Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-25
FREE TRADERS TALK.
They Have an Inning at the Farmers
Mt. Gretna Encampment.
NO ATTEMPT MADE TO DISGUISE
Their Standing Upon the Tariff Issues
Before the Nation.
SOME STRONG ONE-sIDED ARGUMENTS
rFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT

MT. GRETNA, Aug. A.-Threatening
skies had some effect in de-
pressing the attendance at the Farmers
Encampment to-day, but still an audience
many thousands strong turned out to listen
to the exposition of Democratic doctrine.
Free trade, with no attempt at palliation or
disguise. was the creed announced from the
platform. The calamity cry was not so
prominent as when the new party orators
held forth, but there was pronounced at
tempt to persuade the assembled grangers
that the cause OF the tariff agriculture was
well nigh ruined because of class discrimin-
alton.
Hon. John A. Gundy, a Democratic
farmer of Union county, was the first speak
er, and could hardly have stated his posi-
tion in favor of unrestricted commerce more
broadly. He demanded the Same freedom
of trade between nations as exists between
individuals of the same community. Even
the radical plank adopted by the Chicago
Convention is hardly up to the plane as
sumed BY Mr.. Gundy.
Opsn Free Trade Declarations.
In opening his address he said: "The
world is divided into nations and
this nation into States, counties, townships
and down to school districts. Take your
own school district. Does every man make
his own hats his own shoes, wagons and
clothes? Is not one man in your neighbor-
hood blacksmith, another tailor and so
on through the customary list of occupa-
tions? Why don't each of us make all the
things we need for ourselves? Because the
x,lr oil of bsx,o~
does it cheaper and better, and we trade
our products for the others that we need
with our neighbora Each man should do
that for which he is best adapted, and the
same rule should apply TO nations. We
want to buy where we can buy the cheapest
and sell where we can sell the dearest, and
to do this with just as few restrictions as
possible.
''To use homely illustration" contin-
ued the speaker, 81 like onions and unpa-
triotic as it may seem, have preference
for Bermuda onions. I cannot raise any
that compare in quality with those raised
on the peculiar soil of that island. But
have to pay tariff of 40 cents on every
bushel of those onions that buy. Now,
the Bermuda Islands are not we'll adapted to
wheat and my farm is.
Wants an Exchange without Taxation.
"Would it not be better all around for
me to exchange my superior wheat for their
superior onions, without any such obstruc-
tion as a tax, and if, as we are told by some
greatly desired, there will be plenty of it
provided by the resulting commerce and
shipbuilding.
''Most of the power Of protection lies in
the word itself IT appeals to q popular in
stinct, but 1t will not bear Investigation.
Beware of these arguments based on the in
crease or decrease of prices under certain
rates of tariff. They are largely deceptive.
For instance, reporters are fond of telling
us that the cost of steel rails has been
brought down from 500 to $28 ton by the
tariff. As an actual fact, all who have the
slightest acquaintance with the subject
know that the reduction was caused by the
discovery of the Bessemer process and other
new and improved methods by which steel
is made more cheaply than wrought iron. I"
In Horror at the Tin Plate Duty.
Mr.. Gundy appeared to have a special
horror of the tin plate duty. In referring
to it he said: "I have here q circular from
N. s. G. Taylor, of Philadelphia, tin mer-
chants, who are defending the new tariff on
that article. In big headlines read the
statement that when America began to
make tin the price in Great Britain went
down to the lowest point on record, and a
little further on the statement that the
price in this country has not increased since
the Mckinley bill went into operation.
THAT last statement is true, but the
price did 60 up So box just before the law
was passed and because it was going to be
passed, and 1t has never gone down since.
II the figures have gone down in Great
Britain It is because the manufacturers
crowded their works there, and supplied
our markets for two years, one year in ad-
vance, and are consequently comparatively
idle, but why this protection exultation be-
cause the price of tin plate has gone down
abroad? am not buyer and user of tin
plate in England. I buy and use it here,
and want it to go down here.
Trying to Find Inconsistencies.
seYou see the inconsistency of the favorite
Republican argument of lower prices on
manufactured articles. No wonder they
are lower The figures on your products
and nearly everything else, except salaries
of Government officials, have gone down
too. 1t has been caused by improved
methods of production and new machinery
and not by any tariff high or low. The
Democratic party is no longer altogether
alone in the struggle for tariff reform, al
though it is still the leader and pioneer.
Three of the four parties now before the
country have declared in the platforms for
such reform.
"Even James G. Blaine, the high priest
of the remaining organization, has declared
for tariff reform. To be sure he calls it
reciprocity, meaning I'll trade with you if
you will trade with me. If wicked Dem
ocrat said that it would be called free trade.
But we are told that the tariff Is the best
and easiest way to raise the revenues nee
essary for the Government 1t is true that
it is comparatively easy to collect taxes
it is q rather mean and unfair way after
all.
Objects to Paying Taxes that Way.
'Tt certainly is not levied in proportion
to the property possessed. I am q poor
man with four boys, and every time buy
q suit of clothes for myself and them pay
five times as much taxes US my neighbor
without family who is worth ten times as
much as 1 am. The tariff is a tax levied ON
large families which have always been con-
sidered the proudest possession OF nation.
At least that is the way it looks to plain
farmer"
Hon. Gerard c. Brown, Of York, was the
next speaker He also by a strange coinci-
dence, announced himself as a farmer and
made special appeal to that class. He
said: 1.-THE value of our agricultural
land is steadily decreasing. That
was shown by the census of
1890. The official figures of 1890
are not yet obtainable, and I am very much
afraid they will not be in time for use in
this Presidential campaign Bya careful
investigation though the rate of decrease in
value will be heavier than for the previous
ten years. We farmers all know why this
is so. 1 am raising more wheat corn and
other products from my land than did 20
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