Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-10-28
New Mexico Produces Raw Materials

New Mexico Produces Raw Materials"
In the past few years there has been
a disposition IN the part of writer's or
economic questions to make sneering
illusions to what they term a desire on
the part of the laboring people to secure
better wages and more work through
the agency of legislation. rather than
to exert themselves to active COMPETE
ton with their fellow men.
Just what these wiseacres mean by
the term ''laboring people is a little
difficult to understand for the reasons
that all classes of people in the United
States have considerable faith in the
power of Legislative bodies to accom-
plish by wisely framed laws that which
could not be gained in any other way.
But that matter is of little Importance
in comparison to the main question,
that of the benefits of legislation, when
properly applied to commercial transac-
lions.
In the first place, no one is so foolish
as to believe that wealth can be made
more general by the simple process of
enacting a law declaring that there
shall be more wealth, neither do
those men who are looking for employ
ment believe that more work can be
created in the same way, but experience
has shown that competition from for
eign countries can be 50 regulated as to
interfere less with the employment of
American w~orkingmen, by judicious
legislation by congress-: also, that this
prices of ores, cattle, sheep, wool, farm
products and other articles which the
people have for sale can be made to
command higher prices by preventing
foreign products from flooding the home
markets, thus lessening the demand
and naturally reducing prices in order
to meet an unnatural and excessive
competition.
The shiboleth of free raw materials
heard so much from one of the political
parties in every campaign is one of the
coined. There is no such an article as
raw material. The ore taken from a
and delivered on the dump is the
miners finished product; the wool
cred at the wool buyers ware house is
the wool growers finished product, and
so it is all through the long list of arti-
cles denominated raw materials by the
N n n lIf11t1Ip yuhn tnlYnC fhaloo npE
converts them into some other form.
That change does not make the first
state a raw one. Some man produced
them and they were his flushed prod
ucts when they left his hands.
To say hat aid in protecting home
producers and laborers from undue
competition on the part of foreign pro-
ducers and laborers cannot be given by
protective laws is foolishness; to say
that raw materials should not be pro-
by law, or that the laboring peo-
pie depend too much upon that manner
of legislation. is the quintessence of
f%alsehood. Almost everything produced
in New Mexico comes under the head of
raw materials" and IL the free trad
ers had the power, there would not be a
cent of tariff placed on wool, cattle,
sheep, grain, fruits, ores or anything
else raised in the territory.
The people of New Mexico W to the
Republican party every iota of prosper
ity they enjoy today. The high prices
by sheep and cattle and
farm products are the result of legis-
lation placed upon the statutes of the
States by the Republican party,
by the Democratic party or through
the efforts of Democratic delegates to
from the territories. The po-
litical history and public records of the
United States stand as unimpeachable
witnesses to the truth of the statements
here made.
In the light of these facts, why should
one vote be cast in New Mexico in No
vember 5 for the party which declares
that wool, sheep, cattle, ores and every
thing else produced in the territory are
raw materials" and for that reason
olloSlp w w ~ tV1tN lIOIIl tOlilpCll-
ton with similar articles raised in for
eign countries under conditions which
render it impossible to market them on
an equal footing with foreign products?
In order to maintain the needed pro-
lection at the highest possible point Re-
publicans are required at the nations
capital in sufficient numbers to over
shadow the strength of the free raw
material fanatics, whose one desire is
to place the American ranchmen, sheep
raiser, farmer and laboring man on the
same poverty stricken, helpless condi-
ton that these classes occupy on the
other side of the water.
As the standard bearer of the party
which stands for the protection of
Americans in all walks Of life, the bet
terment of the lot of the poor and the
advancement of the nation, Hon. Pedro
Perea is entitled to every vote in New
Mexico; and 1t is safe to say that he
will receive a large majority of them.