The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-10-07
a HARD GOSPEL FOR MINNESOTA

A HARD GOSPEL FOR MINNESOTA
The intelligence of every Minnesota
voter is insulted by the campaign that
Speaker Cannon is now making
throughout this state. He harps upon
one theme and has. but one word, and
that is protection" Speaking in Min
neapolis the other night he devoted
forty minutes to the subject, and ex-
allied the Republican policy of monop-
oily without offering one word of hope
for its amendment, one word of prom
ise for the believers in reciprocity, one
word of amelioratien for the condition
of the consumer. And this in a state
where the leading Republican papers.
dare not defend protection; where they
are clamoring in one column for re-
duced duties and reciprocity treaties,
and in the next for the election of the
party of whose policies Mr.. Cannon is
the most conspicuous and powerful ex-
ponent.
Talk of protection to the Minnesota
voter! Where does he come in except
as the poor overladen ass whose bur-
dens it increases, without furnishing
him so much as a bite of additional.
provender? The farmer of Minnesota is
unprotected If he did not know it be-
fore the events of this last year should
have shown him how criminally false,
how inexpressibly foolish is the pre-
tense that any tariff duties can avail
to change the prices of his products.
His wheat has gone up because there
is a shortage in the worlds supply,
and no other power could have raised
its price. So upon the bounty of nature
and upon the needs of mankind he
must depend for his entire return. The
tariff touches him indeed, but it
touches him only on the debit
side of the ledger. For every foot of
lumber, for every pound of nails, for
every atom of machinery, for every
shred of clothing, for every household
utensil and for part of the very food
that he eats he pays tribute to swollen
monopolies that insolently wiring profits
from him while engaging in cutthroat
competition in foreign markets.
Listen to Mr.. Cannon. Protection is
a tax levied upon cheap foreign labor
for the purpose of making up the diff
ference between foreign and native la
Dor" Can such utter falsehood as this
deceive even a child? At the present
moment steel rails which are selling at
from $2S to $50 per ton in the Ameri-
can market can be bought from the
same American manufacturers in the
foreign market at about SIT to SIS per
ton. The manufacturer pays the freight
for the long haul to his distant Gus
toner, while he insolently taxes the
home consumer to the tune of some 60
per cent additional to the actual selling
price That he does not manufacture
for the foreigner at a loss we need not
say.
The same thing is true all along the
line of iron and steel manufactures.
This business in the United States is
in the hands mainly of great trusts
like the United States Steel corpora
e., 80 o+Io, ,,,o,,o,,olso- No. +bo,,o
the tariff is levied and collected. And
this bonus is for the benefit of the
american laborer," is it? In the same
issues of the newspapers carrying MI.
Cannon's speech we find a notice that,
with the exception of the employees of
one mill, all the men at the Joliet plant
of the Steel corporation are working
now under a wage schedule which
makes a cut of from 20 to 40 per cent.
The scale in the other mill will expire
Nov. /, and the wage cut there will be
about one-half.
There is no wickedness in all the
story of legislation in the United States
that can compare with this. The tariff
advocate cuts the throat of the poor
man with one hand, while the other is
piously raised toward heaven invoking
a benediction upon the worker. How
long will our people tolerate this crime
of discrimination in favor of the rich
as against the poor? How long, above
all, will the people of Minnesota, who
profit not one cent from tariff imposi-
tons, pay without a murmur the enor-
nous sums now taken from thems by
trusts and syndicates on tariff author
ity, and kiss the rod that smites them?
Those men who put iron in life pre-