Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-02-08

duty. This change of policy it is claimed
will help the manufacturer, who employs
labor: raise the wages of the workingman
who is employed by the manufactured. and
reduce the price of the manufactured arti
Gle to the consumer This is problem in
the old rule of three, and is easily solved by
the doctruaicrs of the ways and means com
mittee.
If you take the tariff Off raw materials
YOU save the manufacturer SO much in the
cost of his manufactured product, but if
you add the same amount to the wages of
his workmen. | have not vet been able TO
see how the consumer is to get the product
| at any less price But what about this fig
ment of raw materials Who asks that
they should be admitted to the free list
| Who is to he benefited by it? What prac-
tical good can come to the farmer, the me-
chanic. the professional man, or the work
inginan if YOU give them free btumnous
coal and free iron ore They cannot gain
it indirectly from the products OF the manu-
facturcr, because you keep the duty on the
manufactured product. Nobody in the world
could receive any benefit except the manu-
facturer himself, and he is not asking it.
The fact is that this cry for free raw ma
terias originated in the fertile brain of IA
few amateur politicians in Massachusetts.
who used it to hoodwink the people of that
State with great success for a brief time.
and it worked SO well there, and not being
patented. it was seized upon by the demo
cratic party as slogan for the last cam
pagn.
But what arc raw materials Take n con
crete case The Wilson bill admits all man
ufacturcd lumber free because it is a raw
material. Now. the gentlemen composing
the committee on ways and means are all
learned and scholarly men. and know n
thing when they see it. If they would like
accurately to define raw materials in the
lumber trade. let them put on Sleeps
gray suit of clothes made from American
wool pair of boots made of American
rubber, a cap made from the skin of the
American bear. shoulder an AK made up
i'll Maine, take a dinner pail made of Amer
lean tin and filed with American pork,
American beans. American doughnuts, and
American cheese. and start out some morn
ing with the thermometer at 10 below. up
the slopes of the Green Mountains. carrying
a banner inscribed. Science cOmmuninG
with nature. and standing. AK in hand, be-
fore a spruce tree 100 feet high and four
feet through at the butt and they will find
they are confronted with a condition.
When they strike the first blow at the
tree they will for the first time in their lives
strike an idea, and that will be that they
have at last found out what raw materials
arc in the lumber trade. They will learn
that cutting the tree into lo5, involves an
expenditure of capital and labor. and i, Il
step in q manufacturing process; that haul
ing the logs to the mill involves an eXpendi-
ture of capital and labor, and is a step in Il
manufacturing process; that saving the lOg
into boards, plau!;s. and dimension stuff in
wolves an expenditure of capital and labor,
and is II step in a manufacturing process;
and when the product of the mill reaches
our boundry line it comes, not a raw ma
tcrial, but a manufactured product. SO
that this bill. instead of supplying raw ma
terials, steps in at the middle of the manu-
featuring process. and declares that we must
give to Canada the benefit Of all the capital
and labor that has been employed down 10
thi, point of time The labor employed in
all these initial steps Is the poorest paid and
most deserving of consideration at the hands
of the government of any employed in the
Q whole process, from the standing Tree to the
finished building.
: Thus this sublime fallacy of free raw ma
terals. when inspected turns out to be not
only misnomer. but "A very lurge-.izod
humbug 1t is merely a device 60 give t,
| Cnuada all the benefit, of the labor that
To- rlghttully belongs to us, and to give all the
t profits to the manufacturers. Why this Iii,
q elimination against American forests = Why
, did the God of nature cover our nOuutail
Sides with the finest qualities of every nam,
r. and kind OF standing timber that ever wavco
l in the breezes f heaven from Maine to Cali
/ fornia, from Oregon to Florida
e Why. Mr., Chairman, the value of the
standing timber, hard and soft, in Vermont
r. to-day, after hun lred years Of harvest
Ia 4,
+ age lands, exceeds the value of her marhl,
/ quarrieS; exceeds the value of her granite
Il Quarrles; is in short, the most valuable nat
S ural asset she has. The same thing i, tru,
5 of Maine. of Michigan, Of Nortl
Carolina, of Georgia the Paciti,
@ slope, and many other States
a And not only this these same mountains
c are pregnant with an untold wealth of lead
- iron. granite, aud marble and We are tolt
i by this bill to let them aone-do not dis
O turh their covering-you viii make an ugl,
h looking hole in the ground; with 1000. O0l
s. starving lahorels in the land to-day. bur
y your lumber in Canada and keep her labor
r crs employed; buy your granite in Scotlan,
5 and your marble in Italy, and keep the
l. larborers employed; buy your iron in Nor
5 way and your coal in Nova Scotia. and ieel
t their laborers from starving. All this il
the name of tariff reform ,
. Let it rather be said on the other hand
: that the first duty of Congress is to mak
1t laws that viii promote the happiness well
Il being, and prosperity of America All thi
it natural wealth was deposited here for til
use of Americans. If the Almighty had in
4 tended that we should use Italian marbl
II He would have located Carrara in Vernon
g or Tennessee.
1t But they tell lis that protection to Ameri
t eau industries is seltishness SO is patriot
1t ism, and still we are taught from the cradl
6 TO the grave that one of the noblest traits q
} character is the love of ones own country
le Love it better than any, than all Others
Even die for it. Is this not selfishuess
At And what are we to love if it is not every
id thing that makes our country loveablc
1t Her manhood, her industries, her moral am
10 material prosperity, her boundlcss natura
u wealth of mine, mineral and forest a
IS which is loveable because it can minister I
b.,