Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-30
FREE TRADE FALLACY
Thrown Into the Senate by Carlisle,
the Kentucky Democrat.
ANSWERED BY SENATOR PROCTOR,
Who Attacks Some Of the Figures on Tin
/ late Produced by the Men
WHO BOLDLY FIGHT THE M'KINLEY ACT

WASHINGTON, July 29.-The anti-optior
bill did not figure in the Senate proceed
ings to-day, but in Its place the Hale re So
luton as to the relative merits of the Re-
publican policy of protection" and the
Democratic policy of "tarf for revenue
only" was taken up and debated the whole
day
The first Senator to enter the lists and tt
take up the gauntlet thrown down by Mr..
Aldrich, some DAYS ago, was his colleague
on the sub Committee of Finance, MI. Car
Isle. The drift of Mr.. Carlisle's speech
(Which was fortified by facts and figures)
was that the Mckinley tariff act had not,
within the % months covered by the inves-
tigation of the subcommittee, reduced the
prices of commodities or increased the
wages of labor, bit had on the contrary, in
tertered with ard obstructed the operation
of the natural laws governing the subject
He instanced 10 general occupations in un-
protected industries where the average rate
of wages had gone up and Is other trades in
highly protected industries where wages
had gone down.
He was followed by Mr.. Proctor, who
attacked some of Mr.. Carlisle's positions by
quotations from an interview with Mr.
Rogers, the managing partner of Welsh
tin plate manutacIorv-the principal point
of which was that the election of Mr. Cleve-
land would be victory for free trade, and
that its effect would be to reduce American
wages TO the level OF English wages
The Mckinley Act Defended.
Mr. Sherman and Mr.. Allison defended
the Mckinley act. and Mr. Hawley OBJ
tanned the floor to carry out the fight on
that line tomorrow.
After the tariff debate ceased the anti-op-
tion bill was laid before the Senate as the
unfinished business" and was then laid
aside informally when the Presidents veto
of the bill submitting to the Court of Pri-
waite Land Claims the title of William Nc
Garrahan was read and its consideration
postponed till December next
After some difficulty in obtaining a quo
rum, and a brief silver speech by Mr.
Stewart Mr.. Carlisle addressed the Senate
on Mr.. Hale's resolution as to the relative
merits of protection" and tariff for
revenue ONLY" and in response to the
speeches of Messrs. Hale and Aldrich.
If, said Mr.. Carlisle, higher prices were
injurious to the community at large and if
low prices were beneficial, then everything
which intertered with and arrested the
natural tendency toward decline in the
prices of commodities and a rise in the
wages of labor, anything that tended to
make it harder and more expensive for the
masses of the people to live-whether it
were war, pestilence, famine or Mckinley
act-was public calamity, 10 be deplored
by every man who loved his country.
A List of the Lucky Fifteen.
His purpose was, said Mr. Carlisle, to
show that the tariff act of 1890 had inter-
tered with the natural tendency to decline
in the prices OF commodities and to a rise
in the rates Of wages, and that it had made
1t harder and more expensive for the masses
of the people of the United States
TO live. He said the Is gen.
eral occupations in unprotected indus
tries were bakers, blacksmiths, bricklayers,
cabinetmakers, carpenters, common lzborers,
tSrm laborerS, machinists, masons, iron mold
ers painters, plumbers, stonecutters, ,tailors
and tinsmiths. The average increase of wages
in these occupations during the period COW
cred bv the investigation of the Finance |
Committee had been 75-100 of ! per cent
The Is highly protected occupations were
bar iron, boots and shoes, cotton goods,
cotton and wooden goods, crucible steel,
flint glass, green glass, lumber, machinery,
pig iron, steel ingots, steel blooms, steel
rails, window glass and wooden goods. In
these occupations the rates of wages had
fallen, since the Mckinley act, an average
of $500 of per cent, as against a rise of
75-100 per cent in the Is unprotected indus
tries.
Mr.. Carlisle then went into detailed
statement as to the cost of imported goods
and as to tin plate On the latter point he
said that the Mckinley act had paid, not
to the importer, not to the Government, not
to the dealers, but directly to the Welsh
tin plate manufacturers, 81, ,629, $50, or more
than half the value of the plant of the sos
tin plate works of Wales. The Mckinley
act as to tin plate had proved to be, not for
the benefit of the American consumers, but |
OF the Welsh manufacturers
Departure OF the Democratic Party.
Mr.. Carlisle was followed by Mr.. Proctor,
and he by Nh. Sherman, in brief speech. |
He argued that the policy of the Demo- |
cratic party of the present dav had departed |
far from that of the Democratic party in the |
days of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and |
Monroe, which favored the encouragement
of American industry. He commended the
results obtained through the action of the
Mckinley act in relation to sugar, tin plate
and other industries, and spoke of the
benefits which the farmers of the country
had derived from it. He believed that when
the question of protection was discussed be-
fore the people, and when the Democratic
party had taken its bold position in favor
Of free trade, the Judgment of the people
MouIu De III la'or OF tne pollcy OF protec- |
tion, as approved by Washington and
Adams and Jefferson and Madison and Mon
roe, as favored by jackson, and as only lost
sight of in the lights of modern Democracy.
The people would stand by the old doctrine
of the fathers.
Alter a short speech by Mr.. Allison, in
defense of the Mckinley bill, Mr.. Hawlev
obtained the floor. The Hale resolution
then went over until tomorrow, and the
anti-option bill was laid before the Senate
as the unfinished business" Ii was laid
aside informally, and the Presidents mes
sage vetoing the McGarrahan claim bi i'll was
read and postponed until the second Tues
day in December next, and the Senate ad-