Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-08-01
GOOD Reasons Why American
Statesmen Do Not Follow the
Example of England
Great Britain He's Not Prospered
Under Free Trade but
Lost Ground.
All Her Industrial Prosperity has
been Started by Protection
TO Her Manufactures

They are certainly ienoramuses who
tals ri the British tax system as being
Me- evolution Of a scientific principle. We
rscall the facts tina, the carrying through
,,arliament of free trade, so-Called, was
Eargelv due to the efforts of Richard Coo
dom. that he received nearly a million of
5oIlars in all for his efforts; that he in
vasted a large amount of those earnings
in the United Stat and lost 1t in that
country, sought to be ruined by free trade.
Careful and close readers of Golden
.l,asches can not avoid the conclusions
that a more inscriptions special pleader
,gopld be hard to ind or who more glorled
in dacaption; or who boosted more of his
iugglery; or who appealed more to the
yindictiyen IS of his audiences; or who
rlavpd upon their ignorance and pre-
iudice with a grossness of language at
time almost revolving. As this statement
NAV he deemed unfair, Cobden's words,
corroborating all that Is said, in which he
avhi5its want OF shame and COnscieu-
tious motives are here quoted. The end
ipsti6es the means seems to have been
lis chief and only guide when urging free
trade ON England. Golden was a petit
fogger more than an honest advocate. He
ID Iacords himself and asks not to be
udped by what he said. Here is his own
,'Yon must not Judge me by what | say
al these tumutuous public meetings. |
constantly regret the necessity of violating
GOOD taste and kind feeling in my public
baranoues. say adyisedly necessity, for
defy anybody to keep the ear of the
public for seven years upon any one ques-
lion without striving t) amuse as well as
instruct. People do not attend public
meetings to be taught, but to be excited,
battered and pleased. II they are simply
Ipctnred they may sit out the lesson for
once. but they viii not come again, and as
have required them gain and again
have been obliged TO amuse them, not by
standing on my head OF eating lire, but by
kindred feats Of jugglery, such as appeals
TO their sellesteem their combatiyeness,
or their rumor. You know how easily
one degenerates into . Ittery, yindictive
ness, or grOssness.
How applicable the above Is to our
American free traders every intelligent
person knows. In many of our colleges
and universities where English is held up
as the richest, most pow ertul, and greatest
of all manufacturing countries as an ex-
ample of what free trade has achieved for
her. and what it would achieve for US if
adopted. The reverse of this is true, for
England was under the highest protection
for fully 500 years Her tariff laws were
tie very incarnation of cruelty. Viola
tions Of them were punished as felonies,
many were capital offences punishable
with death, even the
EXPECTATION OF MACHINERY WAS A
FELONY.
In the fourteenth century laws were
passed absolutely inbitiye in many re-
spects, all for the protection OF English IN
dustries with severe penalties for their
violation.
In 1867 a law vas enacted that for the
expectation of sheen the offender should
forfeit all OF his effects, suffer imprison-
ment for o year and then have his left
hand cut off IN a market town and on a
market day, and 10 be there nailed up,
and for the second offense should suffer
death. In 1867 a law was enacted for
the protection of wooden manufacturers,
requiring all persons to be buried in wooden
shrouds, their collins to be lined with
wooden cloth, violations were severely pun
ished, penalties went to the clergymen of
the parish, who were made prosecutors,
and were compelled to read the act from
the pulpit on a Sabbath at least once in
each year. That law was in force for 100
years. In 1921 a penalty Of G5 to 9l00
was imposed upon person for selling a |
piece of cotton or calico within the realm. |
This law was in force TIL 1888, when the |
wearing Of calico was permitted 'provid- |
ed the warp thereof was of linen yarn.
There was still a protective tariff of "A to
so per cent-raised in 1919 to so and 6715 !
per cent--for the benefit of the manufact |
ures.
Our Young men who are invited to
join Jefferson clubs by American free /
traders should remember what Jefferson /
said on the subject Of England declaring /
the colonists iron manufacturing. Seak |
ing of iron he saio: And heavy as the /
article is, and necessary in every branch Of /
husbandry, besides commission and in |
suranCe we are to pay freight for it to /
Great Britain and freight for it back |
again for the purpose OF supporting not 1
men, but machines in these islands of 1
Great Britain. TCey were forbidden to ,
manufacture hemp fax, cotton, OF wool, or
duck sail cloth. TO convert leaden ore, to I
make steel "for fear it might promote /
domestic manufacturers As Jefferson /
said an American was forbidden to make
a hat for himself Of he fur which he mad |
taken, perhaps, on bis OWL soil, an instanc /
of despotism to which no PARALLEL can be I
produced in the most arbitrary ages of /
British history Such were English /
protective tariffs Oaly through the |
most rigid protection did England attain |
her position, halt a century or so since, as
then the greatest manufacturing country
10 the world Through several European +
wars which disabled those countries from
nanutacturing, together with the diE- /
coyery Of gold IN California, Australia, /
and New Zealand creating an immense de- T
mand for fabrics England, through her
previous protection fer centuries, and the +
development Of her manufactures. was en- /
aoled 30 supply the world with goods at I
enormous profits Then she declared for /
free trade, and until other countries en- 1
outraged their own manufactures through I.
tariffs, she remain Ina control Of the mar +
ssts q the world Her superiority then .
began to decline. and She descended to the I
second rank in products etc.
ENGLAND Was THE WORLDS SCHOOL 4