The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-12
HOUSING CAMPAIGN RALLY,
POWERFULsP ON ONPROTECTIOS
 DY TIE HON. N. D. SHERRY.

A rousing republican meeting was held at the rooms of the Mckinley club, 3l3 Blatchley avenue. Fair Haven, last evening. which was attended by large numbers of the voters of the neighbor- hood. The rooms of the house were crowded to overfiowing, many being unable to get inside at all. Thomas Matthews. chairman of the executive committee of the club, presided. The first speaker was the Hon. N. D. Sperry, the republican nominee for congress from this district. He spoke In the main as follows:
 Gentlemen! What Is protective tar If for? Is 1t not to foster our indus tries and to protect until they are able to. compete with those of foreign lands? I think so. It is intended to protect those that need a tariff. Free trade will be good enough when our industries no longer need protection-wnen our work men can no longer encounter foreign competition without any reduction of wages.
 If you asked the merchants who were doing business in 1861 what propor- ton of foreign goods and what propor- tion of domestic goods they had on their shelves, they would have answer ad hat hol tc and q few woolen and cotton goods. Ninety-five per cent. of all the goods sold at that time were of foreign manu- fracture. Not over per cent. were of domestic make. Prior to 1860 we were under a low tariff. Ask the merchants the same question now and they will say that 95 per cent. of the goods sold are domestic and per cent. are for eign. If you ask them about the quality they will say that 1t Is much better. I make this assertion because you can prove 1t in a very short time, if you want to. Now comes the crucial test. The democrats say that the tariff is a robber tariff. but put to them this third and best test. If you ask them concern ing the price of manufactured goods they will say that the price is 30 to 70
 per cent. less than under the low tariff Now this argues that at that time that the goods were made in Europe, now they are made here. Now our own people are finding employment. When you make goods here you pay yourselves. The money circulates here. and you get your share
 -'"The people in the shops are making what we all consume instead of the people on the other side. It is so not only in dry goods, but it is so also in iron, carpets and all other kinds of building! Under 8 low tariff your money goes to the workmen of Europe un- less you work as cheap as they do. If the tariff is so low that they can under-sell you, your domestic goods will be drug on the market We say, equalize matters by raising the tariff high enough to protect your labor.
 1.-TWO years ago when Cleveland was elected, peace and prosperity reigned
 in the coutry and the like had never DCCIl hHO"h III ally SouilAy DClolS. I remember that Bismarck once said that after looking over all the world he had not found country which had a tariff which so benefited it's people as that of the United States. Gladstone once wrote to the North American Re- view that America was passing Eng land at a canter. And we were. In 1Qc0 tinro1 ns{i oto oI at only $16000, 000,00 In 1892 under the operation of the protective tariff the national wealth had reached $6S, ,OOO, ,OOO,- 00O Now I claim that it was the pro- tective tariff that brought about a pros perity greater than the world ever knew before. If you say that it was not the protective tariff, then we did 1t in spite of it, but do not think that Is SO. In 1892 two-thirds of the national debt including the war debt, was paid. It was but few months after Cleveland came into office and his ideas came to be known that $75,O00, ,O0O had to be borrowed. At the time Cleveland came in high degree of prosperity had been attained in point of value of products and number of industries. No country in the world could equal us. The foundation principle of the protective tariff is that if there is no competition there Is no need for tariff. If there Is competition there is need of protection for the labor and capital here. How long can an American man. ufacturer paying $2 per day compete with the English manufacturers pay ing $1 per day? The American has got to come to his level or suspend business. All laboring men would have to work as cheap here as they do there. In 1887 we had a low tariff, and also one of the worst financial panics the country ever knew. We had no money then. Orders had to be given on all the stores for the payment of labor.
 ''When Cleveland came into power he thought that if the silver purchasing clause was repealed all would be we'll and prosperity would return to the country But when it was done did prosperity return? It has been g. year and half of pickering and strife and terror for the workmen here at home. After long waiting the democrats pro- duced what they called tariff bill, and 1t has at length become law with out the signature of the president. Be- fore 1t thus became a law, however, the president wrote his famous letter characterizing the bill as an act of perfldy and dishonor. Now you are call ed upon to consummate that act of per- fidy and dishonor. Are you going to do 1t? (Cttes of.npD .' "Then there Is the income tax which was made law at. t.the behest of the populists. They lent their aid to the