The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-10-29
THE THEORETICAL AND THE PRAc-
TICAL.
Eli Perkins Has Fun with a Harvard
College Free Trader.

The skim-miik weak and idiotic argu-
ments of the college free traders in New
England said Eli Perkins to Boston
journal reporter, make tired. Today
one of those Harvard free traders on the
Boston and Maine took out his cigarette
and sailed into begrimed old tanner
from Salem.''ss
'tWhatsdid he say?'' asked the reporter.
HE turned on the tanner with his
calloused hands and squeaked out: why,
my gracious me! You laboring men ought
to know that with free trade you can buy
your coat cheaper
YES said the tanner, as he lowered his
journal. you will buy your coat cheaper,
/ but the cloth will be made on the other
side. your home mills will stop and your
home tailors will be idle in the street.
8 But why can't our taiIors work as
cheap as they do in Germany and Egg
land?'' asked The disciple of Russell.
They cam said the Salem. tanner,
and they will, or starve. A tailor gets go
cents day in Germany. while our tailors
get SO day here, and the best fremont
Street tailor gets 81. The freight is 20 cents
a hundred from Hamburg. about three
cents a suit. Yes. lowering the tariff will
make things cheap. 1t will bring our labor,
and free trade will make il as low as it is in
Hamburg plus the freight. If you dude col
lege men want that. we laborers don't. You
hear John Wakefieldl'
I" Look here, young man, said an old
worsted spinner from Wexford. I'm look
ing for work. Our mill has cut down wages
to match the Wilson tariff, and the boys
have struck. and the wheel is stopped. I'm
a spinner, but know what has struck our
mill. Dropping the tariff did it. and it was
a lot OF college dudes, who joined with
free tlade rebels down South. that did it.
See here,' said the old spinner, Il used to
teach school in Milford. Now what is the
value of all our manufactures in America?
The census report says they amounted to
Sll ,0O0, 900, 900 in 1891. The census reports
says our $1,000, 600 workmen took in on an
average So a day each-or S30.U00,N 600 daily.
They TODD in $9,000,000.0O0 year three
times the national war debt. How much
are we laboringmen taking in now9 Why,
our Northern wages have been cut 25 per
cent. through your Southern Wilson bill. |
There goes about $500, 100000 out of circu-
latiou. Then one-fourth of us are idle, and
there goes 81. 100000 more. Why, this in
famous Wilson bill is costing the laboring |
men of this country $4,500,000,000 a year.
That amount is taken out of circulation. |
And you idle theorists sit there and defend |
it. Russell smiles at it, Cleveland is dumb. |
But Maine speaks out and Ohio with it's |
IOO, 900, and, in about three weeks, all the |
workmen who have been lied to and fooled |
and swindled and starved by the conscience |
less and brain1ess free traders will rise up |
like Samson and pull down their rotten |
paste board. free trade temple. or old Tom |
Brewster has missed his calculations
I've been listening to such talk for the |
last week. continued Eli. 1.-THE workmen |
talked it on the Old Colony around Wor- |
cester. The manufacturers and their men |
talked it up on Payson fuckers Maine Gen. |
trail. Turner's Falls where the grandfath- !
er of Russell made his John Russell cutlery |
plant through protection is outraged at the |
grandson. From Wexford in Rhode Island |
to Aroostook in Maine the workmen are |
talking now. The Prof. Sumner and John |
Russell sweet violet theorists are out. The |
ragged and starving workmen are prepar- |
ing for touchdown, and I'm going right to |
New York to toll Morton's $4,000 majority |
about it, and then on to Ohio, to tell Nc |
Kinley's 100000 labor protertioners the good |
news. And Eli was off on the Old Colony |
New York to see the wreck of Tammany |
Hall and attend the funeral.