Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-03-31
Thoughts for Young Men.
No. 5.


goods consumed in cloth and WOOL
Now we produce four ffths OF the con-
sumption. In 1892 the aggregate value
of the products of agriculture are
quadruple the aggregate for 1860
Prices twenty-five per cent higher
Stree 1916 farm products have increased
during seventy-six years to an average
of nearly four times their former value.
/ Under the operations of protective
tariff the tanners income has greatly
increased by the enhanced value of his
productions Now how about his ex-
penses? Have they increased in the
same ratio? No. Nearly every article
that he farmer has to purchase, wheth-
er for use on his farm or consumption
in his family, is very much cheaper
now than before protective laws were
put in force-that awful tax which the
/ freetrader claims is so Cumbersome
to the farmer Representative Eaton
i of Connecticut. Free-Trade Demo-
crat, in his speech to the House, Nav /.
1854, said: | grant you that protection
is wrong; but the fact remains the same
1t has cheapened everything under
Gods Heavens that men, women and
children use in this land Everything.
And there is a reason for it, No man
who is intelligent and honest will dis
pute, that what the farmer has to sell
has increased, and that what he has to
buy has decreased in price under the
operations of protective tariff law.
What more can he ask? Is not this
Just the condition of affairs he seeks to
have established?
There is but one conclusion. A Pro-
tectIve Tariff stimulates business,
develops our resources, builds up man
ufactures, increases the demand for and
so enhances the price of farm products,
and cheapens manufactured articles by
creating competition. But" says the
AiC0ti auCl dSdlu, piOtCCtiOu ClCOuIaGCo
and builds up monopolies. " Nor is
this statement true 1t is in defiance of
an axiom Of business, that competition
destroys monopoly" Capital is always
watching with eager eyes for profitable
investment. Enterprise is keenly alert
in the struggle for gain. Capital and
Enterprise will instantly seize on any
business that yields unusual profits.
Does not the theory of protection
commend itself to the conscience and
judgment of canci1 men? Enlightened
protection is the hope and stay
of the toiling millions, whether
working at the forge, in the
factory, or on the farm 1t is to the
interest of all that labor should be
effectively protected, to the end that a
wider prosperity may follow. carrying
independence, comfort and JOY to the
dwelling alike If the farmer, the opera
tive and the artisan.
Instead of diminishing, as freetraders
predicted, our foreign trade has in
creased under the Mckinley Bill.
While selling more than formerly to
Europe we have bought more from it.
/ Our exports of merchandise for the
year ending DEG. 81, 1890 was 1857,
/ SOP, 548; for the year ending Dec 81,
1891 was 1870, 500, 291. Our imports
have increased during the last year. but
they have been largely of things that
we do not make or grow on our own
soil. The net result is an excess of the
value Of our exports over our imports to
theextent ofSl85, $40, ops III 1891 against
i S42, 051, 476 in 1890. seldom. it ever
before, has q year closed with such q
balance of trade in our favor There is
a comfortable cash balance to be paid
to us in gold or its equivalent for our
exports, The freetraders would chan re
all this; but is 1t worth while to change
it? Protection, policy which not
merely rests upon the foundations of
justice, but which is INDICATED by all
history; whether that history be Eng
lsh, French, Belgium, Russia, Austria
or the German Empire, the power of
all which has been built up by this
policy, or of Ireland, Turkey, Egypt.
/ Portugal, India, Japan OF Jamaica. the