Crawfordsville Daily Journal, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 15 October 1892 — Page 5

"ho l' publicly

l-niiti/til are llif manufacturers of

United Males. If this charge

,» anything it is that they, as a

Intake Advantage of protection to

l:uier the people by putting an unrea-

YM*

prirc- on their goods. Is this

,'e*alc accusation true?

•There' is mie class of manufacturers

V' make large profits it is those who

patented articles. They have a

tr.opolv.in their products while the

i,tit run* and.can charge what they

ami thev do, in fact, charge all

can ^gamble at them

CVo3 ''unetiines with reason. Hut

has no more to do with their

rlioas than the changes of the

Wiie'froni these. I deny that Ameri-

manufacturers. as a cine*, are mak-

\z extravagant profits. Have vou

ir.v proof of it Have vou seen

anv Democratic newspaper any

Itneniic. statistics, reports, or facts

lowini: that the manufacturers of the

l-iteii State*-, as a body, leaving out

who work under patents, are

Liking larger profits than other busi-

wr.en Not a hit of it. And vou

not. It is not true. On the con-

Lrv. the fact is. as every intelligent,

living man knows, that the business

1 manufacturing in this country, where

I: protected by patents, is subject to

pnipping. close competition that it

I impossible to succeed in it without

best machinery. the best organiza-

the eldest economy and the most

|:iciou$ management. Of course, a

I a manufacturing business, well

paged, employing thousands of

wnen. makes a great deal of money

|*ii* owner in prosperous times. But

Lt i\True of an kind of business suc-

UfuIbVcairied on upon a great scale.

I any country .-under any commercial

I In toe place of proof on

this Mibject.

Ic !)3v^.'-heard, and will continue to

|ar.[iJi i! election day. the same mere

fcirration* ot the rich which have

Imirti the stock in trade of dema-

Eues in aH^at^cs. It is true that we

pvt.many*ru*h-- men among us—sjme

lit are verv rich, and that there are

attending the accumulation of

Icai wealth" in few hands which de-

|neconsuieration. Hut what relation

that tact to the issue between pro-

ttt'on and free trade No man makes

I^IU" •.business except through the

Parity of other-. A. T. Stewart

per wuuid have made bis millions in

|KTch.Jindfrin{ without prosperous cus-

pmmtofov his goods the Yander-

jSltshtvtr wmild have made their mil-

|ob* mtnojt prosperous communit

1

pairom/p their railroads Carnegie \rr HOiiid-. have made bis millions

liiiiou. customers able to buy his iron.

Ifirconduioiis under which great fnr-

jtoes are made are those in which

the greatest general prosperity,

Pd the people live well and spend

|tth,iind it matters not whether those Mition*. ansctrom protection or free

Iheymav exist with either, as

a

eady shown. England lias

^nuiaeUiring princes as well as

princes, who have made

under free trade. If

apdtrbilt and Carnegie had

the v.uiit conditions of general

(\isting under free trade

It ihe\ tound existing under pro-

tfiion,

ho would have made the

T*fortune* in the same way. I will

-V «ha| the adoption of free trade

0

prmnt the accumulation of

^''Ortunes in the United States, but

1

dots, it \vill be by making all the

poor that there will be no

"V'the country for pioutable »nvss,

|«au

He sort of political strabismus pre-

trct trade orators from see-

Vtwrrn a beggar and a

3 1

lie one is the object of

lata'f

1

fcrtahi

dolia

°f withering

I a

thri

»Jv of com*

a

v* P'^^P^rous citizens

a

between, he has no eves at Mo

between, he hai

a

have made a mil-

a

.»" Indiana? Perhaps a

Rhout either »u«h poverty or riches, have

S a W

ainuf"?-

cratic party this year, lie knows that

its wholesale indictment of him and his

business is utterly false. He knows that

unless he can invent something new,

and so protect himself by a patent, for

a few years, he has to do business on as

close margins as a merchant. He knows

that he is, in truth, a public benefactor.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men,

women and children live on the wages

he pay* out. It is his to raise the money,

devise the means, watch the markets,

drum up the customers study the prob­

lems which a great business presents,

and take the chances of its success. It

is theirs to have steady, secure employ

ment, and go to happy homes at night

without an anxious thought for the

morrow. Of course, this is not for

charity on his part. He mav be, in

a given case, a selfish, hard, grasping

man, and open, as an individual, to all

the criticism which thosequalities invite

wherever we find them. Hut, separat­

ing the accidental character of the man

from the essential charac^r of his

business, the manufacturer is a public

benefactor in a higher sense than any

of the rest of us. And the indiscrimi­

nate villification of the whole bodv of

them in Democratic platforms, papers,

and speeches is the most disgraceful

1

appeal to ignorance and prejudice that#!

ha* been made by any partv since the

days when to hate a negro was a party

principle.

ciikai r,or»!)«

Wili tree trade give us cheaper goods

I his is a question to be considered from

I two points of view first, the real co^i

of things second, the money cost. The

real price which a man who earns his

living pays for the things he consumes

a A a

average year's work in the I'nited

States will procure more things mini*/

tering to u-e and comfort than an aver-

age year of like work in another coun­

try. then prices are really lower here

than in the other country, although a

market price current might indicate the

contrary in dollars and cents. And

that is the real situation. Measured bv

the labor necessary to procure them,

all the necessaries of comfortable living

are cheaper in the United States than

anywhere elsr. To this fact there are

among us millions of witnesses who

have made the comparison for them­

selves, and who know bv experience

that while it may take more nionev

to buy things in America than in (»er*

many or Ireland, it takes less sweat.

But this is not the way a free-trade

debater approaches the question. He

takes a yard of cloth made bv the

cheap labor of the Old World and shows

it to a high-priced laborer in the New

World, and says: "See how cheap this):

is if you will take off the taritV you

can have it at t,he same price,'' expect­

ing his hearer to take it for granted

Uiat under free trade he will get Ameri­

can prices for his labor, and be charged

European prices for his goods. Hut

can he do that

It a man could make an exception to

the general rule in his individual casc^

and take the tnonev which his labor

produces in the United States under

protection, and buy foreign goods with

it without payment of duty, it would be

a profitable arrangement. Just so. it

would be money in a man's pocket to

be relieved from public taxes, and yet

continue to enjoy the advantages of

government and law. Hut in ouh to

judge whether his taxes are a good

pecuniary investment or not a man must

consider what his condition ild be if

nobody paid anv taxes, and society^

were deprived of all the institutions'

vantages also.

How many have

Hit- wive

prayer of Agur, and.

toil Hundreds of

f*peritv ^iT'

PP

ew these in order to scotch T™ .nabobs''

Kl.srKCTlNt MANLFAC-

TfKVR.

1 0

"ny self-respecting

I I

tan vote with the Deino-

all manutactured commodities. It has

in the first place, what you mav call a

world-round price, depending on tlie

whale world's supply, the whole world'*

consumption, and those elements of the

cost of production which are universal.

1

which depend on taxation. So in

order to form anv valuable opinion as

to the probable effect of free trade on his

own condition, a man must take into ac­

count its consequences upon the lives,

earnings and prosperity of all his fellow

citizens. We cannot have free trade

for one man or set of men, and protec­

tion for all the rest. We cannot have

its advantages without taking its disad­

PRICKS IRON'.

To trace all the causes that atfect

prices and predict exactly what effect

free trade would producc on them in

the United States is beyond the power

of anv one. But it is certain that it

would not give us European prices

without giving us substantially Euro-:

pean conditions in other rcspects as

well. Let us make a little study, for

example, of the price of iron, which is

coming to be the most important of

I he local price varies in different coun­

tries by a margin depending on local

conditions, but the general price de­

pends on general conditions, and rises

or falls in parallel curves. There can

be no doubt that, although not a pound

of American iron may be sent to En­

gland. ami the money price mav be

higher here than there, the American

production affects the English price.

The pig-iron output jf the three great

iron-producing countries is given as

follows: l-:

Tons.

United States... 1S90. .. .9,202.000 England .,.,.. 1S90. .. .7,904,000 Germany 1889. .4,524,000

Our own production is nearlv one-

third of tlie world's supply. Its diminu­

tion from anv cause except lessened

consumption would tend to raise the

price everv where. Suppose we should

shut up our furnaces and go to England

and (icrmanv to buy all our iron what

would lie the effect It would send the

price booming skyward. You or I can

K° there anil buy a few tons at a less

pi ice than we can buy it here. Hut if

wc should all go there to buy, prices

would go up like a rocket.

Suppo-e, on the other hand, that

without forming any resolution on that

•Mibject we simply open the door to

free trade ii iron. If the foreign pro­

ducers should put their prices up to

our standard we would gain nothing by

'the change. If they should offer us

iron at less prices than those at which

we :re now producing it, what would

our iron makers do They inust meet

those prices or go out of tlie business.

And to meet a cut in prices thev must

jliave a reduction in everything that

enters into the cost of production

and sale—wages, freights, rents, inter­

est and everything else. This would

coinpil a readjustment of our whole

industrial system so as to bring it into

line with the industrial conditions of

the competing countries. With Eng­

lish wages, and English standards of

living wc could compete with En­

gland in the production of iron, but not

otherwise. In short, if we want foreign

prices on iron we must accept foreign

conditions with them.

As with iron so with all other com­

modities of general use produced by us.

Our production is part ol the world's

-isupply and helps to deep down the

world-round price. Take awav our pro­

duction and the world's supply will be

short of its wants, and the price will go up. If we adopt free trade and still

undertake to keep up our production we

must do it 011 a basis of wages and liv­

ing substantially identical with that of

other nations. So that, turn it over as

vou will, there is no way in which we

can gel goods at foreign prices without

importing also the conditions of foreign

life and business.

The adoption of free trade by us

would not. in fact, transfer all ourinan-

ulactures to Europe. Thev have be­

come too great for that. But it would

produce a period of reconstruction on

both sides of the water. On the other

side it would be a reconstruction up­

ward on our side a reconstruction

downward, until we reached such an

equality of conditions that we could

trade freely with each other. I have

assumed in this argument that the

money prices of manufactured goods

ire higher here than abroad, which is

general true. Hut as to most things

tlie difference is slight, and as to many

things there is none at all. The as­

sumption made bv President Cleveland

in his tariff message of 1SS7, and by

free trade advocates generally, that

•the difference is equal to the duty, has

been shown over and over to be an

egregious error. The broad truth,

subject to minor and temporary excep­

tions, is, that in so great a country as

ours competition is bound to force

prices down to the lowest point of liv­

ing profit.

FOKRUiN MAKKKTS.

You will hear a Democratic speaker

in one breath revile the American man­

ufacturer as a robber of his fellow-citi­

zens, and in the next, with delightful

versatility, bemoan his cramped and

embarrassed condition for want of more

customers, and solicitously recommend

to him free trade as an open door to the

markets of the world."The mat kcts of.

the world "--what an inviting, seductive.

sound. ]ut by .111 unlortunate concat­

enation of circumstances the world is

onlv eight thousand miles in diameter

three-quarters of its surface is covered

wilh water not more than two-thirds

of the remainder is habitable and of-

the people who occupy that the major­

ity have 110 money to buy anything

with from anybody. As for the others,

there isn't a savage 011 the face of the

eartli who can be induced to buv

another breech cloth that hasn't had an

l.nglish drummer after him. Though

on lake the wings ot the morning and*

fiy to the uttermost parts of the eartli,

there he is. And yet the Knglish man­

ufacturer is crying for more customers.

•_A royal commission was appointed

recently to inquire into the causes of

the existing depression of trade. It

took sixteen hundred pages of testi­

mony from the ablest experts in the

kingdom, and in its report, which 1 have

in my library, the first cause assigned

was overproduction—too many goods

for the market. Ilow can we get into

those glutted markets? Only bv ^ut-

ting prices. But all hands can plav at

that game. And where do you sup,,

pose the cutting would stop before the

countries of the Oid World would

retire to make place fur us

TRI E HASISOK !•'JRI:I.V IRA Dr.

But,you say, would you have no for­

eign trade? Certainly I would. There is a

field of international exchanges ordained

by nature, profitable to both parties and

ample to sustain a great foreign com­

merce* It rests mostly upon the inter­

change of the products of different lati­

tudes, including also natural produc­

tions of general use found only in

limited localities. I cannot describe it

more perfectly than by reference to our

own commerce for the past year. Dur­

ing the twelve months ending June 30.

tS(j2, we imported—•

Coffee Si^.Soi/rO"

3. :.041 -3 S---14 ... 5,000/13.:

Cocoa.... ... .... Cork. a a a India-rubber .. Raw silk ,. Foreign spices Foreign gums. Foreign textile grasses Sugar. Tea.

S9.S33-093 -4,1-

1

-491

.-.,40.0*7,• 6.089.^46

16,478.1^ IO6.7.'O.::8

4'373-

2 2

'.'.f *3^V47,Ji3

Other free imports: 131,053.459-

*458,000.772

Dutiable import*.... 3(19.400,Sot

Total imports....:. ^27.401,573:

During the same period we exported—

Animals $36,498,221 Hreadstutfs .* 21)^.363,1 Cotton 25

S.461.241"'

Petroleum v.:.V 44.805,992' Meat and dairy products 140.562.159

•i77') 4•/

Other exports

73°

&-2A J-

Tola! exports. £i.ot732.011 Total imports .. 827.401,573

Balance in our favor, $188,330,438

These two tables show at a glance

the general character of our foreign

trade. The eleven principal imports

enumerated are things wc need, but can­

not produce for ourselves. We may be

able some day to produce the sugar

the others are products of soils and

climates different from ours. Our five

leading exports named were of products

of our soil and climate sold to nations

that could not produce them for them­

selves either for want of suitable soil

and climate or from excess of popula­

tion. Those are the exchanges ordained

by nature. They amounted in the ag­

gregate to eleven hundred million

dollars in the sixteen classes named

during the first fiscal year following the

enactment of the McKinlev bill. They,

brought to our homes the choicest pro­

ductions of every land under the sun

without the burden of a dollar of duty.

There is a reason for this kind of com­

merce in the constitution of the earth

and the wants of man. It helps every­

body and hurts nobody. It is necessary^

to human happiness and progress.

ARTIFICIAL KXt II AN IvS.

There is another kind of commerce

of which I do not think so well. Can

any one give a good reason wbv cotton

should be raised in Georgia, shipped to

England, made into cloth and sent back

here for user Or why we should wear

clothes made from Australian wool

spun and woven in England Or why

we should go abroad for glassware,

pottery, ur metal manufactuics: If

He weri- too igiioiant and stupid to

j-'-make these tilings, or learn to make

them, that would he good reason lor

buying them abroad until we could

work up a little in the scale of intelli-

gence. But that we cannot admit.

And there remains no reason except

that they can be made abroad bv

cheaper labor. I hat is r.ot a condition

ol Ciod's or nature's creation, but• ol

mans creation. It is an artificial con­

dition, and exchanges resting 011 lliat

basis are artificial and not natural e\-

changes. Ami they are not good 1i-r

us. Thev give us nothing which w.-

could not produce lor ourselves, and

to our great advantage. I hey seduce:

us trom the rugged paths, which,

through effort, self-denial, invention

and perseverance, bring out our best

powers, and lead us into the kingdom ol

our inheritance as sovereigns r,l the

earth and all things on it. And 1 le-

ioice, therefore to see that kind of coin-:

inerce diminished by the McKinlev hill.

In the four great departments of cotton,

woolen, silk and iron manufactures our

importations, fur l&j as compared with

those oi the preceding year, were as fol­

lows

vc'

$29.71

Cotton. IS91 Cotton. .V... ihij2

-^3-.v7vS

a $ 1 3 8 0 1

Decrease.

iSfyi if.) I.O^O.IHSO

Woolen Woolen ..

S

9- 35-^- 79::

••••Mgr. $ :-4V4--'"'

I )ecrease

9' M.

Silk Silk .' .•

S

9- 3'-'7-• /4

Decrease

•7 '7--4'.'

Iron and steel. 1891 .**3,241 .2Z Iron and stuel. li.92. 2S.423.S83:'

a $ 2 4 8 1 7 1 3 1

1 Making a reduction of import- in

these four classes alone in one of

^3^.407,488. The reduction in the .me

•j

time ol all dutiable imports was Jjioi),-

274.043. and the increase in'free mi-

ports was $91,7^9.420. According to

1 mv way of thinking our comment* is

growing desirably in two direction

1

it

growing greater as to those things

which wc must buy abroad, and it is

growing less as to those things whi

we ought to make at home. At the

same time we have not suffered any dim­

inution of our supply of manufactured

goods. The decrease of importations

hafc been more than made up b\ in­

crease in our home production. Tht*

total amount of that increase is not

known, but the report of Cotnmh sinner

ot Labor Peck, of New York, showm­

an increase in that State alone, of Jji,.

000.000. The total manufactures of

the country for iSfjo, as estimated from

the census returns, amounted to over

eight billions of dollars. Comparing

that with our imports of nianul.-u u.ivs

—about one-third of one billion— we

see how truly independent we have "be­

come. We make ninety-six per rent,

of all the manufactures we use, and vse

use tiie most and the best of anv peo­

ple in the world. At the same time

our total foreign commerce—exports

and imports combined—was greater

during the last fista' ear than tverbe-

fore. Here are the inures lor five

years past:

iSSS .. $1 419.^.1-15

2

M7« 7M.W7,

,1890 1,618,908.(140 .. 1891 1 72^ 7S«J.8(.O 1 8 9 2 1 8 4 3 1 3 3 5 8 4

It is certainly desirable to find a

market abroad lor any surplus we have

of anything we can produce. There

are many nations that must be buveis

of manufactured commodities for a

long time to come, and so far as we can

get a share of their trade without the

sacrifice of more valuable interests at

j: home, it is wise to do it. We can

accomplish something toward this in

thri.e avs

1. Hv cheapening production through

improved machinery and methods. An

automatic machine is the cheapest work­

man. Plain cotton cloth, for example,

is made almost wholly by machinery,

the hand work required being very

little and of the''simplest kind. I Knee

we can now compete with the world in

that industry,and last year exported a

hundred and eighty-three million yards

of it, for which we received vin

million dollars. More invention and

more mills planted among the cotton

fields and coal mines of the South will

give us no ftne knows how much more

of that trade.

2. By the production of machines

and implements of general use that

1 will overcome competition by their