against Mckinley this