Middletown transcript., 1892-10-06

!. Under the present system where 10
per cent. duty is laid upon the cloth,
it results in the use in this country
of about 16 per cent of foreign cloth,
and S4 per cent. of American cloth,
and it compels the American to pay
S. in taxes for every one that is return
ed to him in the shape of government.
In other words, of the six dollars that
it costs the people because of this duty
upon cloth, but one dollar finds its way
into the Federal treasury, and the re-
naming five dollars finds its place in
the pocket of the manufacturers. 1t
is estimated by statistcians, that the
tax on wooden goods last year cost the
American people upwards of $3.50, ,0OO,-
600, Of which only about thirty went
into the hands of the protected indus
try, and perhaps to the wage earners
who worked in woole mills and in the
preparation of material for making
cloth. admit the possibility of this
in my desire to be fair, but seriously
doubt if they derive one cent benefit
from the protection afforded this in
dustry. 1t is inconceivable how wooden
manufacturers could have realized as
profit last year, the immense sum OF
$3.50, 900, 900. But as they paid their
workmen no more money than the
supply of labor required that they
should do, and paid no more than the
laborer could get for work in other
avenues of trade, the laborer derived
no particular benefit. He may have
received higher wages, but he paid
more in rent. more for food, more for
clothing than he should have done.
Consequently, it is difficult to hgure
out any possible way by which the
O,000, 900, paid in excess over what
the cloth goods Of the country last year
should have cost them.
This is progressive country, and a
progressive age. When Patrick Henry
stood in the Convention Of Virginia
and gave utterance to those memor'
able words "give me liberty or give me
death, )" that Assembly of Delegates
from the tide waters and mountains Of
Virginia where freedom should have
been secure, stood aghast at the utter
ance and declared that he was but 6
madman who sought TO question thu
integrity of the British government
but in less than three years revolu
tion bad swept over the land, ant
Patrick Henry was the hero Of Vir
ginia.
Three quarters of a century have pass
ed since Jefferson uttered his words tha
would indicate that his mind coulC
consent to a proposition to bestov
bounty upon favored few as compat
.ible with justice to the whole. n
man can, in the light OF the last seventy
five years, read the life and record o
Thomas Jefferson, and doubt for
moment that were he alive to-day b
would be an absolute free trader.
For the benefit of those labortr.
who, by the sweat Of their brow, ear
: their bread, who toll in the fields o
t the farm, who toll in the factory, wh
t toll as fishermen or who toll in any I
j the avenues of production, | wi
{, close this article with few figure
s furnished by one of the most energeti
r protection journals in this city, III
Q Morning Advertiser, a paper whic
o in its opposition to Cleveland is bot
t malignant and vulgar, but which
Q the paid organ Of the Republican NJ
u tional COMMITTEES. One Of its reader
s signing himself Protection" br
# who very much suspect was one of tt
n Golden Clubs endowed free traders
J. asks this journal to give him the raj
. of wages paid for labor in Europe, All
IS the following table was the result: