Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1903-08-06
AS TO THE CONSUMER
ARE HIS INTERESTS SACRIFICED By
PROTECTIONf

AS a Matter of Fact, Every Consumer
Is Also In Some Sense q Producer
and Is Thus Sharer In All the
Benefits Of the Protective Policy.
Here are three short paragraphs
from the Free Trade Almanac:
The consumer is the forgotten man.
Free trade gives justice to the con-
sumer and opens wide the door of op-
portunity to everybody.
Protection enriches the producer
and dispenses special privileges to a
favored few"
Who forgets the consumer? Does
the farmer who Is marketing all he
can produce at profitable prices? Does
the manufacturer who cannot fill his
avalanche of orders or get his goods
transported quickly enough by tho
overtaxed railroads? Does the mer-
chant who Is doing the largest bust
ness in his history? Why, the con-
sumer is in the mind of all, for without
his demands all production and trade
would be profitless
But who Is the consumer? Every
producer and those dependent on him.
The S. day now enjoyed by SO many
serves for the FIVE members of the
family, all consumers, who buy just
five times as much as when the in
come Garner got 81 day. 1t is the
consumer, then, who brings the pros
perity, for we must first have demand.
then production and then consumption.
The man who has employment or
promise Of employment and good
wages can order suit Of clothes or a
house. Then comes the construction,
with its demand for materials, and then
come the acceptance and payment.
The consumer is the basis of all prog
ress and prosperity. 1t is his prospects
and demands that tmpel the wheels Of
industry, and the endless chain brings
to him a greater share Of the activity
of which he is a single element. And
just as long as demand exceeds supply
and surplus earnings accumulate in
financial institutions SO long is the
consumer benefited regardless of the
relative degree of wages and prices,
for the income must be greater than
the outgo.
That is the acme of justice to the
consumer, q condition which never ex-
lists under free trade. What justice or
opportunity has the consumer when
driven to the soup house? What JUS
tice or opportunity has the consumer
when drawing out his savings from
the bank? What justice or opportu-
nifty has the consumer when he must
go home, after fruitless search for
work, and hear the sobs of hungry
children?
Bah, what rot 1t is, in the light Of
the experience Of the past ten years, to
say that "free trade gives justice to the
consumer and opens wide the door of
opportunity to everybody" How the
prosperous masses of today, as they
look back to that awful free trade pc
riod of 1893 and 1897 laugh with scorn
at such assertions.
And now for the third paragraph
above: Protection does indeed enrich
the producer, and every producer being
not only consumer, but the represent
ative in buying capacity of other con-
sumers, the greater his enrichment the
greater the consumption, to still fur
ther enrich the producer and so on till
free trade clogs the wheel and snaps
the chain. And who are the few to
whom protection dispenses special priv
ileges? Can 1t be the 100000 farm
ers, whose crops and live stock were
worth $4OOO,OOO 900 more the past five
years than the preceding five years
Can it be the manufacturers, whose
product is now worth $15,OOO,OO 10000
annually as against less than half that
six years ago?
Can it be the railroads, taxed to their
utmost in every part Of the land and
whose employees are reaping the bene-
fit Of more than so per cent increase in
earnings over 1896? Can it be the mer-
chants, whose stores are SO crowded
with customers as to require more
room, more help and more stock2 Can
it be the masons and carpenters and
painters and plumbers, all enjoying
their short hours and So to $5 daily
wages? Can 1t be the lawyers, the doc
tors, the clergy, the teachers, all with
increased incomes? Can it be the busy
mechanic or even the SO called day ID
borer? They are all busy, and their
wages and incomes are greater pei
day, per month and per year than ever
before. Who are this favored few
to whom protection dispenses special
privileges? Is there man. woman OF