Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1894-10-10

Friday morning, in fierce gale, was oii
,hs hanks of Newfoundland, on one OF
those great ocean ships, which seemed a.
most to be able to defy the power oil the
storm. and vet was tossed about like a corA
unon the waters, spied off in the log ale"
6sbinq schooners of Massachusetts, hsher-
NO, I felt that the men who could venture
ont in such weather in their little hshins
schooners were the men who could YET
restore the American merchant marine
mon the seas and carry our nag IN safety
and triumph to all the ports of the world
TApplause.l In days past we dld II eve"
before we became a nation we did IT, AS
Mr.. Burke saws in the very gristle oil inc
country American mariners Travelled every
sea. and American mariners transporter
the products of our shores to other lands
We have begun 20 learn somethihg'
too. As to our manufactured products ~
the past few years. Take up the list OF
American exports to-day OF the Things
of this country. Now you hnd not only
wheat and cotton, tobacco, corn, beer
and meat products, but you find con-
stantly increasing export Of American
manufactures. In contradiction to all
tho teachings and all the theories oil the
protectionist You ind those are the very
manufactures in which the highest
WAGES are paid to American labor. why,
fellow-citizens, it is no longer question
Of wages paid to the laboiing man in the
industries Of The country, because the
work is done by machinery, by sTeam
and coal, which work as cheaply for us
as for any people on the globe, while the
wages of human labor are but small
and incidental part of the cost of pro-
duction. But, aside from that II has be-
come almost a truism to-day that the
birh-priced labor-which is always COM
petent and intelligent labor-and cheap
products 30 together almost the world
over. 1t Is thus in the watches made at
Waltham, Mass, and at Elgin, Ill. 1t
is thus in our great locomotive engines;
it is thus in our carpets in New York,
furniture in Michigan, in iron and steel
goods in numberless varieties. 1t IS IN
the very list Of products that we pay
the highest daily wages to our labor
that we find we are able to go out and
eompste with other people and take
from them our share in their markets
where such things can be sold. ralk
about protection being for the benefit of
the .abOring man and securing higher
wages. when protection confines him to
the home market and robs him OF half
of his opportunity of employment.
Years ago Mr.. Gladstone made the
prophecy that industrial supremacy
might soon pass away from England TO
some other nation that surpassed her in
its resources and in the enterprise and
business intelligence of its people The
manufacturing supremacy Of the world
will soon come under the control or
whatever country has the largest and
cheapest supply Of the great materials
of industry, and can develop and dis
tribute them with the highest intelli-
sence ana through the best business
methods. We have to-day, so far as the
fundamental materials of industry are
concerned, coal and iron ore, a suprem-
acv which no other country in the world
can dispute or approach. By the as
semblage Of the materials close together
in Alabama, we can manufacture found
nv pig cheaper than in Belgium or Eng
land or elsewhere in the world. BY .he
use of modern appliances of mining, the
steam shovel and others, we can gather
up the ore that lies near the surface on
the great lakes. carry it by water trans
portation to the cities of the East and
produce Bessemer pig and steel rails
and other products cheaper than IN
England and Belgium. If, under these
conditions; If with these Dounties OF
Providence in this new cOuntryi if with
our skin of inventing and adopting the
inventions of all the world; if with our
cheaper transportation; if with buoy
art enterprise and the enterprise of
people developing new country; II we
are hereafter to lag I'm production, 1T will
be because we desire 10 lag and it will
be because we do not desire to rise TO
the opportunities Providence has be-
slowed upon Us.
But we are tod by oar protection OPP
ponents that our attempt to get outside
of the United States and sell against
other people, or to let other people come
inside ofthe United States to sell against
us. means a degradation of labor ana
dininution of the wages of the Ameri-
can working man. Does not every
farmer in this country know that for the
price of every bushel of wheat in his
own market he must look to the mark
cts of England where wheat IS SOLD IN
competition with the cheapest agricul-
tnral labor of the world? The farmer
in Dakota paws ten times as much for
his labor as the farmer in India. The
farmer in jefferson county pays five to
seven times as much as the farmer IN
India and three times as much as the
farmers of Austria, Hungary and Rus
-. lint he puts down his wheat in Eng
land side by side with Russia, India and
Austria and through the competition of
all three the price of wheat there is es-
tablished, and is established for him in
the markets OF NndiAcS Ao"H ""u D"i-
timorc From the very beginning of
our expectation OF cereal articles we had
this competition, aud SO it is with our
manufactured products. We are able
to sell our clocks and watches to the
railroads of India because we can make
watches cheaper at Waltham and Elgin
than they can be made in switzerland
or England. We are able to sell loco
motives TO all the nations of the world
because we can make them with high