Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1893-04-13

plus of Idle laborers; it reduces wages
and sends the gsunt specter of want into
the homes of the poor people of the coun-
try.
These are some of the things that will
follow the Democratic policy of tariff for
revenue only, which would prove blight,
a curse, mildew upon the industries of
the country. | want to see American Ia.
dies dressed 10 American silk manufac-
tured by American silk factories. want
to see the men who tread the free soil of
America dressed i'll everything from hat to
shoes, produced by the hand of American
toll. | want to see the American toiler
well paid. his children educated. his home
made happy by the government protecting
his labor want to see the golden har-
vest Of plenty at the doors of the Ameri-
can workman. Plenty and not poverty is
what makes people intelligent; intelligence
is what makes a nation great; poverty
leads TO crime and Is the foster mother Of
ignorance. While intelligence develops
the mental faculties and makes good cit
liens, 1t opens the avenues of progress and
unchains the slaves of poverty and want.
| During the confederacy, the period pre-
ceding the adoption of our constitution,
we made for the hrst and only time iu our
history a full and fair trial of free trade.
of practically unrestricted imports. Eng
land boasts of being the great free trade
nation of the world. bat she has never had
free trade system that approached the
one we enjoyed from 1888 to 1889. 1t was
a season of depression and distress on tie
| Atlantic coast such as the people had
hardly felt during the sharpest crisis Of
the war Itself. Ship-owners, ship-builders.
mechanics artisans, all were destitute of
| employment. and some of them destitute
of bread British ships came freely and
British ships came plentifully. while TO
American ships and American products
there was neither protection on the one
| side, nor the equivalent of reciprocal free
| trade on the other. The cheaper labor of
| England supplied the inhabitants of the
| Atlantic coast with everything. Ready
inauc CIotHt~, hHoun tue rest, nom lhe
| crown of the head TO the soles Of the feet,
| were for sale in every city. All these
/ things came free of duty, and the country
was flooded with the cheap labor of
/ Europe and her cheap productions. Dis
| tress followed; the people had just re-
! covered from seven years war; farms
I had been neglected; manufactures had
been closed; every enterprise hsd been
neglected during the great conflict with
| Great Britain. l1s3 found the thirteen
| colonies free ard independent nation,
but practically without a government.
| Congress had little or no power 10 regu-
late commerce. Each state rerulsted It's
own trade aud fixed its own duties with
| other states as well as with foreign couu-
| tries. Every delegate To Congress was
instructed by his constituents how 10 vote
| Congress WAS practically without author.
ty to act upon any important measure
until the adoption Of the constitution n
1859. During this period nearly all the
money in the country had passed TO Eng
deed, for not only had England taken
from US our money, but II took also our
good name for integrity, independence and
common sense, which we had won by the
Revolutionary War.
A. there was no tarit to prevent, foreign
| nations literally poured in upon Us their
products Of every kind aud description in
such quantities and at such prices that our
people could not compete with them. Oar
| domestic industries were suspended. The
weaver, the shoemaker. the halter. the sad
dler.,he rope maker, aud many others were
reduced to bankruptcy. Our markets were
gintted with foreign products; prices fell
our manufacturers generally were ruined;
our labOrers beggared; our artisans with
out employment our merchants insolvcnt:
and our farmers necessarily followed all
these classes into the vortex of general H.
nsncial destruction. Depreciation seized
upon every species Of property.
Our imports from Great Britain alone
were in ,l784 and l7s.J $50 900 600. while
our exports to her We're only 50 600 .000-a
frishtfnl balance for those days. They
drained us Of our last dollar and left Us
for circulating medium only orders on
| state tax collectors, and deprecated certi-
! ticates OF state and federal debt. them
selves worthless. In the District of
Maine, convention was held for the pur-
pose Of revolving from the State of Mas
sachusetts. In New Hampshire ,hs peo-
pie surrounded the building where the leg
islature was in session and declared that it
should not adjourn until it had passed
measures to abolish debt or to relieve the
people in some other way. In Massachu-
sets the Shays rebellion followed this sea-
son of free trade. Distress was general,
and in evey state Of the new country the
history of protective tariff proves itself
The country has been prosperous under a
protective tariff. and the reverse under free
| trade. 1t needs no learned or long lectures
to prove this; the law proves itself, and
the prosperity of the country shows what
| protective tariff has done for US; and
disaster. distress, poverty, crime and bank
ruptcy prove what free trade has done
Free trade is volcano of evil from which
distress and ruin join hands and are twin
| sisters. 1t ruins our trade, closes our
manufactures, and produces poverty and
want II the Democratic party are sue
cessful and reduce the tariff to minimum
| free trade policy, they will prove them
selves the greatest blasters of human hap
piness that any age has produced. They
will put out the fires in our furnaces, close
our manufactures, turn an army of men.
women and children into the streets to earn
their bread as best they can.
II will be wise policy of the admins
tration to foster home industry, to protect
American labor in every shop. factory,
foundry and ship yard from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, and from the frozen north to
the peaceful Rio Grande and demonstrate
to the world that there are resources sufii-
cient in America to supply the domestic
wants of the people; that there is genius
enough in our people to cope with any de-
mand that may be made upon them