Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1891 — THE SHADOW OF FREE TRADE. [ARTICLE]

THE SHADOW OF FREE TRADE.

It will prove fortunate for voters who may for the moment be tempted by the dazzling pictures held out by free trade crusaders, if, before casting a ballot for the vaunted panacea of tariff reform, a little search be made for the inspiration of that interest in the general weal of this country just now so prominent It will prove equally, beneficial if some attention is also given to the results of the “revenue only” policy as found in the nation most active in the

effort to views upon this country. A little scrutiny in this direction will devejope the'fact that what is really sought is to have ’•htes so east and legislation sd ; - to discourage tho further growth of, industries in this rritim r\’, and give over to foreign ..-rkiueii now but jiartially employed a large share of-the manufacturing now furnishing employmenUfor labor and capital in theyUaited Statdi. Aglance along.!he line of march of dree trade crusaders soon finds thefieeVo England, where sits the ('•.’huh <’;u!> as c inmander-in. .1-<;i the £ >:■<••■> a.-.-ailing the poliey of Protection for any country except Great Britain. And it is not necessary to look beyond the sliadow'of this presiding geni :- of free trade for the results of the policy it so persistently ■•eliai-ipions... There r_be era devoted t,o farming is steadily diminishing under the necessity for competing with breadstuff's grown abroad. There the effort to keep the price of manufactured products low enough to underbid other nations in their own markets, has crowded wages to a level that compels wives and children to join in the battle for bread, while the unsolved problem of providing for the army of the unemployed is pressing upon Parliament with, daily augmenting intensity fsticli are the practical fruits of Ahs—policy championed by the Cobden Club, and urged by its American assistants for adoption by the United States. Remove the existing tariff' On wheat, and India would pourjier grain into San Francisco and other seaports at prices far below the cost of production ...here. Remove i lie't a riff from any considerable number of our wide range of manufacturs, sand foreign competiVofs wouMbtake our. .markep. or conqje] the cost of production here to conform to that in countriesof lowest wages. And these facts voters cannot afford to learn in the dear school of experience.