Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-04-25
HILL AND THE TARIFF
TIE SENIOR SENATOR FROM NEW
YORK is FOR PROTECTION.

Wages-He Has mo Sympathy" With
Free Trade.
Outside the importing interest the peo-
pie of New York largely favor a tariff
framed expressly for the protection of
American industries from the destruc-
tive competition of cheap foreign labor,
and outside that same interest this has
been the dominant sentiment of the state
ever since the day of Alexander Hamil-
ton. Every statesman, irrespective of
party, who has represented New York in
the senate, and excepting Mr.. ClevelanO
every New Yorker who has occupied the
presidential chair, has given official en-
phasis to the protective policy.
The bill now presented to the senate
offers the New York senators renewed
opportunity to maintain the record of
their state. This opportunity receives
peculiar significance from the recent de-
cisive expression of popular sentiment on
the subject, fortified as it is by the addi-
tional evidences of hostility to the pend
ing measure that are being daily given
by Democrats and Republicans alike
farmers and wage earners. Various in
dustrial interests in New York would be
fatally injured by the Wilson schedules
Of ad valorem duties, while the large ex-
tension of the free list which the bill pro-
poses will be equivalent to a prompt
transfer of certain important industries
from this state to the manufacturing and
mining districts of foreign lands.
Referring to the deceptive character
of ad valorem rates half century ago,
Henry Clay said ''Let me fix the value
of the foreign merchandise, and I do not
care what your duty is" The funda-
mental objection to the system of ad va
loren duties on which the Wilson bill is
based is distinctly stated in the quota
ton from the Kentucky statesman. On
Oct. %, 1890, Governor--now Senator
Hill delivered at Wheeling a speech be-
fore large audience Of manufacturers,
mechanics and laborers, discussing the
tariff in view Of the passage of the Nc
Kinley bill, and speaking as Democrat
in defense Of his party he said:
"Our opponents assert that the policy
which we advocate tends to lower the
wages of laboring men because they
must compete with the underpaid work
men of Europe. The proposition is as
insolent as it is unfounded. The Demo-
cratic platform of 1888, reafirming the
platform Of 1894, declared that
"Our established domestic industries and en-
terprises should not and need not be endan-
gered by the reduction and correction of the
burdens of taxation. On the contrary, a fair
and careful revision of our tax laws, with due
allowance for the difference between the wages
of American and of foreign labor must pro-
mote and encourage every branch of such in
dustries and enterprises by giving them assur-
ance of an extended market and steady and
continuous operations
''This is plain and explicit. It COM
pletely refutes the silly charges of our
adversaries. 1t entirely protects tho
American mechanic and places him upon
an equality with all others. The plain
and simple Interpretation of this plat
form is this: We believe in the recogni-
ton Of the demands Of labor and propose
to shield cur workmen from such COM
petition as can justly be considered as
unfair-for instance, if it costs 50 for la
Dor to produce a certain manufactured
article in foreign countries, while it costs
81 to produce the same article in this
country, then we favor a tariff of SO on
that article in order to equalize the diff
ference in wages. The imposition of
that amount amply protects the Ameri-
can workman and prevents his being
placed at disadvantage by reason of
the competition Of the alleged pauper la
Dor of Europe. This is all the tariff that
any intelligent American workman ever
desired Or asked for"
Less than two years ago, at a mass
meeting held in the Brooklyn academy
Sept. 10, 1892, Senator Hill expressed
his views ''as clear as the MONDAY sun"
in the following language:
''Our position upon this question is as
clear as the MONDAY sun, and it required
no special plank in the platform to en-
phasize it. We believe in the encourage
ment Of labor and are DESTROYS of pro-
tecting its interests in every reasonable
way consistent with the rights of the
whole people"
At this same mass meeting in Brooklyn
Senator Hill was determined that his
large audience should have no misunder-
standing as to his being protectionist
and not free trader. The year previous
0S9D he had been invited to address a
free trade mass meeting in New York
city at Cooper Union. Senator Hill de-
clined to do SO, and in order to empha-
size his position as protectionist he read
ut the Brooklyn meeting the reply that
he had made to the free traders. That
raD1v was aS follows.
STATE OF New YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,
ALBANY, April ], 1881.
Louis F. Post, Esq, President, etc.:
DEAR SIR am in receipt of your favor of
March IS inviting me to attend free trade
mass meeting to be held at Cooper Union on
Thursday evening, April q While thanking
you for your courtesy, cannot attend the
meeting because have DO sympathy with its
professed purpose. l had supposed that my
opinions upon the tariff question had been so
frequently expressed in public that nobody
could expect me consistently to attend meet
ing intended to promulgate the doctrine of free
trade.
am no. an advocate of free trade and never