The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-27
FREE-TRADE CHEAPNEss.
Facts That Do Not Agree with Mug
wump Promises.

L
When the little gang Of mugwumps was
going up and down the land preaching the
beauties of free trade one of the promises
mnde, IL its revenue system was adopted,
was was cheap and good WOODEN clothing. They
prated about the poor mans blanke, and
the need or warm wooden undergarments
Tor the workingman. and made such a
parade of their interest in the laboring
man that it Is mot strange, perhaps, that
many were deceived. The alleged mo-
nopoists who, il was claimed. were making
enormous fortunes out of the protective
tariff, were denounced as robbers and held
up to popular odium while the little mug
Wump gang strutted around as the only
genuine purveyors OF peace, prosperity and
contentment for the working class
The wOrkngman-or thousands of them
at 2east-took the loud-voiced mugwump at
his word. as the elections from 1889 TO 1892
showed, and then waited for the promised
cheap clothing. Are they getting this cheap
clothing? Probably they are, but let the
following extract from the Manchester, Eng
of cheapness. the American workingman
barganed for:
Within the last few weeks one firm In
Newsbury was compelled, through pressure
OF work in the execution of orders almost
entirely for the United States, to refuse one
Of four thousand pieces. This offer related
to president cloth. a class of goods that of
late has been produced from very common
material at the order of transatlantic mer-
chants. How far local firms are justified in
producing x,i SNOWY 10y d but halfworhiess
retail buyers-farmers, artisans. and the
like-is another matter. The possibility even
a very few years ago of manufacturing a
cloth at Is Cd per yard was secuted, but
to-day there are makers to be found able
to produce good-looking masses of the
poorest shoddy, kept in form by low cotton
warp, at from Is Sd per yard
So the garment made Of "a snowy, but
half worthless cloth and sold to the
American retail buyers-farmers, artisans
and the like" are the cheap clothing the
yr,r,C IN he IL
ingman in 1892 in return for his vote! The
mugwump is clad in the fine brcadcioth
which h. he gets cheaper u, under Ter the Wilson
but the poor man has to put up with
clothes made from the "good-locl ling mass
of the sh nS kept in fm by h ow
homemade goods he must take those manu-
featured from the shoddy which is being
dumped on these shores at the rate OF
twenty million pounds per annum, and
which the American manufacturer must
use IL he wants to compete with the half
worthless cloth" sent here from England, Oh
This is the return the American work
ingman has for his vote for free trade in
1892. The only encouragement is that the
never forget. The closed factories, the hun.
6reds of millions of dollars sBt in wages
the reduced comforts in the home. the pow.
erty staring thousands of families in the
face while the Cleveland panic was sweep.
ing over the lard, and now the tons o,
worthless cloth and shoddy that are
dumped on the American market-have al
preached a sermon to the workingnan thai
has made indelible impression on his
mind ard SO discredi;ed the little band oil
shrieking mugwumps that its Endorsement
would be fatal even to a candidate fol
constable in 2 country town.
The Nation paid dear price for permit
ting itself TO be deluded, but the result
will be the sweeping of this pestiferous gang
Of mugwumps from the field of America.
politics the gain may be worth the cost.