Wisconsin Afro-American., 1892-11-05

right to experiment with what belongs to
ypu Out upon the political party willing
TO experiment in legislation with the wages
OF our laboring men and with their well
being and comfort and happiness. APP
pause. They tell us that wages in this
country are higher than they are over
there, but that everything else is cheaper
over there than 1t is here, and that the
lower wages paid over there have there
fore greater purchasing power than they
have over here. Well, now, If that is true,
a man must be better off over there; and il
a man Is better of over there with his
lower wages, and their greater purchaS-
ing power, what in the name of heaven do
tney want to come over here for? Ap-
plauSe. | can understand how they
might be mislead into coming here by
false reports, circulated by steamship
agents and all that sort of thing, but when
they get here and lind that they are so
much worse off than they are over there,
why don't they go back again? APP
plause.J But they do not; they come here
because this is and has been under the
American policy the land of promise for
the honest iabOrerS of the earth who care
to come here and make this their home;
ana we propose to keep 1t so.
LORD SALISBURY SEES IT, TOO.
You may see fellow hit and think he is
struck pretty hard, but he knows how
hard he is hit better than you do. The
hardest headed statesman in England is
Lord Salisbury, and Lord Salisbury says
On this question of reciprocity something
would like to have you remember.
After all, this little island lives as
trading island. We could not produce, in
food stuns, enough to sustain The pOpula-
tlon that lives In this island, and it is only
by the great industries which exist here
and which find markets in foreign cOun
tries tnat we are able to MAINTAIN the vast
population by which this island is Inhab-
tied; but danger is growing up Forty
or fifty years ago everybody beneved that
Tree trade had conquered the world, ana
they prOpheSlZed that every nation would
follow the example of England and gave
itself up to absolute free trade. The re-
suits are not exactly what they prophe-
sized. but the more adverse the results
were, the more the devoted prophets of tree
trade declared it would come out all right
The worse the tariffs of foreign countries
became, the more confident were the
propheSieS of an early victory; but we see
pQw." This is not free trader from WIS
cOnsin or Chicago teStifyiEg. 1t is Lord
Salisbury, until recently the premier of
Great Britain.
1--WE see now after many years exper-
ience that explains it, how many foreign
nations are raising one after another
wall; DraZen wall OF protection around
their stores which excludes us from their
markets, and rs far as they are concerned
do their best to kill our trade. And this
state of things does not get better. On
the contrary, 1t constantly seems TO get
worse. Now, of course. If | utter word
with reference to free trade shall be ac-
cuSed of being prOtecnonist, of desire
to overthrow free trade and of all the
other crimes which an ingenius magma
ton can attach to the commercial hetero-
doxy. If we look abroad into the world
we see it. In the office which l have the
honor to hold | see great deal of it. We
live in an age of war of tariffs. Every
nation is trying how it can by agreement
with It's neighbOrS get the greatest possible
proportion for It's own Industries and at
the same time the greatest possible access
to the markets of its neighbOrS. This kind
of negotiation is continually going on, or
has Neen going on, for the last year and
half with great activity. | want to point
out to you what l observe is that while A
is very anxious to get favOrS of e, nobody
cares two straws about getting the COM
mercial favorS of Great Britain What is
the reason of that? 1t is that in this great
battle Great Britain has deliberately
stripped herself of the armour and the
weapons by which the battle is to be
fought" And thereupon he proposes that
England shall use the weapons which the
itsS States has been uslIng: not AGAINST
the United States, he says, because they
must have in England our raw material
and our food products. If there ever was
tribute which ought to add weight to the
reciprocity scheme, and the tariff scheme
too, of the Republican party, it Is that.