Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-10-22

| porting themselves and living on the
products of their own SOIL"
The Greatest Sufferers.
"Who have suffered most by the adop-
ton of free trader"
The same people who would suffer
most here-the wOrkingman and the
farmer The latter, in this country, by
losing his home market and making him
self dependent upon foreign combina-
tions and at the same time turning hun
dreds of thousands of workingmen loose
| upon the land, increasing and thereby
causing overproduction and lower prices.
Farmers know that much of the late de-
preston was occasioned by too rapid
development of agriculture in the West,
resulting in overproduction and low
prices"
The British Farmers.
''Tell something about the British
farmer, Judge"
About the British farmer? Well, his
lot is certainly hard one, and he COM
plains bitterly. The fact is, the small
farmer is being driven to the wall; and,
as you are doubtless aware, the rural
population of Scotland, at least, and
believe of all Great Britain, is actually
decreasing. Only a few weeks ago a
leading Scotch farmer said to me:
Farmers here cannot stand this
thing, and we are gradually being driven
to the wall and out of business; until it
has come to pass that the only success
full farmers are the large farmers VINO
can carry on a diversified agriculture
and stock raising, and the truck farmers
near the great cities; and we can barely
make both ends meet, and that, too, by
exercising the closest economy-such
economy as your American farmers
never dream of"
Why" said he, ''you have even robbed
us of our oatmeal market. The time
was, and not many years ago, when we
supplied you with all your oatmeal; but
now you produce your own Icould in
form him that America was not only not
buying Scotch oatmeal, but actually
shipping many tons of American oatmeal
to the Glasgow market, and L don't know
of a more practical illustration of the
benefits of protection to the American
farmer, and consumer as well, than the
changed conditions as to oatmeal and
students of markets rather than maxims
know that the American market is sup
piled by the home product, and at
much less price than we used to pay for
the Scotch product. while fair home
market is afforded the American pro-
ducer, Notwithstanding. This revolu-
ton as to oatmeal is of recent date, too,
remembered, doubtless, by everybody.
Stubborn facts like these are constantly
upsetting theories"
The Pay of Day Laborers.
81 have asked many men upon the
streets, public works and manufactures
and have never found an ordinary labo-
rer who was receiving as much as dol
lar per day. The late reports of the
British (nationaD Board of Trade show
that no class of textile workers (men) re-
ceive an average of dollar per day, and
of course women, boys and girls much
less. l had occasion few months ago
to obtain the testimony in Government
case of the foreman of great foundry
anu oaS COlupC W pay uIIl OLIC
he received at the works, which was 6
shillings-$1.4 A per day. l doubt if an
American foreman could be found in a
great manL Lfactory like the one referred
to, who receives less than two or three
times that sum. l have asked men en-
gagged in various kinds of common labor,
and in some cases have found the wages
Lose 4hoo nc and horro
never found one who was receiving a
sum equal to dollar. The great mass
of working men do not receive more than
one-half the wages paid American work
men, and skilled workmen are little If
any better paid, proportionately. Ihave
asked men the wages received by them,
and in some cases nave found the price
paid but shillings, 48 cents, and they
board themselves. No, the wages paid
the working men on the other side are so
low that comparison can scarcely be
made"
Nor is the mode of living of the Eng
lish workingman at all up to the Ameri-
can level. Here is an extract from
speech by John Bright, a free trader,
and the condition in Glasgow, from my
own personal observation, is worse now
than when Bright said:
Up the city of Glasgow alone Al, 600 out
of every 100, 900 live in homes having only
one room, and further, nearly one-third of
the whole people dwell in homes of only
one room, and more than two-thirds of the
people of Scotland dwell in homes of not
more than two rooms
Prices of Farm Machinery.
"What of the prices of farm machinery
there?"
"The prices Of farm machinery? l can
assure you that the purchase of farm ma
chinery is a serious burden to the British
farmer, for he pays vastly more than the
American farmer"
But, Judge, Governor Campbell says
that the farmers in Great Britain pay
less for tools of American manufacture
than we pay here at home for these same
articles"
"Well, tbs nevertheless not true, Cover
nor Campbell to the contrary, notwith-