Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-10-15
ELOQUENT CONGRESSMAN DELIv.
ERs TELLING ADDRESS ON
POLITICAL ISSUES.
DISCUSSES THE TARIFF
Says That the "Tariff Busting Reform
ers" Picked Out the Worst Point of
Attack When Starting Crusade
Against Duty on Steel Products.

Oskaloosa, Oct. 15.-(Special.)-
The price of human progress is eter-
nal vigilance and it is therefore nee
essary that>t advocates and defend
ers of the American policy of protec-
ton should ever be on the alert to
safeguard their interests and the In
terests of the entire people by pre-
serving untrammeled the doctrines of
the republican party that have been
so successful in bringing prosperity
and gain to American citizens
In this manner Congressman r. G.
Cousins summed up the duty OF the
voters of Iowa and the United States
in an eloquent address delivered at
| the court house in this city last eve
ming before a large audience. Mr..
Cousins dealt mostly with the repub-
| lican policy of protection of which he
| is one of the most sturdy exponents.
| Without any equivocation he preached
the policy of protection to American
| industry and American labor and the
conserving by this policy the Ameri
can market for the benefit of the
| American farmer. Interspersed with
| his plain and forcible presentation of
facts and figures in support of his
L
tory served to further picture the
bright results of the policy and i'm
press upon his hearers the disaster
that has always followed in the wake
of the adoption of the policy OF
4 FREQ trade.
4 Political Dreamers.
In his address Mr. s'ummins said:
i IN the history or the United States
i there have been many vain and use
II less attacks upon the policy of pro-
i lection but none have been SO blind
and unfounded as those which have
characterized the advocates of reform
i during the past few years. 1t is a
maxim in political history that when
a people are sailing along peacefully
on the wave of prosperity and plenty
4 there are always those easily found
! who are ready to take UP with any
Il reform movement and accept any prop
osition that is offered by political
dreamers. These people do not stop
to ascertain what will be the results
of the propositions of the reformers
and they do not take the time to mea-
sure the effects of the proposed theo-
ries by the lessons of history.
iron ana Steei.
. "Since the adoption of the Dingley
law there has been many groundless
and vicious attacks made upon that
measure. Individual schedules have
been attacked blindly and without rea.
SON. These prophets of evil have
vaguely scored the tariff on iron and
: steel, but they have ignored the fact
that in many of the different and
, principal products Of this line the duty
is actually the same or lower than
it was under the Wilson German tar
; if of 1894 In one of the largest de-
partments of the steel industry, the
production of pig-iron, the tariff duty
: was left the same in the Dingley law
: 81 per ton, as it was in the Wilson
l German measure. The duty of bal
, iron was reduced 6 of ] per cent
: that on steel rails S7.S4 per ton is
I the same as in the democratic mea
2 sure and is the lowest duty on this
! product ever in force.
Tariff Busting Reform.
: tIn my opinion the tariff busting re
/ form ers picked out the very wors
: poinl of attack possible when the.
: started their crusade against the dut.
q on steel products. In 1901 over tn
!, protection wall of American tariff ther
9 We're SAT 900 600 worth of steel import
e ed into this country from foreign fac
S tories. There has been much blint
:, talk of monopoly in iron and steel, bu
t in making these declarations the re
S formers forget that in the year 1870
hfthere were $50 independent manufao
turers of iron and steel in the Unite
States. These independent plants Pre-
duced a little more than so per cen
of the total output Of the steel indu:
E. try. They produced 43 per cent of tn
iron ore in the United States, and 4
per cent of the total amount of pi
:. iron.
So EnIaraes the Home Market.
= "Another thing these tariff tinker
y - forget is that in 1901 there were 231,
- 701 men employed in the iron and stee
- industry in the United States Their
= were invested in this industry S57300C
y, 900 there were paid in wages $132, ,000
- OO0, and materials were used in thi