St. Paul daily globe., 1893-02-28
CARNEGIE THE CONVERT.


that comes over the wire telling OF the
ayowal by ANDREW CARNEGIE of ultra
free trade opinions held by him. If it
be the fact it only shows that Mr.. CAR
NEGIE has come tardily to conclusion
which clear-sighted manufacturers in
the Eastern states have held for some
years. Notable among them is SAR-
GEANT, Of Connecticut in hardware;
HAZARD, of Rhode Island, in woolens;
FAKQUAHAR. of Pennsylvania, in farm
machinery, and MACBETH, of the same
state, IN glass.
As long ago as the national conven-
ton of free traders. held in Chicago in
1850, some Of these men came to take
part in the discussions, very much to
the surprise Of the Westerns, who looked
with suspicion on these gift-bearing
Greeks from the East. One of the gem
tlemen frankly stated why they were
there. 1--WE are not here from any mo-
lives OF mere sentiment. We are here
as business men. We were protection
lists just as long as there was money in
il for us. We are here to help you get
free trade, because there is DO money in
protection. and there is in free trade.
1t is matter of dollars and cents only
to US" Explaining, he said that the
growth of manufacturing In the West
had caused a congestion of products i'll
the country. The Eastern makers ha d
exhausted every method of avoiding it.
They had tried to crush out the growlng z
competition by underselling. They had
reduced cost of making wherever pos
sible. Cheaper labor where they could
get it. machinery displacing hand labor
wherever it could be economically used,
had been tried, but with the result that
capacity for producing increased more
than capacity for consumption mad
grown. The only escape Was in getting
out into the markets of the world with
their surplus. "Glve me free raw ma
terial," said Mr.. SARGEANT, land L will
employ more men, pay the same or bet
ter wages, send my produces into any
market in the world, and compete on
even terms, and you may take Off all the
protection for all | care"
MIR. CARNEGIE is too intelligent
man not to have seen the conditions as
these other gentlemen saw them, but in
his control of the Bessemer patent S
he had a monopoly that enabled his
companies to control production and
thus prevent congestion. and he is too
human to deny himself the wealth
which a nation, majority of whom he
once characterized as economic fools, ="
was willing to present him with. He
has always been, no doubt, as much a
free trader as now, but he found profit
in concealing his views and advocating
restrictions on trade. This is not to his
credit, but it is only human, after all.
1t will now be recalled that Mr.. CAR
NEGIE took no interest in the recent
campaign. 1t was darkly limited that
the Homestead affair was the result of
an indifference to Republican success.
Mr FRTCK took occasion to deny that
his firm had contributed heavily to the
campaign fund. If it shall prove to be
true that MI CARNEGIE is free trader
its only significance will be that a clear
sighted business man, accustomed to
read carefully the signs of the times
and to prepare in advance for coming
changes, decides that protection is dis
carded in this country; that the tide is
| turned toward commercial freedom;
that it is only question of time, and a
short one at that. when it will be
reached. and that he is free now to eX-
press opinions that have been sup
pressed for what were to him sufficient
reasons