Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1888 — TOPICS OF THE TIMES. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

THB FanT*ADKB*S MAP. Chicago IntcrOcMD. The Chicago Tribune of Friday morning attempted to escape from a predicament of its own making by the use of diagram—a map. Under this map appeared the Allowing sentences: “Here you see the well the Protectionists have built around the United States under the pretense of pretecting the poor workingmen. This is the wall which ahutsusfrom fore go markets and prevents the unemployed people in America from gettirg a chance to wx rk for the world.” Will tho Tribune take the mao as it stands .and mark with a red pencil the “unwallrd” country that has done better in the list fifty years than the United States? Will it indicate by a blue pencil the country it prefers to the United States, or the country to which the American workmen wonld emmigrate if they were given opportunity? If the protection wall has not protected workmen of ell (lasses, why do not workmen of all classes emigrate from this cr.untry to free-’rade England, or t r Germany or Russia. Workmen ga to the country in which they can do me best. Since 1820 nearly 14,000,000 pec pie, the most of them poor, of moderate means, have come from England, Inland, Scotland, Geitnany, Frat cj, Russia, and other countries of the old wcild to the United states. The wall marked out by the Tribune did not prevent the a from comirg. nor did it compel them to stay. They came to this country to find work, and through the policy of the Government they have found it, and the most of them have become well to do, and not a few of them wealthy. Of the fourteen millions who immigrated to this country only a few thousand have returned. Of the native American workmen who seek to Yietter their condition very few indeed have emigrated to Europe. If those whose fa‘e it is to work for a livirg can do loetter in Europe why did 14,000,000 persons come from Europe to this country? If workingmen are not protected here why have they been flocking to these shores in such great numbers ever since the protection pol ey was adopted? As to the second pr .postion, that the wall shuts ns out irom foreign markets, the bast answer ir the question, “Does it?” There 13 nothing in the way of sending abroad what the workers of the United States produoes. Tariff is in the way of what Europ an workers pre- 1 dace coming io. The protective policy gives the American worker! the advanage in the home market, and does not dose any foreign market to them. In the fiscal year ending v ith 1886 Great Britta a and Ireland purchased $934,927,973 wcr,h of American productsand paid tbe msrkt price for them. In the same year the other coun'rids of Europe purchased $331,000,000 of American products. The Tribune seems to have got the boot on the wrong leg or to have climbed down on the w reng aide of the wall. The tariff does not close ‘craign markets to American worker j, but inert aseS their chances for doing the work of the woil 1. It buil is up a constant I y incieit ing home market and makes it possible for the United Sta‘es to sell inanu acturod produc eto the amount of s2oo,ooo,oooevery year toother nations. The Tribune cught to publish another map.

A SECTIONAL MEASURE. St. Ixiuis Globe-Democrat. _ . - The most pronounced andmost objectionable fjators cf the Mills tariff bill is its sectionalism. It proposes in a direct and positive way to benefit Southern agriculture and industries at the expense of the agriculture and industries of the North. In every instance wbe’e a removal or reduction of duty is provided, careful discrimination is ma ie against some Not them product or interest; and where the duty is left untouched, or only slightly lowered, it is invariably the S.uth that jsjavored. In short, the theory of the measure, so far as it can be said to have any theor ry, is that of protection tor the business and people of the Democratic States, and injury to the business and people of the Republican States. This is so clear that it can not possibly be overlooked or misunderstood. One need not be an expert to comprehend the purpose ol a bill which puts aside all general principles cf political economy, and deals entirely with local conditions and influences. The sugar cf Louisiana, the rite of South Carolina, the coal and iron of Alabama and Virginia, are all left in a protected situation; but the salt, wool, lumber flax and other valuable products of the North and West are denied participation in the profits of such a policy. There is no reason to be given for this plan of discrimination except political favoritism;" and the American people will not fail to see that Mr. Mills and his associates have subordinated all other considerations to that of aiding the section from which their party derives most of its strength. It is announced by authority that this bill has the approval of the President, and that it is to be urged as a party measure. Certainly no Republican can be expected to vote for any part of a bill which so flagrantly violates the plainest rulesof justice and fairness, and which cannot be reconciled with any known system of economic logic or practice. A measure requiring sll the

expenses of tha Government to be paid by the people of the Norlhern Statee woull hardly be more distinctly sectional than this project for benefiting the Southern Bta-.es by giving them the protection that is withdrawn from the rest of the Union. There can not Y>e any question alxrnt the fate of such a monstrous proposition. It is offensive to all accepted notions of bgisiative honesty and decency, and its diicrssion can oily tend to emphasize its fdly and meanness. The Derm c ats of the North can not afford to indorses bill which is calculated to inflict st rioui damrg a upon their constituentb'for the purpose of promoting the wt llfara of the South. They must join the Republicans in condemning and resitting it, or they must forfeit their chances of ra-election. It is such a bill as only a representatives of the South can find can e to support; and, fortunately', the South al me cannot perpetrate the proposed outrega upon Northern intarests. THB INIQUITY CF PROTECTION. W. K. Kelly’*ipeech. And what has wrought this wondr jus change? The “iniquitous rystem of protection.” [Applauaeon the Republican side.] The “iniquity”of prjteeii jo! It emancipated 4,000,000 tlaves and has set hundreds of thoueauds of then at work, on (r rear the cotton-fielis they cultivate 1 a a tlavt s, st a d< liar or more a day in mechanical, miain* and manufacturing industrial woiih that same “iniqui ,y”. is deve opiug in all ptris of the of I Gave States. [ Applause on the Republican side.] “The iniquity” of protection! Under your old free-trade, pro-31avery government we could not make a pound of cruoible steel; we could not make a Beesemer rail; we could Tnake but an average of but 800,000 tons- of p'g-iron a. year. Why [addressirg Mr. Breckinridge], God bless you, under the system of “iniquitous protection” the South in 1887 produced 80,000 tons of p : g-iron more than the whole Union had produced in the avenge of the decade from 1854 to 1863 under free trade and the domination of slavery in ihe halls of Corneas. We are no lorger dependent on foreign countries. We made m 1887 more than half the steel that was made ou the face of God’s foot-stool; more than half! [Applause on the Republican side.] Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. How much does my venerable friend sty the half of the steal was? [Laughter ] Mr. Kelley. Oh, -that is a beautiful pun, that is a sweet p’.ay upon a word, and if there was a prohibitory duty on the flowers of rhetoric, my friend from Kentucky [Mr. Breckinridge] would have much cause to complain. [Laughter.] I say that the “iniquitous system of protection” has enabled the iron men of the Southern States, of tKe old Confederate cotton States, to make iron and steel, and > f that be “stealir g,” Q say to my friend from Kentucky that they are now able to “steal” more every year than the whole Union formerly did. In 1887 they made in the Southern States 930,000 and some odd tons cf p'g iron and convert! d much of it into steel, while the whole nation over 6,000,000 tons. Tbat is the measure of our country’s growth from the 800,000 tons a year that free trade and slavery p irmitted her to produce. I will not detain the committee n jw, Lui will meet the gentle man at Pnilippi herea f [La u ?h----ter.]