St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-09-13
THE principles of Democracy.
Do you believe in them?
Are they worth fighting for?
Will you help?
CONGRESSMAN BURROWS ON.
PROTECTION.

OF fine-looking gentleman with rich
voice, an easy diction, and courtly
and attractive bearing, who made a
blooming exhibition of himself last
night at Market hall. His performance
is to be partly accounted for by three
things. In the first place. his audience
was discouragingly small. Next, as he
himself said at the outset, he was for
the time being in feeble physical
state. And finally, he proposes to leave
the city this morning. No man of good
sense, as Mr.. BURROWS undoubtedly is,
would have talked so prepoSterously in
public if his audience had been of size
and character to command his respect,
If his health had been in fairly salts
factory condition, or if he expected to
ever again face the men whose intelli-
gence he insulted and who displayed
rare self-restraint and courtesy in listen
ing to him without interruption.
Mr.. BURROWS subject was, of course,
the tariff, and by way of Introduction
he defined the different forms of taxa
ton. He informed the citizens of st.
Paul that by direct taxation was meant
a system under which per capita tax
was laid on every man, woman aid
child in the country, equal in amount
and entirely irrespective of their prop
erty holdings. If we had such sys-
tenn, he said, even infants in arms
would have to pay IS apiece to the tax
collector, and if they could not do it
they would presumably be cut off as to
their heads with HEROD-like thorough
ness. In this way he proved very cas-
lily that direct taxation was outrageously
cruel and oppressive. He also informed
the citizens of st. Paul that protective
tariff was one under which foreign pro-
ducers paid an admission fee" at our
ports in order to get their commodities
into our markets. These admission
fees. paid entirely by foreigners, aggre-
gate. according to his figures, about
S250,000,0o0 year, and enable the gov
eminent to meet half its running eX-
penses without asking its own people
for penny. 1t was quite unnecessary
for him to say word-further in eulogy
of protection after this showing.
He had to. however, because he had
been engaged to fill the evening, and he
therefore went on to explain how much
benefit protection was to the laboring
man. 1t is always very touching to
notice the solicitude of Republican
orators about the laboring man. Those
we'll known philanthropists like w. d.
WASHBURN for example, never take
the stump without protesting that they
would be free-traders were it not for
tho 6ISo Sfrnuc Qffaaf from tra
have Oh the class which works with its
hands. MI. BURROWS feels this way
also. He said last night that he was for
protection because without it our farm
ers would have to compete with the
Australian agriculturStS, who get the
magnificent wages of eight cents day.
But how does protection save them from
this appalling fate? Mr.. BURROWS
made this point very clear. 1t increases
the prices of things, and enables the
American producer to charge more for
his goods. Buff the American producer
charges more, the American consumer
must pay more Mr.. BURROWS would
have been quite willing to admit this.
But then, what about this admission
fee'' business? What becomes of it? If
the foreigner pays it out of his own
pocket. protection ought to have no effect
whatever on prices in this country, and
therefore no effect whatever on wages.
If protection raises the price of COM
modities and the compensation of
workingmen, it must be the American
consumer who pays the admission
fee," and not the foreign producer.
Mr.. BURROWS may be a first-rate
logician when his audience is large, his
health good, and when he does not in
tend to leave town in the morning.
But judged by his last nights standard,
he has mistaken his calling. He should
go to Australia and make a fortune
teaching the natives how to hire labor
ers at eight cents day. There is big
profit in that for all enterprising man.