?tate C|olUge of Agriculture 
 
 At QJontell ImuerBttij 
 3tljara. K. f . 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 HF1755.S8 
 The American protectionist's manual . 
 
 3 1924 013 997 550 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Free Trade Falsehood that a Protective Tariff 
 is a Tax on the Consumer Refuted. — Alexander Ham- 
 ilton. Cottons. Silks. Woolens and wool. Honorable 
 ignorance. Cheap woolens. British factory life. British 
 shoddy. The poor farmer and his blankets. Flannels, 
 etc. Iron and steel. Steel rails, nails, saws, axes, cut- 
 lery, salt, lumber. Loose and reckless assertions. "Con- 
 solations of the protected fanner; " a Canadian view. 
 Chemicals. Farmers the greatest monopolists, the non- 
 sense of it .... 47 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 A Tariff for Revenue Only, Taxes the Consumer. 
 Duties and prices. The old store and the new. A tariff 
 like a levee or a fence. Why do we not export manufac- 
 tures largely? 85 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Some Free Trade Fallacies Answered. — "Protection 
 fetters trade." "Hotbed growth." " Buy in the cheapest 
 market. " " Cheap foreign articles are clear gain. '' " Bal- 
 ance of trade fallacious " . 93 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Protection and the Farmer. — Old time experiences— sell 
 ing cheap and buying dear. Wise industrial policy needed 
 for successful farming. Rich lands exhausted. Farm 
 and factory neighbors and allies. Purchasing power of 
 farmers. Cheap transportation. Address of E. B. Ward. 
 The Western protectionist and the Cobden Club man; 
 Dudley on Mongredien. Duties on farm products. Grain 
 and provisions ; exports and home market. A healthy 
 equilibrium. Foreign markets uncertain. How pro- 
 tection protects farmers. A farmer's statement ... 99 
 
Ill 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Wages and Protection. — Wages and costs, here and in Eng- 
 land, etc. Savings Bank deposits; seven to one. Woman's 
 elevation. Wages in Newark, Paisley 'and the Clyde 
 ship-yards. J. W. Hinton. Comparative taxes. State- 
 ments at New York and Chicago Tariff Conventions . . 130 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Opinions of Eminent Men 153 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Common Interest, Not Sectional ok Class Jealousy. — 
 New England industries. The new South. A Western 
 view . . ... . 163 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. 
 
 Our History Teaches the Benefits of Protection. — 
 Protective tariffs pay surest and best revenue .... 179 
 
 CHAPTER XIV ' 
 
 Foreign Commerce — American Ships. Conclusion . 188 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013997550 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY— THE TARIFF QUESTION SIMPLE. 
 
 We have no brief compendium for popular use, 
 including a broad discussion of protection to home 
 industry, criticism of free trade assertions and the- 
 ories, and exposure of the delusion and peril of British 
 free trade. Large volumes and valuable essays and 
 tracts have had wide reading, but a condensed manual 
 is wanted. This book aims to supply that want, and to 
 present the leading principles and facts on this great 
 question in such compass as to be readable and useful 
 in the homes of the people, in libraries, and as a help in 
 discussions. A generation has passed away since the 
 great discussion of the tariff in the days of Henry Clay 
 and Horace Greeley, and there are now many who 
 want information to gain more positive and clear views 
 and opinions. There are protectionists and free traders, 
 equally sincere and earnest in their opposite opinions, 
 yet wishing more light. A question so important and 
 prominent deserves careful thought and serious atten- 
 tion. The statements of this work are offered as helps 
 to all these classes. Its plain criticisms expose the 
 methods and aims of leading free trade advocates, 
 and cut across the grain of strong prejudices, but they 
 do not impugn the honesty of well-meaning and sincere 
 free traders. 
 
 Many of our college professors and text-books favor 
 free trade. These teachers often lack practical knowl- 
 edge of the world, and are captivated by fine English 
 
2 Introductory. 
 
 theories, which are easy to accept, and save the trouble 
 of studying the facts of our industrial history, as given 
 by Carey, Elder, Thompson, Bowen, Kelley and other 
 able Americans, or like facts and ideas in the writings 
 of Sir Edward Sullivan, Sir Matthew Byles, Thiers, 
 Frederick List and other eminent foreigners. But 
 there are signs of a change. In Yale and elsewhere 
 students are calling for light on protection to American 
 industry. 
 
 The tariff question is supposed by many to be abstruse 
 and difficult, a labyrinth of facts and figures to which 
 none can find a clue except the few who can give it long 
 and patient study. This is a mistake; the principles 
 involved are plain and simple. It is thought of as a dry 
 matter of dollars and dimes in the national treasury, and 
 of profit and loss to great capitalists; or as a soulless 
 thing galvanized into life now and then as the war-cry 
 of a political campaign. It is full of vital interest and 
 comes home to the daily life of the people. Political 
 economy and social science should be more studied. 
 Surely what pertains so closely to the peaceful industries 
 which so largely fill our time should be as well under- 
 stood as the poor quarrels of old kings with their minis- 
 ters or mistresses, or the wars that have worse than 
 wasted the strength of the human race. 
 
 A family pays special regard to the interests of its 
 own members, while not oppressing or abusing others : 
 a nation is a great family. A family earns its own 
 expenses, or more, or decays ; a nation sells as much as 
 it buys or decays. This is "the balance of trade." 
 When any one can show how a family can earn $900 and 
 pay out $1,000 yearly, and still prosper, we may see how 
 a nation can export 190,000,000 and import $100,000,000 
 yearly, and not grow poor. 
 
The Tariff Question Simple. 3 
 
 A family, the members of which toil and care for each 
 other, cannot he exp'ected to admit others, who do not 
 ©hare these cares, into all its privileges and immunities ; 
 and none complain if its first and nearest aim is to see 
 that its own members are well employed and in a way to 
 independence. A nation, whose people have cleared its 
 lands, built its mills and shops and mechanism, opened 
 its beds of ores and coal, and are paying its debts and 
 taxes, cannot be expected to admit foreigners, who have 
 no share in these tasks or burthens, to its markets on 
 equal terms with its own citizens. A tarifE is a means 
 of asking them to pay reasonably for the privilege of 
 bringing in their products, and at the same time of 
 building up home industries, and giving employ and 
 independence to the people. Nothing abstruse or com- 
 plicated in all this. 
 
 We are to look at this protective tariff matter as it is 
 practiced now, and as it now affects people and nations, 
 especially our own country — going back to the past for 
 such facts as may help to comprehend the present. In 
 the dark ages of personal government by royal despots 
 exclusive privileges of making, or dealing in, salt, 
 woolens, etc., were farmed out to favorites. The people 
 had no rights, their interest was not counted, the only 
 •question was, how much extortion will they bear ? 
 
 "Wealth was won by the sword, and the rude loom 
 and the poor tillage of the soil was left to women and 
 slaves, and to the lame and halt not fit to be soldiers. 
 Duties were levied, now and then, on exports or imports, 
 with no thought or care for anything save to raise 
 money. Tariffs for revenue only, advocated by modern 
 free traders, are relics of the barbaric ignorance of those 
 dark days when the artificer was despised and the robber 
 warrior exalted. 
 
4 Introductory. 
 
 Then came slowly a recognition of the national import- 
 ance of building up great industries, and legislation to> 
 that end. England, for instance, had a rigid system of 
 tariffs for centuries, highly protective and with special 
 prohibitions such as no country to-day would enact. 
 The influence of legislation on the people fortunately 
 enters more into the governmental acts of all civilized 
 nations now than in the past, and especially is that the- 
 case in this republican country. By that test is this 
 matter to be tried. If our protective tariff system works, 
 for the benefit of favored manufacturers, giving wealthy 
 capitalists unjust monopolies and privileges at the cost 
 of their employees and of the people, helping to enrich 
 the few at the expense of the many, it is not fit to live a 
 day. If it helps to build up great and varied domestic; 
 industries; to employ labor at higher wages than else- 
 where ; to perfect and cheapen the products of our mills-, 
 by a healthy competition; to open a larger and better 
 home market for our farmers ; to develop our great, 
 natural resources ; to furnish revenue to our govern- 
 ment ; to help our financial and industrial independ- 
 ence, and to enrich and enlarge the daily thought and 
 life of the people, it should be sustained. All these- 
 benefits, it is claimed, result from it. 
 
 TAEIEF KEVISION. 
 
 The tariff framed in 1861— largely by the patient care- 
 of Hon. Justin S. Morrill, U. S. S., of Vermont, a man 
 of eminent capacity and integrity— and modified after 
 the close of the war, in 1870, has done excellent service,, 
 helping us through war and world-wide business panic. 
 During this time we have reached a magnitude of horn© 
 production on the farm, in the factory, and in domestic 
 
The Tariff Question Simple. 5 
 
 and foreign trade, increasing beyond like growth in 
 •any other country or any previous increase 'in the same 
 time at home. As changes in our condition seemed to 
 call for its revision, a tariff commission was chosen by 
 the President in 1882, made up of nine practical and 
 able men, outside of Congress, who were to investigate 
 the whole matter and report facts and opinions to Con- 
 gress, their report (which was made December 4, 1882, 
 and is of permanent value) to be information and advis- 
 ory basis for final legislation by that body, that its work 
 might be broad and comprehensive, so well done as to 
 stand for a term of years, to avoid the trouble and disas- 
 ter of frequent changes and fragmentary tariff tinkering, 
 and give that stability which we need for safety in in- 
 dustrial enterprises. Such revision was approved and 
 asked for by leading producers and manufacturers. 
 During the sessions of the Forty-sixth Congress %51 
 large manufacturing companies and 80,867 workmen 
 sent petitions to that body asking the appointment of 
 isuch commissioners. It is not in the scope of this work 
 to comment on the action of Congress in the tariff bill 
 passed in the last days of their session just closed. This 
 much only can be said : Any changes, either of reduc-i 
 tion or increase, which kept the idea of just protection 
 in view were wise ; any changes ignoring it were unwise. 
 
 HOW MOKE IMPORTANT THAN HOW MUCH. 
 
 The German, revenue from customs duties, a little less 
 in amount than the English, is levied by a protective 
 tariff. Such a tariff discriminates in favor of the people 
 ■of the country where it is framed. A tariff for revenue 
 only discriminates against them and in favor of foreign- 
 ers. This it does by allowing free competition in the 
 
6 Introductory. 
 
 products of their industry, and taxing foreign products 
 which they cannot produce or compete with. Two tariff 
 schedules might be framed for a country, both aiming to 
 raise the same sum for revenue, yet the one might be a 
 benefit and the other a fearful injury. The how is more- 
 important than the how much, and a tariff for revenue 
 only is the danger and calamity to oe avoided. A few 
 years ago Professor Perry gave his "revenue tariff"' 
 scheme as follows : 
 
 " I would throw off at a stroke ninety per cent, of all the arti- 
 cles taxed in our present tariff. I would remit the duties on the 
 rest to that point at which the most revenue would come in, with, 
 the least interference with the industries of the people." 
 
 By duties vn fifteen or twenty articles he proposed to 
 raise a revenue of $150,000,000 yearly, and said : 
 
 "Why, last year we realized on tea and coffee, sugar and mo- 
 lasses, wines and spirits, tobacco and snuff — four classified arti- 
 cles— $63, 595, 000. " 
 
 To impose high duties on such articles as we do not 
 and cannot produce or manufacture, and low duties, if 
 any, on our iron, woolens, cotton, etc., is his scheme 
 and that of other free trade revenue reformers. It is- 
 the British scheme, and it is a fine device to take the tax 
 from the products of British manufacturers imported 
 into this country and levy it on the comforts and neces- 
 saries of the American farmer and workingman. It is a 
 premium or discrimination in favor of foreign manufac- 
 turers and foreign pauper wages, and against our own. 
 manufacturers and farmers and better paid workmen.. 
 For a time more revenue might be raised, but soon, 
 disaster and loss of revenue would follow. Frame the-, 
 tariff with fit duties for protection and revenue on such 
 articles as we can make or produce, and admit foreiga 
 
The Twriff Question Simple. 7 
 
 products — tea, coffee, etc. — which we cannot produce, 
 free of duty, and the sure revenue is easily raised amidst 
 permanent prosperity. The facts of our history verify 
 this statement. 
 
 AD VALOREM DUTIES NOT BEST. 
 
 Sometimes such duties may be necessary, but usually 
 specific rates are best — so much per yard or pound, etc. — 
 or most honest and not easily evaded. A late report of 
 Mr. Martin, a special treasury agent, says : 
 
 " Since the passage of the act of June 22, 1874, commonly called 
 the ' Anti-Moiety Act,' the undervaluation of all kinds of imported 
 merchandise has steadily increased from year to year until at the 
 present time its proportions are enormous. The reports from 
 agents sent abroad to examine into fhe subject show that nearly 
 all classes of goods paying ad valorem duties exported from vari- 
 ous countries to the United States are undervalued. More partic- 
 ularly is this the case with goods consigned by the foreign manu- 
 facturers to their agents in this country. The practice of con- 
 signing goods has grown to such proportions that there has been 
 absolutely no foreign market value for many articles imported, as 
 there are no sales of such goods in the open market, the American 
 merchants being compelled to purchase from the agent of the man- 
 ufacturer to whom goods are consigned. Investigation has shown 
 that upon the advice of the agent foreign manufacturers often 
 invoice consigned goods far below the cost of production. It is 
 estimated that less than 40 per cent, of the 60 per cent, ad valorem 
 duty on silk is collected in consequence of the undervaluation of 
 that article. 
 
 Velvets, plushes, laces, embroideries, edgings and like articles 
 have been reported as systematically undervalued by the foreign 
 manufacturers, many of whom openly admit that they invoice 
 their goods to this country at lower values than they do to other 
 countries." 
 
 Iron and steel are undervalued m like manner. The 
 low rates at which these goods are invoiced do not bene- 
 
8 Introductory. 
 
 fit the American customer, for the consignee advances 
 his price to their real value. The larger part of the im- 
 porting in New York is done through these agents, 
 almost always foreigners. An Englishman or a German 
 will rent a small chamber on Broadway and sell goods 
 by sample ; he pays no taxes, is not a citizen, has no 
 interest for us, and is a free trader of course. The reg- 
 ular importing merchant, who would do a more honor- 
 able business, suffers from the number of these agencies. 
 
 HOW LONG SHALL PKOTECTIVB DUTIES LAST ? 
 
 In England they lasted for centuries, and a strong 
 feeling is growing there in opposition to the present free 
 trade policy. In other European countries such duties 
 exist to-day. Evidently we are not near their end in 
 this new country. They are not evils to be put aside, or 
 burthens to be cast off as soon as possible, but benefits 
 to be maintained so long as necessary. Suppose all wars 
 ended and all national debts paid (and this happy con- 
 summation is in the distance) the necessity for new in- 
 dustries, to meet the growing and complex wants of a 
 civilization higher than we can imagine, would exist. 
 Either by protective duties, or by some system inspired 
 by the same idea, nations would still encourage their 
 own producers. 
 
 This book is not an effort either to maintain or to 
 change existing duties, but to uphold and illustrate the 
 idea of protection as the inspiring soul of tariff legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 The aim is to put within reach of all a manual or com- 
 pendium of an American uolicy of protection to home 
 industry. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 WHAT IS PROTECTION?— WHAT IS FREE TRADE? 
 
 Protection to home industry is a practical fact ; it is 
 the policy of almost every civilized nation, and is as 
 iirmly established among these nations to-day as ever. 
 It is not a relic of barbarism, but an inspiring and guid- 
 ing element in our highest industrial civilization. 
 
 Free trade is a theory, its practice unknown in any 
 civilized land. Only savages are absolutely free traders, 
 and they have no trade. 
 
 The idea of protection is that each government should 
 encourage the industry and skill of its people, and the 
 development of the natural resources of its territory, and 
 that, to this end customs-duties on foreign imports 
 should be so levied as to prevent the free importation of 
 such articles as can be made, or produced, at home, and 
 also to furnish needed government revenue. Duties 
 thus levied, it is claimed, so encourage and protect 
 home manufactures, and home labor and skill, that 
 those manufactures grow solid, the workman gets varied 
 employ, and the common good is advanced. 
 
 It is indeed difficult to find, in any country, great 
 industries which have grown up under free trade. 
 
 PROTECTION NOT PROHIBITION OB A PANACEA. 
 
 Instead of building up a "Chinese wall," our national 
 ■experience shows that a large and healthy foreign trade 
 — both exports and imports — grows up with protective 
 •duties, which help to solid wealth at home as safe basis 
 
 9 
 
10 What is Protection ? 
 
 for domestic and foreign commerce. Our tariff regu- 
 lates, but does not prevent, imports; it invigorates and 
 fructifies our home domain steadily and constantly, 
 while every approach to free trade gives us the deluge 
 and then the dearth. 
 
 Protection is not a panacea, good against crop failures, 
 had business management or extravagance, but a power- 
 ful element in the conservation and development of 
 national resources and of personal skill and power. 
 There can be no inflexible standard of duties; rates good 
 for one country may be too high or too low for another, 
 and each nation must' consider its rates of interest, and 
 wages and revenue needs, and so shape its tariff as to 
 give its people fair scope for competition with others. 
 
 Free trade is absolutely unrestricted international 
 intercourse; free exports and imports without custom 
 houses. It does not exist outside of savage lands. 
 Great Britain, its professed apostle and propagandist, 
 has, as will he shown, but a deceptive and fragmentary 
 approach to this theory. It has been styled "A Science 
 based on Assumptions," and its advocates abound in 
 metaphysical theories, and in strange notions that truth 
 can be got out of abstruse assertions unsustained by 
 facts. Plainly enough, if political economy is to be of 
 any value, we want the light of facts and experience as. 
 a guide to correct ideas. More historic truths and care- 
 ful statements touching industry and trade — figures, 
 dates, causes and results— can be found in a single vol- 
 ume of Henry C. Carey than in a score of standard free 
 trade books. Rich in assertion and unsustained theory, 
 tut poor in facts, must be the verdict as to free trade 
 writers. 
 
 M. Chevalier, an able French statesman, well said: 
 
What is Free Trade ? 11 
 
 " Every nation owes it to itself to seek the establishment of 
 diversification in the pursuits of its people. * * * It is not an 
 abuse of power, but the doing of a positive duty by governments, 
 so to act at each epoch in the progress of a nation as to favor 
 the taking possession of all the branches of industry whose acqui- 
 sition is authorized in the nature of things." 
 
 Such "taking possession," not by monopoly, but by- 
 fair competition, is the aim of a protective policy. 
 John Stuart Mill says in his Political Economy : 
 "The superiority of one country over another in a branch of 
 production often arises from having begun it sooner. There may- 
 be no inherent advantage or disadvantage on either side, but only a 
 present superiority of skill and experience. A country which has 
 these to acquire may, in other respects, be better adapted to the 
 production than those earlier in the field ; and besides, it is a just 
 remark, that nothing has a greater tendency to produce improve- 
 ment in any branch of production than its trial under a new set of 
 conditions. But it cannot be expected that individuals, at their 
 own cost, should introduce a new manufacture, and bear the bur- 
 thens of carrying it on until the producers have been educated up. 
 to the line of those with whom the processes have become tradi- 
 tional. A protective duty, continued for a reasonable time, 
 will sometimes be the least inconvenient mode in which a country 
 can tax itself for the support of such an experiment. 
 
 This grants the argument to protection, as a principle,, 
 and comes from a free trade writer of eminent ability 
 and character. 
 
 To advocate protection for any industry — iron, woolen,, 
 wool, etc. — while advocating free trade or tariff for rev- 
 enue only, on other articles, is not the true way. The- 
 interdependence of all industries, and such fair protec- 
 tion as each and all may need, must be the guide and 
 motive of honest and fair action. 
 
 Hon. W. H. Calkins, M. C, of Indiana, well said. 
 
 "I consider it to be my duty as a representative of the people to 
 protect the labor of this country. I do not care what the product 
 
12 What is Protection ? 
 
 •of that labor may be, whether it be pig-iron, or clothing, or sugar, 
 or anything else. I want to protect the laborer in Louisiana just 
 as far and as much as I want to protect the laborer in the iron-mill 
 of Pennsylvania or Indiana, and no further. In my judgment 
 , that is all there is in this question. The keystone principle upon 
 which this country rests is that labor is noble. Hence, we should 
 put it in the power of the laborer to get the highest wages obtain- 
 able, not only for his own benefit, but that he may support and 
 educate his children to become useful members of society. That 
 is the idea of protection." 
 
 Protection does not establish monopoly, but breaks 
 down foreign monopoly by encouraging home competi- 
 tion. It does not aim to benefit one class at the cost of 
 another, or to build up one industry at the expense of 
 -another, but to benefit all by a just recognition of the 
 interdependence of all industries. It helps domestic 
 commerce and deyelovjs our own resources, and so gives 
 solid basis for a healthy foreign commerce. It defends 
 the "weak against the strong, cares for those of our own 
 household, aims to advance the welfare of the work- 
 ing people by opening varied employments at fair 
 wages, and elevates the character of our national life. 
 
 The American Free Trade League in New York 
 defines its position as follows : 
 
 "We believe in the utmost possible freedom for all citizens of 
 the United States in trade as well as in other relations of life ; but 
 we recognize that absolute freedom of trade must be limited by 
 the revenue necessities of the government, just as absolute freedom 
 in other respects is necessarily limited by government ; and therefore 
 the Free Trade League willingly submits to taxation and duties to 
 meet the government necessities ; while it denounces as robbery 
 and tyranny all taxation for the benefit of special classes. " 
 
 This is free trade and tariff for revenue only, which 
 holds protection as "robbery" to "benefit special 
 •classes." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 VAEIBD INDUSTRY A HELP TO BETTER CIVILIZA- 
 TION. 
 
 To look at the polioy of a nation only as it may affect 
 wealth in money and other material things is a partial 
 and fragmentary view, not the highest and therefore 
 incomplete. Such wealth is important, but must be 
 gained and used as a means to a high end — national and 
 personal character. The old way.of winning wealth was 
 by warlike robbery ; the new way is by supremacy in 
 peaceful industry. 
 
 An individual will aim to acquire personal independ- 
 ence ; equally does a nation, — a great family of millions 
 of individuals, — want national independence. The indi- 
 vidual, if wise, seeks such occupation as will give scope 
 to his genius and ennoble his character while he wins 
 daily bread and lays by some savings. The nation should 
 so shape its policy as to give scope to the varied genius 
 of its people and help them to a higher life, while they 
 win its wealth by their toil and skill. Governments 
 personify nations, and should use their power and influ- 
 ence for the best good of all ; especially is this the mis- 
 sion and duty of a free government, whose officials are 
 but the chosen and trusted servants of the people. 
 
 The wondrous growth of man from savage to civilized 
 life is a development and culture of varied powers of 
 mind and body to meet the many wants and finer tastes 
 of the more perfect being. The savage has a narrow 
 round of simple occupations, few wants easily supplied, 
 
 13 
 
14 What is Protection f 
 
 thoughts that take in his own tribe but go out beyond 
 in dim confusion. Yet in that lower nature are the 
 germs of a higher, a divine intent ever tends to lift all 
 upward, and at last come the larger range of thought, 
 the more complex occupations, the many wants, the 
 demand for beauty and order and perfectness, which 
 make up civilization and true freedom. The industry of 
 the savage is simple, that of the civilized man is complex. 
 The lesson of history is that varied industry is a product 
 and result of civilization, and that those governments 
 which have done most to encourage it have, in that way, 
 helped to lift the life of their people to a higher level. 
 When government encourages the genius of the people 
 it has the strength of the Eternal Laws on its side. 
 Such encouragement is the idea and aim of protection to 
 home industry. 
 
 All the most advanced nations, save. England, have a 
 protective policy. 
 
 No country can profit so much by diversified industry 
 as the United States, for no other country has such varied 
 advantages and natural resources, with such freedom as 
 quickens the ready and fluent genius of the people. 
 
 The protective policy of Russia has helped that empire 
 greatly. Her manufactures increased in value 170 per 
 cent, from 1867 to 1879, reaching near $400,000,000 and 
 employing 750,000,000 workmen. But the shadow of 
 Czarism — personal and irresponsible despotism — chills or 
 corrupts all. Germany has made great progress since 
 the adoption of her Zollverein ; but an imperial govern- 
 ment with an immense standing army holds a toiling and 
 crowded multitude in subjection. France has gained 
 better results for her people. The revolution of 1789 
 took the lands, held under the old regime by church and 
 
What is Free Trade f 15 
 
 state, from the monk and the noblemen for her farmers 
 to hold and till, and this gave new impetus to the skill 
 of her artisans, which the government has wisely encour- 
 aged and protected. But France is just entering on an 
 effort for popular government, and has emerged but yes- 
 terday from Napoleonic and Bourbon rule and from the 
 ■waste of war. All these are protective nations, and such 
 are their drawbacks. 
 
 England is trying a new experiment, — a professed free 
 trade policy. Already her supremacy is slowly waning. 
 But she has heavy foreign investments, a trade over every 
 sea, built up under her Navigation Laws (now repealed) 
 and by mail contracts and greater than that of any other 
 nation, immense manufactures, profits from funds abroad 
 and from foreign freights and exchanges of money 
 estimated at from $500,000,000 to $650,000,000 yearly, 
 and manages all with a persistent vigor worthy of admir- 
 ing respect, differ as we may from a leading feature of her 
 policy. Her trouble and weakness is an island territory 
 too narrow to give scope for the best diversified industry. 
 Her population must be too largely manufacturing, and 
 that dwarfs and cramps the life of the workmen. Her 
 farms cannot feed her factories; she cannot be self- 
 dependent, but must reach out with unrelenting grasp for 
 the world's trade, and for raw material to manufacture. 
 Our cotton she is compelled to have. If it fails a fatal 
 calamity smites her. We are under no such dire 
 necessity of selling it, for we can work it up. Yet we 
 send far the largest share to England as a matter of 
 choice and profit. Doubtless we shall send large future 
 supplies, but great mills, not only in Lowell but in 
 Southern towns, will consume more at home. 
 
 The "manifest destiny" of this country is not to be 
 
16 What is Protection ? 
 
 simply a great agricultural nation, but to build up the 
 richest and most benificent varied industry and com- 
 merce in the world. 
 
 "We cannot have the best farming until we have the 
 best manufacturing, in varied forms and materials, near 
 the farm, each an indispensable help to the growth and 
 perfectness of the other. 
 
 Give lis both, and the blending of these varied 
 experiences and vocations, the meeting and mingling of 
 these many life-currents, tinged and shaped by such 
 wide mastery of man over nature's forces and materials, 
 is full of benefit. It is civilization, culture, wealth of 
 soul as well as of purse. To the farmer it is increase of 
 the product of his acres, economy of exchange, work of 
 hand or brain for whatever gift of power or character 
 his children may possess, instant and constant call for a, 
 variety of labor, and all the while the thrill of inventive 
 genius pulsing through the serene quiet of his life in the 
 fields, saving it from all narrowness or stagnation, that 
 he may the more enjoy nature's beauty and the better 
 make her forces serve him. 
 
 We have exhaustless coal beds, convertible into 
 exhaustless power, and iron, lead, copper and the pre- 
 cious metals, exhaustless also. We have a broad land of 
 varied wealth, cotton and wool and food. With these gifts 
 of a beneficent Creator, we must build up a diversity of 
 occupations, giving complete scope to all powers of body 
 and brain, opening employ to all and helping to a higher 
 civilization. 
 
 Thus can we make our labor more productive ; elevate 
 its character and make the workman's life larger and 
 richer ; save the waste that always follows crude and 
 unskilled processes ; and gain that mastery over nature's 
 
What is Free Trade ? 17 
 
 finer forces and elements which is symmetry, beauty, 
 permanence, strength and delicacy in every product of 
 the skilled artisan, with his genius awakened by the mul- 
 tiform products and processes growing up around him. 
 
 We must train our skill, and develop our artistic 
 taste, or we fall behind in the great and peaceful strife 
 of national industries. To be dull laggards in this 
 noble emulation would be sore disaster, keeping us down 
 to poverty of life, few employments, bankruptcy and 
 dependence. Let the settled policy of our government 
 be to protect our industry, and thus develop our great 
 resources and the genius of our people, and we shall 
 show such results in character and wealth and finest 
 skill as the world has never seen. Without such policy 
 we shall grope on in darkness and confusion, the giants 
 trampling the pigmies under foot, and all striking at 
 random to each other's harm. 
 
 Under the old conditions in the South, agriculture, — 
 and that almost wholly of one kind, in the cotton field, 
 — was the leading and exclusive occupation. That fact 
 was a blight on the life of the people, and the fortunate 
 hour has come when it is heing cured. 
 
 In New England there was a wide range of industries, 
 with what results let another tell. At the Pair of the 
 New England Agricultural Society, in Brattleboro, Vt., 
 in 1866, Hon. John A. Andrew, Governor of Massa- 
 chusetts, eloquently said : 
 
 " I desire to attract the observation, of this body of intelligent 
 agriculturists to the subject of the diversification of industry, in 
 its relation to the prosperity of the American farmer. I can do 
 little more than remind you that while population has grown 
 beyond a precedent, wealth has advanced beyond population ; that 
 in proportion as our industry has become diversified, our capacity 
 to purchase and enjoy the fruits of the earth has been much more 
 
18 What is Protection? 
 
 than correspondingly enlarged ; and that the union of the people 
 in a common purpose to develop all their powers, by whatever 
 means, whether intellectual or mechanical, is the secret of their 
 own growth, and the amelioration of the estate of man. 
 
 "Better fed, with more fullness and variety; better clad, in 
 more garments, and those more pleasing to the sense of beauty; bet- 
 ter sheltered, by houses more commodious, and in styles of more 
 tasteful architecture, and more enduring quality ; with more books 
 and newspapers, and larger public libraries; enjoying incomparably 
 more avenues and better means for traveling, and for transporta- 
 tion of goods ; with ampler crops and better prices than ever 
 before — this very Commonwealth does, in its own current history, 
 afford the proof of the advantages of our American aim at the 
 largest conquest over all the domains of industry." 
 
 In that "American aim" we can all unite, from 
 Maine to the Gulf, to the Golden Gate on the Pacific 
 coast, and the distant forests "where rolls the Oregon." 
 
 Let the reader of the following chapters, while study- 
 ing facts and statistics bearing on material wealth, find 
 "between the lines" that a protective policy fosters a 
 diversified industry, and thus helps to enlarge and lift up 
 the life of the people. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PROTECTION ABROAD— EUROPE NOT FREE TRADE. 
 
 It is supposed by many that the protective policy is 
 contrary to the practice of the great European nations, 
 and that the best European thought is opposed to it. 
 It is the fashion in many of our colleges to assume that 
 free trade is the ideal of the noblest persons and the 
 best minds in the Old World, while protection is a vulgar 
 and selfish matter advocated by those of lesser note and 
 narrower culture. Professor Perry asserts that " to relax 
 commercial systems and not to restrict them is alone 
 in accord with the spirit of the age and the leading 
 commercial nations, the United States alone excepted, 
 have been relaxing their commercial systems." This 
 assertion has little if any proof outside of England. The 
 British Chamber of Commerce declared in 1865 that, 
 " in Eussia the importation of foreign articles is practi- 
 cally prevented by a scale of duties higher than any in 
 the world." Some changes were made in 1869, but this 
 same chamber says they "would not lead to any exten- 
 sion of legitimate trade." Austrian duties range from 
 24 to 67 per cent. Henry C. Carey said the great pro- 
 gress of Germany from poverty to wealth in the past 
 thirty-five years "is owing to the great and simple 
 operations of the Zollverein, (Customs Union), which 
 is among the most important measures ever adopted in 
 Europe." Frederick List, whose leading idea was to 
 build up German industries by protection, had leading 
 part in shaping that measure and said, in 1861, that 
 
 19 . 
 
20 Protection Abroad. 
 
 " it affords protection from 20 to 60 per cent, on manu- 
 factures," and had " wrought a wonderful and excellent 
 change." List was a student of Carey's great works, 
 which are translated in German and Italian, and greatly- 
 prized by able Europeans. Australia and Canada,, 
 colonies of free trade England, have protective tariffs. 
 
 Sir Edward Sullivan, an eminent English writer op- 
 posed to their free trade system, says : 
 
 "Protection is as firmly drawn around all the native industries 
 of Europe and America as it was twenty years ago, and genera- 
 tions will elapse before there is any sensible move in the opposite 
 direction. If the English operative class are to wait till universal 
 free trade overspreads the world, England must be turned into a 
 Sleepy Hollow, to be awakened every hundred years, to see how 
 foreigners are learning their duty to their neighbors as well as to 
 themselves. 
 
 " We are told free trade principles are spreading ; why, in Prus- 
 sia, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, the idea even of opening their 
 ports and markets, and inviting competition with their own indus* 
 trial population, has never yet been mooted. 
 
 "France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Prussia have increased 
 materially in wealth and prosperity during the last twenty years; 
 capital has flowed steadily and with incrq(,sing rapidity into them; 
 new manufactures have sprung up; existing industries have 
 increased; trade has flourished; speculation and enterprise have 
 taken the place of apathy and want of confidence. All this has 
 taken place under a system of protection." 
 
 The Anglo-French Commercial treaty is sometimes 
 called a free trade measure, but the Bradford Chamber 
 of Commerce (English) complains that the French tariff 
 is "unreasonable" and "excessive." 
 
 Sweden has its protective policy, as has every other 
 European nation of any consequence. 
 
 The question of an inquiry into the operation of the 
 commercial treaties being before the Corps Legislatif, 
 
Europe not Free Trade. 21 
 
 M. Louis Adolphe Thiers, afterward President of the 
 French Kepublic, on the 22d of January, 1870, ad- 
 dressed it as follows : 
 
 "Every nation has three great affairs, which should be the 
 object of its ardent and constant solicitude : liberty first, its great- 
 ness next, and finally its material prosperity. Liberty, which 
 consists not merely in the right of the nation to criticise its gov- 
 ernment, but in the right of governing itself by its own hands, 
 and conformably to its own ideas; greatness, which does not con- 
 sist in subjecting its neighbors by brute force, but in exercising 
 over them so much influence that no question shall be resolved in 
 the world against its interests and security; prosperity, finally, 
 which consists in drawing from its own soil, and from the genius 
 of its inhabitants, the greatest possible amount of well-being. 
 
 " And do not think that this anxiety for the prosperity of the 
 country has anything in common with that passion for material 
 interests which the highest minds despise. There is no work of 
 higher morality than to diminish the sum of the evils which 
 weigh upon man, even in the most civilized societies. To make 
 man less unhappy, — that is, to make him better, — it is to make 
 him more just towards his government, to his fellow-beings, to- 
 wards Providence itself. 
 
 "We are told that we would have a hot-house industry. What, 
 then, are the nations which have sought to develop among them- 
 selves a national labor? They are the nations which are intelli- 
 gent and free. When the foreigner brings them a product, after 
 they have found it serviceable, they desire to imitate it. The na- 
 tions which do not have this desire are the indolent nations of the 
 East; intelligent and free nations seek to appropriate for them- 
 selves the products brought to them by foreign nations. 
 
 "It is urged that all the protections accorded to industry con- 
 stitute monopolies, and that, to enrich a few monopolists, we bur- 
 den the whole country. It is true there is a monopoly; but it is 
 not in France, it is abroad. I desire to say that this little 
 monopoly, which you accord to French industry, destroys the 
 monopoly of foreign industry. 
 
 "When the linen industry was destroyed in France by the 
 English production by power, a kilogram of thread was worth 
 
22 Protection Abroad. 
 
 seven francs. We protected the linen industry in France. This 
 protection permitted competition; and the French product com- 
 pelled the English manufacturers to lower their prices to three 
 francs fifty centimes. 
 
 "If England were the only country to produce certain objects, 
 could you have them at the same price? Certainly not. It is 
 competition, sustained by a just protection, which destroys for- 
 eign monopoly. 
 
 " Cotton is the grand textile of modern times. What is the im- 
 portance of the industry of cotton among us ? We work up 600,- 
 000 or 700,000 bales, which represent in value 300,000,000 francs. 
 When the cotton has been spun, woven, converted into plain 
 cloths, printed cloths, haberdashery, hosiery, its value is forty 
 times that sum. No industry has superior or equal importance. 
 It is exposed to a double rivalry, that of the English and of the 
 Swiss. 
 
 " The English have over us immense advantages : great capital, 
 raw material, an enormous commerce, machines in the greatest 
 number., coal at the cheapest price, and finally, which is a capital 
 point, have the cheapness which results from an immense produc- 
 tion. Whilst we move 6,000,000 of spindles, they move 34,000,- 
 000; we work up 600, 000 bales of cotton, they work up 3,000,000. 
 
 "A kilogram of cotton yarn was worth twenty-seven francs in 
 our war days; after peace it was as high as fourteen francs. We 
 created a competition with England and it fell to three francs. 
 Every time you protect a national product you cause the price of 
 the domestic product to fall, and you prevent monopoly." 
 
 Turkey, ill-governed and ignorant, did not adopt a 
 protective policy. Formerly she produced wool, silk, 
 corn, and cotton, in large quantities ; coal, iron and 
 copper abound. Two hundred years ago her trade with 
 Europe was large, and her merchants rich. But, in an 
 evil hour, the government made a treaty with England 
 and Prance, agreeing to charge no more than three per 
 cent, duty on their imports, and to exempt their vessels 
 from port charges. Great Britain forbade the exporta- 
 
Ewrope not Free Trade. 23 
 
 tion of her machinery to Turkey, as well as of her 
 mechanics, who might haye gone there to make it. 
 
 Of course, Turkish manufactures were ruined. 
 
 In Scutari, there were six hundred looms in 1812 ; 
 but forty remained in 1821 ; and of two thousand weav- 
 ing shops in Tournova in 1812, but two hundred were 
 left in 1830. As in most purely agricultural countries, 
 the cultivators are in debt. Twenty years ago the total 
 exports of Turkey were but 133,000,000, while those of 
 England to that country were but $11,000,000 yearly. 
 Egypt, under the relentless grasp of British policy, is 
 compelled to free trade, and is poor as well as powerless. 
 
 This summary of the protective policy of leading 
 nations on the European continent refutes all contrary 
 assertions. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 BRITISH FREE TRADE A DELUSION. 
 
 Forty years ago England adopted what she calls free 
 trade, but what is really an inconsistent and deceptive 
 approach toward a theory which no civilized nation ever 
 carried out in practice. For centuries she was rigidly 
 protective, and then modified her course ; acting in both 
 cases for what was held as her own best interest. 
 
 Brief paragraphs from an excellent address by H. H. 
 Adams, of Cleveland, (Report of the Tariff Convention 
 at Chicago, November, 1881,) will give glimpses of the 
 rigidity of English protection and prohibition in past 
 days : 
 
 " We find as far back' in her history as 870 she enacted laws 
 regulating the importation of goods manufactured on the conti- 
 nent by the Germans, and ' dues ' were paid on goods. Even 
 then they ' were not to forestall the market to the prejudice of 
 the citizens.' 
 
 *' In or about 1431, the laws prohibiting the importation of goods, 
 except in English ships, were enacted. In 1504 an act of Parlia- 
 ment was made to regulate or restrict the importations of foreign- 
 made silk (19 Henry, VII., c 21), prohibiting 'all persons for the 
 future from bringing into the realm to be sold any manner of silk 
 wrought by itself, or with any other stuff in any place out of this 
 realm.' 
 
 " In 1567 a law was enacted that for the exportation of sheep 
 the offender ' should forfeit all his effects, suffer imprisonment for 
 a year, and then home his left hand cut off in a market town, and on 
 a market day, to be there nailed up ; and for the second offense should 
 suffer death.' 
 
 34 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 25 
 
 " Some of the enactments of parliament for the years 1559 to 
 1603 were as follows : 
 
 The exportation of wool prohibited. 
 
 The coasting trade restricted to English vessels. 
 
 The importation of minerals, finished leather, etc., prohibited. 
 
 The immigration of skilled labor — smiths, miners, etc. — was 
 encouraged, and duties laid on imported cloths 
 
 " In 1700 the importation of calicos, chintzes and muslins pro- 
 hibited 
 
 " In 1720, any person found wearing a printed calico dress was 
 fined five pounds, and the seller fined twenty pounds. The export- 
 ation of machinery for working flax was not repealed until Eng- 
 land opened her ports to free trade in 1843. 
 
 " In 1646, after noting in preamble the benefits arising from cuS 
 toms, received on imports, from the plantations in Virginia and 
 other places in America, Parliament inaugurated restrictive meas- 
 ures on goods exported from her colonies. ' None, in any of the 
 ports of the said plantations, do suffer any ship or vessel to load any 
 goods, of the growth of the plantations, and carry them to foreign 
 ports, except in English bottoms.' 
 
 " We have to thank our good mother for her jealous care over us 
 displayed by the act of Parliament (in 1731) prohibiting, under 
 forfeiture of ship and cargo, carrying into any part of her Ameri- 
 can colonies, sugar, rum or molasses grown in the plantations of 
 any foreign power." 
 
 In Oliver Cromwell's day that great man saw Holland 
 gaining a large share of the ocean carrying trade of the 
 world, her ships on every sea and her war vessels numer- 
 ous and powerful. He felt that England must win this 
 supremacy in peace and in war, and that a great com- 
 mercial marine was the nursery of a powerful war navy. 
 Under his inspiring guidance rigid navigation laws — 
 forbidding the importation of foreign products save in 
 English vessels, or in those of the country from whence 
 those products came — were passed. This and other 
 measures to encourage ship building crippled the carrying 
 
26 British Free Trade a Dehmon. 
 
 trade of Holland and built up a great English commer- 
 cial marine and war navy. This policy was kept up 
 so long as it seemed necessary and then came a change. 
 Free ships were glorified, and navigation laws put aside, 
 because England thought her fleets could sweep every 
 sea fearless of competition, and be the carriers of every 
 land. 
 
 Notwithstanding the free ship cry, the British govern- 
 ment pays about $4,000,000 yearly to her ocean steamers 
 for foreign postal service. 
 
 Vast accumulations of wealth, and improvements in 
 mechanism and manufacturing processes with consequent 
 low prices, had taken place in these centuries of protec- 
 tion, and a time came when the praises of free trade 
 were sounded through the land and heard around the 
 world. No doubt some of its advocates were wholly 
 earnest and sincere in their ideas of its philanthropic 
 benefits, and wished it carried out in good faith and 
 honest consistency; but their ideals were not attained, 
 and from the start inconsistency and grasping self- 
 interest bore large sway. 
 
 MOSTOPOLY OF ALL MARKETS. 
 
 In the House of Lords, in one of the early debates on 
 the question, Lord Groderich said: 
 
 " Other nations knew, as well as the noble lord opposite, and 
 those who acted with him, that what we (the English) meant by 
 free trade, was nothing more nor less than, by means of the great ad- 
 vantages we enjoyed, to get the monopoly' of all their markets for' our 
 manufactures, and to prevent them, one and all, from ever becoming 
 manufacturing nations. 
 
 " The policy that France acted on was that of encouraging its- 
 native manufactures, and it was a wise policy; because, if it were. 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 27 
 
 freely to admit our manufactures, it would speedily be reduced to 
 an agricultural nation, and therefore a poor nation, as all must be 
 that depend exclusively on agriculture." 
 
 So we learn from this precious revelation, that 
 " British free trade " really means the monopoly of all 
 markets, and the breaking down of all manufactures 
 except their own. This English nobleman htis at least 
 the merit of frankness ; but philanthropy is not appar- 
 ent. 
 
 UNDERSELL, YET SEEM MAGNANIMOUS. 
 
 Only in 1840 commenced any change of note in 
 British policy. A committee was then chosen, with 
 Joseph Hume as chairman, " to inquire into the several 
 duties levied on imports." What his aim would be may 
 be judged from his wish, expressed in Parliament 
 years before, that "the manufactures of the Continent 
 might be strangled in their cradle." This committee's 
 report said, that " the tariff presents neither congruity 
 nor unity of purpose; no general principles seem to 
 have been applied." 
 
 In 1842 the famed tariff of Sir Robert Peel was. 
 enacted. Was it free trade ? Let Mr. Gladstone, Chan- 
 cellor of the English Exchequer, answer : " It was an 
 attempt to make a general approach to the following 
 rules : First, the removal of prohibitions ; secondly, 
 the reduction of duties on manufactured articles and 
 protective duties generally, to an average of twenty per- 
 cent, ad valorem; thirdly, on partially manufactured 
 articles to rates not exceeding ten per cent. ; fourthly, 
 on raw materials to rates not over five per cent." 
 
 Simply a reducing to order of a chaos of centuries of 
 patchwork acts, a reduction of some duties in view of 
 
'28 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 the well known fact, that, with such reduction, their 
 well established manufacturers would still undersell the 
 world, and yet seem magnanimous, and low duties on 
 food and raw materials, and articles partly manufac- 
 tured, which, of course, would help home manufactures. 
 
 But Peel himself said, in his speech closing the debate 
 on the bill : " I do not abolish all protective duties ; on 
 the contrary, the amended tariff maintains many duties 
 that are purely protective, as distinguished from revenue 
 •duties." 
 
 The tariffs of 1845 and 1846 were similar in their 
 general tenor, but of less consequence ; carefully pro- 
 tective, where necessary, reduced where no home interest 
 was hurt thereby, reduced indeed sometimes to benefit 
 home interests, by giving raw material cheaper to the 
 manufacturer. 
 
 In 1849 came, after warm and long debate, the virtual 
 repeal of the corn laws, placing the duty on grain at a 
 shilling a quarter, which was abolished in 1869. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that corn, in English com- 
 mercial language, includes grain of all kinds, and that 
 wheat was the grain most largely imported, so that 
 the repeal of the duty on corn gave wheat, which 
 was especially wanted for food for the people, free 
 entrance to the ports of Great Britain. This repeal 
 took place at the time when it was manifest that 
 England could not feed her own people, and the free 
 admission of foreign grains, and other farm products, 
 would give them cheaper food. It was a necessity to 
 reduce the price of breadstuffs at home, to stop English 
 manufacturers from emigrating to the European Conti- 
 nent and starting their business abroad where food was 
 cheaper. The repeal of the corn laws was an important 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 29' 
 
 step in the interest of British manufacturers, while the 
 fact that a benefit to the working classes (which has not 
 been realized) was confidently expected from it, enlisted 
 a powerful and genuine philanthropic feeling in its favor, 
 and cast a deceptive glamour of philanthropy around 
 the whole free trade movement. 
 
 In 1874 the sugar duties were abolished, greatly to the 
 injury, it was said, of' the sugar refiners. It is now 
 claimed that these were the last protection duties, and 
 that Great Britain has " a free trade tariff, with duties 
 for revenue only." The duty on corn was repealed 
 because it was expected England could thus buy cheaper 
 food ; the duties on manufactured goods were repealed 
 i because England expected to sell cheaper than any other 
 country. 
 
 THIS "FREE TRADE TARIFF " A FALSE CLAIM. 
 
 Plain facts will show the falsehood of that claim. 
 Let us see it, however, as made by Mongredien, an 
 English writer selected, not for his special ability but 
 because the Cobden Club endorse him. In a small 
 book published in New York, "History of the Free 
 Trade Movement in England," he asks (see page 172) : 
 
 " Is our present tariff one from which every shred and 
 vestige of protection have been discarded ? Is it truly 
 and thoroughly a free trade tariff? That these ques- 
 tions must be answered in the affirmative it is easy to 
 prove in the most conclusive manner." He then says 
 that their revenue of $100,000,000 from customs duties 
 is adduced by protectionists to show that they are not 
 really free trade ; declares " That such an inference is 
 totally erroneous will presently be made manifest beyond 
 all question ;" and makes it manifest as follows : "We 
 
30 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 now levy import duties on only fifteen articles. Sub- 
 joined is a list of them, and to each is appended the 
 amount of duty levied on it during the financial year 
 1879. (The amounts are given in dollars for conven- 
 ience). 
 
 ARTICLES IMPORTED, NOT PRODUCED IK ENGLAND. 
 
 Tobacco $42,949,405 
 
 Tea 20,846,165 
 
 Coffee. 1,060,010 
 
 Chicory 333,995 
 
 Chocolate and cocoa 223,355 
 
 Dried fruit : . .. 2,546,170 
 
 Wine '. 7,348,550 
 
 $75,307,650 
 Imported articles produced in England : — 
 Spirits, gold and silver plate, beer vine- 
 . gar, playing cards, pickles, malt, spruce, $26,734,720 
 
 Total duties $102,042,370 
 
 " It will be seen that three-fourths of the total sum is 
 levied on articles which we do not and cannot produce. 
 It is clear, therefore, that this portion cannot by any 
 possibility be said to afford the slightest protection to 
 native industry." He then says that the duty on 
 imported spirits, of over $25,000,000, is a countervailing 
 duty to balance the excise, or internal revenue tax. By 
 the above statement he makes the free trade tariff case 
 " manifest beyond all question." The slight difficulty 
 in his statement is, it is not true. Instead of "only 
 fifteen articles," there are fifty-three articles on their 
 official list on which duties are levied. (Hon. W. D. 
 Kelley, M. C. , in Congressional debate. ) He puts tobacco, 
 coffee, chocolate and cocoa in three lines, craftily leaving 
 his readers to infer that a uniform duty is levied on these 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 31 
 
 articles, quite contrary to the fact. On unmanufactured 
 tobacco the duty is 75 cents per pound, or 84 cents if 
 of less than ten per cent, moisture. On manufactured 
 tobacco the duty is 96 cents and 110 cents for two kinds, 
 and on snuff and cigars from 100 cents to 130 cents per 
 pound. 
 
 On raw coffee the duty is fourteen shillings per hun- 
 dred pounds ; if roast or ground, seventeen shillings. 
 Cocoa husks and shells pay half a cent a pound, if manu- 
 factured four cents. Observe, in each item a care- 
 ful discrimination, and less duties on the raw material. 
 This is protection to the British manufacturer. It is 
 not a duty according to the value. The finest leaf 
 tobacco pays less than the poorest manufactured worth 
 less per pound. The choicest Mocha or Java coffee, if 
 raw, pays less than the poorest ground or roasted article 
 of less value. It is a protection to home manufactures. 
 Tobacco is the most important, and of this the United 
 States sends them the largest part of their consumption. 
 The duty on leaf tobacco is twenty cents less than on the 
 lowest grade manufactured, and fifty cents less than on 
 higher grades. Our exports of leaf tobacco to Great 
 Britain in 1880 were 33,996,486 pounds ; average valua- 
 tion 10^ cents per pound ; duty at least 75 cents or 
 $25,497,364, at the modest rate of seven hundred per 
 cent, or more. Of manufactured tobacco we sent them, 
 the same year, less than one-fifth in value compared to 
 the- leaf ($720,554 to $3,693 799) and not one-tenth as 
 much in, weight probably. 
 
 That pretended "free trade tariff," on over forty per 
 cent, of the total dutiable imports of Great Britain, so 
 discriminates between manufactured and raw materials, 
 by duties from twenty-five to forty-five per cent, higher 
 
32 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 on the first than on the last, as to give effective protection 
 to her own manufactures. Meanwhile Mr. Mongredien 
 and his like assert that " every shred or vestige of pro- 
 tection has been discarded from it !" Plate gold has a 
 duty of $4.08 per ounce, and plate silver 36 cents per 
 ounce ; the bullion, or raw material being free. This 
 " shred " the Cobden club man conveniently ignores. 
 
 This pretense of free trade appears all the more absurd 
 when we see that the British government levies duties 
 on the goods of other countries — tea, coffee, the tobacco 
 of the United States, etc. — when brought into their 
 ports, but asks that those countries shall levy no duties 
 on her goods. Is this the boasted freedom of commer- 
 cial intercourse ? 
 
 John McGregor, one of the joint secretaries of the 
 British Board of Trade, after a laborious and searching 
 inquiry into the industrial affairs of almost every Euro- 
 pean country, came to the conclusion : 
 
 "That England, with all her natural advantages of position, 
 which no other country possesses in the same degree, and the intelli- 
 gence and industry of her artisans, together with capital, machin- 
 ery, and other elements, such as coal and iron, and the superiority 
 of her harbors for exportation, and many other internal advan- 
 tages as to carriage and intercourse, should have nothing but fiscal 
 taxation — that is, duties for revenue only ; have no protection at all, 
 but only equalize upon equitable principles the system of taxing 
 the population for revenue ; and flwy may then meet the people of 
 aU other nations with their manufactures, in every country in the 
 world, and in most articles undersell them." 
 
 An emphatic suggestion of Mr. McGregor's gives the 
 key to the English policy — professed " duties for revenue 
 only * * no protection at all." The cry in this 
 country for a "tariff for revenue only" is the echo of 
 this British voice. 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 33 
 
 "While it is important to show the character and results 
 of English legislation on this subject, and the motives 
 for their active interest in our affairs, we must bear in 
 mind that even if free trade works well there, that is 
 no reason why we should adopt it. The policy of each 
 country must be shaped by its own condition. Yet if, 
 in a country the best prepared for free trade of any in 
 the world, that policy works badly, its poor results surely 
 add weight against our adopting it. 
 
 REACTION' AGAINST FREE TRADE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 While free trade is the policy of the English majority 
 there is not the unanimity in its favor, either among 
 the working classes or the leaders in thought, that 
 we are led to suppose. A strong reaction against it 
 has sprang up of late, its opponents asking for "fair 
 trade" and "reciprocity" but really accepting the pro- 
 tective idea. An able work by Sir Edward Sullivan, 
 "Protection to Native Industry," has passed through 
 several editions in that country and has been repub- 
 lished here. Some extracts will show the method and 
 weight of his arguments. He says the movement started 
 among the workingmen, and then goes on as follows : 
 
 "Is it not absurd, and stupid, and irritating to the working 
 classes to admit duty free all they produce, to tax all they con- 
 sume ; to admit duty free clocks, watches, silk, paper, gloves, 
 glass, ribbons, hats, boots, shoes, millinery, the finer kind of cot- 
 ton goods, and linen, and scores of other industries and to con- 
 tinue a heavy tax on cocoa, coffee, sugar, tea and tobacco ? 
 
 "The operative class are the largest consumers of cocoa, tea, 
 coffee, sugar and tobacco ; and they are the actual producers of 
 all the articles of foreign manufacture that are admitted duty free 
 into our markets. 
 
 "The present state of affairs hits them doubly hard, they suffer 
 both ways ; the value of their wages is diminished by the amount 
 
34 British Free Trade a Dehtsion. 
 
 of the customs duty charged on the necessary articles of food they 
 consume ; and the amount of their wages is reduced by the free 
 admission of foreign articles of manufacture to compete with 
 those they produce. 
 
 " At present emigration is confined to the operative class ; but 
 there is another emigration that is threatened that will be far more 
 ruinous in its effects, viz. : an emigration of capital and manufac- 
 turers ; what can the British operative do if his employer and capi- 
 tal disappear together? ****** 
 
 "There cannot exist the least doubt that our manufacturing 
 position is on the wane." 
 ********* 
 
 (Complaints also come from England of distress in the. 
 agricultural interests.) 
 
 "Free traders renounce all logic and facts when discussing their 
 favorite dogma: they are, indeed, the most disingenuous of argu- 
 ers. I declare, that, as constantly as I have heard the subject dis- 
 cussed, I never once heard a free trader have the honesty to attribute 
 the increased trade of the world in general, and of England as part 
 of it, to its true causes, viz., the vast increase in the circulating 
 medium and the general application of steam, but always to what 
 they choose to call free trade. To ignore these illimitable agencies, 
 and to ascribe all progress to the pigmy efforts of a small school 
 of political economists in England, is to reverse the old proverb, 
 and to imagine the mouse bringing forth the mountain. 
 
 " The increased foreign commerce of England, during the last 
 twenty years, is attributed to her free trade policy ; and we are 
 led, by implication, to understand that she is the only nation that 
 has advanced in commercial activity during that period. 
 
 "Free traders point with triumph to our board of trade returns 
 of exports and imports, and exclaim triumphantly, This is our 
 doing ; but they ignore the fact — it cannot be through ignorance — 
 that the board of trade returns in France, Switzerland, Prussia, 
 Belgium, and Austria, show results far more satisfactory, a pro- 
 portionate increase of trade far exceeding our own. 
 
 "Take France, for instance, as being our nearest neighbor, and 
 compare her wealth and commercial position now with what it 
 was twenty years ago, and it will at once be granted that, how- 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 35 
 
 ever great may be the blessings of free trade, sound progress is 
 not incompatible with the strictest protection. The bullion in the 
 Bank of France is now, in 1869, forty-seven millions, — twenty- 
 seven millions higher than it was in 1844, and sixteen millions 
 higher than in 1853 : the bullion in the Bank of England is seven- 
 teen millions, — two millions higher than in 1844, three millions 
 less than in 1853 1 
 
 "In France, in 1868, the exports and imports balanced within 
 twenty millions. In England, the excess of imports was over 
 sixty millions ! and in 1869 it will, in all probability, reach one 
 hundred millions." 
 
 In the Nineteenth. Century (a leading London Maga- 
 zine) of August, 1881, Sir Edward Sullivan has an 
 article on "Isolated Free Trade," from which an 
 extract shows the feeling against free trade of many 
 English workmen : 
 
 " The organization of the working classes is very complete and 
 very strong, and at this moment the whole of it is being concen- 
 trated on this point. Already a number of operatives, far more 
 than is necessary to turn a general election, have, through their 
 delegates, given in their adherence to the Fair Trade League. 
 
 "The workingmen are not working out the question by the 
 abstract reasoning of others, but by their own experience ; they 
 know nothing of political economy, but they know what were 
 the promises of the apostles of free trade, and they know what 
 are the results. Bankers and brokers and dealers in stocks and 
 importers of foreign manufactures may tell them that they are 
 fools and do not know when they are well off. That may be so, 
 but they know when they are badly off, and they are badly off 
 now. 
 
 "The reports of their delegates state that a very large propor- ' 
 tion>of the operative population of Great Britain (they put it at 
 one-third) is out of work ; that the rest have not, on an average, 
 more than four days' work a week ; that for five or six years they 
 have been consuming their savings and the funds of their trade 
 societies. One rich trade society has paid no less than £200,000 
 in 'work pay' during the last five years, and reduced its capital 
 to less than £100,000. 
 
36 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 " Whatever the wealth of the country may be, it has not pene- 
 trated down to them. Every year this wealth is accumulating 
 into fewer hands ; every year the gulf between rich and poor 
 becomes deeper and broader. It is calculated that there are at 
 this moment 14,500,000 of the people with less than 10s. 6d. a 
 week to live on. The operatives look abroad, and they see and 
 hear from their mates what is the condition of national wealth in 
 France and America, that there the fertilizing stream has 
 descended to all classes, and they find the very reverse is the 
 case : that wealth is daily becoming more generally distributed, 
 that every year the gulf between rich and poor is getting narrower 
 and shallower. They see and hear that the operatives in France 
 and America have far steadier work, higher wages in proportion, 
 and are increasing more rapidly in material prosperity than the 
 work-people of Great Britain, and they are beginning to ask why. 
 They know that they are, man for man, as good as their rivals ; 
 that in meqhanical skill, in aptitude for hard work, in mineral 
 wealth, in national capital, &c, they are their superiors. Why, 
 then, are they not equally advancing in material prosperity 1 
 
 "The stock arguments of the big loaf, the natural antagonism 
 between producers arid consumers, between employers and 
 employed, &c, have been disproved by the rate and reality of the 
 American progress. 
 
 "'I can hardly allow myself to believe,' said Lord Derby, 
 ' that America will long maintain at the public expense a privi- 
 leged class of manufacturers and producers.' But the American, 
 people laugh at this ; they know that every prosperous manufac- 
 turer means a hundred or two of prosperous workmen, and 
 every ruined manufacturer, one or two hundred ruined workmen ; 
 that if the employer is losing money the employed cannot be 
 making it. More than this, they understand that manufacturing 
 and agricultural industries are inseparably bound up together, 
 that prosperous manufactures mean prosperous agriculture, and 
 vice versa; that each consumes what the other produces; that 
 each is the best customer to the other." 
 
 Other able English writers have sent out like pamphlets 
 and books, largely read. " The Stagnation of Trade ; 
 Its Causes and Cure," by E. Burn, of Manchester; 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 37 
 
 " Free Trade a Gigantic Mistake," by James Roberts ; 
 ''Sophisms of Free Trade," by Sir J. B. Boyle, are 
 among these. * 
 
 Able articles hare been published in newspapers, of 
 which an extract from a letter to the Sheffield Telegraph 
 by Mr. Wood, a manufacturer, may serve as a specimen : 
 
 "In 1868 the excess of our imports over exports reache'd the 
 ruinous sum of £116,042,000 ($580,000,000) more by £13,000,000 
 than the whole export of textile manufactures. What must be 
 the effect of free admission of 362,820 clocks and watches ; 7,757,- 
 000 yards of cottons ; 404,544 hundred weight of glass; 468,240 
 pairs of shoes ; 10,714 pairs of gloves ; 3,866,130 pounds of silks ; 
 2,261,000 pounds of woolen and worsted yarns ? What amoimt 
 of labor would not these articles have found for our half-starved 
 people ? While certain articles, such as tea, coffee, sugar, etc., 
 which we cannot produce, are admitted at liearsy duties, other 
 
 *In a London pamphlet by A. McEwen, in 1879, it is stated that the British 
 Board of Trade Reports make the excess of imports over exports for the 
 four years, 1875-8, four hundred and eighty million pounds sterling, or 
 $2,400,000,000. Mr. Mongredien counts merchants' and carriers' profits, and 
 brings it down to $1,156,000,000; which McEwen accepts, but thinks too low. 
 Hon. L. H. Dudley, late U. S. consul at Liverpool, makes the excess of 
 British imports over exports for ten years, 1870-9, $4,164,618,761, and says 
 the balance was against her every year. He gives the excess of United 
 States exports over imports in the same ten years at $339,921,523. They 
 bought immensely more than they sold, while we sold more than we 
 bought. In the long run the tide sets against free trade England. 
 
 A favqrite mode of some English writers to show the alleged prosperity 
 which free trade has brought their country is to give statistics of their trade, 
 and leave out comparisons -with that of other countries, Mongredieu, for 
 instance, says: " In 1840 the foreign trade of the United Kingdom (exports 
 and imports combined) was £172,133,000; in 1878 it amounted to £614,255,000, 
 a marvelous rate of increase." 
 
 The foreign trade of the United States in 1840 was $202,846,941 ; in 1878 ij 
 reached $1,153,809,261. That is, the British trade increased 350 per cent., but 
 the American trade over 500 per cent. If the first was a "marvelous 
 increase " under free trade, the last was a much more marvelous increase 
 "under protection through most of the time, and far the larger part of that 
 increase from 1864 to 1878, our period of permanent protection. 
 
 The trade of protective France increased in a greater ratio than that of 
 England in the same period. 
 
38 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 articles, which we can produce, and our countrymen are literally 
 dying to produce, are admitted free, such as silks, woolens, 
 watches, clocks, etc. #**##* 
 
 " At this moment about one in every eighteen persons in England 
 and Wales is in receipt of parochial relief. For pauperism in 
 1853 £4,929,000 was paid; in 1868 £7, 500,000. Since 1853 upwards 
 of 3,000,000 of our people have emigrated, principally to extreme 
 protective countries, where their labor has found better reward." 
 
 There is a mournful pathos in the address of a meeting 
 of iron-workers in South Staffordshire to their employ- 
 ers. They say : 
 
 "We ask you, gentlemen, can you expect that we will continue, 
 'like dumb, driven cattle,' to accept with indifference the present 
 state of things as if we had become ' living dead men V The low 
 price of labor and the high price of living has driven and is driving 
 your best workmen from the country, to compete with us in the 
 labor markets of the world." 
 
 Proof of this distress comes from other sources. In 
 an article in the London Contemporary Review, July, 
 1880, by an American, Mr. Herbert J. Leffingwell, he 
 says : " Is it true, as the Earl of Carnvaron stated last 
 winter in the House of Lords, that' the amount of disas- 
 ters and poverty is greater than has been known for a 
 long time? Is it true, that, by the register general's 
 reports, one person in every thirty-six in England and 
 Wales is a pauper ?" The London Daily Telegraph, in 
 July, 1879, said: " Scores of destitute men and women,, 
 usually of advanced age, utterly homeless, die from 
 cold and hunger in the streets of London every year." 
 
 In a speech in the United States Senate, in Decem- 
 ber, 1881, Hon. J. S. Morrill spoke of "five thousand 
 houses now marked ' to let ' in Sheffield, and ten thou- 
 sand in Birmingham," and a decrease in the total of 
 British exports and'imports from 1873 to 1880 of $250,- 
 000,000 are painful proofs of decreased prosperity. 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 39 
 
 THE COBDEJT CLUB. 
 
 Great Britain is poor in agricultural resources, with 
 a narrow island territory, land in few hands and rented 
 to tenants, a dense population which its farms cannot 
 feed, and magnificent deer parks stretching for miles 
 around the palaces of titled noblemen, while the poor 
 pine in want in sight of their enchanting but jealously- 
 guarded borders. 
 
 It is estimated that she must import food yalued at 
 $800,000,000 yearly, and raw materials (cotton, &c.,) to 
 use in her manufactures valued at about $650,000,000, 
 and export $1,200,000,000 worth of manufactures. 
 Her very life depends on cheap food, cheap raw mate- 
 rials, and a wide command of the world's markets ; 
 and , it is held of vital importance by her leading busi- 
 ness men that free trade sentiments should spread over 
 the world, that England may crush out competing 
 foreign manufactures. To this end the Cobden Club 
 was formed, bearing the name of a great Englishman 
 identified with free trade, and greatly respected for cer- 
 tain noble qualities. This club has among its members 
 two hundred members of Parliament, several Cabinet 
 Ministers, and some sixty persons from the United 
 States, or twice as many as from any other country. 
 
 It aims to enlist the power of rank, of education and 
 ability, and of social and political influence* 
 
 Especial care is taken to have an array of members 
 from this country. A leading object is to convert the 
 United States to free trade, or at least to un/sqttle pud t 
 damage our tariff, or keep up an agitatfon,, andj so 
 check our manufactures. This is not strange in view ol 
 the magnitude of our trade and the 1 pressure of British 
 
40 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 necessity for it. Our imports from Great Britain for 
 ten years preceding 1876 were $1,813,000,000. To keep 
 this immense trade is life, to decrease it is disaster, to 
 lose it is death. Hence the sending of Cobden Club 
 tracts by car-loads over the West and South, the visits 
 of English members of Parliament to this country, and 
 the formation of free trade leagues and clubs. 
 
 Lord Derby presided at the Cobden Club dinner in 
 London, in July, 1881, and said in his speech, that 
 "sooner or later free trade must become a sectional 
 question in the United States.", Doubtless this aris- 
 tocratic nobleman would like to make it such, and hence 
 his assertion. 
 
 The purpose and aim of certain classes m England is 
 to break down our manufactures, or to check their pro- 
 gress, which is so necessary to supply the constantly 
 increasing wants of our growing millions, and thus make 
 room for the products of British factories. It is the 
 same spirit and system by which they opened China to 
 the vile opium trade, of which the British government 
 had the monopoly, but the methods are different. We 
 are too strong to be pushed into free trade at the bay- 
 onet point, and so a pamphlet war is carried on, and the 
 army of invasion is made up of Cobden Club tracts and 
 other like craft. 
 
 There is no European nation except the English 
 that endeavors to interfere with the domestic affairs of 
 this country. , The breaking down of our system would 
 be very much for the interest of the French, Germans, 
 Swiss, Italians, and Russians, as well as for that of the 
 lEngJish, but we hear of no plans in either of those coun- 
 tries, for an offensive intermeddling with our affairs. 
 Many Englishmen seem to be fully persuaded that the 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 41 
 
 Americans know nothing of political economy, and that 
 they are utterly incompetent to manage their own affairs ; 
 and they do not hesitate to say so frankly. 
 
 At a recent Cobden Club meeting it was said that 
 nearly, a million free trade pamphlets had been sent 
 to this country within a few years and largely used in 
 our congressional campaigns. That club has also offered 
 prizes of gold and silver medals for the best essays on 
 political economy — free trade of course- — by students in 
 American colleges. Suppose a protective tariff club in 
 New York should send their tracts to England and offer 
 prizes to the Cambridge and Oxford university students 
 for the best essays on protection. Our British cousins 
 would say : " Mind your own business !" — and with 
 good reason. 
 
 WE MUST PROTEST. 
 
 The bonds of a common race and language are to be 
 borne in mind ; the warm sympathy between us and the 
 people of Great Britain on some important subjects to 
 be kept alive ; the great service done us in our days of 
 trial by eminent Englishmen— rsome of them leading 
 free traders — is to be held in fit honor ; but we must be 
 just to ourselves, and make strong protest against the 
 unjust and selfish policy of British free trade. 
 
 A Parliament Commission, in 1854, in a report on the 
 mining population, spoke of "immense losses which 
 employers incur in bad times, in order to destroy foreign 
 competition, and to gain and keep possession of foreign 
 markets," of works being carried on for this purpose 
 "at an aggregate loss of three or four hundred thousand 
 pounds sterling," and of the ability of a few wealthy 
 capitalists "to overwhelm all foreign competition," and 
 
42 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 thus "step in for the whole trade when prices revive. ' T 
 As an illustration of this process — very costly to us 
 and equally profitable to these British capitalists — let us. 
 look at the trade in railroad iron from 1840 to 1854. 
 First, these men had spent money here largely to break 
 down our tariff of 1842, and get instead the lower tariff 
 of 1846, with its ad valorem rates, under which frauds, 
 in the importer's invoice could push duties down. 
 Then in 1849 and 1850 more than 200,000 tons of rail- 
 road iron was pushed into the country at $40 per ton, 
 and our mills at home closed up and their business 
 ruined. This was the plot to "gain and keep the 
 market," and the harvest was at hand. From 1850 to 
 1854 the British, controlling the market and running 
 up the price, sold us 800,000 tons of railroad iron at 
 $75 per ton. 
 
 With an adequate protection, our own mills couhl 
 have furnished the iron at $50 per ton ; but for want of 
 it they were stopped, and thus $60,000,000 went inta 
 the hands of British capitalists, and soon came, inevi- 
 tably, the terrible distress of the crisis of 1857. 
 
 It is easy to find, this side of the Atlantic, interested, 
 parties; and honest free traders sincerely devoted to a. 
 delusion, to cooperate with the Gobden Club. 
 
 ENGLISH CONTRIBUTORS TO EREE TRADE FUNDS IN 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 In May, 1869, the American Free Trade League in 
 New York raised $42,000, and published a list of con- 
 tributors. Among these were A. B. Sands & Co., drug- 
 importers, relatives of Baring Brothers, London bankers, 
 $6,257 ; H. Marshall, agent Black Ball Line Liver- 
 pool Packets, and foreign bankers, $5,500 ; Grinnell,, 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 43.. 
 
 Minturn & Co., ship owners, Minturn brother-in-law to 
 Baring, $3,800 ; Mr. Pell, of Liverpool and London 
 Globe Insurance Co., $842 ; Naylor & Co., English steel 
 house, $500 ; Mall & Co., importers, Mall Belgian 
 Consul, $500 ; and so on up to $30,000 pledged by such 
 men. The reason why these gentlemen of foreign line- 
 age or connections are so especially solicitous and liberal 
 in this matter is not far to seek. The London Mining, 
 Journal says : "If this League succeeds, tve may hope 
 for a very large trade from that country." This solves 
 the mystery. It must be borne in mind that New York 
 is the centre from whence goes out aid and comfort to 
 free trade efforts all over the land. Were it not for such 
 help, there would be little agitation. It is not sponta- 
 neous, does not spring up among the people, but is 
 fanned into forced life by aid of interested parties 
 largely English. The Philadelphia Press says that the 
 New York Journal of Commerce (free trade) admitted 
 that "nine-tenths of the money pledged to the New 
 York Free Trade League comes from foreigners." 
 
 EARLY ENGLISH FEAR OF OUR MANUFACTURES. 
 
 English solicitude touching our manufactures is of 
 early date. In 1817 the House of Commons declared, 
 "that the erecting manufactories in the colonies, 
 tended to lessen their dependence upon Great Britain." 
 The Board of Trade and Plantations, in 1731-32, in 
 pursuance of an order of the House of Commons to 
 inquire into the industrial affairs of the plantations, 
 charged that in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, 
 and Maryland, — "in the colonies northward of Vir- 
 ginia," — the colonies "had fallen into the manufact- 
 ure " oi woolen and linen cloth ; that they raised flax 
 
44 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 ;and hemp, which they manufactured into "a coarse 
 sort of cloth, bags, traces, and halters," to supply the 
 domestic demand ; that they had established woolen 
 mills for domestic manufactures, and that linen and 
 cotton, for shirting, were made; that they "man- 
 ufactured brown hollands for women's wear," and 
 that the Assembly of Massachusetts had voted a bounty 
 of thirty shillings for every piece of duck or canvas 
 manufactured in the province ; that great quantities of 
 hats and leather were manufactured and exported to 
 Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies ; that in Massa- 
 chusetts they had set up a paper-mill ; that they had 
 ■established iron works, six furnaces and nineteen forges, 
 and one slitting mill, for the manufacture of bar iron, 
 and of " cast iron, or hollow ware," — all sorts of iron 
 for ships," — and " a manufactory for nails ;" and that 
 they "built many brigantines and small sloops," which 
 they sold in the West Indies. 
 
 All this was very bad in the opinion of the British 
 Parliament, and they passed severe preventive laws. 
 
 The exportation from England of artisans or tools for 
 making woolens, silk, or iron, was prohibited. Lord 
 Gobham said the colonists should not even make a horse- 
 nail. In 1750 pig iron from this country was admitted 
 free into British' ports, to be worked into finer forms 
 there, but the erection or " continuance " of any iron 
 mill here forbidden under penalty of from £200 to £500. 
 One great grievance of our forefathers in those colo- 
 nial days was the persistent resolve of the mother 
 country to crush our manufactures, and so keep us poor- 
 and dependent ; and to escape from this was a leading 
 motive for declaring our national independence. 
 
British Free Trade a Delusion. 45 
 
 hands oit ! 
 
 We may wish Great Britain such success as the skill 
 and persistent vigor of her people are entitled to ; such 
 share of the world's work and trade as she can fairly 
 win ; but when she seeks to paralyze our enterprise, crip- 
 ple our industry, and degrade our civilization by propa- 
 gating in our midst the delusions'of British free trade, 
 we must cry out : Hands off ! 
 
 One significant fact should be borne in mind. The 
 policy urged by American free traders has the full sym- 
 pathy and support of British traders and manufactur- 
 ers, because it is for their benefit. 
 
 This intermeddling, this profuse advice thrust on us 
 uncalled for, as though we were incompetent and foolish, 
 this greed of gain under the guise of philanthropic wish 
 for our good, we must repel and repudiate. 
 
 Of such intermeddling the Chicago Western Manufact- 
 urer, of October 18, 1881, gives proofs. It tells how 
 one Professor Sheldon from London called at the office 
 of " one of the leading agricultural journals in that city " 
 and urged its editor to publish " entire or in abstract in 
 his columns" the Mongredien Western Farmer pam- 
 phlet, especially that portion of it urging those farmers 
 " to give their support to no candidate for Congress who 
 does not pledge himself, if elected, to propose or vote for 
 the abolition of import duties." To his honor the editor 
 decidedly declined this cool proposal. 
 
 The Manufacturer also says : 
 
 " Another agent and correspondent of the Cobden Club, duly 
 delegated, one Professor Bigelow of New York, was in this city a 
 day or two recently, consulting with local free traders. He was 
 going to Indiana, well supplied with British pamphlets, with which 
 
46 British Free Trade a Delusion. 
 
 he proposed to influence votes against candidates for Congress 
 who were not pledged to propose or vote for the abolition of 
 import duties, if elected." 
 
 Suppose American protective tariff agents in England 
 meddling with an election and spreading documents. 
 All England would ring with denunciations of Yankee 
 interference, and the poor agents would beat a hasty 
 retreat. 
 
 The people of this country are led by these things to 
 suspect that whenever a free trade crusade starts here, 
 no matter how carefully hidden the wires may be, an 
 Englishman stands at the other end of the line. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FREE TRADE FALSEHOOD, THAT A PROTECTIVE 
 TARIFF IS A TAX ON THE CONSUMER, REFUTED. 
 
 It is a constant and emphatic assertion of free trad- 
 ers that a protective tariff taxes the consumer. They 
 assume that the duty on an imported article is added 
 to its price, at the cost of the buyer, and added also to 
 the price of like articles made here. If, for instance, 
 we import 50,000 yards of a certain kind of woolen 
 cloth, with a duty of fifty cents per yard, and make 
 200,000 yards of the same kind at home, that duty is 
 added to the price of both the imported and domestic 
 goods, and the buyers pay $75,000 extra; of which 
 government gets $25,000, and $50,000 goes to the pro- 
 tected home manufacturers, who thus craftily enrich 
 themselves, while professing to benefit the people they 
 rob. This is held up as the alleged effect and lasting 
 result of what Professor Perry calls "our iniquitous 
 and accursed tariff." 
 
 TJiis assertion is a gross assumption, without proof 
 and contrary to fact, and is upheld as the strong hold of 
 the free trade argument. Doubtless there are those 
 who honestly hold it £rue, but it is false in origin and 
 deceptive in aim. 
 
 On the contrary, facts in this chapter will prove this 
 statement : No protective duty was ever levied on a 
 
 single article, the home manufacture of which grew to 
 
 m 
 
48 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 large proportions under that duty, without the price to 
 the consumer growing cheaper, — the duty thus being a 
 boon instead of a tax. 
 
 To treat a tariff as a tax is a shrewd, yet shallow 
 device. George Basil Dixwell, of Boston, reviewing 
 Professor Sumner on "Protective Taxes," says : 
 
 "A tax is not necessarily a burthen. If the money be well 
 spent, and give us good roads, water works, police, and good 
 government, at what they ought to cost, then a tax is a great 
 blessing ; but, unfortunately, the money is often spent recklessly 
 and foolishly, and so, through abuse, the very name of tax 
 becomes offensive. The free trader avails himself of this exist- 
 ing prejudice, with the effect of disgusting the reader with pro- 
 tection at the outset, in advance of all argument. The word tax 
 also gives two false impressions : first, that all protected articles 
 cost the consumer more than they would if not protected ; and 
 second, that when they cost more, the consumer gets no counter- 
 balancing or greatly overbalancing advantages. " 
 
 With brief preliminaries, let us "to the law and the 
 testimony," for this case is to be settled by facts, not 
 by assertions. In a free trade meeting in this city the 
 speaker said, with an air of confident assurance* "Of 
 course the duty is added to the prices, for the importer 
 pays it, adds it to the cost of his goods, and then sells 
 them as cheap as makers here sell theirs." To tell half 
 the truth and ignore the rest is a sharp lawyer's way to 
 win his case, but is not a full or fair statement. He 
 ignored the fact that our competition compels the 
 foreign maker and the importer to reduce their prices, 
 and that we reap the benefit, — a benefit impossible with- 
 out such competition by our home industries, built up 
 under protection. 
 
 Let up put an English statement in contrast with this 
 free trade assertion. Kobert P. Porter, a member of the 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 49 
 
 tariff commission, now a correspondent of the New York 
 Tribune, from England, especially describing the indus- 
 trial condition of Great Britain, in a letter from Brad- 
 ford, the center of the great worsted industry, says : 
 
 " If I were asked what the keen practical Bradford manufact- 
 urer thought on economic questions, I should frankly reply that 
 after an experience of a generation some of them are prepared to 
 prove that tariff duties come more largely out of the producer tfian, 
 the consumer. Some of them demonstrated this quite conclusively 
 to me. One of the most prominent said : 
 
 " ' The truth is, the higher the foreign tariff the lower we must 
 make our goods and the less we can afford to pay labor. The 
 least possible reduction in the United States tariff will be a grand 
 thing for Bradford, but how it will affect your industries I can 
 hardly say. We are obliged to sell our goods in France for the 
 same price as we did before they enacted their higher tariff, and 
 the Bradford manufacturer is paying that duty, not the French 
 consumers of the goods. I know from practical experience what 
 I am talking about.' " 
 
 In a speech in Cooper Institute, Feb. 1, 1883, Dexter 
 A. Hawkins, an eminent New York lawyer, said : 
 
 "Some years ago I attended by invitation the monthly meeting 
 of the Hardware Trade at Sheffield, England. 
 
 " Their exports then were chiefly to this country. 
 
 "An eminent manufacturer, in addressing the meeting, inveighed 
 with great bitterness against the American tariff. He said he had 
 examined the question with great care, and such examination 
 demonstrated that the English manufacturer was paying at least 
 one-half of the tariff on all the goods he exported to America ; 
 and they must break down our tariff, at whatever cost, or it would 
 build up American rivals to the extent, at least, of supplying 
 entirely our home market, and then England would have to pay 
 the whole tariff or lose the market ; and when that point was 
 reached, she would have to compete with the American manufact- 
 urer in every foreign market, then her own almost exclusively. 
 
 "Another English manufacturer a few years ago, while lobby- 
 ing at Washington against our tariff, confessed to a free trade . 
 
50 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 congressman that the protective tariff duties, in the long run, came 
 almost wholly out of the foreign producer ; that if they only came 
 out of the domestic consumer the foreign manufacturer would not 
 care a button about our tariff laws." 
 
 Such testimonies outweigh the special plea, the aim 
 of which was to make a fragment of the case appear 
 as the whole. A half truth is more deceptive than a 
 bare falsehood. 
 
 The grave Senator in Washington declares with pon- 
 derous solemnity : "A tariff is a tax, added to the price 
 of all articles on which it is levied, and it compels the 
 people to pay the same added cost on all like home made 
 articles." The shallow politician at the corner grocery, 
 the boy in the debate at the country school house, and 
 the college professor in his rhetorical treatise make the 
 same assertion. School-boy and professor and senator 
 are on the same level. They remind one of Mark 
 Twain's reply to an invitation to lecture before an agri- 
 cultural society. As he tells the story he wrote them : 
 "Gentlemen, I am happy to accept your invitation. I 
 think myself especially qualified, for I know nothing 
 about agriculture." 
 
 Augustus Mongredien, in his British tract, "The 
 Western Farmer of America," (a poor affair, lifted into 
 brief inrportance by being sent over here and widely dis- 
 tributed from the Cobden Club in London,) rolls this 
 statement "like a sweet morsel under his tongue." 
 
 With a complacency only equalled by the effrontery of 
 the assertion, he says that " our tariff makes the over- 
 charge our western farmers have to pay for all the manu- 
 factured goods they consume $400,000,000 yearly," which 
 these hard working people " needlessly and heedlessly 
 throw away." "The average duty on imports is the 
 measure of the difference between the prices they pay 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 51 
 
 and what they would pay were foreign articles admitted 
 free." This is the Oobden Club voice, echoed by Sena- 
 tor and schoolboy alike. From this comes his conclusion 
 that a duty for revenue only, raised on articles we do 
 not produce, may be a necessity, but that a tariff for 
 protection and revenue, raised on articles we import and 
 also make or produce, is a fraud and a robbery of the 
 people. This is assumption, based on assertions which 
 facts repudiate, and which the laws of trade make absurd. 
 
 ALEXANDER HAMILTON". 
 
 The philosophy of the whole matter was well given by 
 that great statesman, Alexander Hamilton, in his famous 
 report in 1791, as secretary of the treasury : 
 
 "But, though it were true that the immediate and certain effect 
 of a tariff was an increase of price, it is universally true that the 
 contrary is the ultimate effect with every successful manufacture. 
 When a domestic manufacture has attained to perfection, and has 
 engaged in the prosecution of it a competent number of persons, 
 it can be afforded, and accordingly seldom or never fails to be sold 
 cheaper, in process of time, than the foreign article for which it is 
 a substitute. The internal competition which takes place soon 
 does away with everything like monopoly, and by degrees reduces 
 the price of the article to the minimum of a reasonable profit on 
 the capital employed. This accords with the reason of the thing 
 and with experience.' - 
 
 This eminent man had not learned that a tariff is a 
 tax on the consumer ! Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, 
 Webster, and other great men were in equal ignorance, 
 and so advocated tariffs for protection. That friend 
 of the people, Abraham Lincoln, declared himself an 
 advocate of a protective tariff. Professor Eeuleaux, 
 president of the German Commission at our Centen- 
 nial Exposition, went home and said : " The present 
 
52 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 condition of American manufactures shows the fallacy of 
 the free trade doctrine that the productions of a country 
 are raised in price by protective duties. " 
 
 Even if a duty sometimes keeps prices up for a brief 
 time compensations come at once, and lower prices soon 
 follow. Free traders craftily ignore the compensations 
 that they may the more plausibly deny the benefits. 
 Take, for instance, the Brinkerhoff charge that $40,000,- 
 000 went into the pockets of our iron makers in 1868, aa 
 a result of the " iniquitous tax " imposed on the people by 
 the duty on iron, and-grant (what is not true) that the 
 price was raised that amount. Mr. A. S. Hewitt, in his 
 report as United States commissioner, said: "The entire- 
 difference in the cost of making iron here and in Eng- 
 land is the wages," which he gave as 87 cents to $1.00 
 per clay there and $2.00 here. So we find that the 
 Brinkerhoff $40,000,000 went to the workmen, and the 
 farmers got about $10,000,000 of it. 
 
 Napoleon created the best sugar industry in France? 
 under a prohibitive embargo. Sugar was high, but it 
 soon fell, and hundreds of thousands of tons of beet 
 sugar are made in France to-day, practically their entire^ 
 consumption, and it is exported to the London market. 
 
 History tells the same- story in different countries, — 
 the building up of vast industries, and the cheapening 
 of prices under protective tariffs. In England woolens 
 formerly had a high tariff, sometimes a prohibition, and 
 the duty on iron was raised a score of times, from $2. 50' 
 up to $35 per ton, and woalens-and iron grew cheaper alt 
 the time. If tariff is a tax, they should have gone 
 up higher than a kite ! 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the sole aim of cheap- 
 ness tends to inferiority in quality. The excellence and 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 53 
 
 taste of French goods sell them everywhere. We have 
 reached a like excellence in some manufactures, and it 
 should be aimed at in all, for the best goods find the 
 best markets. "Cheap and nasty" is the expressive 
 phrase applied to some British products. The London 
 Times says : 
 
 "The Americans succeed in supplanting us by novelty of con- 
 struction and excellency of work. They do not attempt to under- 
 sell us in the mere matter of price. Our goods may still be the 
 cheapest, but they are no longer the best ; and in the country 
 where an axe, for instance, is an indispensable instrument, the 
 best article is the cheapest, whatever it may cost. Settlers and 
 emigrants soon find this out, and they have found it out to the 
 prejudice of Birmingham trade. 
 
 Our American silk goods rival foreign silks in excel- 
 lence, and begin to surpass them in genuineness — more 
 silk and less dye stuffs. 
 
 But have prices in the United States gone up with 
 protective tariffs, or was Hamilton right in saying that 
 the domestic manufacture "seldom or never fails to be 
 sold cheaper in process of time than the foreign article. 
 * * * The internal competition soon does away with 
 monopoly ? " 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 In 1860 our cotton manufactures reached $116,, 000,000 
 in value. In 1880, with twenty years of stable protec- 
 tion, their value was $192,773,960, employing 175,187 
 operatives, and paying $42,000,000 wages, at rates forty 
 per cent, higher (see Commercial Bulletin) than in 1860. 
 
 The New York Secretary of the Free Trade League 
 asserted, without proof, in Chicago, a few years ago, 
 that spool-cotton was "taxed 52 per cent.," the con- 
 sumers paying the tax. A reliable correspondent of the 
 
54 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 Hartford (Ct.) Post, in 1869, made the following state- 
 ment in reply, — his simple facts demolishing the asser- 
 tion. That the case stands now about as then, is proved 
 by the export of our spool cotton to foreign markets, 
 where its superior quality is prized. The Post writer 
 said : 
 
 "The average importation of spool-cotton into New York for 
 three consecutive years ending June 30, 1861, was 6,685,200 
 dozen per annum, and under a duty of 24 per cent, ad valorem, 
 yielded a revenue to the government of $365,063.04 per annum. 
 
 " The importation of spool-cotton into New York in 1868 was 
 3,519,573 dozen ; duties on the same, $822,276.98. 
 
 " We have no data to show the importations of this article into 
 other ports in the country, but will suppose it to be 500,000, or the 
 whole importation of the year to be 4,000,000 dozen ; amount of 
 American six-cord thread manufactured in 1868, 2,000,000 dozen ; 
 amount of American enameled thread manufactured, 8,000,000 
 dozen. 
 
 " It appears that not less than 14,000,000 dozen spool-cotton will 
 be consumed in this country the present year, more than two- 
 thirds of which is of American manufacture. 
 
 " Up to a late period the foreign manufacturers controlled the 
 price of tlrread in our market ; at present the American manu- 
 facturers control the price. 
 
 " For two or three years foreign thread remained steady at $1.10 
 to $1.15 per dozen ; it is now selling at 80 to 90 cents per dozen, a 
 decline in price of 30 cents per dozen in two years, a saving to the 
 consumers of foreign thread of $1,200,000 the present year, while 
 the decline in the price of American spool-cotton, owing to strong 
 competition, has been reduced more than 50 per cent., a still 
 further saving of $2,000,000. The following is a summary of 
 ,. the results of a high duty on spool-cotton. The revenue to the 
 'government has been more than doubled ; the American manu- 
 facture of thread has been largely increased, while the price of 
 labor in these thread mills is still as high as during the war, and 
 the consumers of thread are saving $3,000,000 per annum through 
 the strong competition which has sprung up between the Ameri- 
 can and foreign manufacturers." 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted 55 
 
 COTTON" PIECE GOODS. 
 
 Cottons, imported at fifty cents a yard before our mills 
 were built, have been exported at six cents under a high 
 tariff, and of a better quality. The shrewd Chinamen 
 say we use more cotton and less starch than the English 
 in the cloth sent to them. Cotton hosiery was reduced 
 in price nearly one-half from 1860 to 1868. Delaines, 
 formerly imported at thirty-five cents to fifty cents, were 
 made here in 1868 at twenty cents of equal quality. 
 
 Our brown, bleached, printed and dyed cottons com- 
 pete with the English in foreign lands, and the prices 
 are lower under a higher tariff, as the following table 
 shows : * 
 
 Articles. 1860. 1882. 
 
 Standard sheetings, per yard 8.73 cents 8.00 cents 
 
 Standard drillings, " 8.92 " 8.00 " 
 
 Bleached shirtings, " 15.50 " 12.35 " 
 
 Printed calicoes, " 9.50 " 6.17 " 
 
 Printing cloths, " 5.44 " 4.00 " 
 
 In view of the fact that some kinds of cotton goods are 
 as low in the United States as anywhere in the world, 
 how foolish the assertion that the normal price of an 
 article is its American price minus the duty! The tariff 
 on standard sheetings is 57 per cent.; this percentage 
 from 8.00 cents (the price above quoted), is 4.50 cents, 
 leaving the alleged foreign price 3. 40 cents per yard, or 
 less than half what it is. The tariff on standard cotton 
 is no more a burthen or tax on the home consumer than 
 that on wheat or beef. It is simply a barrier against our 
 market being flooded by English goods sent at less than 
 
 * This table, and that on woolens, are from the Boston Commercial Bul- 
 letin. 
 
56 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 cost — their favorite game "to break down competition 
 and step in for the whole market when prices revive." 
 
 This cry against a tariff as a monstrous tax on con- 
 sumers was the staple of free trade speeches in 1842; and 
 Henry Clay, in his Raleigh speech in 1844, told how a 
 Western farmer "pricked the bubble theory with the 
 needle fact." The demagogue on the stump cried out 
 to him: "Do you know, my friend; that these tariff 
 monopolists make you pay six cents a yard (the duty) 
 more than you ought for the shirt on your back?" The 
 farmer replied: "I suppose it must be so, but I can't 
 quite see how, for I only paid five and a half cents a 
 yard for it." 
 
 In this matter of cotton goods it should be known 
 that the raw cotton in 1876-81 was two to three cents a 
 pound higher than in 1855-60, and wages were higher. 
 Here we have the raw material higher, the duty higher, 
 wages higher, and the goods loioer. 
 
 SILKS. 
 
 By the census it appears that we made $16,262,157 
 worth of silks of all kinds in 1874, and $34,410,463 
 worth in 1880 ; paying $9,146,705 in wages, at from 
 $3.37 to $24.71 per week. 
 
 W. 0. "Wykoff, U. S. Census Agent, writes as follows: 
 "It may be stated with certainty that the average 
 decline in value of silk goods is not less than 25 per 
 cent, and probably over 30 per cent., in fifteen' years. 
 * * * Machine twist (sewing silk on spools for use 
 on sewing machines) is better than the French or Italian. 
 It is the oldest branch of our silk industry. For years 
 its manufacturers have been engaged in the severest 
 competition, both as to cheapness and superior quality. 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 57 
 
 It is greatly improyed, but the price is a third less/' 
 Here is sewing silk of price and quality distancing for- 
 eign competition, yet it ought to be high-priced, for the 
 duty of some 40 per cent, ought to add that much to its 
 cost. Strange to say, it does not ! The stuff has gone 
 down instead of up ! 
 
 WOOL AND WOOLEN'S. 
 
 Prom 1850 to 1860 the sheep in our country increased 
 but little, only from 21,733,220 to 22,471,275. In 1861 
 the " Morrill tariff " was enacted, and in 1867 the pro- 
 tective duties on wools and woolens, which stood 
 unchanged until 1883, were adopted. In 1870 we had 
 28,477,951 sheep, in 1880, 40,190,866. During these ten 
 protective years a gain of 43 per cent, in sheep hus- 
 bandry against a gain of a little over 3 per cent, from 
 1850 to 1860, and all this wool was bought by our own 
 mills. 
 
 In 1860 these mills used 125,000,000 pounds, domestic 
 and imported, 200,000,000 pounds in 1870, and 300,- 
 000,000 pounds, in round numbers, in 1880, — a healthy 
 increase. In 1880 they bought of our wool growers, 
 principally in the west and southwest, $100,000,000 
 worth, a single large factory using thirty thousand 
 pounds, or six thousand fleeces, each day. Break down 
 our 668 woolen mills in the "Western States, and the 794 
 mills in the east, and the wool grower's market in Lon- 
 don would be a poor one. 
 
 The wool growing interest in this country would suf- 
 fer serious injury by any decrease in our home manu- 
 facture of woolens) as their clip increases each year 
 and wants a growing home market from the manufact- 
 
58 
 
 Flie Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 urers. These manufacturers would be equally iirjure( 
 by any decrease in the home supply of wool. Thei: 
 interest is really one. 
 
 But are woolen goods higher, or lower, than in th( 
 low-tariff year 1860 ? The following table will show : 
 
 Goods. I860. 1882. 
 
 Fitchburgh cassimeres, per yard. . . .95 cents .85 cents. 
 
 Haile, Frost & Co., cashmerets 46 " .38J 
 
 Men's ribbed socks, per doz 8.00 " 4.50 
 
 Ladies' ribbed hose, " 4.25 " 3.00 
 
 Blankets, 9-4 Gonic 1.871 " 1-75 
 
 10-4 " 2.37i " 2.25 
 
 11-4 " 3.00 " 2.75 
 
 124 XX Rochdale 8.00 " 9.00 
 
 Moscow beavers, all-wool 4.00 " 3.00 
 
 cotton-warp 1.35 " 1.00 
 
 "honorable" ignorance. 
 
 Mr. Titus Sheard, an Englishman by birth, now e 
 woolen manufacturer, writes the following letter, criticis- 
 ing a gross misstatement : 
 
 To the Editor of the Commercial Bulletin : 
 
 In MaemiUan's Magazine for February I find an article entitled 
 "The Industries of the United States in Relation to the Tariff,' 
 by the Right Hon., Lyon Playfair, M. P. 
 
 , Among the many curious statements I find the following, whicl 
 is used to show how the poor man is ground down under our pro 
 tective tariff : 
 
 " A workingman buying an ulster coat for the winter at Boston must paj 
 double the price that an English workman does ; that is, in Boston it costs 
 eight pounds, and in England less than four. 
 
 " A worlringman's woolen trousers in Boston cost seven shillings ; a likt 
 pair in Manchester can be got for four." 
 
 Now, sir, is not this statement untrue ; and an outrage upoi 
 the intelligent reader ? 
 
Tfie Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 59> 
 
 I do not know at what price you can get a pair of woolen trous- 
 ers in Boston, but if you can get them for " seven shillings " you 
 can get them in Boston as cheap as in Manchester, quality con- 
 sidered. 
 
 As to the ulster coat, we can buy them, all wool (not cotton 
 warp), at $10 in our village — about two pounds, not "eight 
 pounds;" so that they must cost much "less than four" pounds 
 in England before they can buy as cheap there as here. 
 
 While I am writing, one of our workingmen, an Englishman 
 who has been in this country a little over one year, enters my 
 office. 
 
 I read the above extract to him, and asked him how it is about 
 the prices given and compared. 
 
 " Quality considered, I can buy as cheap here as I can at home 
 in Yorkshire." 
 
 I asked him about the all-wool ulster coat which he had on, and 
 how much it cost. 
 
 He answered, "ten dollars, and it aren't cotton warp, either." 
 
 "Is the suit of clothes you have on all wool ?" "Yes, sir!" 
 " What did they cost ?" "Ten dollars." "What did those new 
 shoes you have on cost?" "Two dollars and a-half." "Could 
 you buy those clothes any cheaper at home?" "No, sir!" 
 
 "How about the shoes?" "They would cost me at home three 
 dollars and a-half." " How about your stockings and shirt and 
 underclothes?" "I can buy them as cheap here as at home!" 
 
 ' ' What is there then here that costs you more than it would ' at 
 home ' for yourself or the support of your family?" "Nothing 
 but house-rent and coals. Everything else is as cheap and in 
 many cases cheaper. On the whole I can take better care of my 
 family here, feed and clothe them better, and live more comfort- 
 ably at the same cost than I can at home in England." 
 
 Nail this statement of facts to the mast of protection, as an 
 answer to all the Right Hon. gentlemen, M. P.'s or otherwise, 
 who choose to so misstate and misrepresent our industrial condi- 
 tion and deceive the workingmen of our own and other lands 
 
 Yours most respectfully, 
 
 Titus Sheakd, 
 
 Little Falls, N. Y., April 4, 1882. 
 
60 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted 
 
 STAPLE CLOTHS CHEAP. 
 
 V. B. Denslow, of Chicago, says : 
 
 "I am informed by Mr. Marshall Field, the leading dry goods 
 merchant in Chicago, * * that the prices at which ordinary 
 cheap cottons and woolens sell in the United States are lower than 
 in England. But in fine and costly goods we cannot compete with 
 her in the markets of the world until we have her cheap labor, in 
 some departments one-fourth the cost of ours, and we cannot have 
 that cheap labor so long as we continue our protective tariff." 
 
 Hon. M. Haskill, M. C, of Kansas, in the tariff 
 debate last winter in Washington, said : 
 
 "Then there is the article of woolen cassimere cloth. Take 
 this great leading schedule or classification of woolen goods. Go 
 back to your old comparative free-trade era from 1850 and 1860, 
 When wool was free and the duty on cloth nominal. Take the 
 case of the Hale & Frost factory, of Fitchburgh, Massachusetts, 
 an old firm that was established in 1848, using the same old looms 
 that were used from 1850 to 1860, hardly a new invention in their 
 rnills, the same old firm managing the business. Here are the 
 Hale & Fro^t cashmerets, light wool spring goods, cotton warp, 
 for men and boys ; with free wool and revenue tariff the prices of 
 these goods from 1850 to 1860 averaged 51 cents ' per yard. Aver- 
 age price for the identical goods, made on same looms by same 
 process in 1882, 45 cents per yard. 
 
 "Drawn from their books, I have a statement showing that from 
 1850 to 1860 they sold their cassimeres at an average price of $1.07 
 a yard. Then came the tariff rate under the law of 1861 ; and 
 the duty, you say, is always added to the price. From 1870. to 
 1880, when we reached resumption, the Hale & Frost cassimeres 
 averaged in price from their mill 97 cents a yard instead of $1.07. 
 
 "Take the very item of wool, in which you are all interested. 
 From 1850 to 1860 wool was free, and the wool interests of this 
 country were at a, low ebb. The market for wool was in the 
 hands of the importer ; it was in the hands of the foreign grower. 
 To-day, under our tariff system, the market for American wool is 
 in the hands of the American grower. Every pound of wool 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 61 
 
 that the American fanner can raise he sells to-day to an American 
 manufacturer, and the money stays at home — is not sent abroad. 
 Do you say that the price of wool has increased under this tariff 
 of 12 cents a pound as against the free wool of 1850 to 1860 ? I 
 have here the figures. To-day wool is cheaper pound for pound, 
 and has been for the last five years, than it was from 1855 to 1860 
 under the free rating of the free trade party." 
 
 Mr. Springeb. " Then what do you want a duty for ? 
 
 Mr. Haskell. "Because, while the price of wool has fallen, 
 the American grower holds the market and gets every dollar that 
 the American wool manufacturer pays out for his material, except 
 as to two items — clothing wool, a small importation, and carpet 
 wools. I want the money paid by the manufacturer for wools to 
 be paid in the United States, not in Australia, Africa, or Persia." 
 
 The Chicago Morning Herald tells of an Indiana 
 woolen mill, the owner of which said, "from his 
 books," that jeans which he sold at 60 cents per yard in 
 1860, brought him but 50 cents in 1874, while he paid 
 higher wages at the last date than the first — price lower- 
 under a higher duty. 
 
 Mr. Archibald, English Consul General in New York, 
 reported to his government: "The prices of carpets in 
 the United States are 12 per cent, cheaper in 1879 than 
 in 1860, while prices of dress goods have fallen about 25 
 per cent." This fact of falling prices under a higher 
 tariff was thought of consequence enough to find place 
 in a Parliamentary Report. 
 
 BRITISH FACTORY LIFE. 
 
 From Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England, Mr. Porter 
 writes the Neiu York Tribune : 
 
 "This is the centre of the woolen district in England. A circle 
 of forty-five miles in diameter contains the greatest woolen and 
 worsted regions in England. I might say of the world. Shoddy 
 blankets, shoddy army cloths, and plushings and seal-skins are 
 
■62 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 tnade here. The woolen factories are large gray stone buildings, 
 walled in like prisons, with vigilant porters stationed at all the 
 entrances lest strangers should accidentally get into the factories 
 and appropriate the new designs or otherwise find out something 
 of their internal economy. The manufacturers seem about as 
 hard and sharp as the machines which weave their mungo and 
 shoddy into cloth. The hands are ground down to the lowest 
 penny, and a recent strike among the operatives brought out the 
 fact that the average earnings of all hands, including the high- 
 priced overseers and foremen was only sixteen shillings, or $4 a 
 week at Dewsbury and Batley. The rent of one or two rooms in 
 the poorest locality of the town, is £7 a year. 
 
 "These immense factories straggle along on the outskirts of 
 Dewsbury for many miles." 
 
 The London Standard tells of 16,000 women and girls 
 in "the Black Country" making nails, and "three or 
 four persons working fourteen hours a day," and earn- 
 ing, in all, five dollars a week, living in wretched hovels, 
 and the freshness of youth all crushed out." 
 
 Fortunately, British workers in some branches are 
 better paid, and live better ; but the average standard of 
 life is far lower than here. 
 
 BRITISH SHODDY. 
 
 Honest excellence must be counted. The British 
 common woolens and carpets have a great deal more 
 shoddy in their fabrics than ours. Many of our mills 
 use none. In a late speech in Congress Hon. "W. D. 
 Kelley said : 
 
 "What are shoddy and mungo? Why, sir, there is not a cldf- 
 fonnier with stick and nail and bag scouring the gutters of any 
 city on either side of the Atlantic for woolen rags who is not col- 
 lecting material for the manufacture of shoddy and mungo. The 
 cast-off clothing and the blankets which h'ave wrapped putrefying 
 carcasses in the lazar and pest-houses of Europe and Asia, are 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 63 
 
 gathered and thrown into running streams whose waters are 
 dammed at intervals, and when the law of gravitation and the 
 flow of waters have made it safe to handle them they are col- 
 lected and sent to Lancashire to be converted into shoddy cloths, 
 flannels, blankets, and carpets. ****** 
 
 ' ' British carpets, we have been told, are much cheaper than ours. 
 I hope the gentleman who represents the Macon (Georgia) district 
 is on the floor. I want to mention a few facts which he can prob- 
 ably verify. The Bibb Manufacturing Company of Macon runs 
 11,000 spindles in the production of carpet-yarn. Mr. Hanson, 
 the superintendent of the mill, sells all he can now produce 
 to the carpet makers of Philadelphia, New York and New Eng- 
 land. The capacity of the mill is to be greatly increased in order 
 to meet the growing home demand for its yarn. 
 
 "But, impelled by fear that the duties on carpets would be 
 reduced and his home market be thus destroyed, he addressed the 
 most distinguished carpet manufacturer of England, sent him 
 samples of his yarns, with price-list or tag attached to each parcel. 
 His letter was courteously responded to, and with the answer 
 came specimens of the yarns used >by that distinguished carpet 
 manuf acturerjin his immense works at Rochdale. The best of them 
 did not equal the most inferior product of the Bibb Company, and 
 John Bright stated candidly that such yarns as these could not 
 be used by British carpet-makers, as they had to sell in countries 
 in which low prices prevailed, and must consequently use the 
 cheapest materials. No fresh cotton, said Mr. Hanson, could be 
 found in any of those English carpet-yarns, and the lower grades 
 were literally made of what might be balled cotton shoddy, the 
 waste of ordinary cotton mills." 
 
 THE POOR FARMER AND HIS BLANKETS. 
 
 In a speech in the West a few months ago Professor 
 Percy spoke of the Iowa farmer who could buy two pair 
 of blankets in England for what one pair would cost 
 "in this privileged land," the tariff doubling the price to 
 that poor farmer. This was assertion. Here is plain 
 fact. The Boston Commercial Bulletin says : 
 
64 The Free Trade Falsehood Refitted. 
 
 " In order to determine the comparative prices of blankets in 
 England and America, a pair of 5-lb. blankets was recently 
 imported by a New England manufacturer at the lowest possible 
 cost, the statement of their cost, duty-paid, was as follows : 
 
 " Cost of 1 pair of blankets received per steamship Batavia: 
 
 Cost, at wholesale in England 18s. Id.; equal to $4.45 
 
 Weight duty, 5 pounds at 50c $2.50 
 
 Ad valorem do. 35 per cent 1.75 
 
 4.25 
 
 Custom house fees 65 
 
 Total $9.35 
 
 " Now, if it were true that the American price of an article is the 
 English price plus the duties, such blankets ought to be selling 
 here at $9.35 per pair; but as a matter of fact American blankets 
 of precisely the same weight and quality are selling at $5.20 per 
 pair, or but 75 cents higher thatn in England." 
 
 FLANNELS, ETC. 
 
 Flannels were high in 1880-2, but ten per cent, lower 
 in 1878 than in 1860. Staple woolens for common work- 
 ing wear are cheaper. In the streets of Windsor, oppo- 
 site Detroit, on the Canadian side of the rirer, are the 
 handbills of our clothing merchants asking custom, and 
 getting it, too. Our neighbors over the line are not 
 stupid enough to come to us and pay higher for clothing 
 than at home. This fact might be beneficial to the 
 loiva State Leader, which has been led by some of the 
 notoriously loose assertions of D. A. Wells to say that 
 the tariff has made woolens "outrageously dear to the 
 consumer^" A few days ago our daily papers reported 
 the case of a Canadian woman caught in the effort to 
 smuggle a pair of boots, bought here, for her own use. 
 She forgot that they were taxed 35 per cent, by our 
 "iniquitous tariff." 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Hefuted. 65 
 
 Mr. E. P. Brooks, U. S. Consul at Cork, Ireland, 
 reports to the State Department at Washington, in 
 August, 1881 : "Cheap clothing in the United States is 
 cheaper than here. * * * Ireland has had free trade 
 with England eighty years, during which time her woolen 
 mills have been almost destroyed, yet her people buy 
 their cheap clothing dearer than we pay." 
 
 The woolen manufacture of this country — cloths, car- 
 pets, worsted, and hosiery — in 1880 paid 145,959,000 
 wages ; produced $234,589,671 worth ; and used total 
 raw material worth $145,141,000; (speech of Dr. G. B. 
 Loring) increasing its products over $200,000,000 since 
 1840. Fear of this increase sends the poor cry across the 
 ocean : "A tariff is a tax!" More than four-fifths of 
 our woolen goods are made here, and the 50,000,000 con- 
 sumers buy their working wear as cheap as in England, 
 and are far more able to pay for it than the people there. 
 
 IRON AND STEEL. 
 
 Mr. John Eoach says that the average price in New 
 York of ship-plates, flange iron, angle iron and rivets, 
 which he buys largely, was 25 per cent, lower, from 1870 
 to 1880, than from 1850 to I860, under a lower tariff, 
 and that wages were 20 per cent higher. 
 
 The London Engineer, devoted to British manufact- 
 ures, says ; "As far as the American consumer of iron 
 is concerned he is the better off for protection." How 
 can that protection tax the consumer? 
 
 Cast steel of English make had been sold here for 
 twenty years, at 16 cents to 18 cents per pound, and 
 none was made here. Under a higher tariff our steel 
 makers began work about 1862, on a large scale, at Pitts- 
 burg and elsewhere, and the same quality came down to 
 
66 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 13 cents and 15 cents. In the late civil war our c; 
 steel was sold at 32 cents while British steel was held 
 45 cents, thus saving our Government large sums in 
 war consumption, and saving us from dependence on 
 foreign power, always dangerous in such emergencies. 
 
 In a Congressional speech in April, 1881, Hon. Ki 
 sell Errett, of Pittsburgh, stated that the English pri 
 of cast steel in New York, when they controlled o 
 market and none was made here, was 17£ cents j 
 pound. That steel they now sell in Paris and otl 
 European markets for 12 ^ cents, but in New York th 
 sell it at 10£ cents, making their price two cents low 
 in this country than in Europe, to break down our coi 
 petition, or at least command a share of our mark< 
 His statement is confirmed by others. Plainly enouj 
 our home manufacture has largely reduced the price 
 steel, yet we are glibly told of " a tax of 60 per cent. < 
 the consumers, imposed by our tariff !" 
 
 Mr. James Park, Jr., of the Black Diamond Stc 
 "Works, Pittsburgh, Pa., stated before the Congression 
 Naval Committee, in February, that extensive corn 
 pondence and inquiry led him to estimate the savh 
 to users of cast steel in this country by the grow 
 of our steel-making under a protective tariff, and t! 
 consequent reduction of price, at over $23,000,000, 
 38 per cent. He said we paid higher wages than a 
 paid abroad, and that no steel was superior to ours. M 
 Park is a man of large experience, and has visited i 
 the great steel works of Europe. 
 
 STEEL RAILS. 
 
 Bessemer steel rails were first made m this country 
 1867, but not largely until 1870. Up to the date of t 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 67 
 
 opening of the first steel rail mill here the English con- 
 trolled our market and prices, charging us $150 in gold 
 per ton. The moment the first rails were made here 
 they were compelled to reduce their prices, and brought 
 them dOwn in 1870 to $50.37 gold in England, equal to 
 $57.93 in our currency. At that price they could be 
 sent to New York and freight paid at a cost of $63 per 
 ton, with no duty. Since then our American mills have 
 furnished our railroads with over 3,000,000 tons, at an 
 average cost of $59 per ton in currency, their prices 
 going down' from $106 in 1870 to $40 in the panic times 
 of 1878, up to $85 in "the boom" of 1880, and now 
 stand at $39 to $40. This great business employs over 
 20,000 American workmen, pays over $7,500,000 yearly 
 in wages, and has furnished us steel rails for ten years 
 at an average price a little less than the English price 
 in 1870. 
 
 . In the "Western States $15,000,000 is invested in steel 
 rail mills ; their yearly product of nearly $20,000,000 is 
 almost wholly raw material, labor and skill in our midst. 
 
 In the winter of 1879-80 officers of 15,300 miles of 
 railroads asked Congress for a reduction of the duties to 
 $10 per ton ; but officers of 24,000 miles of railroads, 
 with larger traffic (among them 6,000 miles going out 
 from Chicago), asked the retention of that duty, on the 
 ground that such a great reduction would be disastrous 
 to them and to the makers of rails. 
 
 The English, thirty years ago, sold us immense quan- 
 tities of "American rails" — so poor and brittle that 
 that they could not be sold at home — at $50 per ton. In 
 place of these we now have those of steel, safer and ten- 
 fold more durable, at $40. Here is a reminiscence of 
 those days : 
 
68 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., February 15, 1882.. 
 To the Secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association. 
 
 Sir : About the year 1850 the writer was a clerk in a 
 house in Boston, which represented one of the largest of 
 the English iron rolling mills. It was a period of low 
 duties on railroad iron. The United States vail market 
 was supplied partly from England and partly from Amer- 
 ican mills. The prices of rails were very low, and the 
 English houses persisted in constantly depressing them, 
 until, as this squeezing process went on, the American 
 mills gradually shut down, and finally the last American 
 mill was closed. 
 
 "When the news from our house went across to England 
 that there was no longer any danger from American 
 competition, the reply immediately came back, " advance 
 prices." This process of advancing prices then went 
 on, until within less than a- year prices to the American 
 consumers had gone up nearly or quite 100 per cent., 
 far beyond the price at which the home industries would 
 gladly have supplied the demand had they been at work. 
 Yours Truly, 
 
 An American-. 
 
 nails, saws and axes. 
 
 The manufacture of cut nails is an American inven- 
 tion, originating near the beginning of the present cen- 
 tury. When it was first undertaken in this country, 
 wrought nails, which then cost 25 cents a pound, were 
 largely imported; hence the necessity for protection to 
 the new industry. By the tariff act of 1824 the duty 
 on all nails was made 5 cents per pound, at which it 
 remained until 1833, since which year it has been 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 69 
 
 reduced. Prices of cut nails hare ranged as follows 
 during the past fifty years: In 1828 the price was 7 to 
 8 cents per pound; in 1830 5 and 6 cents; from 1835 
 to 1840 from 5 to 7 cents, falling in 1840 to 5 and 6 
 cents; in 1844 and 1846 it was 4 and 5 cents; in 1861 it 
 was 3 cents. Like all other products, the price advanced 
 during the war, but before the panic of 1873 it had again 
 fallen to 3 cents, and on the 1st of January, 1876, the 
 price was 1\ cents. It will be noted that, in 1830, six 
 years after the duty was made 5 cents per pound, the 
 price was the same as the duty; that, in 1833 the price 
 fell below the duty; that, in 1842, it was 2 cents per 
 pound below the duty; and that, on the 1st of January, 
 1876, it was just one-half the duty of 1824, and about 
 one-fourth the price charged for cut nails when that 
 duty was imposed. For a long time we have exported, 
 nails to foreign countries, the value of the exports of 
 nails and spikes in the fiscal year 1875 amounting to 
 half a million of dollar^. 
 
 Prior to the revolution, and for many years after its 
 close, our saws came from abroad, and we paid for them 
 just what foreigners were pleased to charge us. In 1840 
 an American mechanic, Henry Disston, commenced the 
 manufacture on a small scale. At that time English 
 saws sold in our markets at from $15. 75 to $19 a dozen. 
 Mr. Disston was obliged to sell his saws for less money, 
 as his goods were unknown; but after the Disston saw 
 became known the English saws were gradually driven 
 out of our markets and prices still further reduced. In 
 1876 Henry Disston & Sons were sending saws to 
 England and selling them at $10.50 a dozen, fully fifty 
 per cent, less than the price Englishmen charged us in 
 1840. "When Mr-. Disston commenced business, inferior 
 
70 The Free Trade Falsehdod Refuted. 
 
 saws of foreign manufacture were sold in this country at 
 $4. 50 a dozen, and he could not make saws for less than 
 $7 a dozen, but now Henry Disston & Sons ship common 
 saws to South America at $4.50. The exports of their 
 goods in 1875 amounted to fully $100,000. The Messrs. 
 Disston make their own steel. 
 
 Before axes were made in this country, except by 
 country blacksmiths, English axes cost our farmers 
 and others from $2 to $4 each. By the tariff of 1828 
 a protective duty of 35 per cent, was levied upon im- 
 ported axes. Under this protection the Collins Com- 
 pany, of Hartford, introduced labor-saving machinery, 
 much of which was invented, patented, and constructed 
 by themselves. In 1836 foreign and home-made axes 
 were selling side by side, in the American market, at 
 $15 to $16 per dozen. Axes were selling, in 1838, at 
 $13 to $15.25 per dozen; in 1843, at $11 to $12; in 1849., 
 at $8 to $10. In 1876 the price of the best American 
 axes in the market is $9. 50 per dozen in currency, and 
 the country exports to foreign markets. English writers 
 admit their superior excellence. The Collins company 
 makes its own steel, and a letter from the company 
 claims that it is " better than any English steel we can 
 buy, and we have been steel consumers for fifty years. 
 We now only make for our own consumption, and we 
 have no disposition to cheat ourselves." — American Inn 
 Trade. 
 
 CUTLERY. 
 
 In 1842, President "Wayland of Brown University, 
 Providence, B. I., said (Political Economy, page 140) : 
 
 "We pay a heavy duty on cutlery in this country, while not a. 
 thousandth pari of the cutlery used is made here. It would be 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 71 
 
 vastly cheaper to pay a bounty sufficient to raise all the cutlery 
 made in this country to its present prices, and it would be, for 
 aught I see, just as good for the cutler." 
 
 He was an estimable gentleman, but like some other 
 college professors, was a theorist ignorant of the facts of 
 industrial life. 
 
 If the American people had listened to him they would 
 not have the cheap and abundant supply of hardware 
 and cutlery that they enjoy at this time. Forty years 
 ago American hardware was almost unknown in the 
 trade, yet five-sixths of the consumption is now supplied 
 by home industry, and our exported cutlery is on the 
 shelves of dealers in Sheffield and Birmingham. 
 
 In 1842, Wayland thought it ridiculous to protect the 
 American manufacturers of these goods, but the " high 
 duty" produced results which he could not foresee. 
 What they are let an English journal tell. 
 
 Ryland's Iron Trade Circular, for March 4, 1871, at 
 Birmingham, England, says : 
 
 " The edged-tool trade is well sustained, and we have less of the 
 effects of American competition. That this competition is severe, 
 however, is a fact that cannot be ignored. The ascendance of the 
 protectionist party in the States continues to operate most favor- 
 ably for the manufacturing interest there, and it is no wonder 
 that, under such benignant auspices, the enterprise in this direc- 
 tion is swelling to colossal proportions." 
 
 In a speech in the United States Senate, February 27, 
 1832, George M. Dallas, who became Vice-President 
 under James K. Polk, gave his personal knowledge 
 regarding the effects of the protective tariffs of 1824 and 
 1828 in cheapening the prices of various articles manu- 
 factured from iron or steel : 
 
 " The reduction of the prices was a necessary consequence of 
 the domestic competition created and excited by the policy. 
 
72 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 Since 1818, 1819, and 1820 the implements of husbandly have 
 sunk in price thus: Axes, from $24 to $13 by the dozen; scythes, 
 spades, and common shovels, 50 per cent. Iron hoes, at $9 by the 
 dozen, have given way to steel ones at $4. Socket shovels, once 
 sold at $12 a dozen, now sell at $4.50; iron vises, once at 20 cents 
 by the pound, now at 10 cents; braziers' rods were, in 1821, im- 
 ported at $313 by the ton, and now are made at $130; and steam- 
 engines have actually, since 1828, fallen 50 per cent, in price, 
 while at the same time the amount of material and labor of which 
 they are composed has nearly .doubled/' 
 
 Facts like these are worth tons of theories concocted 
 by scholars who get all their knowledge from books, 
 rather than go out into the actual world. 
 
 Let all the Schoolboys cypher out how a tariff is a tax 
 on nails, saws, axes, and cutlery. It will be a tough job; 
 perhaps they will have to take their slates home from 
 school and get their fathers to help them; and perhaps 
 the fathers will give it up. 
 
 SALT. 
 
 Deluded dairymen resolve that the salt monopoly must 
 be destroyed, and the fearful salt tax in the shape of a 
 tariff, under which they suffer, must be abolished. An 
 Illinois dairyman said in a convention that three- 
 fourths of an ounce of salt to a pound of butter was 
 enough. Call it six pounds of salt to one hundred 
 pounds of butter, suppose the tariff of 12 cents on 100 
 pounds of imported salt is a tax, and when the groaning 
 dairyman sells his nice firkin of a hundred pounds of 
 butter, and pockets his $20 or more, he has paid a tax 
 of three-fourths of a cent! But he has sold his salt, 
 which cost him say 6 cents, for over $1.20, and still he 
 groans about the tax! The revenue of a million dollars 
 or more which the salt tariff yields to the government 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 73 
 
 even if the whole duty is added to the price, would aver- 
 age about five cents per head of our total population. A 
 fearful tax! 
 
 But its price in Chicago, where the west gets its 
 largest supply, is about a dollar a barrel (280 pounds, or 
 five bushels, barrel included) or half the cost in 1860. 
 
 Here are the prices at Saginaw, where 3,000,000 bar- 
 xels a year are made : 
 
 Average price per barrel, 
 
 rrel, 1866 
 
 $1 80 
 
 " 1868 
 
 1 85 
 
 " 1870 
 
 1 32 
 
 " 1872 
 
 1 46 
 
 " 1874 
 
 1 19 
 
 " 1876 
 
 1 05 
 
 '• 1878 
 
 85 
 
 " 1880 
 
 75 
 
 " 1882 
 
 74 
 
 PLATE GLASS. 
 
 At St. Louis, Mr. B. A. Hitchcock stated to the 
 'Tariff Commission that the yearly production of Ameri- 
 can plate glass was about two million square feet, or half 
 the consumption; that labor represented near three* 
 fourths of its cost ; that the average duty for fifteen 
 jears had been about fifty per cent. ; and that the cost 
 had been reduced in ten years from $2.50 to $1.00 per 
 square foot. 
 
 LUMBEE. 
 
 The Iowa farmer groans over the moderate duty of 15 
 to 20 per cent, on lumber, as adding $2 per thousand 
 feet to the price he pays. Had he studied the Chicago 
 prices current he would know that for the three years 
 from 1863 to 1865, with Canada lumber free, the average 
 
74 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 yearly prices were not any lower than in the three .years, 
 from 1867 to 1869, when the duty was 20 per cent. 
 Some times this might be different, but this shows that 
 the duty was not added to the price of the thousands of 
 millions of feet of lumber sent over the West in those 
 years. It may be asked, "Why then do our lumber man- 
 ufacturers want a duty on imported lumber ? Not that 
 it so much affects the price, as they furnish the larger 
 part, but that the duty lessens the imports, gives them a 
 wider market, helps to give employment to 200,000 
 workmen, at wages 25 per cent, higher than in Canada, 
 and to keep up a home market for $30,000,000 of the 
 products of our farms and $20,000,000 of home manu- 
 factures which they consume each year. 
 
 A FRENCH STATEMENT. 
 
 In 1878 a French Senatorial Commission to examine 
 their trade and its relations to other nations, said, in 
 their report : " A veritable economical revolution has- 
 taken place in the United States. Under the shelter of 
 a prohibition system * * they have organized a pow-. 
 erful industry which rivals England in cheapness." We 
 " rival England in cheapness," the impartial foreigners 
 say ; yet free traders here pretend that our tariff adds 
 30 to 60 per cent, to our prices ! 
 
 BOOTS AND SHOES. 
 
 Would the buyers of boots and shoes be helped if 
 $43,000,000 of yearly wages were paid to workmen in 
 foreign lands, and $166,000„000 worth of these articles 
 brought in from abroad instead of being made at home, 
 and sold in our shoe stores as cheap as in English retail 
 shops ? 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 75 
 
 PAPER — "A TAX OK KNOWLEDGE." 
 
 " A tax on knowledge " is what free traders call the. 
 moderate duty of 20 per cent, on printing paper. A 
 great cry was raised about it all at once in 1879. Suppose 
 it is a tax added to the price of paper. It would add 
 four cents a year to the cost of a seven-column weekly 
 newspaper ! In war days, with paper at 25 cents per 
 pound, daily papers sold at about their present prices. 
 Did newspapers reduce their rates in 1879, while getting 
 their paper of our manufacturers at less than 6 cents — 
 half what it cost in 1872 ? In 1872-3 the price was 12 
 cents; it fell gradually to 6 cents and less in the 
 depression of' 1879, rose to 10 cents in "the boom" of 
 1880, and is now down to 6£ to 7 cents, with the duty 
 unchanged. If the tariff is responsible for the rise, why 
 not credit it with the fall as well ? 
 
 How came this sudden hue and cry about " a tax on 
 knowledge ?'' The circulars that filled the land had all 
 the same " ear-marks," as coming from one centre. A 
 Yankee guess would put it at free trade headquarters in 
 New York. 
 
 Englishmen tell us that we pay all the duty on the 
 goods they send us, but at home they tell each other 
 how they are taxed by our tariff. Their statement is 
 like the almanac — "adapted to the latitude." Cana- 
 dians, when asking for reciprocity, told at home how 
 they had to pay the duty on their coal, wool, lumber, 
 and barley, exported to the United States. This side 
 the line we were told that the same duty was a tax on us. 
 
 RICE — A SOUTHERN" CONGRESSMAN. 
 
 In the House of Representatives, January, 1883, Hon, 
 
76 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 E. Speer, M. C, of Georgia, member of the Ways and 
 Means Committee, made the following remarks : 
 
 Mb. Speer. — I wish to say to the gentleman from Illinois 
 [Mr. SparksJ that there are many ways in which this system of 
 protection protects the farmer. I will give one instance in refer- 
 ence to the rice-planters of Georgia and the Carolinas. Before the 
 war rice was worth $2 a hundred. When the war came our whole 
 system of lahor was disorganized and the rice interest was swept 
 out of existence. After the war, before the interest was built up 
 by protection, the price of rice per hundred in this country was 
 from $12 to $14. The tariff had its beneficial effect on that inter- 
 est, and what is the consequence? Our rice interest is built up 
 again, from 160,000 to 200,000 people are engaged in profitable 
 agricultural occupation, and rice, instead of being from $12 to 
 $14 per hundred, is now only $4.25 to $4.50. 
 
 LOOSE AND RECKLESS ASSERTIONS. 
 
 Mr. David A. Wells of Connecticut, a noted free trade 
 authority, formerly a protectionist, and a disciple of 
 Henry C. Carey, made a Western tour a few years ago, 
 and spoke in our leading cities. In Detroit he held up 
 before his audience a table-knife of American manu- 
 facture, praised the skill and fine machinery used by our 
 cutlery makers, but regretted they were "taxed 60 per 
 cent, on the steel they use by the tariff." Up to 1859 
 English steel had varied little for twenty years from 
 10 cents, 12£ cents and 16 cents for different grades, 
 the English controlling our market and prices. 
 
 With a protective duty our steel makers took away that 
 foreign control by their competition, and 9 cents, 10£ 
 cents and 13 cents were prices for the same grades. 
 How could Mr. Wells ignore these facts ? Is he so 
 ignorant as not to know that our cutlery competes with 
 that of free trade England, the world over ? 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 7T 
 
 Professor Perry left his place in Williams College last 
 spring to visit the West and enlighten the people. He 
 told us that the "farmer is virtually prohibited from 
 selling his hogs outside his own country by our absurd 
 tariff." By the U. S. Agricultural Keport for 1880 the 
 exports of hogs, bacon and hams were 161,331,629. Tha 
 farmers can stand a good deal of such prohibition. 
 
 Professor Sumner of Yale rivals his brother teacher 
 from Williams in loose assertions. He lately said, as the 
 Philadelphia Press reports, that "hundreds of poor 
 •women worked hard for fifty cents a day " in the Willi- 
 mantic spool thread mills, while, in fact, none work 
 there for such poor pay, and their average earnings are 
 double that sum. 
 
 Thomas G. Shearman, an attorney in Brooklyn, N". Y., 
 came to Detroit last winter to lecture on free trade. 
 I heard him say : " The worst cloth in the world is 
 made in the United States. * * No good woolens are 
 made in America," and noted the words at the time. 
 
 Against his assertion I put the impartial statement of 
 a foreign expert. M. Louis Chatel was the French 
 Government Commissioner to our Centennial Exhibition 
 in 1876 at Philadelphia, especially to study spinning and 
 weaving. In his report to that government he said ; 
 " The Americans can justly claim a very large share in 
 the progress attained (in woolens) at the present day," 
 and this progress, especially in staple goods "for general 
 consumption, has done serious injury to the markets of 
 England and France." He especially commended the 
 cloths of the Globe Woolen Company of Utica, N. Y., 
 for " perfectness in weaving and finish," and said: " We 
 are forced to admit that our manufacturers of Vienne 
 and of Bischmiller (famed French mills) can no longer 
 
78 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 compete, either in cost or quality, with the goods of 
 this American company." Washington Mills, Lawrence, 
 Mass., and others, were also highly commended. 
 
 Of these Globe Mill woolens over $600,000 worth were 
 sold in New York city in 1882 — beautiful goods, costing, 
 some of them, over five dollars per yard at wholesale. 
 Comment is needed on this striking contrast. So far 
 as staple goods are concerned,, one case of many may be 
 instanced. Any merchant in our city will readily grant 
 that, for honest wear, the cassimeres of the Flint Woolen 
 Mills, in our own State, are genuine and excellent. 
 
 "THE CON'SOLATKWS OF THE PROTECTED FARMER " — 
 A CANADIAN VIEW. 
 
 The New York Free Trade League a few years ago 
 circulated a sheet entitled " The People's Pictorial Tax- 
 payer," purporting to illustrate, by various cartoons and 
 pictures, the baleful effect of levying a tax on such for- 
 eign products as compete with our own. Conspicuously 
 displayed on the borders of this sheet were the cards of 
 Wm. Jessup & Sons, manufacturers of steel and import- 
 ers of iron, Sheffield, England ; of Congreve & Son, 
 of New York, agents of the Toledo Steel Works, of 
 Sheffield; of A. B. Sands & Co., importers of drugs; 
 of John Clark, Jr., & Co., foreign manufacturers of 
 spool-cotton ; of Van Wart & McCoy, the New York 
 agents of Van Wart, Son & Co. , of Birmingham, and 
 a dozen other English manufacturing firms and their 
 agents in New York. Besides these are the cards of 
 several foreign insurance companies. A noble set of 
 backers, these, to teach American tax payers their true 
 interests ! 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted 79 
 
 The principal cartoon is entitled, "How the tariff 
 robs the farmer and every workingman to benefit the 
 monopolists." 
 
 Our Canadian neighbors were then discussing a pro- 
 tective tariff to shield themselves from the philan- 
 thropic free trade of the mother country, which they 
 have since adopted. The Toronto Mail, an able advo- 
 cate of protection for Canadian industry, took up this 
 Pictorial Tax-payer, and other like sheets in the United 
 States, and commented on them under the head of 
 " Consolations of the Protected Farmer," in a keen and 
 clear way, as follows : 
 
 "The Yankee fanner rises in the morning tolerably refreshed. 
 True, he has been sleeping on abed, the sheets, blankets, and mat- 
 tresses of which would have been taxed from 60 to 180 per cent. 
 had they been imported from a foreign country. But they are 
 home-made, and his dreams have not been disturbed by the free 
 trade bugbear that 'protection raises the price of the home man- 
 ufactured article up to at least the price of the imported article 
 plus the ,import duty.' Mr. David A. Wells and other agents of 
 the Leeds and Manchester manufacturers once tried to frighten 
 him with this bogy ; but experience has taught him that it is only 
 a make-believe. There is an import duty of 8 cents a yard on 
 cotton sheeting, but he buys it from the cotton factory in his mar- 
 ket town at 7 cents a yard, and sees it going to England in compe. 
 tition with free trade cotton. Moreover, he knows that it is to 
 that import duty he owes the establishment of the neighboring 
 cotton factory, whose operatives give him a profitable home mar- 
 ket for rotation crops. He is well satisfied with his bed. It is 
 home-made ; it cost him, if anything, less than an imported arti- 
 cle ; and its manufacture has given employment to artisans who 
 buy the products of his farm almost direct from his wagon. 
 
 "He is not alarmed because there is a heavy import duty on 
 foreign cloths, boots, and cotton shirts. His suit from head to 
 foot is of American make ; he thinks this is better for him than if 
 his coat had come from the west of England, his shirt from Man- 
 chester, and his boots from Stockport. 
 
80 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 Breakfast over, he takes to his farm implements. Foreign, 
 implements, such as shovels, hoes, wooden pails, churns, reapers, 
 etc., are taxed 35 per cent. ; and in I860, when the battle of the 
 Morrill tariff was being fought in Congress, the agents of the great 
 Bedford and Leicester firms predicted that an import duty on their 
 goods would ruin farming in the United States. He has discov- 
 ered that this is not true, and that Yankee farm implements have 
 become the .cheapest and best in the world. In fact, when our 
 farmer contemplates the amazing growth of this industry, it 
 occurs to him that the English agents, who lobbied and even 
 bribed politicians, and newspapers to oppose the high -tariff, were 
 not actuated so much by regard for the condition of the Yankee 
 farmer as by the consciousness that protection would deprive them 
 of the American market, and by the fear that it would make the 
 Yankee manufacturer a formidable rival in other markets. 
 
 " This is what the fanner thinks at his work during the fore- 
 noon. He hears the toot of the dinner horn, and sits down at the 
 table nothing put out by the reflection that tin horns of foreign, 
 make are taxed about two cents each. Neither does he lose his. 
 appetite when he remembers that furniture, such as the chair he 
 is sitting on, the table at which he is ■ eating, is taxed 35 per cent, 
 when of foreign make. This duty has helped to establish furni- 
 ture factories and to give employment to tens of thousands of 
 mechanics at home, and in this way has benefited him. 
 
 " After dinner he sets out for the market town, and, as he jour- 
 neys thither, he pities the Canadian farmer, who, as a rule, has to 
 dispose of his produce to the middlemen that stand like a row of 
 tax-gatherers, each levying his tithe between the Kanuck farm and 
 the foreign consumer. He wonders, too, does this old Yankee 
 farmer, how the Canadian farms endure wheat and barley year 
 after year, and rejoices that protection has given him a home mar- 
 ket to which he can supply almost every variety of crop. He 
 - enters the market town at one o'clock, and his sympathy for the 
 Canadian farmer is deepened as he sees troops of Canadian opera- 
 tives returning to the factories from their dinner. 
 
 "'I wonder,' he communes, 'if the Hanuck farmer ever sees 
 a crowd of Yankee operatives going to work in a Canadian fac- 
 tory ? Guess not. Then what do free traders mean by argu- 
 ing that protection, such as we Yankies are cursed with, ruins 
 
The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 81 
 
 industry, while free trade, with which the Kanucks have long 
 been blessed, builds it up and makes a nation great ? If that 
 were so, would not these active little French-Canadians be at work 
 in Montreal, and would not our Yankee mechanics be pouring 
 over there also V 
 
 "By this time he has reached the store, and disposes of his 
 tomatoes, potatoes, etc. With the money received in payment he 
 makes his little purchases, and finds no small consolation in know- 
 ing that almost every dollar he pays out goes to home industries. 
 
 "He thinks this over as he travels homeward, and talks protec- 
 tion vs. free trade with his sons in the evening. One of them 
 works on the farm, and the others are at trades in the town — 
 Canada has had no attractions for them. , ' You boys are all here,' 
 says the old man, ' and I guess it is a pretty good country, pro- 
 tection and all.'" 
 
 CHEMICALS. 
 
 By the tenth census we had 1,346 factories, with 
 $85,336,856 invested; annual sales of $117,128,657; 
 employing 29,435 hands in this industry; using 586,089 
 tons of coal, and consuming raw materials worth 
 $79,237,281 yearly. 
 
 In Philadelphia and New York alone the yearly 
 manufacture of chemicals reaches $50,000,000. Look 
 at a few facts in that line. On flower of sulphur the duty 
 equals 59 per cent., its price abroad 4 cents per pound. 
 With the duty added as "a tax," it should sell for 6 
 cents, but it only brings 3 cents in our market. Refined 
 borax, sold abroad at 14 cents, with a duty of 10 cents, 
 should bring 24 cents here, but home competition keeps 
 it down to 14 cents. Chloroform is too sleepy to go up 
 to $1.37£, where the "tariff is a tax" theory would send 
 it, but is dull at 75 cents. Castor oil sells abroad at 9^ 
 cents to 9f cents per pound, and the duty is rated at 
 equal to 148 per cent., which would bring it up to 22 
 
82 
 
 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 to 23 cents here; but it sells at 12£ to 15 cents. Epsom 
 salts, with its foreign price of 1^- cents and the duty or 
 "tax" of 78 per cent, added, should sell at 2 T 3 „ cents, 
 but does not rise above If cents per pound, even to meet 
 free trade nonsense. Strychnine ought to sell at $1.95 
 per ounce, but it holds fast at only 80 cents. 
 
 FARMERS THE GREATEST "MONOPOLISTS" — THE NON- 
 SENSE OF IT ! 
 
 Nothing so completely shows the absurdity of the 
 " tariff is a tax " assumption as to apply it to farm pro- 
 ducts. In 1870 we - imported 190,000 bushels of pota- 
 toes, which paid a duty of fifteen cents per bushel, or 
 $28,500. We raised 240,000,000 bushels, and on this whole 
 crop the price was raised, if this assumption be correct, 
 fifteen cents per bushel by this "tax" on the imported 
 product. This logic taxes the poor people who raise no 
 potatoes $36,000,000 in that one year for the benefit of 
 a few greedy grangers ! 
 
 In 1878, in a congressional speech, Hon. W. D. Kel- 
 ley gave the following table : 
 
 Products. 
 
 Bushels 
 Raised in 
 
 1877. 
 
 Bushels 
 Exported. 
 
 Home Con- 
 sumption. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Duty 
 
 per 
 
 bushel. 
 
 Tax on home con- 
 sumers by the 
 Free Trade dog- 
 ma that the du- 
 ty is added to 
 the price. 
 
 Wheat, , . , 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 Oats 
 
 Rye 
 
 360,000,000 
 35,600,000 
 
 146,000,000 
 1,340,000,000 
 
 405,000,000 
 22,100,000 
 
 57,043,936 
 
 1,186,936 
 
 529,650 
 
 73,100,518 
 2,854,128 
 2,227,000 
 
 302,956,064 
 34,413,871 
 
 145,470,350 
 1,266,899,482 
 
 402,145,872 
 19,873,000 
 
 $0 20 
 15 
 15 
 10 
 10 
 10 
 
 $60,591,212 80 
 
 5,162,080 65 
 
 21,820,522 50 
 
 126,689,948 20 
 
 40,214,587 30 
 
 1,987,300 00 
 
 
 2,308,700,000 
 
 136,941,361 
 
 2,171,758,639 
 
 
 $256,465,681 35 
 
T7ie Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 83 
 
 How we all suffer, that these grain growers may gain 
 $250,000,000 yearly at our cost! Include dairy pro- 
 ducts, and meats, grant that the producers use one- 
 third and sell the rest, and we are taxed oyer 1350,000,000 
 yearly to fatten these rapacious farmers ! Can absurdity 
 go farther? The fact is. the tariff on these products 
 makes no difference with their price, yet pays a good 
 revenue to the government. 
 
 Sometimes the admission of a competitor covers the 
 whole ground. In 1879 Col. Wrottlesey, an English- 
 man, wrote the London Times : " The Americans have 
 the start of us, * * and unless our manufacturers 
 bestir themselves they will completely command the 
 markets of Europe." Mr. McHardy, in his report to 
 Parliament as one of the British commissioners to the 
 Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876 said: "It 
 is foolish not to recognize the fact that at Philadelphia, 
 Great Britain was in face of her most powerful rival in 
 manufactures." How is this rivalry possible unless our 
 qualities and prices compete with theirs in foreign lands? 
 If our tariff is a tax, added to the price of our goods 
 how is such competition possible? 
 
 Added evidence of the absurd folly and falsehood of 
 this free trade assertion is abundant but needless; what 
 is given is impregnable, its disproval impossible. 
 
 Bear in mind that this assertion is intended to give 
 the idea that the amount of any duty is so much always 
 added, not only to the price of the imported article, but 
 to the price of all like" articles made in this country and 
 that this added burthen falls on the consumer here, who 
 is thus craftily and heavily robbed for the benefit of pro- 
 tected monopolists. 
 Hon. H. G. Turner, M. C, of Georgia, in a late speech 
 
84 The Free Trade Falsehood Refuted. 
 
 estimated the added cost to consumers caused by the 
 tariff at $1,000,000,000, — so much profit to our manu- 
 facturers while the government gets less than $200,000,- 
 000, and Hon. W. E. Cox, M. C, of North Carolina, 
 figures it up that government gets $104,000,000 revenue 
 from duties on cotton and woolen goods, iron and steel, 
 and leather imported, but the makers here get $553,- 
 414,000. Start from false premises and it is easy work 
 to make a false case. 
 
 These men, and their like, have no grouna of fact to 
 stand on; A Hindoo theory is that this earth stands on 
 the back of an enormous elephant, and that each of his 
 feet rests on the back of an immense tortoise. Ask the 
 grave Hindoo pundit what the four tortoises stand on, 
 and he shakes his head solemnly, but gives no light. He 
 is in dim fog and chaos, where these men reach when 
 facts are called for. Assumption is the free trade tor- 
 toise, standing solid on — nothing ! 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A TARIFF FOR REVENUE ONLY TAXES THE CON- 
 SUMER—DUTIES—PRICES. 
 
 Those who assert that a protective tariff is a tax on 
 the consumer make that assertion the ground for advo- 
 cating a tariff for revenue only. By that advocacy they 
 uphold the very tax they so stoutly denounce. Revenue 
 duties on tea, coffee, and other articles we cannot pro- 
 duce, and on which there can be no home competition, 
 tend to raise their price. The English consider the duty 
 on tea as a permanent tax on the people of some 
 20,000,000 yearly. The more we act on the free trade 
 " axiom " that protection taxes the consumer the more 
 we shall frame our tariffs for revenue only, and thus tax 
 that consumer permanently. 
 
 Briefly stated, the case is as follows : A tariff for 
 revenue only is a permanent' tax on the consumer, with 
 no compensating benefits. A protective tariff pays the 
 surest revenues to our government, is sometimes a tran- 
 sient tax, but always has compensating benefits from the 
 start, and always results in low prices. — being thus a 
 boon rather than a tax. 
 
 Experience and the laws of trade show that when we 
 have any well established industry producing the greater 
 part of what we consume, this home product controls 
 our prices, home competition cheapens them, and the 
 foreigner pays the duty, which does not affect the price. 
 Imported cotton cloth, for instance, affects prices little, 
 if any. When we make any article, and import a large 
 
 86 
 
86 A. Tariff for Revenue ' Only 
 
 share of what we use of the like article, sometimes the 
 foreigner pays the duty and sometimes we pay a part, or 
 supply and demand fluctuate, but our competition with 
 the foreign maker always reduces prices. A protective 
 duty on a new industry may sometimes keep the price 
 up for a short time ; sometimes the foreigner reduces 
 his price to cripple our new industry, and we reap the 
 benefit, — as in the case of steel rails, on which English 
 prices were reduced some $20 per ton as soon as they 
 were made here. 
 
 Whenever an article of home manufacture happens to 
 be dearer than a like foreign article the difference is 
 surely held up as a tax on the consumer, caused by the 
 duty, but when home competition brings the price down, 
 as it has done in many cases, that is ignored. To point 
 back to higher prices under lower duties would greatly 
 damage a free trade treatise. Home competition, home 
 markets, better wages, varied employment and capital 
 used at home are silently passed by ; to exaggerate 
 alleged injuries and ignore "" real benefits is the aim. 
 The process by which manufacturers are shown to 
 gain immense profits is equally incorrect and untrue. 
 Sometimes a factory pays nothing to its owner for years 
 and then come good dividends. The years without 
 profit are ignored, but the good dividend is paraded 
 and magnified to keep up prejudices against "the mo- 
 nopolists." Hon. W. A. Russell, M. C, gives the 
 reports of fifty-one textile manufactories known in 
 Boston, showing their dividends for ten years, from 
 1873 to 1882 inclusive, to be 6-j^ per cent, yearly aver- 
 age on $55,000,000 capital. Approximately it would 
 be safe to say that for thirty years our factories and 
 mills in the whole country have not paid their owners 
 
Taxes the Consumer. 87 
 
 five per cent, yearly. Many cases can be given where 
 a single crop has paid for the farmer's land and labor. 
 Would it be fair to hold them up as proofs that those 
 farmers are constantly getting rich at the cost of the 
 consumers of food? 
 
 Start any new industry, with fair protection, and it 
 gains and grows and these results follow : — better pro- 
 cesses and machinery, economy of production, less cost 
 of manufacture on a larger scale, ability sometimes to 
 pay more for raw material and for wages, yet to sell the 
 product lower, and a rise in the price of lands in the 
 vicinity along with the growing cheapness of the product 
 of the mill. 
 
 THE OLD STORE AND THE NEW. 
 
 Suppose there is a great store on some country road 
 where all the people have been obliged to trade, and a 
 new shop starts across the highway. Galled and fleeced 
 by the monopoly of the old store they patronize the new 
 one to get the benefits of a healthy competition. 
 
 Our fifteen hundred woolen mills are the new store on 
 our side of the (ocean) highway. How competition 
 with the old shop, kept by a solid Englishman on the 
 other side, has worked may be shown by a word from 
 Hon. W. S. Shallenberger, of Pennsylvania, who spoke 
 on behalf of the National Association of "Wool Growers 
 at the New York Tariff Convention in November, 1881. 
 He said : " On the subject of domestic clothing, I 
 desire to add a word. While it is true that the price of 
 fine broadcloth is cheaper in Europe than here, our 
 staple cloth can be furnished to the workingman for less 
 than such cloth costs abroad. I rely on the statement 
 of no less a person than the Quartermaster-General of 
 
88 A Tariff for Revenue Only 
 
 the United States army for the information that the 
 clothing of that army, when quality is considered, is 
 cheaper than that of any army in the world. There is 
 an intelligent gentleman sitting here by me who has 
 traveled around the world in a suit of clothing (coat, 
 vest and pants) costing %\%, the quality of which has 
 been commented on by foreigners all over the world as 
 being remarkable." 
 
 Eeduce the product of these woolen mills, and it would 
 be like the country merchant in the new store being 
 obliged to lessen the quantity and variety of his stock. 
 The old store across the road would get more trade and 
 tetter profit at the cost of the people. 
 
 Our prices are not always as low as m Europe. Bring 
 wages down from thirty to a hundred per cent., or to 
 the British and Eur6pean level, and we could undersell 
 the world. Shall we brutalize our people to do that ? 
 To drag man down that iron may be cheap, would be 
 a crime and a blunder. 
 
 But the great staples used by the people grow cheaper 
 under protection. The British sometimes admit that the 
 users of iron among us are the better off for our policy, — 
 and that means everybody, for iron is used in hut and 
 palace, on the farm and in the shop. The woolens most 
 used are as cheap as abroad, while finer goods, luxuries 
 for those who buy them, are higher. Almost a third of 
 our customs-duties comes from the tariff on textile 
 fabrics, cottons and woolens pay a large part of it, and 
 a good share of that the foreigner pays without affecting 
 our prices. Even if a tariff is a tax, since we prosper 
 more with protection than with revenue tariffs on the 
 free trade plan, we had better pay it and take the good 
 results as abundant compensation. 
 
Taxes the Consumer. 89 
 
 On the broad scale, however, there is no doubt that the 
 growth of our protected manufactures gives us better 
 goods at lower cost than we should pay without these 
 useful home industries. Facts prove this, and that 
 proof stamps the free trade assertion that a tariff is a 
 tax on the consumer as an assumption without evidence. 
 
 We must bear in mind that without protective tariffs 
 our great industries could not have grown to their pres- 
 ent magnitude, or our country have reached its present 
 wealth. Our manufactures, by the last census, were 
 $5,369,000 in 1880, mostly used at home. It is a vast 
 attainment of these industries to reach the capacity of 
 such large supplies for our home wants. Suppose they 
 were reduced one-fourth. We should be compelled to 
 pay foreigners, mostly British, $1,300,000,000 yearly; 
 our balance of trade would turn against us ; gold would 
 flow out to Europe ; bonds go abroad for market ; 
 farmers' home markets and prices languish ; wages fall, 
 and imported goods rise, and a period of panic and 
 bankruptcy follow. 
 
 A PROTECTIVE TARIFF LIKE A LEVEE OR A FENCE. 
 
 Why need a tariff at all on articles in which we can 
 compete with the world, and on which foreign importers 
 pay the duty if they are brought here ? There will 
 always be imports of special styles of goods, and a 
 duty on them will yield needed revenue to our govern- 
 ment. We want a duty, also, as a barrier against possi- 
 ble importations made with a purpose and to our injury. 
 When Prussia, in 1818, established some protective 
 duties, a member of the British Parliament advocated 
 flooding that country with British goods, even at a sac- 
 rifice. 
 
90 A Tariff' for Revenue Only 
 
 David Syme, an able English free trader, went to 
 Australia and saw there the workings of a policy which 
 led the people of that British colony to adopt a pro- 
 tective tariff. He frankly said : 
 
 " The manner in which English capital is used to maintain her 
 manufacturing supremacy is well understood abroad. In any 
 quarter of the globe where a competition shows itself as likely to 
 interfere with her monopoly, immediately the capital of her man- 
 ufacturers is massed in that particular quarter, and goods are 
 exported in large quantities and sold at such prices that outside 
 competition is effectually counted out. English manufacturers 
 have been known to export goods to a distant market and sell 
 them under cost for years, with a view to getting the market into 
 their own hands again." 
 
 This is the British avowed policy, "to gain and keep 
 foreign markets and step in for the whole trade when 
 prices revive." 
 
 Sometimes it is good policy for foreign manufacturers, 
 when their markets at home are glutted, to send goods 
 here, even at a loss, and reap the benefit by relieving 
 their nearer marts of a surplus. To this Hon. A. S. 
 Hewitt, of New York, alluded in saying : " These' 
 duties have conferred one great benefit. In the late era. 
 of depression (1873, etc.), they have prevented this- 
 country from being the sink into which the surplus iron 
 of other countries would be flung. Had the duties been 
 low enough iron importations would have destroyed our 
 business and closed our establishments." 
 
 Such closing would have raised prices by making us 
 dependent on foreigners. Even the reduction of our 
 duties sometimes raise prices abroad. In 1870, when 
 the tariff on pig iron was reduced $2 per ton, the Scotch 
 makers at once added that sum to the price. 
 
 In 1880 the mere proposal in Congress, by a bill which 
 
Taxes the Consumer. 91 
 
 did not pass, to reduce largely the duty on steel rails, 
 sent the price up in England ten dollars in three days. 
 " The Minneapolis Wood and Iron," a journal from, 
 the new and beautiful manufacturing city by the Falls- 
 of St. Anthony, makes this excellent comparison: 
 
 " The mechanic, trader, farmer, or manufacturer who desires 
 a removal of the protective tariff may be compared to an inhab- 
 itant of the low-lying lands bordering on the Mississippi river who 
 advocates cutting the levee which protects him and his possessions 
 from the hungry flood without. "With the levee in good condition 
 labor is rewarded by increase, and prosperity reigns. Destroy it, 
 and decay takes the place of fruitful growth, and haggard poverty 
 reigns instead of smiling plenty. Let the dwellers behind the bar- 
 rier of protection examine it closely and watch it constantly. It 
 may be too strong in some places, in others too weak; but as they 
 value their lives let them preserve its stability unimpaired. Then, 
 as the dwellers behind the levee use the broad waters beyond for- 
 the transportation of themselves and their products wheresoever 
 they will, so the nation safely intrenched behind its tariff sea-wall 
 can venture forth to trade and grow rich throughout the earth, 
 secure in the thought that return when they may they will find 
 the fields left behind as blooming and fertile as when they bade 
 them farewell." 
 
 A witty man being asked: " What is the use of a duty 
 higher than the article really needs?" answered in the 
 Yankee fashion by asking a question: " What is the use, 
 of a fence higher than the field it encloses?" 
 
 WHY DO WE NOT EXPORT MANUFACTURES LARGELY ? 
 
 This question is often asked, honestly or captiously. 
 The answer is easy. Only a hundred years ago we 
 escaped from the grasp of that British power that had 
 always crushed our manufactures, and one of whose 
 eminent men (Lord Chatham, in 1772), declared that 
 " the colonists should not be allowed to make a hobnail 
 
92 A Tariff for Revenue Only 
 
 for themselves." We started poor and without manu- 
 factures. For 1 a longtime every new industry had a 
 struggle for life through the varying and uncertain legis- 
 lation of inexperienced men, and from want of capital. 
 In this single century we have reached a product of over 
 $5,369,000,000 in 1880, supplying nine-tenths of the 
 wants of fifty million people, the greatest buyers, per 
 head, in ,the world. Our population grows two millions 
 annually, and our manufactures must increase over 
 $200,000^000 a year to supply this large addition to our 
 numbers. Nothing in the industrial progress of the 
 world equals this great achievement of our single century 
 of peaceful industry ! And, beyond even this, we export 
 to distant countries. England's very life depends on a 
 great export trade in her manufactures; our life grows 
 sure and strong and we first supply our vast and increas- 
 ing home demand. Let us do that, and our exports will 
 dispose of our surplus. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SOME FREE TRADE FALLACIES ANSWERED. 
 
 It has been shown that free trade efforts in this 
 country are heartily approved by the classes in England 
 who expect to gain most profit from their success. It is 
 also significant that the staple assertions of free trade 
 theorists with us are of English origin, and have long 
 been common in that country, showing an inspiration 
 here drawn from "the fast anchored isle" across the 
 Atlantic. Let us look at a few of these assertions. 
 
 "protection will fetter and decrease exports 
 and imports." • 
 
 The assumption is that people abroad will not buy of 
 us while we put tariff barriers in the way of their selling 
 to us. Our great foreign trade, with its aggregate of 
 $1,499,901,099 in 1880, an increase of some $500,000,- 
 000 in ten years, growing under a protective tariff and 
 larger for these years than ever before, refutes that 
 assertion. 
 
 Look back and we shall find our exports and imports 
 increased in our protective periods and grew less when- 
 ever we approached the "tariff for revenue only" policy. 
 
 Our exports to Great Britain in 1879 were over $500,- 
 000,000, our imports $100,000,000. They bought our 
 grain, cotton and provisions because they needed them, 
 and our dtities on their articles did not stand in the way. 
 We buy coffee from Brazil, tea from China and sugar 
 
 93 
 
■94 Some Free Trade Fallacies Answered. 
 
 from Cuba largely, because we want them, but tbese coun- 
 tries do not buy of us half as much as we do from them. 
 Let us see how an able English protectionist meets 
 this assertion in that country. Sir J. B. Byles, in his 
 "Sophisms of Free Trade," which has passed through 
 ten editions in England, said in 1880 : " Our answer to 
 this assertion is an appeal to facts. No nation has 
 adopted the theory and practice of protection to the 
 same extent as England ; no nation has, at the same 
 time, enjoyed so extensive and lucrative a foreign trade. 
 For centuries the greatest protection in the world has 
 ■coincided with the greatest foreign trade in the world. 
 In truth, the domestic activity, industry and prosperity, 
 fostered by the protective system, is the surest basis of 
 a permanent, extensive and mutual foreign trade. In 
 the first place, with protection and a certain home mar- 
 ket, have arisen the means' of purcliase. Under a strict 
 and jealous system of protection we have seen the rise 
 of Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Bradford, and 
 •other cities. We have seen skill and machinery brought 
 to perfection. Protection has not blunted the invention 
 or superseded the ingenuity of our countrymen. On the 
 •contrary, our cottons and woolens and hardware were 
 the best in the world. What England might have been 
 without protection from foreign manufactures, we know 
 not. She might have been what Ireland' is now without 
 protection from English manufactures. But it is certain 
 that with protection the means of purchase have been 
 created and multiplied in a degree marvellous and 
 transcending all anticipation. * * With protection 
 has arisen the indispensable pre-requisite to foreign 
 trade — things to give in exchange for foreign commodi- 
 ties, the means of purchase — exports." 
 
Some Free Trade Fallacies Answered. 95 
 
 "protected manufactures hate a sickly and 
 hot-bed growth." 
 
 With this assertion come pictures of growing oranges 
 under hot-house glass in Scotland, of raising figs in 
 warm rooms in Maine, and all sorts of foolish things.for 
 thoughtless people to laugh at. Look at facts, and 
 surely we see nothing but vigor and benefit in the great 
 industries of our land. Our woolen mills buy all the 
 wool of our sheep growers. Our iron and steel mills, 
 with the manufactures therefrom, and the allied ore and 
 coal products, employ some 650,000 persons (estimate 
 in 1870 of Iron and Steel Association, in Philadelphia). 
 These and other industries makes a larger and better 
 home market for farm products than ever opened 
 abroad. Nothing sickly in all this. 
 
 Let us see how the English writer shows up this 
 sophistry. 
 
 " All our British manufactures took their rise in a 
 system of protective duties so high as to amount to pro- 
 hibition." "They are the greatest, and, until lately, 
 the least sickly of any." " Protection to French indus- 
 try, from the days of Colbert, has been and will be the 
 policy of France. Her manufactures, though inferior 
 to ours, have augmented, since peace, in an even greater 
 ratio, but under strict protection." Look at Eussia. 
 Mr. Cobden has recently visited their protected textile 
 manufactures. According to him, these manufactures, 
 which should have been sickly and stunted according 
 to these theories, now threaten a rivalry with Great 
 Britain." "In every instance of nations adopting the 
 protective system, manufactures have been created, not 
 sickly, but healthy and nourishing, often against natural 
 
96 Some Free Trade Fallacies Answered. 
 
 disadvantages. In all eases industry has been forced 
 into an artificial channel; but the result has been solid 
 and prodigious prosperity." 
 
 "BUY IN THE CHEAPEST MARKET." 
 
 A tariff stands in the way of this, we are told, and is 
 therefore, at best, only a necessary evil to be got out of 
 the way as soon as possible. A witty Irishman in this 
 country was telling how cheap goods were in his old 
 home, and how much he could buy there for a sixpence. 
 " Why did you come here then ?" he was asked. " And 
 shure, where could I get the sixpence at home ?" was his 
 quick reply. He burst the bubble of "cheapest mar- 
 ket." Free trade fails to put the sixpences into people's 
 pockets. 
 
 "THE PURCHASE OP FOREIGN ARTICLES, IF CHEAPER 
 THAN THOSE AT HOME, SO MUCH CLEAR GAIN." 
 
 Adam Smith, the apostle of free trade, says : 
 "The capital employed in purchasing in one part of a country 
 in order to sell in another part, the produce of the industiy of 
 that country, generally replaces by such operation two distinct 
 capitals that had both been employed in its agriculture or manu- 
 factures, and thus enables them to continue that employment. 
 
 "The capital used in buying foreign goods for domestic con- 
 sumption, when the purchase is made by the produce of domestic 
 industry, replaces also t\ro distinct capitals, but one of tliem only 
 supports domestic industry ; tlie otlier supports foreign industry, 
 and therefore foreign trade will give but one-half the encouragement 
 to the industry or protective labor of a country that domestic 
 or internal trade does." 
 
 We must bear in mind that a nation, whether it buy 
 abroad or, produce at home, can have no more than it 
 produces. The development of its home producing 
 
/Some Free Trade Fallacies Answered. 97 
 
 power is therefore the only true test of its prosperity, 
 and — Adam Smith being our witness — the importation 
 of articles we can and do make or produce lessens that 
 development one-half. 
 
 If we can make a roll of cloth, for instance, for $50, 
 and buy it in England for $45, the buyer may gain five 
 dollars, but the nation will really lose $50 which it 
 might use at home, and England will gain that much, 
 and the buyer of the cloth will soon find his ability to 
 purchase decrease, and so will lose in the long run. 
 
 We must also bear in mind that there is no discrete 
 degree, no clear line of separation, between producer and 
 consumer. Every producer consumes, every maker is 
 also a buyer ; and every consumer produces, or lives on 
 .the income of producers. They stand or fall together. 
 Interdependent, their interest is one. 
 
 "the 'balance of trade' theory fallacious — AN 
 
 EXCESS OF IMPORTS OVER EXPORTS PROOF OF 
 GROWTH IN WEALTH." 
 
 A statement like this, for instance, will illustrate the 
 free trade method of showing the fallacy of our export 
 and import reports : A cargo of wheat goes out from 
 New York to Liverpool valued at $50,000, and that 
 makes so much in our official statement of exports ; 
 but the American owner sells it in England for $60,000, 
 and gains $10,000, which is added wealth to this coun- 
 try, but makes no official show in Government reports. 
 Or he may invest all his $60,000 in woolens to be 
 imported, and that sum increases our report of total 
 imports, showing in the transaction an excess of $10,000 
 on the import side, but .really representing no added 
 debt abroad, but profit on exports instead. Doubtless 
 
98 Some Free Trade Fallacies Answered. 
 
 such transactions sometimes occur and partially with 
 this result, but the drawbacks are serious. A large part 
 of our exports are bought here by foreigners or their 
 agents, and the profits go to them. Had the supposed 
 American cargo of wheat been exchanged for domestic 
 woolens, all the gains would have remained at home ; 
 but in the supposed case, the foreign maker of woolens 
 gets his profits there, and pays his costs of making, 
 wages, &c, there. The goods imported into this coun- 
 try are heavily undervalued in many of our Custom 
 House invoices, on which they pay duty, and really sold 
 at much higher rates ; and such undervaluation overbal- 
 ances the occasional cases- like that supposed above. 
 British shipping gets $100,000,000 yearly freight on our 
 exports, to their profit, and that immense profit of 
 theirs — to our loss — makes no show in our official state- 
 ments. No protectionist would lay an embargo on 
 international trade, but would recognize its use and 
 necessity ; but when we find a nation buying more than 
 it sells for any considerable time — that is, with imports 
 greater than exports — that nation is growing poor. The 
 fact that such adverse "balance of trade" is always 
 looked upon with alarm, and spoken of in financial 
 circles with grave apprehension, tells the whole story.. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PROTECTION AND THE FARMERS. 
 
 Many farmers are told, and honestly believe, that only 
 the manufacturer has protective duties, while the farm 
 products are open to free trade. The present tariff 
 laws impose the following direct protective duties on 
 agricultural products : Eice cleaned, 2J cents per 
 pound ; wheat, 20 cents per bushel ; wheat flour, 20 
 per cent. ; Indian com, 10 cents per bushel ; oats, 10 
 cents per bushel ; lye, 10 cents per bushel ; barley, 10 
 cents per bushel ; butter, 4 cents per pound ; cheese, 4 
 cents per pound; potatoes, 15 cents per bushel; tobacco, 
 unmanufactured, 35 cents per pound ; sugar, from 1\ to 
 3£ cents per pound; live animals, 20 per cent. ; those for 
 breeding purposes are admitted free to benefit the 
 farmers ; beef and pork, 1 cent per pound ; wool, from 
 2£ to 10 and 12 cents per pound; and hay, $2.00 per ton. 
 These duties, and others on lesser products, tend to keep 
 out foreign competitors, especially on our northern bor- 
 ders, and leave our home market almost exclusively free 
 for our own farmers. 
 
 From 1789 to 1842 an import duty of three cents per 
 pound was placed on cotton, and only removed when 
 utterly useless. It was needed for a time to encourage 
 the growth of that great staple. 
 
 The last appeal of the Cobden Club — the Mongredien 
 Western Farmer tract, sent over here by car-loads — 
 is like all the rest from that quarter. Its real meaning 
 
100 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 (which they do not give) is : Let England be the work- 
 shop of the "Western world, and you our granary. You 
 grow the food and raw material and let us work it up 
 and send the product back to you at our own price, and 
 so get the lion's share of the profits. 
 
 On the opening page of this tract we are told, "He' 
 (theWestern farmer) is heavily taxed to support unprofit- 
 able manufactures in the Eastern States," and the 
 charges are rung on Western farmer and Eastern manu- 
 facturer. The large manufactures of the "West are- 
 ignored. The benefits of the home market are also cast 
 into convenient darkness. 
 
 But the farmer is learning that mills and factories ab 
 his door are his natural allies. He learned it long ago 
 in the East. Mr. Greeley tells a story that will illustrate 
 this. " A farmer near Canaan, Connecticut, had always 
 opposed protection as enriching the manufacturer at the 
 expense of his own class. In 1842 he contracted for 
 clearing 100 acres of his woodland at $10 per acre and 
 what could be made from the wood. Before the job 
 was finished the tariff of that year was passed, a furnace 
 for making pig iron from charcoal was put up in his 
 neighborhood, and its owners paid him $20 per acre for 
 the wood on two hundred acres of like woodland. Here 
 was a difference of $6,000 to him between iron made at 
 home and imported (and a home market for all he- 
 raised, from cabbages to cattle, besides) The country 
 is thickly dotted with cases like this." 
 
 In 1858 the yearly profit of British eotton manufactures 
 was estimated at $188,000,000, and the total value of our 
 cotton crop at $184,000,000. 
 
 Every cotton mill in the South keeps a part of that, 
 profit at home, saves transportation, pays better prices, 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 101 
 
 for cotton and opens new markets for other farm products 
 "which should alternate the cotton crops in the fields 
 around the factory. 
 
 SELLING CHEAP AND BUYING DEAK— OLD TIME 
 EXPERIENCES. 
 
 Before manufactures were fairly established in this 
 country, — in those days when Andrew Jackson asked: 
 " Where shall the American farmer find a home market 
 for his products?" our farmers were in poor condition 
 indeed, selling cheap and buying dear as compared to 
 their present situation. 
 
 An Ohio pioneer once told me of hauling his wheat 
 forty miles to Cleveland, selling it at forty cents a bushel, 
 and buying salt to haul home at five dollars a barrel, and 
 of selling their butter at five cents per pound to buy tea 
 at one dollar fifty cents, and calico at thirty cents a yard. 
 
 Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, in a speech in the United States 
 Senate in February, 1832, made this graphic statement: 
 
 " Every farmer in Ohio long knew and felt the pressure. Year 
 after year their stacks of wheat stood unthreshed; so low was it 
 reduced, in comparison with manufactured articles, that I have 
 known forty bushels of wheat given for a pair of boots; such was 
 the state of things in the Western country prior to, and at the time 
 of, the revision of the tariff in 1824." 
 
 In a speech at Great Palls, New Hampshire, February 
 21, 1872, by Henry Wilson, afterwards Vice-President 
 of the United States, he said: 
 
 " The first month I worked after I was twenty-one years of age, 
 I went into the woods, drove team, cut mill-logs and wood, rose 
 in the morning before daylight and worked hard until after dark 
 at night, and I received for it the magnificent sum of six dollars. 
 Each of those dollars looked as large to me as the moon looked 
 to-night. 
 
102 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 " On the farm on which I served an apprenticeship I have seen, 
 the best men who ever put scythe in grass working for from fifty 
 to seventy cents a day in the longest days of summer. Yester- 
 day I visited that farm. I asked the men who were there what 
 they paid men in haying-time last summer, and they said from 
 two dollars to two and a half a day. This was paid on the same 
 ground where men worked forty years ago for from fifty cents to 
 four shillings, and took their pay in farm products, not money. 
 I have seen some of the brightest women go into the farm houses 
 and work for from fifty to seventy-five cents a week, milking the 
 cows, making butter and cheese, washing, spinning, and weav- 
 ing — doing all kinds of hard work. I was told yesterday that 
 many young women were earning in the shops a dollar a day, and 
 that those who worked in houses were getting from two dollars 
 and a half a week to three dollars and a half." 
 
 The building up of home manufactures and of rail- 
 roads necessary for the factories and mills, has lifted the 
 American farmer out of this poor condition, and he is 
 better off than the tiller of the soil in any other country. 
 
 WISE INDUSTRIAL POLICY WEEDED FOE SUCCESS IN 
 FARMING. 
 
 Our breadth of rich soil, the new wealth of precious, 
 metals, and the superior skill and industry of our people 
 doubtless helped this great change ; but a wise national 
 industrial policy was an important element, without 
 which it would never have been made. Soil and climate , 
 were the same in those days of the poverty of our farm- 
 ers as now. I can well remember the plain and careful 
 living of the New England farmers in my youth', and 
 now see their children still industrious and thrifty like 
 their parents, but able to live and to dress in a style that 
 would have astonished those worthy ancestors. 
 
 My mother used to tell how her father, a farmer in 
 Massachusetts, had the only chaise in town, and how 
 
Protection mid the Farmers. 103 
 
 they rode to meeting on Sundays proudly pre-eminent 
 among the plain wagons of their neighbors. Around 
 that same country meeting-house, on a Sunday now, can 
 be seen scores of fine carriages ; and the change in dress 
 is as marked as that in these conveyances. 
 
 Turkey has an ample space of fine land, and a climate 
 favorable to good farming, Cuba has a soil of wonder- 
 ful fertility ; yet the people of both these countries are 
 miserable. 
 
 The union of Ireland with England, by admitting 
 English goods free of tariffs, broke down Irish manu- 
 factures, turned her people into poor farmers, brought 
 on the potato rot, and famine swept down over two 
 millions of her population, 
 
 A century ago not only did the native hand-looms of 
 Hindostan weave the finest cottons and woolens or cash- 
 meres, but the richest silks, such as for centuries had 
 been carried across the deserts of Central Asia on 
 camels to Europe. But free trade was carried into India 
 at the point of England's bayonets, and with it came 
 the destruction of manufactures, and the turning out of 
 employment of millions of laborers. Theoretically they 
 were free to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the 
 dearest ; but, in fact, they could sell nothing and buy 
 nothing. Weavers could not sell their cloths because 
 the English undersold them. The English would not 
 allow their machinery to go to India. Those who made 
 their cloths in England did not buy their crops. Hence 
 the poor Hindoos had no resource but to starve and die 
 by millions, by the roadsides and in the fields. Famines 
 prevailed periodically, as many as two millions of per- 
 sons dying in a single year. 
 
 These countries have rich soil and fine climate, but a 
 
104 
 
 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 bad industrial policy has wrought sore disaster in their 
 midst. Hindostan is now a part and province of the 
 British Empire, and asks for a protective tariff to guard 
 herself against English monopoly of her manufactures, 
 but asks in vain. 
 
 RICH LAND EXHAUSTED. 
 
 For forty years the rich valley of the Wabash, in west- 
 ern Indiana, exported its great corn crops to "New 
 Orleans, — took all from the soil and put nothing back. 
 That soil seemed inexhaustible, and yielded its eighty 
 bushels per acre; but its decay came. A few years ago 
 a large land owner told- me that his average product 
 had come down to thirty-five bushels. 
 
 Build the factory near the farm and a large share of 
 what is taken away can be put back. 
 
 FARM AND FACTORY NEIGHBORS AND ALLIES. 
 
 The following table (from official reports) shows the 
 benefit of making farm and factory neighbors : 
 
 Six New England States 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Indiana..., '. 
 
 Michigan.. 
 
 Average of these three Western man- 1 
 
 uf acturing and farming States ...... J 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Average of these three farming States, I 
 
 with fewer factories..., f 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Average produet 
 per acre. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Cash Value 
 of principal 
 
 Corn. 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 acre. 
 
 ; 35 
 
 37.5 
 
 15.2 
 
 17.5 
 
 $16 52 
 16 60 
 
 29 
 
 16.8 
 
 13 88 
 
 40.7 
 
 ' 17 
 
 16 96 
 
 35,6 
 
 17 
 
 15 79 
 
 38 
 
 10.4 
 
 9 34 
 
 35 
 
 13.2 
 
 11 54 
 
 29.3 
 
 10 
 
 798 
 
 34 
 
 11 2 
 
 9 62 
 
 40 G 
 
 15 
 
 $17 33 
 
t 
 
 Protection and the Farmers. 105 
 
 Of course the area of tillable land is much larger in 
 the West than in New England,, but some Western 
 farmers will be surprised to find the grain products per acre 
 in the East larger than in Iowa. The cash value is still 
 more in favor of the States, East and West, where manu- 
 factures are most widely spread. Michigan leads the 
 West in products and value, and her home market is 
 large among lumbermen and miners. 
 
 Pennsylvania leads all, and this because she has a 
 broad extent of good farming lands with great mills and 
 factories near at hand. 
 
 The lesson is plain. We cannot have the best 
 
 FARMING UNTIL WE HAVE THE BEST MANUFACTURING 
 BESIDE THE FARM. 
 
 Dr. Peter Collier, the able chemist of the Agricultural 
 Department at Washington, publishes a table of average 
 crops of corn, wheat, potatoes and hay in 31 States for 
 1862-70 and for 1871-80, and other facts to make his 
 statement more clear. He concludes that, on the whole; 
 there has been a decrease of productiveness in the last 20 
 years, and that the increase has been in regions where 
 fertilizers are most used, — in New England and the Mid- 
 dle States. In this older part of our country, where land 
 has been long cultivated, farms yield larger crops than 
 in the West, and their yield improves. These farms 
 are near the best and most varied manufactures. 
 
 FARM WAGES HERE AND IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The Department of Agriculture at Washington has 
 issued a report on the wages of farm labor, from which 
 an extract plainly shows the larger wages and wealth of 
 farmers in manufacturing regions. Those more dis- 
 tant share these benefits, but in less degree: 
 
106 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 " The influence of manufactures upon agriculture is seen in the 
 wages of farm labor as well as in the prices of farm production. 
 The rate is higher in Massachusetts than in any other State east 
 of the Rocky Mountains. It is seen in the West as well, affecting 
 the averages of States lying side by side. Ohio has become a 
 manufacturing state of considerable importance. It is dotted over 
 with cities of 20, 000 to 60, 000 people, largely interested in manufact- 
 uring industry. Kentucky, on the other bank of the Ohio, is occupied 
 mainly with the pursuits of agriculture. This fact, together with 
 the larger proportion of negro labor, reduces the rate of wages. 
 The comparison (in 1882) is as follows: Ohio $24.55 per month 
 and Kentucky $18.20. 
 
 " In population, variety of industry, and general industrial 
 advancement the northern district of Illinois surpasses the southern. 
 Naturally the wages of agricultural labor reflect this difference. 
 Dividing the State on the line of counties reaching below the 41st 
 parallel, and again on the line of the 29th parallel, the average 
 wages are respectively, from north to south, as follows : 
 
 Per month. 
 
 Northern district $27 52 
 
 CentraLdistrict '. 24 05 
 
 Southern district 19 87 
 
 "Whenever other industries flourish, and the number of per- 
 sons employed in agriculture is fewer than those engaged in other 
 occupations, it is found that the prices of farm products are also- 
 higher in manufacturing districts, and the gross and net earnings, 
 of the farm proprietor greater." 
 
 The Mark Lane Express (England) has a tabular state- 
 ment of wages of farm laborers in England and Wales. 
 From sixty-seven districts the range is from $125 to 
 $270 per year — without board. In one case it reaches; 
 $295. Sometimes there are perquisites of beer or milk, 
 coal or a cottage at low rent, all from a few shilling up 
 to a few dollars. The average gross income of the 
 English farm hand, as these statements make it, would 
 not be over $180 per year, with which to board and 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 ior 
 
 clothe himself and his family. Our farmers — " robbed 
 by protected monopolists " — pay from $200 to $250 per 
 year and board, for like labor; and pay most where 
 these robbers are most plenty — in Massachusetts, for 
 instance. 
 
 PURCHASING POWER OF THE PARMER — A COMPARISON. 
 
 The average prices of seven leading farm-products, 
 and of seven leading manufactured articles on the imports 
 of which duties are levied, for five free trade or revenue 
 tariff years, and for five protective tariff years are given 
 in the following tables, prepared by Hon. Jonathan 
 Chase, M. C, of Rhode Island. He took his prices from 
 a report of Hon. Mr. Bnrcharcl, of Illinois (a free 
 trader), from the Neio York Journal of Commerce (free 
 trade), and from the Philadelphia prices current of iron: 
 
 " Let us see what the fanner's articles would buy in the market: 
 Table No. 1. 
 
 Articles. 
 
 Average prices in 
 Ave Free Trade 
 years ending in 
 1850. 
 
 Average prices in 
 five Protective 
 Tariff years 
 ending in 1880. 
 
 Wheat, bush 
 
 Corn, bush 
 
 Oats, bush 
 
 Butter, lb...' 
 
 Kentucky tobacco, lb.. 
 
 Wool, lb 
 
 Cheese, lb 
 
 Coal, ton 
 
 Liverpool salt, sack 
 
 Bleached Sheeting, yard 
 
 Prints, yard 
 
 No. 1 pig-iron, ton 
 
 Refined bar-iron, ton 
 
 Railroad iron, ton 
 
 Si 22.8 
 64.4 
 42.3 
 15 
 
 5.82 
 35.58 
 6.3 
 563 
 1 34.8. 
 14.43 
 10.05 
 25 65 
 76 82 
 58 27 
 
 $1 30.2 
 52.9 
 38.72 
 24.68 
 8.48 
 44.74 
 9.94 
 3 62.3 
 72.22 
 11.78 
 7.95 
 21 75 
 50 82 
 40 15 
 
108 
 
 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 Table No, 2. 
 
 One bushel of wheat 
 would buy- 
 Under Free Trade 
 
 Under Protection 
 
 One bushel of corn 
 would buy — 
 
 Under Free Trade 
 
 Under Protection .,* 
 
 One bushel of oats 
 would buy — 
 
 Under Free Trade 
 
 Under Protection 
 
 Ten pounds of butter 
 would buy — 
 
 Under Free Trade 
 
 Under Protectipn 
 
 Ten pounds of cheese 
 would buy- 
 Under Free Trade 
 
 Under Protection 
 
 One pound of wool 
 .woifid buy— 
 
 Under Free Trade 
 
 Under Protection 
 
 Ten pounds of Kentucky 
 tobacco would buy — 
 
 Under Free Trade 
 
 Under Protection 
 
 Sacks, 
 
 .91 
 1.80 
 
 .47 
 .73 
 
 .31 
 
 1.112 
 3.417 
 
 .474 
 1.376 
 
 .264 
 .601 
 
 .431 
 1.117 
 
 Lis. 
 
 422 
 
 710 
 
 356. 
 
 168. 
 240. 
 
 597. 
 1530 
 
 250. 
 619 
 
 141. 
 296. 
 
 231. 
 
 ■c.S 
 
 Hi V 
 
 m-0 
 
 Yds. 
 
 8.51 
 11.04 
 
 4.46 
 4.49 
 
 1.98 
 
 10.39 
 20.95 
 
 4.36 
 8.43 
 
 2.46 
 4.05 
 
 4.03 
 
 7.19 
 
 Yds. 
 
 12.21 
 16.27 
 
 4.20 
 4.89 
 
 14.92 
 31.04 
 
 12.52 
 
 3.54 
 6.00 
 
 5.79 
 10.66 
 
 h 
 
 in 
 
 Lis. 
 
 107.3 
 134.00 
 
 56.24 
 54.49 
 
 36.94 
 39.87 
 
 131 
 
 254 
 
 55.02 
 102.36 
 
 31.06 
 49.16 
 
 50.82 
 87.33 
 
 Lis. 
 
 35.8 
 57.35 
 
 18.78 
 23.32 
 
 12.33 
 17.07 
 
 43.74 
 108.82 
 
 18.37 
 43.82 
 
 10.37 
 21.64 
 
 16.97 
 37.38 
 
 l § 
 
 Lis.; 
 
 47.23 
 72.6 
 
 24.78 
 29.55 
 
 16.26 
 21.63 
 
 57.69 
 137.87 
 
 24.23 
 50.53 
 
 13.68 
 21.08 
 
 22.34 
 47.37 
 
 " While the price of corn is comparatively lower than that of 
 any agricultural product, still the farmer can produce it relatively 
 cheaper, and he can land it cheaper at tide-water market. 
 
 "But let me proceed with the table: Under free trade the 
 farmer could buy with one bushel of wheat .91 of a sack of Liver- 
 pool salt; under protection it would buy 1.8 sacks. Under free 
 trade the bushel of wheat would buy 8.51 yards of bleached sheet- 
 ing; under protection 11.04 yards. Under free trade it would buy 
 422 pounds of coal; and under protection 719 pounds. Under free 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 109 
 
 trade it would buy 12.21 yards of prints; under protection 16.27 
 yards. Under free trade it would buy 107.3 pounds of pig-iron; 
 under protection 134 pounds. Under free trade, 35.8 pounds of 
 bar-iron; and under protection 57.35. Under free trade it would 
 buy 47.23 pounds of railroad iron; under protection 72.6 pounds. 
 
 CHEAP TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 The total product of iron and steel of all kinds in the 
 Western States in 1880 was 1,912,689 tons, valued at 
 $76,933,686. (See U. S. census.) This required the 
 transportation of 8,000,000 tons of raw materials — ore, 
 coal, limestone, etc. — equal in weight to 264,000,000 
 bushels of wheat, or three-fourths of the total crop of those 
 States. The more freight the lower rates of transporta- 
 tion, by rail and water. The census reports the freights 
 on wheat from Chicago to New York, all rail the whole 
 year, at 42^ cents per bushel in 1868, and 19^ cents in 
 1880, and a corresponding reduction by rail and water. 
 
 The Pall Mall Gazette, in London, tells the English 
 people that railroad freights are lower per mile in this 
 country than in England, and that they have fallen 45 
 to 60 per cent, from 1868 to 1878. Mr. H. V. Poor, 
 the great railroad authority, stated to the Bureau of 
 Statistics at Washington that in 1860 the working man 
 in New York City paid $1.60 for the freight of his 
 barrel of flour from Chicago, in 1880 he paid only 86 
 cents. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, shows that the 
 freight from Chicago to Boston of grain and meat for a 
 year's food for a man costs but $1. 25, or a day's work. 
 Thirteen leading railroads, most of them in the West, 
 reduced their charge per ton per mile, from lffc cents 
 in 1873 to lyf^ cents in 1880, or 38 per cent. For these 
 reductions there are two leading causes, — the larger 
 manufacture of rails at home, and in the West especially; 
 
110 Protection and ilie Farmers. 
 
 the immense addition to grain freights of freight of these 
 millions of tons of material for iron and other manufac- 
 tures. 
 
 The annual report of the Milwaukee and St. Paul rail- 
 way shows that in the 17 years since 1865 the average 
 rate per ton per mile for'freight over its line has been 
 reduced from 4. 11 cents to 1. 70 cents. Competition and 
 improved facilities have made the reduction without the 
 aid of legislation. 
 
 The farmer gets a large share of this benefit. Close 
 these western iron mills and his grain freights would 
 rise; build up manufactures at many points and local 
 freights will fall, as through freights have. 
 
 The report of the United States Railroad Commis- 
 sioner for 1882 says : " The United States enjoys the 
 cheapest railroad transportation in the world." 
 
 ADDRESS OF E. B. WARD AT WISCONSIN STATE FAIR. 
 
 In 1868 the State Agricultural Society of Wisconsin 
 invited E. B. Ward, of Detroit, Michigan, to give the 
 address at its State Fair at Madison. Mr. Ward was a 
 man of broad views and large experience, who had done 
 much, not only as a manufacturer but as a manager of 
 lands and farms, for Western industry. He seldom 
 .spoke to public audiences, and only wrote, with a terse 
 brevity, occasional articles which were widely read. 
 Some extracts from his address will give light on this 
 question : 
 
 " It is folly for one class to try to stand alone, or to look upon 
 others with jealousy. "We depend on each other. Farms or fac- 
 tories only thrive best when they are near each other, so that they 
 can help each other easier. England has no room for farming, as 
 we have, and while her manufacturing puts great wealth in a few 
 
Protection and the Farmers. Ill 
 
 bands, her landless people are poor. Here tjiere is room for 
 homes and farms for an independent people. Here are metals, 
 fuel, food, and raw materials for textile fabrics in abundance. 
 ■»*#**** * # 
 
 "Our distinguished political economist, Henry 0. Carey, well 
 known on both continents, and whose masterly writings should be 
 in every home library and in every school, well says : 
 
 " ' Steadiness and regularity in the returns to agricultural labor 
 grow with increase in the variety of commodities produced in the 
 land. Disease tends to disappear as population increases and a 
 near market is created. The poor Irishman sees his potatoes 
 perish of rot, consequent on the increasing exhaustion of soil; the 
 Portuguese witnesses his hopes destroyed by the vine disease; the 
 American farmer is visited by blight, resulting from taking from 
 'the soil the material for the ever-recurring wheat crop. The man 
 who has a market at his door finds blight and insects vanish, and 
 is able to make his crops more certain.' 
 
 " Capital likes good investments and quick returns, yet it can 
 live, and wait, and take advantage of poverty. Labor wants con- 
 stant and decently paid occupation. Diversified industry is desir- 
 able to the capitalist, but far more so, and more necessary to the 
 workman. If I had a million dollars it would need no great wit 
 to go into a region where cash was scarce, because the people were 
 far from market, loan money to fanners, and swallow up their 
 farms, according to law, if not according to gospel, by relentless 
 foreclosure of mortgages. But suppose I invested the million in 
 woolen, or cotton, or iron mills, bought the products of those farms 
 for the workmen, and employed the surplus laborers; there need 
 be no mortgages, but the lands would rise five or ten fold in value. 
 
 "I should not be acting as a philanthropist, but simply as a busi- 
 ness man, helping others to prosper that I might share in that 
 prosperity. 
 
 "Let the blood stagnate or move too slow in the veins and a 
 man is sick — the strong and ready pulsation is health. So with 
 business; it is rapid and easy circulation of money, quiok returns, 
 nearness of producer and consumer, demand for labor of all kinds, 
 and sale and interchange of its products, that makes health and 
 brings wealth. 
 
112 Protection cmd the farmers. 
 
 "Wherever a large center of consumption is formed, the neigh- 
 boring farmers are the first to profikby it. This law is infallible, 
 and allows of no exception. 
 
 ' ' Shall the hum of the spindle, the roar of the waterfall, the puff 
 of the engine, and the clang of the triphammer cease in your bor- 
 ders, that England may find market for her wares, while you keep 
 on being 'the world's granary' until your Jand is too poor to 
 raise wheat? 
 
 "Agriculture and manufactures - are the creators of useful 
 materials and finished products. Commerce only transports and 
 exchanges what they bring into being. Neither can thrive without 
 the other, and neither can gain by overreaching the other. 
 *** ****** 
 
 " Protection to home industry is the business of a good govern- 
 ment, and its advocacy the duty of the intelligent and enlightened 
 citizen. Not monopoly for the benefit of any one class, but pro- 
 tection to that degree needed to encourage manufactures and bene- 
 fit fanners, and keep our balance of trade healthy. You do not 
 need a tariff on wheat to prevent its import from Europe, for the 
 freight is a tariff ; but a roll of English or German cloth is a car- 
 load of foreign corn, packed in small compass, and if you buy it 
 
 you help to keep down the price of your grain to its level. 
 ********* 
 
 "That well-known philanthropist, Peter Cooper, of New York, 
 has carefully prepared a table, from the Treasury Reports of 1856 
 and 1857, showing the production for each man, woman and 
 child, white or black, in the State, which shows the great advan- 
 tage of the manufacturing States. I give a part of it to illustrate : 
 
 Massachusetts $166 SO 
 
 Wisconsin 68 41 
 
 Rhode Island 164 61 
 
 Indiana 99 13 
 
 Connecticut 156 05 
 
 California (gold included) 149 96 
 
 "Move on in Wisconsin and you can overtop Massachusetts, 
 but you must move in that path. You see the 'Yankee notions' 
 of Connecticut are worth more than the gold nuggets of Cali- 
 fprnia, and may learn that the iron mines and fleeces in your 
 midst can be made of more value than richest gold beds. 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 113 
 
 " I have nothing to say about motives or intentions, but, in fact, 
 the man who advocates and supports what is called ' free trade ' 
 is an enemy to our country's good, and especially to the good of 
 the Northwest. 
 
 "I do not feel like a stranger among you. Coming to this 
 Western country forty years ago, in my boyhood and youth I 
 shared the toils and privations of our pioneer life. I have rolled 
 and burnt logs, and plowed and planted, and hoed and harvested, 
 amidst stumps and girdled trees, with the forests all around the 
 clearings. 
 
 "I have sailed along the shores of your then new territory, 
 landing at Milwaukee, when a few rude cabins were the pitiful 
 beginnings of what is now a large and beautiful city. I landed 
 flour in a small boat, lying off the mouth of Chicago river, when 
 there was only a few houses, a ruinous warehouse, an old fort, 
 and a miserable so-called hotel, on the open prairie where now 
 rises another great city, and have always been glad of these my 
 toils and trials, since they earned me the -privilege of appreciat- 
 ing the laborious life of the pioneer." 
 
 COMPARISON AND CONTRAST — THE WESTERN PROTEC- 
 TIONIST AND THE COBDEN CLUB SPOKESMAN. 
 
 These quotations from the address of Mr. "Ward give 
 honest facts not capable of refutation, and the frankly 
 spoken opinions of an able Western man, whose inter- 
 ests were identified, in his own mind, with those of 
 the people he addressed. Compare them with the mis- 
 statements of the Cobden Club, through Mongredien, 
 their endorsed spokesman, and see which has the. true 
 ring. As a means of making this comparison an extract 
 from a review of the Mongredien tract by Hon. Thomas 
 H. Dudley, of Camden, New Jersey, late U. S. consul 
 at Liverpool, may help us. The extract covers bat a 
 part, but his review meets and refutes all the rest with 
 equal force. Mr. Dudley opens by addressing the Eng- 
 lish writer as follows : 
 
114 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 ' ' I visited Europe some few weeks ago, and, a day or two 
 before I left, your pamphlet, issued under the auspices of the Cob- 
 den Club, and addressed to the Western farmers of America, was 
 placed in my hands. I was aware that great efforts were to be 
 made by the English people to repeal our Tariff system, and in this 
 way break down our manufactures, but, I did not suppose that 
 England, or the Cobden Club, would openly make an attempt to 
 control our elections, even to accomplish this object; but it seems 
 I was mistaken, and it is reserved for you to make an open 
 attempt, the first I have seen. It is a bold move on your part, but 
 the stake you are playing for is an important one for England, and 
 I suppose you think the end justifies the means. The first and 
 primary object of your book is to show the farmers in the United 
 States how badly they are treated by their own government; how 
 grossly they are robbed and swindled, and in this way to prepare 
 them or induce them to vote at the elections for certain candidates 
 with the view of redressing these wrongs and grievances, but in 
 reality to break down our manufactures and transfer the business 
 of this country to England. 
 
 THE NUMBEB OP FABMERS IN THE UNITED STATES MISSTATED. 
 
 ' ' I propose to examine your book and compare it with the facts. 
 You state that the census of 1870 shows 5, 922, 000 persons engaged 
 in agriculture, and you take this for your basis, and assume that 
 from this there must now be not less than seven millions of per- 
 sons so engaged, ' nearly all of them" having wives and children;' 
 and then you ask what are the annual expenditures on all arti- 
 cles of consumption, except food and drink, of each of these 
 'families,' and you fix the annual expenditures of each at two 
 hundred dollars. You then, after computing the number of 
 persons so engaged to be seven millions, nearly all of whom 
 have families, and assuming two hundred dollars per annum as 
 the amount expended by each of such persons so engaged as 
 have families, proceed and multiply the whole of the seven mil- 
 lions by the two hundred dollars, without making a single excep- 
 tion for those who have no families; charging eveiy man, woman, 
 and child with consuming or usin.g annually two hundred dollars' 
 worth of products, besides their food and drink. Now, by the 
 census of 1870 there were only 2,659,985 farms in the whole 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 115 
 
 Country, and very nearly half a million of these were under twenty 
 ■acres. According to your calculation there must liave been a little less 
 than three farmers with their families running each farm in the 
 United States. You ought to have mentioned this fact. Our 
 farmers generally think they run their own farms, and it would 
 have been quite as astonishing to them as most of the other things 
 in your book. You found by our census in 18T0 there were 
 5,922,471 persons engaged in agricultural pursuits. Do you not 
 think it would have been just as well for you, and more just to 
 your readers, to have told them that of tills number there were 
 396,968 females, nearly all in the Southern States, and colored 
 women, who in the days of slavery had been compelled to work as 
 field-hands, and that there were 739,164 children under fifteen 
 years of age', not one-tenth of whom, including the women, prob- 
 ably ever earned so much as one hundred dollars in a year, and 
 the average wages of the other nine-tenths probably would not 
 amount to fifty dollars a year? This, of course, would have 
 spoiled your figuring a little, but it would have been more just to 
 your readers. 
 
 THE FARMER PROTECTED BY OTJR TARIFF. 
 
 "Having taken a look at your figures, and seen on what basto 
 you rest your book, we will take another step in its examination 
 
 "1. You state that the Western farmer neither receiveu u(i| 
 seeks any legislative protection; 
 
 "2. That the farmer in America sells in the cheapest and buy ,4 
 in the dearest markets, and for what he raises he gets a lower price 
 and for what he consumes he pays a higher price than the land- 
 tillers get and pay in any other country in the world; 
 
 "3. That by reason of our tariff laws the farmers have to pay 
 the manufacturers in Eastern States four hundred millions of dol- 
 lars ever year more than they would have to pay the English 
 people for the same goods if they were permitted to buy them in 
 England and import them free of duty; that for what they now 
 have to pay one hundred and forty dollars they could buy of a 
 Britisher for one hundred dollars, and that this vast sum of money, 
 to wit, four hundred millions of dollars, year after year, is un- 
 necessarily and wantonly thrown away and wasted, without the 
 least benefit to anybody. You make all these statements without 
 
116 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 reservation or exception, unless it be some sixty millions of dollars- 
 which possibly may go to the legitimate purpose of national rev- 
 enue. 
 
 "Are these statements true or are they false? 
 
 "Let us examine them, and first that ' the western farmer neither 
 receives nor seeks any legislative protection.' If the farmer 
 receives protection whether he asks for it or not, your statement 
 is untrue. Is it possible that you were so ignorant, or were the; 
 facts concealed on purpose to misrepresent and deceive? 
 
 " You admit that rice is protected to ninety-three per cent. 
 
 " The duty on wheat is twenty cents per bushel, on Indian corn 
 or maize, ten cents, and other grains, dairy products, meats, wool 
 and sugar pay duties when imported. 
 
 "These duties were imposed to protect the farmers, those in the 
 west as well as those in the east. There is no interest in the country 
 more thoroughly protected. 
 
 "In addition to the direct protection our farmers receive, under 
 our present tariff system, the incidental protection which they 
 receive by the creation of a home market is even greater and far 
 more important. The direct protection keeps off competitors, and 
 the incidental establishes for them a certain, constant, and reliable 
 home market. Leaving out cotton and tobacco, it is found that 
 about ninety-two per cent of the surplus products of the farmers 
 of the United States are consumed at home, and principally by 
 our Eastern manufacturers and those connected with them, while 
 only eight per cent, are sent abroad. These are about the propor- 
 tions, one year with another. Destroy the manufactures and you 
 destroy this home market; the market destroyed, and where will 
 the farmer sell his surplus ? You will answer, in England. My 
 reply is that England will take just what she requires and no 
 more. England never has taken, and never will take, the place of 
 the home market. Hence this home market to our farmers, both. 
 East and "West, is of the greatest importance. 
 
 THE MARKET IN WHICH THE FARMER BUYS WHAT HE CONSUMES. 
 
 " Is your assertion, that for what he consumes he pays more 
 than the land-tiller in any other country, true or false ? 
 
 "As to food, including breadstuffs, meat, butter, cheese, lard, 
 eggs, poultry, fruits, potatoes, and other vegetables, you seem to- 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 117 
 
 ■concede that they are cheaper here than they are in England, there- 
 fore that they cost less, and you leave tJiem out. But you take 
 principally manufactured commodities, and you rest your case 
 upon these. You are careful not to mention tea and coffee, both 
 of which are sold cheaper in our country than they are in England, 
 because we impose no revenue duty upon them and you do. You 
 are good enough to give us a list of some of the goods manufact- 
 ured in the Eastern States which the Western farmer consumes, 
 and for which you assert positively that he pays forty dollars more 
 on a hundred than he could buy them for in England if it was not 
 for our terrible protective tariff. Your contention, in substance, 
 is that these goods are now selling for forty per cent, cheaper in 
 England than similar kinds and quantities can be bought for in the 
 States. Being in England at the time this pamphlet was placed in 
 my hands, and having had some knowledge and experience in 
 your prices and mode of doing business from my residence of 
 eleven years among you, I set myself at work to ascertain the 
 retail price of some of these commodities, in order to compare 
 them with the price at the retail stores in America. I took the 
 retail price because the farmer generally buys at retail stores. 
 
 "Of the textile fabrics consumed or used by our farmers, none 
 are so much used as cotton fabrics. For the last five years we 
 have been continuously shipping our cotton goods to England, 
 but, for your own 'purposes, you ignore the fact tliat cotton goods are 
 cheaper in the United States than in England. If you will put 
 yourself to the trouble to go to your own dry goods stores in Eng- 
 land, you will find on their shelves our cotton fabrics for sale, and 
 at prices as cheap as, if not cheaper than, you can manufacture 
 and sell them for. Your statement, then, about the farmer's wife 
 being able to buy a calico dress in England for two dollars, for 
 which she now has to pay three dollars in America, is untrue. 
 And this applies to hosiery as well as to prints and plain cotton 
 .goods. It is the' same with boots and shoes. If you will take the 
 trouble to examine your own trade returns, printed by order of Par- 
 liament, you will find that you have been importing boots and shoes 
 from the United States, and if you will go still farther, and do as I 
 lave done, go to your stores in England and then to our stores in 
 this country, you will find that the farmers in the United States can 
 buy their boots and shoes just as cheap here as they can in England. 
 
118 Protection and the farmers. 
 
 " If you will then go into your hardware stores you will see dis- 
 played for sale, imported from the United States, axes, edge-tools, 
 forks, etc., etc., superior in quality and finish and cheaper than 
 you can make them. This is generally admitted, even in England. 
 The American farmer would be a great loser if he was compelled 
 to go to England for any of his tools or implements of husbandry. 
 
 "Furniture constitutes a large item in the expenses of every 
 farmer's family, but you do not mention furniture ; was its omis- 
 sion due to the fact that it is about ten per cent, on an average 
 cheaper in the States than it is in England ? 
 
 " The farmers in America generally have time-pieces. Why did 
 you not refer to them ? We furnish most of the clocks found in 
 the houses of the farmers of your own country. Last year you 
 imported from the United States 376,023 clocks. Probably in 
 your next issue you will explain and show how these clocks could 
 be repurchased in England by the Western farmers and brought, 
 back to this country so as to save forty per cent, over and above 
 what they would have cost if they had bought them here. Pots, 
 pans, kettles, and tinware of all kinds are retailed as cheap here ag. 
 in England, and so with our pressed glassware. 
 
 " So much for the markets in which the farmer buys what he 
 consumes, and the prices he has to pay. We have seen that your 
 statements in this are about like those in the other instances. " 
 
 The comparison needs no comment. Will you pay 
 heed to the English free trader or to the American pro- 
 tectionist in Wisconsin? 
 
 GRAIN AND PROVISIONS — EXPORTS AND HOME CON- 
 SUMPTION. 
 
 Our production of grain, and our exports of wheat, 
 have increased largely. In 1881 our home consumption 
 of wheat was 295,962,780 bushels, and our exports. 
 184,886,943 bushels. Corn, a larger and more valuable 
 crop than wheat, .is much less exported. In 1880 but 
 88,000,000 bushels were sent abroad, while 1,629,434,545 
 bushels were used at home. Short crops in Europe and 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 119 
 
 large yields at home made our wheat exports very large, 
 but these favoring conditions are not permanent. 
 
 In the last thirty years there has been a surprising 
 growth in the magnitude of the production and trade of 
 the world, and especially of our own country. New 
 implements have helped the farmer to till and harvest 
 great crops ; new machinery and new processes have 
 increased manufactured products; we have built rail- 
 ways through vast regions of productive lands and wel- 
 comed hosts of industrious emigrants to till those fields, 
 and the abundance of the precious metals has stimulated 
 this development, while our protective policy has made 
 it sure. 
 
 Late census statistics give the United states 4,008,907 
 farms in 1880, an increase from 2,659,985 in 1870 
 which does not show any ruin to farmers. 
 
 A writer in the New York Herald finds the prices of 
 farm products stated in a newspaper in the interior of 
 that State in 1816, and compares them with 1882 as 
 follows : 
 
 Products, 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Corn 
 
 Oats 
 
 Eggs, per dozen 
 
 Barley, per bushel 
 
 Butter, per pound 
 
 CI ,3se, per pound 
 
 Cows, per head 
 
 Cattle, per yoke 
 
 Hay, per ton 
 
 Straw, per ton 
 
 Carriage horses, per span. 
 
 Sheep, per head 
 
 Farm labor, per month. . . 
 
 1816. 
 
 85c. to 44c. 
 
 $1 
 
 42 
 
 12J^c. to 20c. 
 
 
 60 
 
 15c. 
 
 
 60 
 
 5c. 
 
 
 15 
 
 25c. 
 
 
 80 
 
 5c. to 18c. 
 
 
 40 
 
 3c. to 6c. 
 
 
 13 
 
 $16 to $20 
 
 $20 to $100 
 
 $25 to $45 
 
 $100 to $250 
 
 $3 to $5 
 
 $10 to $20 
 
 $2 to $4 
 
 $7 to $16 
 
 $150 to $;:oo 
 
 $500 to $1,200 
 
 50c. to 75c. 
 
 $1.50 to $2.50 
 
 $3 to $8 
 
 $12 to $. 
 
 !5. 
 
120 
 
 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 The following prices (from the Boston Journal) in 
 1816 and 1882 for a few manufactured goods and other 
 merchandise purchased by the farmer indicate the great 
 change in favor of the agricultural classes and other 
 consumers during the interval : 
 
 Articles. 
 
 1816. 
 
 1882. 
 
 
 17c. 
 
 40c. 
 
 12^c 
 
 $16. 
 
 $10 to $20 
 
 30c. to 50c. 
 
 25c. to 75c. 
 
 $1 to $4 
 
 10c 
 
 
 26c 
 
 
 4c. 
 
 
 $4 
 $3 to $10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15c. to 25c. 
 
 
 
 That is to say, the average increase in the price of 
 farm produce during the last sixty-six years has been 
 from 300 to 400 per cent., while the average decrease of 
 the price of manufactured goods during the same 
 period has been from 20 to 90 per cent. 
 
 While our foreign market has grown, we must keep 
 clearly in mind the immense importance of our home 
 consumption — more stable and larger. 
 
 Dr. G. B. Loring, IT. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, 
 said in New York in November, 1881: 
 
 "The aggregate annual product of the manufacturing and 
 mechanical industries of the United States is now about 
 $6,000,000,000. Of this, less than $300,000,000 are exported. 
 And of the $9,000,000,000 produced by agriculture, less tlhom, ten 
 per cent, is exported. *****# 
 
 "I have alluded to the producing power of the American peo- 
 ple, but in order to understand the relations which exist between 
 our industries we should not forget our consuming capacity also. 
 Of the $15,000,000,000 produced by our various industries nearly 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 121 
 
 $14,000,000,000 are consumed at home. It is the home market to 
 ■which the American producer turns most naturally, let his indus- 
 try be what it may." 
 
 This shows our home trade and consumption fourteen 
 times greater than our large foreign trade. He goes on 
 to show the value of fruits and other perishable crops, 
 ■sold only in near markets, lost when the farm is far from 
 the factory or the town, and worth many millions. 
 
 PROVISIONS — EXPORTS. 
 
 Only our grain crops have been considered, but the 
 same economic laws apply to the other products of the 
 farm. For all these our exports are large, but the home 
 demand much larger and better. Leaving out cotton 
 and tobacco, and it is estimated that but eight per cent, 
 of our farm products are exported, and ninety-two per 
 cent, consumed at home. By a late report of the Bureau 
 of Statistics at Washington, our exports of provisions, 
 other than breadstuffs, in 1881 were $143,723,663, of 
 which Great Britain took over $100,000,000. To get 
 even five per cent, reduction in the prices of our farm 
 products would be a yearly gain to England of $25,000,- 
 000, and a free trade agitation, even if it does not 
 change our tariff legislation, checks our manufactures, 
 pushes more surplus grain and provisions abroad at 
 lower rates, and is a snug way for our British cousins to 
 get that sum, or more, our farmers being the losers. 
 
 A HEALTHY EQUILIBRIUM. 
 
 It is a sound principle in political economy that the 
 manufactures and the agriculture of a country should be 
 developed in healthy equilibrium to each other, that 
 each may supply the wants of the other, each improve 
 
122 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 the other, and the country be self-dependent. Plainly 
 enough, the non-agricultural industries of the United 
 States must move on with strong and rapid steps to keep 
 pace with the agricultural. 
 
 England has no room for farms to feed her factories; 
 we have too few factories for our farms, but room 
 enough for both, and so we can reach that equilibrium 
 which she cannot attain for want of room. To reach it 
 is the aim and idea of a protective policy. To destroy 
 it — to make the western farmer send his grain and meat 
 to feed the Leeds factory hand in England, and buy the 
 cloth he weaves after it has been sent across ocean and 
 mountain and prairie — is the aim of British free trade. 
 
 In a Congressional speech January 27th, 1883, Hon. 
 D. C. Haskell, M. 0., of Kansas, stated this case veiy 
 clearly: 
 
 "In 1840 the number of persons engaged in agriculture was 
 3,717,536; in 1880 the number was 7,670,493; population of the 
 United States in 1840, 17,069,453; population of the United States 
 in 1880, 50,155,783. 
 
 "It will be seen that from 1840 to 1880 the number of persons 
 engaged in agriculture had a little more than doubled, while the 
 total population of the United States from 1840 to 1880 had nearly 
 trebled. 
 
 " In other words, in 1840 each farmer had of neighbors, non- 
 producers of agricultural products, to buy his produce, 4f persons; 
 in 1880 he had 6f persons who were consumers of his products, an 
 enormous increase in demand of nearly 50 per cent. Had the 
 nation been remanded to the productions of agriculture for support 
 to the same extent as it was in 1840, and had the number of fanners 
 increased as the total population increased, there would now be in 
 the United States 3,000,000 more persons engaged in agriculture 
 than there are. 
 
 " The farming interest of to-day has in the United States of con- 
 sumers, non-producers of agricultural products, not competitors 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 123 
 
 with it, a population of nearly seventeen millions more than it 
 would have had had the ratio of producers and consumers of 1840 
 been continued. 
 
 "Will any one, in the light of these facts, sneer at this "home 
 market " of seventeen millions? The statesmen of the past saw in 
 their day farmers' produce, under free trade policy, unsalable at 
 any price. We see a steady demand at living prices for anything 
 and everything edible that the farmer can produce, while the 
 prices of all manufactured articles tend lower and lower year by 
 year. " 
 
 Mr. G. B. Dixwell well says (review of Perry's "Farm- 
 ers and the Tariff ") : " In twenty-five years the popula- 
 tion of our whole country will be doubled; that of the 
 now less settled portions increased three to five fold. 
 Let the farmer consider whether he would prefer the 
 increase to be mostly farmers, or people who buy and do 
 not produce farm products. It will not take him long 
 to make up his mind; and his judgment will be wortli as. 
 much as that of all the political economists of Europe 
 and America. His judgment will agree with the 
 mature and deliberate opinion of such men as Franklin, 
 Hamilton, Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, 
 Webster, and the majority of the great statesmen who. 
 have been the pride of our country." 
 
 UNCERTAINTY OF THE FOREIGN MARKET. 
 
 Hon. J. E. Dodge, statistician of the United States 
 Agricultural Department at Washington, said in one of 
 his reports : 
 
 "There is no doubt that the wheat farmer is at the mercy of 
 the foreign demand. If British fields are blighted, there is rejoic- 
 ing on pur prairies over remunerative harvests. If the garners ol 
 Continental Europe are full and England's wants at a minimum, 
 there is dissatisfaction at the West, liable to be ventilated on the 
 currency, the tariff or the railroads. * * The heaviest f oreign. 
 
124 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 demand may occur in a season of low production, and the lightest 
 in a year of abundance, increasing the fluctuation. * * * The 
 wheat-grower is at one time elated with remunerative prices, and 
 at another depressed by rates which fail to pay the cost of pro- 
 duction. The grain crop of 1878, for instance, larger by six per 
 cent, in quantity than that of 1877, was less in value by twenty- 
 one per cent. 
 
 "The exports of breadstuffs in eight months, up to February, 
 1881, were $47,000,000 less than in the same time a year before. 
 Wheat fell off 35,000,000 bushels." 
 
 It may be Said that our home market is not free from 
 troublesome fluctuations. This is true, but they are less 
 than those abroad ; because the home market depends 
 mainly on our own crops and welfare, while the markets 
 abroad depend on the crops and welfare of several 
 countries. 
 
 The Michigan farmer, near the lumber regions, sells 
 his hay, wheat, oats, and corn, to the camps and mills at 
 good rates, largely independent of foreign prices-cur- 
 rent. The Pennsylvanian, with a sale for his produce 
 at the gi - L'at iron mill near by, is less troubled about 
 trans- Atlantic ups and downs than his brother husband- 
 man in Iowa. The more factories everywhere near the 
 farms the more this independence becomes national. 
 Having a surplus to export, as the Western farmer has 
 and will have, it is natural and wise that he should 
 watch distant marts and seek cheap transportation ; but 
 it is far from natural or wise for him to be jealous of 
 home manufactures, or in favor of a free trade policy to 
 injure them. 
 
 "how protection protects farmers." 
 
 Such is the title of a paper read by Mr. Dodge at 
 a meeting of the Association of Anui^an Economists, 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 125 
 
 in Washington, D. 0.,. February 15th, 1883, reported 
 as follows : 
 
 "Protection enhances the value of land. The theory is that 
 withdrawal of labor from agriculture to manufactures and mining 
 increases production, stimulates improvements, compels higher 
 culture and soil fertilization, and makes land more productive, and 
 hence more valuable. This is also fact as well as theory, that is 
 patent to everybody and defies disproval. The census returns 
 are a repository of millions of such facts. Virginia is a great 
 State in advance of Pennsylvania in settlement, and for a long 
 period, in population. It is rich in agricultural resources, in coal 
 and iron, water power, wood, and timber. So is Pennsylvania. 
 The former is essentially an agricultural State, though destined to 
 become great in mining and manufacturing. It had in 1880, 
 according to the census, 51.41 per cent, of her people in agricul- 
 tural occupations. The value of her farm land was $10.89. 
 Pennsylvania had but 20.68 per cent, of her workers employed in 
 agriculture, and her farm lands were worth $49.30 per acre. So. 
 with other States. Ohio has 40 per cent, of her people engaged 
 in farming, and her farm lands average $45.97. Kentucky, 
 across the river from Ohio, nearly 62 per cent., and her lands, 
 some of which are the finest in the world, are worth only $13.92 
 per acre. Two other States, lying side by side on the same par- 
 allel, settled by people of similar origin and equal intelligence — 
 Illinois and Iowa — the former has a little over 43 per cent, in agri- 
 culture and lands valued at $31.87 per acre, the latter over 57 per 
 cent, and lands worth $22.92. So it is elsewhere and everywhere. 
 A state or nation with little productive industry except the culti- 
 vation of the soil has little wealth, few markets, and no induce- 
 ment to produce a surplus of anything. Protection increases the 
 value of production. * * * Dividing the States and Terri- 
 tories into four sections, the first comprising the manufacturing 
 and mining areas, and including all having a smaller proportion 
 than 30 per cent, of the occupied population of the working class 
 engaged in agricultural employments ; the second section com- * 
 prising States having more than 30 and under 50 per cent. ; the 
 third including all having over 50 per cent, and less than 70 per 
 cent., and the fourth including all States with more than 75 per 
 cent, engaged in farming, we have the following perfectly natural, 
 
126 Protection and the Farmers. 
 
 not to say inevitable, results : First section, average value of pro- 
 duct per man, $467 ; second section, $394 ; third, $261 ; fourth, 
 $161. Thus the States -with less than 30 per cent, of their people 
 engaged in farming realize nearly three times as much per man 
 as those which have over 70 per cent, in farm work. In other 
 words, one man in the first section realizes as much as three men 
 in the last." 
 
 The British Boyal Agricultural Commission Eeport in 
 1882 said : "It is safe to say that, for the last two 
 years, the agriculture of America has been at the very 
 flood tide of its prosperity." Their statement confirms 
 the views of Mr. Dodge. 
 
 a farmer's statement. 
 
 In a late speech in Congress, Hon. J. T. Updegraff, 
 M. C, an Ohio farmer, put the case as follows: 
 
 " I have been a farmer all my life, and every year for thirty 
 years have sold the products of the farm. When manufactures 
 were fully protected and flourishing, I have never seen the time 
 that judicious agriculture was not prosperous ; and when manu- 
 facturing under "revenue" tariff was crippled or broken down I 
 never saw agriculture flourishing. Sometimes a certain product 
 may be in demand temporarily, but the uniform rule is as I have 
 stated it. If any member has seen it otherwise, let him declare 
 it. [Applause.] No ; the real and permanent industries of a 
 people are always in harmony and interdependence with each 
 other. Each member of a community profits by an increase in 
 the productive power of the whole body. That advantage is 
 increased and multiplied by every increase in the diversity of 
 employments. The farming interest above every other is bene- 
 , flted by this diversity, which saves the necessity of carrying bulky 
 products to a distant market ; for every intelligent farmer knows 
 that the man who is compelled to go to market must, in some way, 
 pay the cost of going, and that the very first of all the charges 
 paid, by labor or by land, is that for transportation." 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 127 
 
 THE WOOL TARIFF — GARFIELD'S REPORT. 
 
 The tariff on wool and woolens (somewhat modified 
 by Congress last winter) was perfected in 1867, by- 
 mutual consultation between growers and manufac- 
 turers leading to congressional legislation. Its results, 
 as to wool, are given in the Tariff Commission Eeport, 
 and can be stated as follows : Sheep in 1860, 22,471,- 
 275; in 1880, 43,576,897. Pounds of wool in 1860, 
 60,264,913 ; in 1880, 240,000,000— or twice as much per 
 head as in 1860. Prices in Boston, in currency, aver- 
 aged, in 1867, 51 cents ; in 1875, 43 cents ; in 1880, 48 
 cents. The price a little lower, but the sum from each 
 fleece nearly double, as the result of improved breeds 
 under protective encouragement and toith a home market 
 — the growers benefited, with no added cost to the con- 
 sumers. 
 
 The last labor, as a Congressman, of James A. Gar- 
 field was a report favoring the retention of the duty on 
 wool. It occupied him up to the very hour of leaving . 
 his Washington home for Chicago, where he was nomi- 
 nated for President. In that report, May 24th, 1880, 
 he said : 
 
 " Should it (the removal or unjust change of the wool tariff) 
 become a law, it will be impossible for our farmers to compete in 
 the market with the mestiza wools of South America; and it will 
 be equally impossible for our manufacturers to compete with 
 those of France and England. Of course, any legislation that 
 destroy the woolen manufacturers is equally destructive to sheep 
 husbandry, for the farmer would no longer have a market for his 
 wool. That nation can hardly be called independent which does 
 not possess the materials and the skill to clothe its own people. 
 ****** 
 
 "In 1860 we were largely dependent for our clothing upon 
 foreign wool growers and foreign manufacturers, at such prices 
 as they were able to dictate. Now, the woolen fabrics used by 
 
128 
 
 jProteetion and the Farmers. 
 
 our people are mainly manufactured by the skill and labor of our 
 own artisans from the product of our own flocks. No attentive 
 observer who visited the Centennial Exposition failed to notice 
 the astonishment with which the French and English manufact- 
 urers examined the fine cloths produced by American looms ; 
 and no feature of that great exhibition reflected more credit upon 
 
 American enterprise and skill. 
 
 ****** 
 "As a revenue measure, the tariff of 1867 on wools and woolens 
 has been very, effective, having produced $360,000,000 of revenue 
 in the last thirteen years, an average of $28,000,000 per annum." 
 
 INCREASE OF FARMING "WEALTH 1860 TO 1880. 
 
 Edward Young, late chief of the United States 
 Bureau of Statistics, gives the following facts, telling 
 the growth of farming wealth in twenty years of a pro- 
 tective tariff — a growth unequalled, and the more won- 
 derful when we think of the awful waste of a great civil 
 war during this period. 
 
 These eloquent figures need no comment. 
 
 Subjects. 
 
 1860. 
 
 1880. 
 
 Increase, 
 per cent. 
 
 
 $3,271,575,426 
 173,104,924 
 
 $10,197,161,905 
 
 212 
 
 Wheat produced, bushels 
 
 498,549,868 
 
 188 
 
 Wheat exported, " 
 
 4,155,153 
 
 153,252,795 
 
 3,603 
 
 
 838,792,742 
 
 1,717,434,543 
 
 105 
 
 Corn exported, " 
 
 3,314,305 
 
 98,169,877 
 
 2,862 
 
 
 60,264,913 
 
 232,500,000 
 
 286 
 
 
 3,826,086 
 
 6,343,269 
 
 65 
 
 Oats produced, bushels 
 
 172,643,185 
 
 407,858,999 
 
 136 
 
 
 15,825,898 
 
 44,113,495 
 
 179 
 
 Cheese exported, pounds 
 
 15,824,830 
 
 127,553,907 
 
 722 
 
 
 2,350,822 
 
 6,950,451 
 
 196 
 
 
 163,110,720 
 
 287,211,845 
 
 76 
 
 
 
 1880. 
 
 Official figures give like facts as follows : 
 
 Value of 1860. 1870. 
 Farm implements 
 
 and machinery.! 246,000,000 $ 336,878,000 $ 900,000,000 
 
 Livestock 1,107,500,000 2,447,539,000 5,000,000,000 
 
Protection and the Farmers. 129 
 
 The peaceful march of an army of skilled and stalwart 
 artisans should be westward, where, as the poet tells us, 
 " The star of empire takes its way." 
 
 Another like army of occupation should march south- 
 ward, where room is ample and raw material abundant. 
 Farmers and merchants, and all the people, should 
 wheel into line, and over the united hosts should be 
 flung out a white banner with the golden motto on its 
 broad folds : Protection to Home Industry — The 
 American Market for the American People. 
 
 9 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 WAGES AND PROTECTION. 
 
 Low wages means coarse and scanty living, defective 
 education, narrow thought and cramped life. Beautiful 
 virtue and spiritual grace sometimes light up the homes 
 of the poor, but large populations standing on the verge 
 of want are not the nurseries of the best manhood and 
 womanhood. On the broad scale hard work at pauper 
 pay makes human life dull and sickly, or breeds passion 
 and crime. Inevitably, too, such a condition creates a 
 jealous hatred toward those who win wealth from ill-paid 
 toil. The noblest aspirations and hopes are crushed, 
 and there comes a weight of dumb despair or a mood of 
 bitter endurance. 
 
 Gerald Massey, son of a poor English working man, 
 knew the feelings of the class from whence he sprang, 
 and could utter them in impassioned words. He said: 
 
 "Press on! a million pauper-foreheads bend in misery's dust; 
 God's champions of the golden truth still eat the mouldy crust: 
 This damning curse qf tyrants must not kill the nation's heart; 
 The spirit in a million slaves doth pant on fire to start, 
 And strive to mend the world, and walk in Freedom's march 
 
 sublime; 
 While myriads sink heart-broken, and the land o'er-swarms with 
 
 crime. 
 'Oh God!' they cry, 'we die, we die, and see no earnest won!' 
 Brothers, join hand and heart, and in the work press on!" 
 
 Such wages as give possibility for comfort and taste, 
 for accumulation, education, and the hope of a larger 
 
 130 
 
Wages and Protection. 131 
 
 life, tend to good feeling and to harmony and equality 
 of rights and condition. The fairly paid artisan or 
 laborer feels less a slave and more a co-operative helper 
 of the employer, with common hopes and interests. He 
 is a man and not a human machine. 
 
 Our protective policy is of more value to the workman 
 than to the capitalist, — is indeed largely a matUr of 
 wages. Our duties on imports are no more than equiva- 
 lents for the larger pay of the American workman. 
 With labor as cheap as in England we could produce 
 cheaper here than there. 
 
 In his report on iron and steel, as U. S. Commissioner 
 to the Paris Exposition in 1867, Abram S. Hewitt said: 
 " We have seen that the cost of making iron in England, Bel- 
 gium and France varies from $32.50 to $40 per ton, and $5 addi- 
 tional pays its transportation to our seaboard ports. At these 
 same ports American iron cannot be delivered at less than $60 in 
 gold, against $40 for the foreign article, and the entire difference 
 consists in the higher wages, and not in the larger quantity of labor 
 required for its production in the United States, where the physical, 
 mental and moral condition of the working classes occupy a dif- 
 ferent standard from their European confreres, and where wages 
 cannot be reduced without violating our sense of the just demands 
 of human nature.' - 
 
 Such reduction of wages in this country, fortunately, 
 is not possible, certainly is far from desirable, and is not 
 wished for by a large majority of employers. They 
 know and feel that the conditions of trade and produc- 
 tion which enable them to pay our present rates are bet- 
 ter for all. 
 
 Free trade for the United States means low wages. 
 In his address at the "Wisconsin State Pair, E. B. "Ward 
 said : 
 
 "The elevation of labor is called 'the sentiment which created 
 civilization.' Sometimes we find a frank statement of the effects 
 
132 Wages and Protection. 
 
 Of free trade, as in a late New York journal, where- a writer 
 says : ' I am for unqualified free trade. I would sell out the- 
 Custom Houses, discharge the leeches there, and allow people to 
 sell and buy wherever they please. This will bring us to a true and 
 normal relation. Commercial disturbance would result. We 
 should be on a new foundation. The first effect would be to stop 
 manufacturing here and fill the country with foreign goods, many 
 of which Europe would never see her money for. A commercial 
 revolution would follow, laborers would be out of employment, 
 and the price of labor would come down, down, until it readied- the- 
 European standard, and then success is assured. ' Success, possi- 
 bly, for the few, but hard work at pauper pay for the many ! " 
 
 The Chicago Western Manufacturer finds in the Cin- 
 cinnati Trade List the statement that a well-known 
 Kentucky free trader (whose name they will give if 
 called for) said to them a few months ago that low 
 wages was just what he and his associates wanted. He 
 observed : " The laborer in this country is getting to be 
 too smart and independent. Unless he is brought down 
 a peg pretty soon he will rule us all. He gets too much 
 by half. You exclaim against foreign competition, 
 because it will reduce the price of labor. I favor it for 
 exactly the same reason. I want to see these ignorant 
 fellows, who know nothing except to work with their 
 dirty hands, brought down to their proper level. We 
 will never prosper in this country until it is done." 
 
 AMERICAN AND FOREIGN WAGES AND EXPENSES. 
 
 By a condensation of tables of wag'es and cost of food, — 
 from State Department, Labor, 1878, — we find the aver- 
 age weekly wages of seventeen trades — bricklayers, black- 
 smiths, shoemakers, etc. — to be, in England $7.57, Scot- 
 land $7.23, New York $12.70, Chicago $11.50. The 
 cost of thirteen kinds of food, — breadstuff s, meat, butter, 
 
Wages and Protection. 133 
 
 etc.— is $2.50 in Liverpool, $1.30 in New York, $1.10 in 
 Chicago for a like quantity — a pound of each kind, or 
 thirteen pound s in all. Rent would be somewhat cheaper 
 in Great Britain, but houses much poorer: The whole 
 mode of life there poorer than here, among like classes, 
 and the ability to save from wages less, as will he shown 
 more fully. The British Almanac, 1881, stated that but 
 59 per cent of Irish laborers ate meat, and those but 5 
 ounces a week. V. S. Consul Farrell reports from Bris- 
 tol, England, in 1881, average wages of farm laborers 
 per week, without board $4.00; and the State Depart- 
 ment table quoted from gives the same wages for Eng- 
 land $3.60, Scotland $4.25. 
 
 An English government agent's report, from this 
 'Country, gives this statement : 
 
 "A laboring man with a family of eight children told me the 
 •other day, after reviewing with this man in regard to the great sav- 
 ing on the necessaries of life in his native country (Germany), as 
 compared with his adopted country, and asking him how much 
 tetter off he considered himself by the move, he replied in sub- 
 stance: ' I am ever so much better off. My earnings in Germany 
 ■(as a plasterer) would be barely 3 shillings a day, while here they 
 are from 11 to 12 shillings. My eldest boy, who is just sixteen 
 years old, makes his 4 shillings a day already, more than I could 
 have done myself at home, and pays me something for his board. 
 Even my youngest, of thirteen, earns 8 shillings a week, while he 
 learns a trade. In Germany neither of the two would bring home 
 a sixpence. In short, if I were there I should, with my large 
 family, be little better than a pauper, while here I have saved 
 ■enough already to purchase a comfortable cottage, and I have 
 something in the savings bank still.' It is worth noting — 
 
 Says the writer — 
 
 that in this, as in every similar case which has come within my 
 •own personal knowledge, the laborer's cottage has been purchased 
 with savings laid up since 1860." 
 
134 Wages and Protection. 
 
 Our consul at Cologne reports — 
 
 Masons, per day 70 cents- 
 Carpenters, per day 50 to 72 " 
 
 Engine fitters, per day 71 to 77 " 
 
 Blacksmiths, per day 67 to 71 " 
 
 The report of the tariff commission gives the following 
 as the wages paid in England and Pittsburg, Pa., for 
 manufacturing iron: 
 
 England. Pittsburg. 
 
 Puddling, per ton $1 94 $5 50 
 
 Shingling, per ton 29 77 
 
 Rolling in puddle mill, per ton. . 29 68f 
 
 Rolling and heating, per ton. ... 1 80 4 80 
 
 Common labor 56@72 1 
 
 Mr. Edward Young, former chief of U. S. Bureau of 
 Statistics at Washington, makes the following state- 
 ment : 
 
 Middleboro, 
 Wages in Boiling Mills, 1878. Eng. Pennsylvania. 
 
 ■ Puddlers $10 50 $21 15 
 
 Top and bottom rollers 16 05 27 50 
 
 Rail mill rollers 2105 40 00 
 
 Merchant mill rollers 12 10 36 83 
 
 Machinists 8 59 15 56 
 
 Engineers 8 47 15 24 
 
 Laborers 4 65 8 58 
 
 Iron molders 6 77 1100 
 
 Pattern makers 7 01 14 69 
 
 Mr. Casson, the general manager of the Earl of Dud- 
 ley's Staffordshire iron works, in his recent visit to Pitts- 
 burgh, in answer to a question by a reporter of the Pitts- 
 burgh Commercial-Gazette, said: 
 
 "I find that in many respects you have the advantage of us as 
 regards mechanical appliances, while in others we are greatly 
 
Wages and Protection. 135 
 
 ahead of your manufacturers. We can manufacture iron at just one- 
 half the cost as far as the price of labor is concerned. I find that 
 your rate of wages is about exactly double what we have to pay." 
 
 In the face of such testimony as this, a tract issued 
 by the New York Free Trade Club in 1882, entitled 
 "Census Revelations Respecting "Wages, &c," of "Iron 
 and Steel Industries," quotes the statement of James 
 M. Swank, of Philadelphia, iron and steel census 
 taker, that "the wages of labor in this country are 
 much higher than in any other iron-making country in 
 the world," and says : " It is in conflict with all other 
 testimony ; we cannot accept it." It also affirms : " But 
 in point of fact, the English wages in this department 
 of industry are not far from the very low rates of wages 
 here, if indeed they are not actually higher." The 
 worthlessness of this tract may be judged by the reck- 
 lessness of these assertions. The same tract states the 
 average wages of iron and steel workers at $1.30 per day 
 by the census of 1880. Its figures are 140,975 persons 
 employed, with total wages of $55,476,785. Their 
 result appears correct, but is not, for they assume that 
 all these men were employed every day of the three 
 hundred, or three hundred and forty working days of 
 the year. This is not true. Some chose not to work 
 constantly, and others earned money in other ways when 
 not in the mills. This method of making wages appear 
 lower than they are is applied to other industries. 
 
 On the contrary, our reports of English wages are 
 sometimes too high. In the Report on Labor, by W. M. 
 Evarts, Secretary of State, quoted by C. S. Hill, of the 
 State Department, as "standard authority," we learn 
 that "the English rates (wages) are more apparent than 
 real, and that while nominally the English workman 
 
136 Wages and Protection. 
 
 appears to receive a comparatively high rate of wages, 
 he only works on half or two-thirds time, thus gratify- 
 ing his desire to preserve a high rate of wages, at the 
 expense of a sentimental fiction which is neither profit- 
 able nor substantial." 
 
 Along with this effort to make wages appear less than 
 they are is another to make the employer's profits appear 
 too large, and so make out a case against the " protected 
 monopolists. " 
 
 They take, for instance, the census figures of the iron 
 and steel industry, and this would be the mode of state- 
 ment : 
 
 Value of materials used $191,271,150 
 
 Total wages paid 55,476,785 
 
 Total cost of product $246, 747, 935 
 
 Value of product $296,557,385 
 
 Deduct cost 246,747,935 
 
 Profit $49,809,450 
 
 This is 22 per cent, on the capital of $230,971,884 
 invested, but insurance, decay and interest are left out. 
 Does an iron mill, or a woolen mill, last forever ? Sup- 
 pose it to last twenty-five years. The annual loss is four 
 per cent., and all these items which are not counted can 
 be reckoned as twelve per cent, at least, leaving ten per 
 cent, net profit instead of twenty-two per cent. This 
 is a good profit in a prosperous year, and helps to make 
 up years in which such mills paid nothing. 
 
 It may be said, wages are higher in England than in 
 protective Germany, and this shows that they are not 
 affected by free trade or protection. In old and densely 
 peopled countries, where aristocratic institutions have 
 made life poor and servile among the people, we yet find 
 
Wages and Protection. 137 
 
 that where there are large, varied, and well established 
 Industries, labor and skill are more employed, and better 
 paid, than in other old countries with fewer and feebler 
 industries. England, by rigidly protective tariffs, per- 
 sistent "vigor, and careful attention to her industries for 
 centuries, — an attention that hardly a nation in Europe, 
 certainly not Germany, has given for so long a time — 
 brought her great manufactures to a solid condition, and 
 therefore wages are higher than in Germany. Her short 
 free trade career has not yet broken down this result of 
 her long protective policy, but her wages are much lower 
 than ours. In our new and active country labor is in 
 demand; our manufactures, built up under protection, 
 help greatly to keep up that demand and to hold wages 
 to our higher level, which could not be done under free 
 trade. A protective policy lives, and is to live, in this 
 country, and our intelligent people see that, for them, 
 free trade means poor pay for poor work — the lower level 
 of a European working life. 
 
 The. Germans, and other Europeans, started with a 
 coarse and narrow life, and have risen in the scale as 
 their industries have grown under a protective policy. 
 That policy works upward, but can work no miracles, 
 and is hampered by military conscriptions in Europe, 
 and by other troubles from which we are fortunately free. 
 The German Iron and Steel Association report tabulates 
 the returns from 338 iron and steel makers and machin- 
 ists, and gives 15 per cent, increase of wages from 1879 
 to 1882, under their new protective measures. 
 
 In this country we started with a higher level of life, 
 and with institutions aiming for personal freedom and 
 equal rights. * Our people never have, and never will, 
 accept the pauper pay and hopeless lot of Old "World 
 
138 Wages and Protection; 
 
 toilers. Facts show plainly enough that protection is a 
 bar against lower wages in this country;' that in all coun- 
 tries their industrial policy affects the price of labor, 
 protection helping to better work and pay; and that 
 other influences, — previous condition, race, free or des- 
 potic institutions, intelligence, etc. , — have their share in 
 the matter. England had the oldest protective policy, 
 and the best institutions comparatively, and her wages 
 are above those on the Continent. France began her 
 protective policy earlier than Germany, and her wages, 
 are higher. 
 
 Free traders say that we have no protective tariff 
 against the self-importation of cheap laborers, and that 
 therefore this talk about higher wages is absurd, while 
 foreigners are free to come here and share and reduce 
 them. In our broad land we want emigrants, and they 
 help in needed work and add to our wealth, therefore it 
 would be absurd to hinder their coming. It often takes, 
 the slow savings of years for a poor workman to come 
 from Europe to America, and that is barrier enough 
 without a tax on immigration ill suited to the genius of 
 our government. Yet they come largely, to share our 
 better life. The tide sets Westward and the returning 
 tide is but the spray tossed back by the mighty waves 
 sweeping across the Atlantic. How protection crushes- 
 the working man! Yet he toils and saves for years to 
 pay his way here to be crushed! Granting that immi- 
 gration may cheapen labor, it is better for us to feed and 
 clothe the laborer here than to admit the products of his. 
 cheap labor free from abroad and send food and money 
 across the ocean to pay for them, as free trade would 
 have us do. 
 
 It is said that British workmen are better off under 
 
Wages and Protection. 139 
 
 free trade than they were under protection. The pitiful 
 fact is that the policy of that government, under what- 
 ever name, has paid small attention to the condition or 
 wants of the people. Centuries ago laws were enacted 
 regulating wages, but they were framed to compel men 
 to work for certain specified pay rather than to prohibit, 
 employers from oppressing the poor. 
 
 President Hamlin, of Middlebury College, Vermont, 
 criticising Professor Perry on "The Parmer and the 
 Tariff " in The American Protectionist in New York, 
 says of free trade in England: 
 
 "It does not diminish pauperism. In England the laboring 
 classes, manufacturing and agricultural, are no better oft than they 
 were fifty or one hundred years ago. On the contrary, the differ^ 
 ence between them and the rich is greater than ever. If free trade 
 has been a blessing to England, her millions of laborers have no 
 share in it. They have made no progress. The wonderful inven- 
 tions of the age, the better modes of living, the higher enjoyments; 
 of life, pass them by in the sweat and grime of their ill-requited 
 toil; and if hope ever comes to them at all, it is the immortal hopa 
 of another life. 
 
 "In proof of this assertion that free trade has in no respect ben- 
 efited the laborers of England, on the farm or in the workshop, I 
 quote from one of the most distinguished advocates of free trada 
 in England — Henry Fawcett, M. P., Professor of Political Econ- 
 omy in the University of Cambridge. 
 
 "In his 'Political Economy,' extensively used as a text-book in. 
 this country and in England (page 133), after referring to the pro- 
 digious increase of British exports, he adds, 'This increase of 
 national prosperity has as yet effected no corresponding improve-, 
 ment in the condition of the laboring classes.' He then, goes onto 
 state that where there has been an increase of wages there has been 
 a proportionate increase in the cost of living, so that one barely 
 compensates for the other. 
 
 "He then refers to Mr. Brassey, who is another distinguished 
 free-trader. His book on 'Work and' Wages' Prof. Fawcett 
 
140 Wages and Protection. 
 
 endorses as of the highest authority, as perfectly accurate, as 
 evincing the most careful investigation. The following are some 
 of the results: 
 
 " In the Canada Engineering Works at Birkenhead, thirteen dif- 
 ferent classes of workmen are employed, such as fitters, turners, 
 coppersmiths, etc. ; of these thirteen classes six were receiving less 
 wages in 1869 than in 1854, three were receiving the same, and 
 four were receiving somewhat higher wages. 
 
 "In one, of the Government dockyards, the result was even less 
 favorable. Prom 1849 to 1859 three classes had an advance of sis- 
 pence a day, but from 1859 to 1869 no advance whatever. ' "Wages 
 were absolutely stationary throughout these years ' (page 134). 
 
 ' ' Twenty classes of laborers in private ship-yards on the Thames 
 showed the same wages in 1869 as in 1851. There was a tempo- 
 rary rise in 1865, but it was dearly purchased by the distress that 
 followed. 
 
 "Mr. Brassey thinks that building-trades are somewhat better 
 paid, but ' the increase in wages has not been proportionate to the 
 ■increase in the cost of living.' Prof. Fawcett confesses that 'in 
 other trades the condition of the laborer must have deteriorated ' 
 {p. 135). But even in the very best paid trades it must also have 
 deteriorated, according to his own showing. 
 
 " It is a point of interest and essential to a right judgment upon 
 free trade in England, to know how great has been the increase in 
 the expenses of living during these years of its greatest develop- 
 ment. Prof. Fawcett (p. 134) considers it not less than thirty per 
 cent! The best paid laborers, who are comparatively few, have 
 hardly held their own. What, then, is the condition of the multi- 
 tude? What has free trade bestowed upon the English laborer in 
 general, on the farm and in the workshop? It is the same as a 
 ■decrease of wages during the last thirty years of almost one-third. 
 His condition, fcever very hopeful, is now hopeless.'' 
 
 Robert P. Porter, late member of the Tariff Com- 
 mission, writes from -Leeds, England, a great centre of 
 woolen mJUs, to the. New York Tribune, under date of 
 January, 23d, 1883,: and gives a list of the wages of 
 twenty grades of operatives in those mills, as computed 
 from their' account books, and also a like list of wages 
 
Wages and Protection. 141 
 
 for the same work in New England mills, from the 
 report »f C. D. Wright, Massachusetts labor statisti- 
 cian. The English wages range from $7.50 to $2.50 
 (for boys), and average $4.65 per week; the American 
 wages range from $13.43 to $4.81, and average $7.79 per 
 week. Hon. "W". A. Russell, M. C, makes a like com- 
 parison of nineteen grades of worsted mill operatives 
 in both countries, from reports of treasurers here and 
 authentic documents there, and makes English weekly- 
 wages average $7. 94 for 56 hours' work per week, and. 
 American pay average $16. 73 for 60 hours' work. 
 
 Hours of labor and currency at or below par are to be 
 thought of. For instance, wages in some years between 
 1860 and 1870 were in depreciated currency, and appear 
 more than they were. These items cannot always be 
 exactly estimated, but the best authorities giving nearest 
 to accurate facts, are quoted. 
 
 Professor Leone Levi, of London, in his " Estimates 
 of the Earnings of the Working Classes," gives the 
 average earnings of 551 workers in an English cotton 
 mill at $3.56 per week in 1867. In April, 1869, the 
 wages of 2,997 Pacific Mill operatives, a woolen mill at 
 Lawrence, Massachusetts (their whole force), averaged 
 $7.83 (or $5.87 in gold) per week, a difference of $2.31 
 gold, or 65 per cent., in favor of the American mills. 
 The excess of wages above cost of board and lodging 
 was somewhat greater in our favor. Of 781 house- 
 keepers in the Pacific mills, Mr. Greeley says (see 
 Political Economy) that 227 lived in their own houses, 
 worth $413,163, or an average of $1,820 to each family, 
 mostly their own earnings. This comparison might be 
 even more favorable to-day, as the Boston Commercial 
 Bulletin gives careful tables of wages of sixty-two 
 
142 Wages and Protection. 
 
 grades of operatives, making "the average wages of 
 woolen mill operatives in Massachusetts forty per cent. 
 higher than in 1860." 
 
 COST OF LIVING AND WAGES. 
 
 Carrol D. Wright, Chief of Massachusetts Bwremi of 
 Statistics, gives a statement, in March, 1881, of com- 
 parative wages and costs of living of a weaver with a 
 wife and three children in that State, and in Lanca- 
 shire, England, on the same work in cotton mills, bas- 
 ing his statements on reports of Consuls and other good 
 authority. The result gives the Massachusetts weaver 
 above costs of food, rent and fuel, $2.30 per week, the 
 Lancashire weaver 22£ cents. A cotton spinner's sur- 
 plus would be $5.79 here, and $2.98 in the Blackburn 
 mills, in England. The London Times, July, 1880, dis- 
 cussing the prospects of free trade in the United States, 
 said : 
 
 "The United States do not approach the question from the same 
 point of view as ourselves. The object of their statesmen is not 
 to secure the largest amount of wealth for the country generally, 
 but to keep up, by whatever means, the standard of comfort among 
 the laboring classes." 
 
 This is fair testimony, from a great English journal, 
 of the benefit of our protective policy to our workmen ; 
 but we also secure "the largest amount of wealth for 
 the country " by that policy. 
 
 Exceptional circumstances vary costs as compared to 
 Wages. For instance, Mr. Wright's Report in 1882 gives 
 increase of wages since 1878 seven per cent.; increase 
 of cost of living in his State, 22 per cent. Very poor 
 crops of grass, fruits and vegetables, with consequent 
 high prices, explains this. Usual crops will make the 
 
Wages and Protection. 143 
 
 prices of the farmer less and the costs of the operatives 
 less also. For a long term of years the operatives' con- 
 dition is better here than in any other country, as the 
 following facts show : 
 
 SAVINGS BANK DEPOSITS AT HOME AND IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The Detroit Post and Tribune gives, from official 
 reports, the aggregate deposits in the savings banks in 
 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Cali- 
 fornia for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1881: 
 
 Deposits in 1850 $ 43,295,604 
 
 Deposits in 1860 148,546,876 
 
 Deposits in 1870 547,161,699 
 
 Deposits in 1881 787,432,993 
 
 Reducing all this to a gold standard to be fully accu- 
 rate, and we have: 
 
 Amount of de- Increase each 
 
 posits, gold 10 years in 
 
 Year. value. gold: 
 
 1850 $ 42,295,604 
 
 1860 148,546,876 $106,251,272 
 
 1870 476,030,678 327,483,802 
 
 1881 787432993 311,402,311 
 
 From the foregoing it can be seen that the increase of 
 deposits in these savings banks, at gold values, was more 
 than three times greater under the first ten years of pro- 
 tection than it was in the so-called free trade 10 years. 
 
 In 34 years of free trade, so says the News, a Detroit free 
 trade paper, the increase of deposits in all the savings 
 banks of Great Britain has been $350,000,000. In 21 
 years of protection in the United States these deposits 
 have increased $628,000,000 in nine States. 
 
Hi Wages and Protection. 
 
 The Ehode Island savings banks in 1882 had 112,472 
 depositors, and those of Connecticut 225,366 — or about 
 one-third of the population. The total deposits in these 
 two manufacturing States was $134,000,000. It is a 
 significant fact that the amount of deposits and the num- 
 ber of depositors is largest in manufacturing sections, 
 showing that the -operatives are saving money. 
 
 Hon. W. A. Kussell, M. C. , of Massachusetts, in a Con- 
 gressional speech in April, 1882, made the following com- 
 parison, which shows the ability of American operatives 
 to live better, as they do, than the English, and yet 
 to put in bank seven times as much money to their 
 numbers as is deposited by English workmen in Man- 
 chester. 
 
 " Loweu has a population of 60,000, the largest in the State or 
 in the United States wholly engaged in the manufacture of tex- 
 tile fabrics, and therefore well illustrates the condition of the 
 industrial classes in our New England manufacturing centres. 
 
 " Of the 60,000 inhabitants 22,559 are employed in the various 
 corporations and mills. There are six savings banks, with a total 
 deposit of $11,646,212 to the credit of 33,408 depositors. Of this 
 number 1,735 are depositors of amounts above $300, and 31,673 
 depositors of $300 and under, showing how general the habit of 
 saving has become among our people, and what a large propor- 
 tion of the funds in the savings banks are the earnings of the 
 wage laborers. I have it from authority that fully seven-eights of 
 the deposi's in these savings banks are the laid-by earnings of the 
 wage laborers. 
 
 "In Lawrence, with a population of 40,000, grown up wholly 
 out of manufacturing and now supported by it, there are 13,000 
 operatives, three savings banks with $5,000,000 deposits, and 
 13,728 depositors. 
 
 "Manchester, England, corresponds with these two cities in its 
 occupations, more nearly than any other: With a population 
 of 341,508, it has in its various savings banks £1,434,140 or 
 
Wages and Protection. 145 
 
 $6,883,872 ; a city three and a half times as large as Lowell and 
 Lawrence, and less than one-half the amount of deposits in its 
 savings institutions. " 
 
 woman's elevation. 
 
 In this whole protective question the interest of woman 
 is really as great as that of man, and in a day when so 
 much thought is given to her elevation this should be 
 borne in mind. Every woman should be a protectionist, 
 for free trade degrades her even more than it does man. 
 In this country her wages are quite as much above the Brit- 
 ish level as his. The lower wages of the English workman 
 drive wife and children into the factory, and thus deprive 
 the children of a home atmosphere and a mother's care. 
 In Great Britain and Ireland, in 1870, there were six 
 males to one female engaged in agricultural labor, in the 
 United States, fourteen to one. In Great Britain and 
 Ireland the proportion of men to women, in manufact- 
 uring, mechanical and mining industries, was two to 
 one, in this country seven to one. The proportion of 
 children under sixteen is four times greater there than 
 here. The larger pay of our factory workmen enables 
 the mother to be in her home, where her children 
 need her in their tender years. For girls, or mar- 
 ried women who choose factory work, the pay is bet- 
 ter, and a more self-respecting and womanly life possible. 
 Of course equal pay for equal work is justice, and usage 
 does not give that to woman, nor does protection directly 
 reach or change that usage, but it helps to better pay 
 than free trade, and that is a lever to open the way to 
 all else. In Massachusetts mills and shops women earned 
 $30,000,000 in 1875, averaging over $300 each in the 
 year. 
 
146 Wages and Protection. 
 
 The following is from the New York Sun : 
 
 Editor of the Sun — Sir : I found this advertisement in the 
 Dublin Freeman's Journal of the 15th inst. : 
 
 WANTED— Strong, humble girl to assist in minding children and go of 
 messages; age 15; 8s per quarter. Apply at 59 Harcourt St., 11 o'clock to 2, 
 Monday. 
 
 For minding the children and running on errands the "strong, 
 humble girl " will receive $8 a year, or 67 cents a month. Happy 
 land! 
 
 B. F. F. 
 
 New Youk, February 20, 1882. 
 
 " Consul-General Shaw, in his report from Manchester, 
 referring to the successful efforts recently made by 
 English ladies to encourage English manufactured 
 goods to the exclusion of the foreign, which had for 
 some time destroyed the fashionable use of alpaca goods 
 of Bradford make, reads American ladies the following 
 instructive protective lecture : 
 
 "It may be worthy of consideration how far American ladies 
 can foster and develop American manufactures by similar 
 patriotic and national action in our own country. The field for 
 such wise and peaceful revolution is a wide and rich one, and 
 considerate co-operation among our representative social leaders 
 would have a powerful influence in creating a demand for special 
 lines of American dress goods. It is high time American ladies 
 should set American fashions and cease to follow the lead of 
 foreign fashion makers beyond the sea !" 
 
 WAGES IS" NEWARK AND PAISLEY — IN THE CLYDE 
 SHIP-YABDS. 
 
 To the Editor of the Mw Fork Tribune ! 
 
 8m : Kef erring to the letter from Mr. Porter which appeared 
 in last Sunday's Tribune, we would be obliged by your publish- 
 ing the following table received from Clark & Co. by cable to-day, 
 showing the actual average wages paid by them in Paisley, Scot- 
 
Wages and Protection. 147 
 
 land, with ■which table we unite the wages we pay for the same 
 work in Newark, New Jersey. These facts require no comment : 
 
 Weekly Wages in Newark: 
 
 Cop-winders , .... $8.00 
 
 Finishers 5.50 
 
 Reelers 8.00 
 
 Spoolers 8.00 
 
 Foremen 30.00 
 
 Pickers 7.00 
 
 Hank-winders ' • 7.00 
 
 Weekly Wages in Paisley. 
 
 Cop-winders 14s. or $3.50 
 
 Finishers lOs.t or 8.50 
 
 Reelers 17s. or 4.25 
 
 Spoolers 13s. or 3.25 
 
 Foremen. 1 . 28s. or 7.00 
 
 Pickers 16s. 6d. or 4.18 
 
 Hank-winders 15s. or 3.75 
 
 Clark Thread Co., 
 
 By William Clark, Treasurer. 
 
 New York, January, 25, 1883. 
 
 Eobert P. Porter writes the New York Tribune that 
 he found that 'the pay-roll of one of the leading Clyde 
 ship-yards contained the names of 1,600 men during 
 the last two weeks of November, including foremen and 
 apprentices, and that the amount it called for was 
 .£4,000, or £2,000 per week. This gave an average for 
 each man of $6.25 a week. The average pay of skilled 
 workmen was $7.50 a week, and that of unskilled 
 laborers $2.50 a week. The census returns of the 
 United States show that in 1880 there was paid out for 
 wages in all kinds of ship-building in this country 
 $12,800,000, which was divided among 21,330 hands, 
 giving each about $600 per annum, or nearly twice as 
 much as is paid on the Clyde. 
 
 Mr. Carroll D. "Wright, Chief of the. Bureau of Sta- 
 tistics of Labor of Massachusetts, states that the weekly 
 earnings of a Massachusetts weaver are 6-^- per cent, 
 greater than the weekly earnings of a weaver in 
 England. 
 
 Hon. Jonathan Chace, from Khode Island, a practical 
 business man in cotton manufacture, estimates the pay of 
 our cotton mill operatives about 62 per cent, above that 
 of England, and sharply controverts the statement made 
 
148 Wages and Protection. 
 
 by Mr. "Wright as to the comparative weekly earnings 
 here and there. 
 
 Mr. Wm. C. Wyckoff, secretary of the Silk Associa- 
 tion of America, estimates that the average wages paid 
 in the manufacture of silk goods in the United States 
 are about 100 per cent, greater than in England. 
 
 j. w. HINTOK. 
 
 In an address before the Wisconsin Legislature, at 
 Madison, in 1881, John W. Hinton, of Milwaukee, 
 alluding to the charge that factories were monopo- 
 lies and oppressors of labor, cited the North Chicago' 
 Boiling Mill Company, "which will pay out in 1881 
 $3,000,000 in wages to workingmen. The president of 
 that company, O. W. Potter, said, when addressing the- , 
 iron and steel makers at Pittsburg, in May, 1879 : ' Pay 
 your laborers well, and by your exhibition of faith in 
 them you will always get faithful services from them.' 
 Not very long since a prominent free trade member of 
 Parliament, Mr. Huskisson, asserted publicly : ' To give 
 capital a fair remuneration, the price of labor must be 
 kept down.' The London Times declared that in 
 England 'manhood became a drug and population a. 
 nuisance.' But Potter said to that meeting in Pitts- 
 burg : ' Every man of you have more or less men in 
 your employ who know much more about many details: 
 of your business than you do, and who in a quiet way 
 save their salaries every day ; and these men you know 
 and have confidence in, and would and do entrust them, 
 with your property.' By a tariff protecting American 
 labor you make the artisan, as a citizen, a safer deposi- 
 tory of the franchise than though abject dependence- 
 or gaunt poverty grimly shadowed his every footstep."' 
 
Wages and Protection. 149 
 
 He also alluded to the monthly payment, at Bay View 
 Iron Mills, Milwaukee, of $70,000 in wages, at rates 
 ■over 50 per cent, above those paid in England. 
 
 COMPARATIVE TAXATION. 
 
 The excessive taxation of the working man by tariffs, 
 •&c, is often spoken of by free traders. Mr. Greg, an emi- 
 nent Englishman, estimates that the English working 
 classes are taxed by tariffs and excise taxes twenty-six 
 shillings, or $6.50 yearly. Mr. Leffingwell, an Ameri- 
 can, writing in the Contemporary Review, London, 
 makes the tax on an American of the same class in like 
 manner $3 per year. Such estimates only approximate to 
 accuracy, but show the assertions to be groundless. The 
 legislation of this country is not perfect by any means, 
 hut it favors the people in its tariffs and taxes, more 
 than that of England or of other lands. 
 
 STATEMENTS AT NATIONAL TARIFF CONVENTIONS AT 
 CHICAGO AND NEW YORK. 
 
 In November, 1882, Tariff Conventions were held, 
 first in Chicago and then in New York a fortnight 
 later. Both were national in character, their members 
 representing many industries and coming from the East 
 and West and South. Some 200 delegates were at 
 Chicago and over 600 at New York. An interesting 
 part of their proceedings was the brief statements of the 
 •condition of each industry. In this connection such as 
 related to labor are partly given. 
 
 The Chicago statements are first in order. Mr. E. S. 
 Hartshorn, of Troy, New York, spoke of flax-spinning : 
 
 "lam engaged in flax-spinning, and with that business, as it 
 •exists at present here and in Europe, I am quite familiar. The labor 
 for which we pay $100,000 annually can be had in Great Britain 
 
150 Wages and Protection. 
 
 for $40,000. Are not the farmers surrounding our village, and 
 the merchants, artisans, doctors, lawyers, boarding house keepers, 
 house owners, &c, better off with $100,000 paid to the operatives 
 in our works than if only $40,000 were paid ?" 
 
 Mr. Stowell, of Appleton, "Wisconsin: 
 
 "Mr. President, I represent the paper interest, and our machin- 
 ery chews up a great many jute butts and much tow flax every 
 year. For our machine tenders, as they are technically called, 
 the men that tend the machinery that runs off the paper, who- 
 receive in England five dollars and eighty cents a week, Germany, 
 three dollars, we pay fifteen dollars a week. Rag engine men 
 are paid in England five dollars and eighty cents, we pay thirteen 
 dollars and a half a week. Bleachers are paid four dollars and 
 thirty-five cents in England, and .we pay nine dollars. Young 
 boys and girls that attend to the paper as it comes off the ma- 
 chine, cutter-hands they are called, who cut and fold it, are 
 paid in England two dollars and a half a week, and we pay four 
 dollars and a half. The rag-pickers, girls who pick over and assort 
 the rags, in England, two dollars a week, and we pay three dollars." 
 
 The President: 
 
 "The pottery interests are represented here. Mr. Laughlin, of 
 East Liverpool, Ohio, and Mr. Knowles are present.'' 
 
 Mr. Knowles: 
 
 "We represent the manufacture of earthenware, and while a. 
 little selfish, are protectionists on a broad basis, and believe in pro- 
 tecting in proportion as the article produced represents labor. 
 
 "We have compiled some statistics of prices paid in our particu- 
 lar branch in Europe compared with what is paid here. The dif- 
 ference is greater on the articles that are most used, which would! 
 make it really in favor of the workman to a still greater extent;, 
 but the average on all the products will be about one hundred and 
 fifty per cent; or, where they pay one dollar we pay two dollars 
 and fifty cents for the same labor." 
 
 His table of wages, too long to insert, is carefully 
 prepared and amply makes good his statement as to 
 workmen's pay in a large industry — far more important, 
 than is supposed. 
 
Wages and Protection. 
 
 151 
 
 Mr. Jerome spoke of jute butts imported, and the 
 burning of flax straw in Iowa and elsewhere: 
 
 "I have a superintendent who has been in India very recently, 
 and he gives me the facts. The very jute butts -that are handled 
 there at fourteen cents a day are brought over here as ballast, and 
 pay a duty of a little more than a quarter of a cent a pound. That 
 is the competition that the grangers have to contend with, and 
 that is why he wants a duty on jute butts; and he will have to 
 burn his flax until that duty comes. And instead of one hundred 
 and forty thousand tons destroyed, there is more than five hundred 
 thousand raised, and more than four hundred and fifty thousand 
 tons burned and rotted and wasted when it should be used to- 
 day." 
 
 Mr. Shuman, of Indiana, sent by three hundred work- 
 ingmen, declared himself a protectionist and said he was 
 highly pleased with the sayings and acts of the conven- 
 tion. 
 
 NEW YORK CONTENTION. 
 
 At the New York Tariff Convention like statements 
 were made. 
 
 Alexander H. Jones, of Philadelphia, a well-known 
 manufacturer of chemicals, reported as follows: 
 
 " Here are some figures as to daily wages paid in a Philadelphia 
 factory and at St. Helen's, England, in a like establishment: 
 
 Acid makers 
 
 Firemen 
 
 Ordinary laborers 
 
 Furnace men 
 
 Bricklayers 
 
 Carpenters 
 
 Stonemasons — 
 
 Fitters 
 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 America. 
 
 England. 
 
 $ 1 50 
 
 $1 08 
 
 2 00 
 
 1 44 
 
 1 33 
 
 84 
 
 2 00 
 
 1 44 
 
 2 50@3 00 
 
 2 16 
 
 225 
 
 1 40 
 
 2 75 
 
 1 92 
 
 2 75 
 
 1 44 
 
 300 
 
 1 20 
 
 Difference. 
 
 42 
 56 
 
 85 
 
 83 
 
 1 31 
 
 1 80 
 
152 Wages and Protection. 
 
 "Compare this difference with the total amount of wages paid by 
 our chemical industry in the census year and it shows an excess of 
 $7,554,900, paid in wages to 29,405 American hands, over English 
 wages for the same work." 
 
 G. B. Stebbins, of Detroit, reported over 50,000 men 
 employed an Michigan lumber camps, saw mills and salt 
 works, at wages over twenty-five per cent, higher than 
 are paid just across the lake and river in Canada. These 
 wages aggregate $25,000,000 yearly or $5,000,000 more 
 than Canadians pay for the same work. , 
 
 In Michigan iron ore beds and copper mines and 
 works on Lake Superior, 15,000 'Workmen get two dol- 
 lars a day, double European pay. The yearly amount of 
 their earnings is $9,000,000; excess over European earn- 
 ings $4,500,000. 
 
 JOHN ' JAEEETT — PETER COOPEE. 
 
 At a large labor protection meeting in Cooper Insti- 
 tute, New York, Feb. 25th, 1883, under the auspices 
 of associations of working men, John Jarrett, of Pitts- 
 burgh, President Amalgamated Association of Iron and 
 Steel Workers, and others spoke. Prom Mr. Jarrett's 
 address a paragraph must suffice : 
 
 " Now it happens I was born on the other side of the water, 
 and I am pretty well conversant with the methods of living there, 
 and I know pretty well what free trade has done fur that country. 
 The difference in ratio of prices at which they have to sell their 
 products in England and the prices in this country is largely in 
 our favor. The puddler receives as his ^standard wages all 
 through the north of England 7 shillings 6 pence a ton, while here 
 our men receive about $5.50. There he receives but one-twentieth 
 of the price that commodity brings in the market ; and our men 
 receive $5.50 for that same iron that brings on the market $56 ; in 
 other words, we get $5.50 for our puddler, and the manufacturer 
 
Wages and Protection. 153 
 
 gets $56, and the English puddler gets only $2 out of $35. You 
 see, then, how largely it is in favor of our men, and the ratio 
 carries itself all the way through." 
 
 The Yenerable philanthropist Peter Cooper sent a letter 
 to the meeting, a valuable sentence of which is given: 
 
 "I have noticed in my own business life, extending over a 
 period of nearly seventy years, that every reduction of the tariff 
 ■(or 'the tariff for revenue only' plan) has brought wretchedness 
 and ruin. It is the natural effect from such a cause. Nothing 
 is more certain than that the advocacy of free trade comes from 
 foreigners who want to break up our industries. They have done 
 it several times already, and they want to do it again. The 
 laborers of the Old World get barely enough to keep body and 
 isoul together, and that is the condition in which the advocates of 
 free trade are trying to place our laborers, and it behooves every 
 man to do all he can to deter Congress from the endeavor.'' 
 
 A resolution was adopted with hearty unanimity, call- 
 ing on the people " to preserve a tariff that protects 
 living wages." 
 
 This chapter may fitly close Avith the testimony of 
 the New York correspondent of the London Iron- 
 monger, who is instructed to investigate the iron trade 
 in America and report to this English journal for their 
 information. In the Ironmonger of October 9th, 1881, 
 ie makes this plain and forcible statement : 
 
 " The plain truth of the matter is that about all that protection, 
 protects is labor. With the same rates of wages there are but few 
 things produced here at all which could not be produced in the 
 United States as cheaply as in England. The chief advantage of 
 protection is that it enables the workingman to live a great deal 
 better than his English competitor, by making his labor more 
 valuable. The manufacturers say they would suffer from the 
 withdrawal of protection chiefly through the lowered ability of 
 the masses of the people to consume ; but that, so far as the cost 
 of production is concerned, they could meet any competition with 
 their improved machinery, and with labor as cheap as it would be 
 under free trade. " 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OPINIONS AND STATEMENTS OF EMINENT MEN. 
 
 The necessity of a protective system for the States was-, 
 a main subject of deliberation at the first convention, in 
 
 1786, of delegates at Annapolis, met to consider the for- 
 mation of a Constitution, and also at the convention of 
 
 1787, in which the Constitution was framed. 
 Washington, as President, met the first Congress clad 
 
 . in a suit of domestic manufacture, and the second Act 
 passed by that Congress had the following preamble; 
 
 " Whereas, It is necessary for the support of Government, for 
 the discharge of the debts of the United States, and for 
 the encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties 
 be laid on goods, wares and merchandise imported. Be it 
 enacted," etc., etc! 
 
 This bill was signed by Washington, July 4, 1789. 
 Jefferson, made President by a rival party, was too broad 
 in his views to differ from Washington on this great- 
 question.' In his second message, he said: 
 
 "To cultivate peace, and maintain commerce and navigation 
 in all their lawful enterprises, to foster our fisheries, as nurserieB 
 of navigation and for the nurture of man, and to protect the 
 manufactures adapted to our circumstances — these are the land- 
 marks by which we are to guide ourselves." 
 
 President Madison's special message, May 23, 1809: 
 " The revision of our commercial laws, proper to adapt them to- 
 the arrangement which has taken place with Great Britain, will 
 doubtless engage the early attention of Congress. It will be 
 worthy at the same time of their just and provident care to maJce- 
 such alteration in the laws as will especially protect and foster the- 
 several brandies of manufacture." 
 
 154 
 
Statements of Emvwnt Men. 155 
 
 Benjamin Franklin: 
 
 " Every manufacturer encouraged in our country makes part of 
 a market for provisions within ourselves and saves so much money 
 to this countiy as must otherwise be exported for the manufactures 
 he supplies." 
 
 Andrew Jackson, December 7th, 1830, Second Annual 
 Message as President of the United States : 
 
 "The power to impose duties on imports originally belonged to 
 the several States. The right to adjust these duties with a view 
 to the encouragement of domestic branches of industry is so com- 
 pletely identical with that power that it is difficult to suppose the 
 existence of the one without the other. The States have dele- 
 gated their whole authority over imports to the Federal Govern- 
 ment without limitation or restriction, saving the very inconsider- 
 able restriction relating to their inspection laws. This authority 
 having thus entirely passed from the States, the right to exercise 
 it for the puipose of protection does not exist in them ; and con- 
 sequently if it be not possessed by the General Government it 
 must be extinct. Our political system would thus present the 
 anomaly of a people stripped of the right to foster their own 
 industry and to counteract the most selfish and destructive policy 
 which might be adopted by foreign nations. This surely cannot 
 be the case ; this indispensable power thus surrendered by the 
 States must be within the scope of the authority on the subject, 
 expressly delegated to Congress. 
 
 "In this conclusion I am confirmed as well by the opinions of 
 Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who 
 have each repeatedly recommended the exercise of this right, 
 under the Constitution, as by the uniform practic'e of Congress, 
 the continued acquiescence of the States, and the general under- 
 standing of the people." 
 
 President J. Q. Adams' Fourth Annual Message,, 
 December 2, 1828 : 
 
 " The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manu- 
 facturing nation, are so linked in union together that no perma- 
 nent cause of prosperity to one of them can operate without 
 extending its influence to the others. All these interests are alike 
 
156 Statements of Eminent Men. 
 
 under the protecting power of legislative authority, and the duties 
 •of the representative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony- 
 together. " 
 
 Henry Clay, speech in the House of Kepresentatiyes, 
 March 30 and 31, 1824: 
 
 " The proposition to be maintained by our adversaries is, that 
 manufactures, without protection, will, in due time, spring up in 
 the country and sustain themselves, in competition with foreign 
 fabrics, however advanced the arts and whatever the degree of 
 protection may he in foreign countries. Now, I contend that this 
 proposition is refuted by all experience, ancient and modern, in 
 •every country. If I am asked why unprotected industry should 
 not succeed in a struggle with protected industry, I answer, the 
 fact has ever been so, and that is sufficient; I reply that uniform 
 •experience evinces that it cannot succeed in such a struggle, and 
 that is sufficient. If we speculate on the causes of this universal 
 truth, we may differ about them. Still the indisputable fact 
 •remains." 
 
 Henry Clay, speech in United States Senate, Feb. 2, 3 
 and 6, 1832: 
 
 "In short, sir, if I were to select any term of seven years since 
 the adoption of the present Constitution which exhibited a scene 
 ■of the most wide spread dismay and desolation, it would be exactly 
 that term of seven years which immediately preceded the estab- 
 lishment of the tariff of 1824." — " If the term of seven years were 
 to be selected of the greatest prosperity which this people have 
 enjoyed since the establishment of their present Constitution, it 
 would be exactly that period of seven years which immediately 
 followed the passage of the tariff of 1824." — "And is the fact not 
 indisputable, that all essential objects of consumption affected by 
 the tariff are cheaper and better since the act of 1824, than they 
 were for several years prior to that law? Let us look into some 
 particulars. The total consumption of bar iron in the United 
 States is supposed to be about 146,000 tons, of which 112,866 tons 
 are made within the country, and the residue imported. The 
 measure of protection extended to this necessary article was never 
 adequate until the passage of the act of 1828; and what has been 
 the consequence? The annual increase of quantity, since that 
 
Statements of Eminent Men. 15T 
 
 period, has been in the ratio of near 25 per cent., and the whole 
 sale price of bar iron in the Northern cities was, in 1828, $105 per 
 ton; in 1829, $100; in 1830, $90; and in 1831, from $85 to $75— 
 constantly diminishing." 
 
 Daniel Webster, speech at mass meeting at Albany,. 
 August 27, 1844: 
 
 " The term (protection) was well understood in our colonial his- 
 tory, and if we go back to the history of the Constitution, and of 
 the convention which adopted it, we shall find that everywhere, 
 when masses of men were assembled, and the wants of the people- 
 were brought forth into prominence, the idea was held up that 
 domestic industry could not prosper, manufactures and the- 
 mechanic arts could not advance, the condition of the common 
 country could not be carried up to any considerable elevation, 
 unless there should be one government, to lay one rate of duty 
 upon imports throughout the Union, from New Hampshire to 
 Georgia; regard to be had, in laying this duty, to the protection of 
 American labor and industry. I defy the man in any degree con- 
 versant with history, in any degree acquainted with the annals of 
 this country from 1787 to the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, 
 to say that this was not a leading, I may almost say the leading, 
 motive, South as well as North, for the formation of the new gov- 
 ernment. Without that provision in the Constitution it never 
 could have been adopted." 
 
 John M. Berrien, United States Senator from Georgia, 
 in 1843 : 
 
 " 1. The credit of the government was prostrate, and has been 
 redeemed. Its stock is again above par. 2. The treasury was- 
 empty ; it is now replenished. 3. The commerce and navigation 
 of the country have increased. 4. Its agricultural condition has 
 improved. 5. There has been a marked improvement of our 
 great staple (cotton). 6. A reduction in the' prices of almost all, 
 if not absolutely of every article of consumption. 7. To crown 
 the whole, every branch of industry has been stimulated to 
 increased activity, and confidence has been restored. These 
 things, I apprehend, are true. The tariff of 1842 has been in 
 efficient operation but little more than a year, and these effects 
 have followed." 
 
158 Statements of Eminent Men. 
 
 Horace Greeley, Essays on Political Economy, 1869, 
 disposes of the "monopoly" absurdity in a terse and 
 plain way, as follows: 
 
 "But with what reason, with what justice, does one say that 
 an impost or tax on imported iron or nails, cloth or cutlery, cre- 
 ates a monopoly ? A great many of our countrymen were pre- 
 viously employed in making these articles. In what sense is a 
 monopoly accorded to any or the whole of them together ? Do we 
 not know that, not only will each of them sell as his own interest 
 prompts, and increase his product so fast and so far as he can do 
 so with profit, but that any one else who will may embark in the 
 business whenever he shall see fit ? How can A have had conferred 
 on him by law a monopoly of that which B, C, D, and all the 
 rest of the alphabet, are not only at perfect liberty to embark in 
 whenever they will, but which this very act strongly tends to 
 invite them to engage in, having been passed for that express pur- 
 pose 1" 
 
 Henry C. Carey, Principles of Social Science : 
 "The laborer must sell his potential energies, be they what 
 Ihey may, or perish for want of food. In regard to no com- 
 modity, therefore, is the effect resulting from the presence or 
 absence of competition so great as in relation to human force. 
 Two men competing for its purchase, its owner becomes a free 
 man. The two competing for its sale become enslaved. The 
 whole question of freedom or slavery for man is, therefore, 
 embraced in that of competition." — "A bushel of corn is worth as 
 much in Illinois or Iowa as in the neighborhood of Paris or of 
 London ; and the sole reason why it sells for only a fourth or a 
 fifth as much is, that the farmer is burdened with the cost of send- 
 ing it to market. Bring the market to him by opening the great 
 coal and ore deposits of Indiana and Illinois, Missouri and Michi- 
 gan, and then not only will he be relieved of the necessity for look- 
 ing to distant markets, but it will become impossible for him to sup- 
 ply them, because the price at home will be on a level with that 
 abroad. The change thus effected would count to the farmers of 
 the country to the extent of many hundreds of millions of dol- 
 lars, and at no distant day it would be ( reckoned by thousands of 
 millions." 
 
Statements of Eminent Men. 159 
 
 M. Thiers, speech in the Corps Legislatif, Paris, Janu- 
 ary 26, 1870. 
 
 " France has her consumers within herself. Her market does 
 not depend upon a cannon-shot fired in Europe. And for expor- 
 tation she has her beautiful products. England on the contrary, 
 has an artificial existence. She depends upon the doings of the 
 United States ; upon the doings of her colonies, which already 
 oppose her with hostile tariffs. May not the clay come when her 
 immense production will find no purchasers? She produces ten 
 times as much as her consumption ! This little island, in the words 
 of Fox, embraces the world. True; but when she embraces the 
 world she is vulnerable everywhere. 
 
 " Such was the situation of Holland in the seventeenth century, 
 which had realized a prodigy almost as marvelous. What was 
 needed to make Holland, which gave laws to France, descend from 
 this lofty place? It needed only fifty years. It needed only a 
 Navigation Act in England; it needed only a Colbert in France. 
 
 "God forbid that I should predict for England such a destiny; 
 but, I repeat it, her existence, whicli depends upon consumers, 
 which she seeks everywhere without herself, is less solid than that 
 of France, which has her consumers in her own bosom.'' 
 
 E. B. "Ward, Detroit, Michigan: 
 
 "When a nation fosters and protects its own resources and 
 interests through its national laws, it prospers. If the laws are so 
 framed as to give other nations the advantage, either through their 
 superior skill, cheap labor, or cheap and abundant capital, it suffers. 
 When a nation separates by great distances the producers of raw 
 materials from the consumers, the producers practically pay the 
 transportation, and become poor, while a few forwarders, traders, 
 and carriers become rich at the expense of the producer and con- 
 sumer. When a nation diversifies its means for the employment 
 and utilization of all its laborers, prosperity and wealth ensue, 
 while the nation and pebple who confine themselves principally to 
 one employment become poor and dependent." 
 
 David H. Mason, Chicago, 111. : 
 
 "Foreign producers are not subject to our laws, nor amenable 
 to the processes of our courts, nor obligated to serve on our juries, 
 
160 Statements of Eminent Men. 
 
 nor liable to be drafted into our armies, nor bound to contribute 
 to our internal taxes, nor answerable for non-perfprmance of any 
 of the duties of American citizenship. They are total aliens to 
 our national commonwealth. To permit them to sell their mer- 
 chandise in our home markets free of all tariff charge, free of all 
 local burdens, and free of all allegiance to our government, would 
 be to exalt perfect strangers above the heads of its own patriotic- 
 people in privilege. The foreigner, abiding in a distant land, and 
 often hostile at heart to our republican institutions, has no right to 
 ask to be placed on a dead level of commercial benefits with our 
 citizens, who bear a round of local burdens incident to those insti- 
 tutions — burdens from which he is exempt. It has cost a vast 
 amount of sacrifice, an immense aggregate of exertion, and an 
 incalculable investment of capital, on the part of our population, 
 through a number of generations, to transform a perfect wilder- 
 ness into the most opulent and the most desirable of the world's, 
 markets. Why should the total alien, without any participation 
 in developing our resources, without sharing in the support of our 
 government, without a personal stake in the welfare of our Union, 
 be allowed to be an exceptionally favored beneficiary of all that 
 toil and effort? There is no way in which he can be compelled to 
 compensate our nationality for the high privilege of admission to 
 our domestic markets except through duties on imports. Only by 
 the imposition of such charges, made adequate to the purpose, can 
 the unequal conditions of competition be equalized between the 
 alien and the citizen, meeting as rivals in trade upon our soil." 
 
 Joseph "Wharton, Philadelphia, Pa. : 
 
 " The old-fashioned way of gaining population from a neigh- 
 boring country by invading it and carrying off its inhabitants as 
 slaves is no longer practiced by civilized nations, and the acquisi- 
 tion of territory by similar means is perhaps not so frequent as it 
 once was, but the newer style of aggrandizement by winning the 
 wealth of a neighbor through industrial aasaults and trade inva- 
 sions is now in the fullest activity. 
 
 "In this modern and highly civilized style of warfare, improved 
 machinery takes the place of improved artillery; the enemy's 
 forces — his industrial population — are driven from their guns by 
 missiles of textiles and metal wares, and are destroyed in their 
 homes by starvation rather than by bullets in the field. 
 
Statements of Eminent Men. 161 
 
 'It is clear that the patriotism which can sleep through this 
 industrial warfare and suffer this trade spoilatioh, and can only be 
 roused into activity by the danger and passion of flagrant war; 
 which can vote the public money to maintain rarely used armies, 
 navies, and forts, but cannot give the slightest aid or comfort to 
 the real and constant defenders of its country's independence — its 
 industrial soldiers — is a patriotism belonging to periods long gone 
 by, and is of little more present use than a bow and arrow. The 
 spirit of loyalty is forever the same, but it must now learn to pro- 
 mote its conntry's welfare by the arts of peace, pursuing its ancient 
 and honorable aim by the new methods." 
 
 Professor Francis Bowen, Harvard College, Cam- 
 bridge, Mass. (Political Economy, pp. 491-92) : 
 
 " But on this great question between free trade and protection 
 the arguments relating to pecuniary loss and gain (important as 
 they are) do not merit so much notice as those respecting the devo- 
 tion of the greater part of the people to skilled or rude labor. 
 * * * Viewed in this light, the question seems to be one 
 between progress in civilization and the arts, or a gradual return, 
 I will not say to barbarism, but to that imperfect stage of civiliza- 
 tion which exists in all countries where the people are almost 
 exclusively devoted to agriculture. The best legislative policy is 
 that which will most effectually develop all the natural advantages 
 of a country, whether mental or material. It is as wasteful, to 
 say the least, to allow mechanical skill and inventive genius to 
 remain unemployed, as to permit water-power to run without turn- 
 ing mill wheels, or minerals to remain in the ore, or forests to 
 stand where cotton and grain might grow luxuriantly. * * * 
 To give full scope to all varieties of taste, genius, and tempera- 
 ment ; to foster inventive talent ; to afford adequate encourage- 
 ment to all the arts, whether mechanical or those usually distin- 
 guished as the fine arts ; to concentrate the people * * * with- 
 in the sphere of the humanizing influences and larger means of 
 mental culture and social improvement * * * in cities and 
 large towns ; — these are objects which deserve at least as much 
 attention as the inquiry where we can buy calicoes cheapest, or 
 how great pecuniary sacrifice must be made before we can make 
 our own railroad iron. 
 11 
 
162 Statements of Eminent Men. 
 
 "I see not how these ends can be obtained in a country like 
 ours * * * without throwing over our manufacturing indus- 
 try, at least for half a century to come, the broad shield of an 
 effective protecting tariff. ******* 
 
 "A protective duty prevents agriculture from being so overdone 
 as to render raw material the only article of export, and to depress 
 its price so low that, though the people have a rude abundance of 
 food and other mere necessaries, they are deprived of most of the 
 comforts and elegancies of life ; * * * the cost of commodi- 
 ties will be less than if the duty had not been imposed; its gen- 
 eral effect is to stimulate invention, to multiply the productive 
 arts, and to enlarge the sources of national opulence." 
 
 Jolm'L. Hayes, Cambridge, Mass. : 
 
 " The assertion of England that protective doctrines are opposed 
 to the philosophical and practical judgment of the present period, 
 is hot to be believed, because England is deeply interested in mak- 
 ing the world accept this fallacy. "With her teeming and starving, 
 and now restless and discontented population, her very existence 
 depends upon keeping open the foreign outlets for her manufact- 
 ures, ' and receiving, at cheap rates, the raw material of other 
 nations. By creating a current of sentiment which will tend to a 
 removal by other nations of restrictions upon the entry of her 
 goods, she secures a triple purpose, the occupation of foreign 
 markets, the means of increasing the prices of her goods by crush- 
 ing out competing manufactures, and the cheapening of the 
 desired products of agriculture, which is sure to result from the 
 abandonment of domestic manufactures in all the countries into 
 which her goods can enter without restriction. England stands 
 forth not so much as the great exemplar, but as the great propar 
 gandist of free trade. To engraf t this policy upon other nations, 
 is the paramount idea of British statesmanship. It governs all her 
 diplomacy, is never lost sight of in her legislation, and is avowed 
 by all her ministers. All English literature is tinged by the politi- 
 cal philosophy inspired by this idea. Her press reiterates day by 
 day its platitudes concerning the progress of liberal ideas, and its 
 paradoxes concerning the unselfishness of British commerce, not 
 to affect opinion in England, which is always fixed in the direc- 
 tion of interest, but to create opinion outside of England. Dur- 
 ing the last century an institution was founded in England, under 
 
Statements of Eminent Mem. 163 
 
 the style of "The Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts," whose practical benevolence is attested by many churches 
 still standing in this country, erected by its funds. The great 
 missionary enterprise to which England of to-day is devoted is the 
 propagation in "foreign parts" (especially in the United States) 
 of the doctrine of a political religion, — the gospel of free trade. 
 Its tracts are the essays of British economists ; its colporteurs, her 
 commercial traders ; its foreign missionaries, the representatives 
 of the press of our leading commercial city ; and its churches, 
 our bonded warehouses. No influence which can contribute to 
 the spread of this religion is despised ; no accessible organ which 
 can affect opinion abroad remains unsubsidized." 
 
 Stephen Colwell, report as United States Revenue 
 Commissioner, to the Secretary of the Treasury, 1866: 
 
 "The purchasing power of a people who have duly mingled 
 manufactures with agriculture is tenfold that of a purely agricul- 
 tural community. They purchase of each other. The population 
 of Great Britain and the United States is not far from thirty millions 
 each, yet the internal trade of the United States is tenfold greater in 
 value than all our foreign trade, Great Britain included. The 
 strength and wealth of a country should be measured by the 
 quantity and value of its own productions which it consumes, 
 and not by what it sends abroad. Massachusetts and Philadel- 
 phia contribute to the consumption of the United States more than 
 all Europe; so also the City of New York and New Jersey. The 
 trade between Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York on the 
 one side, and New England on the other, vastly exceeds our trade 
 with Europe. Like facts may be found in the statistics of every 
 State and county." 
 
 Robert B. Thompson, Professor of Social Science and 
 National Economy in the University of Pennsylvania. 
 (Social Science, etc. — page 271): 
 
 "Is it 'natural' that any nation should keep its farms on one 
 continent and its workshops on another? Is it 'natural ' that cot- 
 ton, on its way from the grower to the weaver, should go 
 half way round the globe and back again? Is it ' natural ' that a 
 large part of the race should be employed in carrying bulky 
 
164 Statements of Eminent Men. 
 
 articles — raw materials and coarse goods — from some countries to 
 others in the same climate and of the same general capacity? Is 
 it ' natural ' that a country with millions of tons of iron on the 
 surface of her soil, and square miles of coal not far below it, 
 should send thousands of miles for railroad iron? * * * Pro- 
 tection is natural resistance to an unnatural state of things." 
 
 Hon. W. D. Kelley, M. C, in Congress, May, 1882 : 
 
 "The framers of our tariff regarded all forms of American 
 labor, and, placing a duty upon the primary element of an. article 
 if of native production, advanced the rate, as the article was 
 advanced by an increased expenditure of labor. 
 
 "In this they followed not only the teachings of social science, 
 but the example of Prance, who still maintains many of the pro- 
 visions of her tariff law of 1793. Her tariff from the days of 
 Colbert has been a series of graded duties, increasing with the 
 increased labor involved in each step of the advancement of the 
 article. Let me invite the attention of the committee to the result 
 of the industrial stability secured by this permanence of wisely 
 adjusted rates of duty. Dynasties have risen and perished ; the 
 doctrine of the divine right of kings was swept away by the 
 breath of a new-born democracy ; an empire subdued the vio- 
 lence of this new-born giant, and restored monarchy succeeded the 
 empire. But, though political revolutions have occurred at brief 
 intervals throughout the century, the industries of France have 
 been stable, the French people have prospered and French indus- 
 try and art have conquered the world by their excellence and ele- 
 gance ; and it is still true that a pound of cotton manufactured in 
 France, and beautified by her cultivated artisans, will pay for 
 scores of pounds of coarse and adulterated British fabrics." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, Illinois, 1832: 
 
 " I am in favor of the internal improvement system, and a high, 
 protective tariff." 
 
 He held the same views all his life. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 COMMON INTEREST INSTEAD OP SECTIONAL 
 JEALOUSY. 
 
 The more we study the interdependence, intimate 
 relations, and common interests of different parts of our 
 ■wide country, the more we see the benefits of free and 
 ready intercourse and exchange of products within our 
 borders, and of a national protective policy beneficial 
 alike to all. 
 
 In an able speech in Chicago, Hon. V. B. Denslow 
 said : " The United States was the first to establish per- 
 fect free trade among all the people within one national 
 boundary." France, as he says, not abolishing her 
 interior custom houses, until 1793, and Germany not 
 until from 1810 to 1830, under the advice of Frederick 
 List, long a resident of that country, an able protection- 
 ist and a disciple and friend of Matthew Carey, of Phil- 
 adelphia. England had duties discriminating against 
 Ireland up to 1846. 
 
 It is a new evidence of the ability of the Fathers of 
 our country in 1787 that they inaugurated protection in 
 foreign commerce and free trade at home at the same 
 time. 
 
 Free trade appeals to sectional jealousy; protection 
 builds up national unity. Fifty years ago Southern free 
 traders advocated that policy "to insure the British 
 market for their cotton, prevent Northern manufactures, 
 force a large number of Northern men into agriculture, 
 multiply the growth and increase the price of provisions, 
 
 165 
 
166 Common Interest 
 
 to feed and clothe their slaves at cheaper rates." (See 
 " Cotton is King, published and sold by subscription, 
 only, Augusta, Ga. ,1830. ") To-day Western free traders 
 move as British wire-pullers wish, and try to set the 
 West against the East, the plundered farmer against the 
 robber manufacturer, class against class. The enlight- 
 ened protectionist commends the East for its wise enter- 
 prise, and says to the West and South, " Go and do like- 
 wise." 
 
 NEW ENGLAND INDUSTKIES. 
 
 A native of New England, I made my home in the 
 West years ago, and am satisfied, yet not unmindful of 
 the advantages of my native land. Thus, I may be 
 impartial. 
 
 Suppose we travel together over ground familiar to- 
 me, and keep our eyes open and thoughts awake, as all 
 sensible people should when "journeying. 
 
 Start eastward from New York over the New Haven. 
 Railroad. The land is thin but carefully cultivated, fine 
 towns and villages are near each other, thrift and growth 
 are, manifest. The life overflowing from the great city 
 may help this, but it lasts beyond the reach of that tide. 
 
 In these towns are mills and factories. In Bridge- 
 port, for instance, are the great buildings where the 
 Wheeler & Wilson sewing machines are made, and shops 
 of other kinds. Beaching New Haven, the trade of 
 sea and land, the gathered wealth of two hundred years, 
 the colleges with their army of students may be counted, 
 but we must add the factories and shops to know what 
 keeps up the life and growth. Turn north to Hartford. 
 It is the same along the road, and on reaching that beau- 
 tiful city, we see again great manufactures and wondrous. 
 
Instead of Sectional Jealousy. 167 
 
 mecnanism. Still, up the lovely valley of the Con- 
 necticut, and we find richer land, but narrow in extent, 
 with rude hills on either side, and the blue mountains 
 standing grandly against the sky, west and north. Reach- 
 ing Springfield, its mills and shops for cotton, wool, 
 paper, hardware, tools, and guns, give scope for invent- 
 ive genius, varied employ to labor, activity to trade, 
 and ready market at good prices for the products of the 
 farms. 
 
 Look into the newspapers, and you see advertisements 
 of dealers in Western produce, with their agents in 
 Toledo, Chicago, and other cities, showing how these 
 thousands of workmen reach out eager hands for the 
 food wherewith we can fill them. Still north, at Holy- 
 oke, the river is spanned by a clam eleven hundred feet 
 long; a canal sixty feet wide and twelve feet deep is 
 opened, and along its banks are mills for wire, thread, 
 paper, and cotton, with the stream tumbling over the 
 rocks on the east, and the homes of thirty thousand 
 people on the west). 
 
 At Northampton we find the old town, always beauti- 
 ful, adding freshness and life to its beauty. Street-cars 
 carry us to Florence, a suburb three miles westward, 
 where delicate mechanism twists gossamer threads and 
 finishes thousands of pounds of the famed " Nonotuck " 
 sewing silk a month, paying 400 skilled men and women 
 good wages. In a great shop, with a lookout from its 
 upper windows over river and meadow and mountain, 
 worth going far to see, are made hardware goods in large 
 quantities. Pleasant homes, fine churches, a noble 
 school house, a library open free to all, make up the vil- 
 lage of three thousand people — intelligent, self-respect- 
 ing, working men and women. 
 
168 Common Interest 
 
 We have traveled a hundred and fifty miles, and 
 might go farther with similar results and observations. 
 On our way we have passed branch railroads, reaching 
 into regions remote from cities, yet paying their way by 
 carrying to factories among the hills the food that we 
 produce, and bringing back the products of those fac- 
 tories, to find their way often to us. 
 
 Should we continue our journey, we should find that 
 Worcester, "the heart of the commonwealth," with its 
 excellent population, and a large share of intelligent 
 mechanics among them, has large and varied manufact- 
 ures. The Providence Eailroad skirts the bank of the 
 Blackstone river, passing through thirty miles of well- 
 nigh continuous villages, so near neighbors are the mills 
 along the rocky stream, and ends at the great centre of 
 the industry and trade that have made little Rhode 
 Island rich, with a soil so poor its people would starve 
 unless fed from the Western prairies. Its mills, too, 
 would close up unless the South sent them cotton. 
 
 Not only great corporations carry on business, but, in 
 many a smaller shop among New England hills, a man 
 of moderate means, or a few such combined, earn an 
 independence, while men of superior skill and good 
 habits not only add to the wealth of large employers, 
 but gain a competence themselves. 
 
 By returns of births and deaths in Massachusetts, 
 mortality is decreasing, and the average of health and 
 length of life slowly reaching upward. Doubtless, there 
 is weariness and pain among factory workers, as well as 
 dullness and vice among the lower grades, but this is, 
 unfortunately, the case elsewhere, and the results, on a 
 broad scale, tell well for the influence of varied industry 
 on the health and character of the people. Every new 
 
Instead of Sectional Jealousy. 169 
 
 factory in the East benefits every farmer in the West and 
 South ; and our way is open to increase that benefit by 
 increasing like industries in our midst. 
 
 The East, with experience, skill, and capital, are mak- 
 ing fine fabrics, delicate tools, and admirable mechanism. 
 We begin with simpler products, and our abundant food 
 and fuel and raw materials will draw manufacturers to 
 us with a force sure as gravitation, if we are timely and 
 persistent in our efforts to that end. 
 
 THE SOUTH — A NEW ERA. 
 
 The South is entering upon a new era. 
 
 Its singular advantage is in the variety of its resources 
 — lands on the coasts and river-bottoms of wonderful 
 fertility, fitted for cotton, rice and sugar, and plains, 
 and mountain valleys, and hills, yielding wheat and 
 corn and grass of finest, quality wait to be tilled; fruits, 
 from the orange to the peach and apple, can be pro- 
 duced; swift streams are ready to serve man by turning 
 many water-wheels; large rivers can be navigated far up 
 to the interior; great mines of iron and copper, beds of 
 •coal and quarries of stone wait to be opened; vast for- 
 ests stand ready to serve human needs; spacious bays 
 and noble harbors are along thousands of miles of coast, 
 on ocean and gulf, and the mild, yet salubrious air of its 
 upper valleys favors vigor of body and mind. Such 
 variety of resources and advantages can hardly be found, 
 in a similar extent, on the globe. 
 
 The lesson is plain: diversify the industry of the peo- 
 ple, that this varied wealth may be developed. This is 
 the great work of to-day, — this is the industrial "recon- 
 struction " of the South, by which will come employ- 
 ment, harmony, comfort, wealth, and the light and 
 power of a growing civilization. 
 
170 Common Interest 
 
 Under the old system, land was held in large tracts, 
 and tilled for a few great staples, with little variety in 
 its products; and those staples were exported to Europe 
 and to the North. Even the raising of grain was neglected, 
 and food imported for the laborers. Manufactures were 
 little thought of, and all efforts given to the raising and 
 export of these staples, robbing the soil of its wealth, 
 with no return for the wholesale spoliation. ~So wonder 
 the old planting States grew poor and men migrated from 
 worn-out lands to newer regions, to begin again, on vir- 
 gin soil, the exhaustive process and thus gain a living 
 for themselves, but hand down a heritage of exhaustion 
 to their children. 
 
 This system is of the past. Lands will be tilled for 
 more varied crops, and a gradual change will substitute' 
 farms of moderate size, managed by their working own- 
 ers and occupants for the great plantations. Grain will 
 be raised for export as well as home use, and the risk of 
 failure of crops lessened by their variety. Cotton facto- 
 ries, iron mills, and machine shops must be built, mines 
 and coal-beds opened, and forests utilized, giving employ 
 to all, attracting skill and capital, giving home markets- 
 for the farmer's produce, saving vast costs of transporta- 
 tion abroad, and paying back to the soil, in fertilizers, 
 the wealth of which it has been robbed. 
 
 Such will be the new era, full of benefit and blessing. 
 Men of the South, are you ready for your noble work? 1 
 Women of the South, will you give the influence of your 
 womanhood, helping upward to a better future? 
 
 A few facts touching the home consumption of cotton, 
 will show the effect of legislation. In 1824 factories 
 north of the Potomac used 110,000 bales, but in 1835 
 this had grown to 216,000, nearly doubling in seven years . 
 
Instead of Sectional Jealousy. 171 
 
 from 1828 and increasing four times as fast as the popu- 
 lation. This growth was under a protective tariff. In 
 1842 the consumption was 267,000 bales, an increase of 
 but 23 per cent., while population had increased 25 per 
 cent. This slow increase was under a compromise tariff. 
 
 Oi the crop of 1847-8, the home demand used 531,000 
 bales, nearly doubling in five years, and increasing six 
 times as fast as population; this large increase being 
 under a protective tariff again. 
 
 For three years, from 1857 to 1860, the ,average con- 
 sumption was 668,000 bales, an increase of but 25 per 
 cent, in ten years, while population had grown forty per 
 cent. ; this slow increase being again under the low tariff 
 system of 1848. The South had started home manufact- 
 ures a little, and in 1848 their cotton consumption had 
 reached 100,000 bales, under a protective tariff, and the- 
 Charleston Mercury expressed the belief that in ten 
 years the South would not export raw cotton; but that 
 tariff was reduced, and the consumption went back to 
 87,500 bales in 1860. In 1860, by the census, there 
 were 5,235,727 cotton-spindles in the country, and the 
 increase up to 1864-5 was slight, if any, but in 1868 
 there were 7,000,000 spindles, and the home consump- 
 tion had reached 900,000 bales, in the year ending Sep- 
 tember, 1868. This again was under a protective tariff. 
 These facts tell their own story. 
 
 In 1868 the hardy lumbermen of Michigan fitted for 
 market 750,000,000 feet of lumber, and the products of 
 the mines and forests of that State were some $40,000,- 
 000. In 1880 they reached $75,000,000. The total 
 product of all Massachusetts manufactures in 1880 
 was $631,000,000. In ten years, from' 1855 to 1865, 
 the farm products had grown from $50,000,000 to 
 
172 Common Interest 
 
 $100,000,000, showing the benefit to the farm of the 
 factory being a neighbor. This was in an old State, 
 and on thin soil; with more room and richer resources 
 the South can surely equal these results. 
 
 By returns of the National Association of Cotton Manu- 
 facturers and Planters, there were eighty-six cotton mills 
 in the Southern States in 1868, running 215,000 spindles 
 and using 41,500,000 pounds of cotton. 
 
 The increase of spindles from 1868 to 1880 was nearly 
 three fold, or up to 600,000, and the Boston Commer- 
 cial Bulletin said in 1874: "There is nothing visionary 
 in the handsome dividends that the mills of Georgia are 
 paying, even in these hard times." 
 
 Hon. Alexander H. Stephens wrote the Philadelphia 
 Press : 
 
 " Suppose the cotton crop of my State (Georgia) should reach 
 500,000 hales, allowing 500 pounds to the bale, it would aggregate 
 250,000,000 pounds, which, at ten cents per pound, would make 
 its value $25,000,000. This cotton manufactured into thread 
 (which can be done more cheaply in Georgia than in Massachu- 
 setts and Rhode Island) and exported in this shape to the North 
 and to Europe to be put into cloth, would amount in value to 
 $75,000,000, instead of $25,000,000 when only the raw material is 
 exported. Our future, therefore, is great and hopeful in prospect 
 if our people are but true to themselves in working-out their own 
 high destiny." 
 
 The great Industrial Exhibition in Atlanta in J.880, 
 gave cheering proofs of the growth of Southern skill and 
 varied industry. In 1874 Louisville, Ky. , had 500 manu- 
 facturing establishments, with $20,000,000 invested, 
 $56,000,000 produced, and ten thousand workers em- 
 ployed. Tennessee iron is sold in all Western markets; 
 Alabama iron is made into car wheels in Philadelphia, 
 and its ore goes to Indiana furnaces. The Vulcan and 
 
Instead of Sectional Jealousy. 173 
 
 Tredegar works of Eichmond, Va., ship their products 
 to Cuba and South America, and make fish-bar bolts for 
 Northern railways. 
 
 The iron product of Alabama increased 792 per cent v 
 and that of Georgia 245 per cent., from 1870 to 1880. 
 Thus "the good work goes bravely on," under the 
 benign influence of a national protective policy. With 
 that policy, and toith persistent effort on their part, the 
 neto era of diversified industry in the South is sure to 
 come, full of Messing and benefit ; but with free trade, 
 or its near kin " tariff for revenue only," their efforts 
 will be vain, and neio troubles await them and all of us. 
 
 Ex-Governor Bullock, of Atlanta, Georgia, now 
 engaged in cotton manufacture, attended the Tariff 
 Conventions in Chicago and New York last November. 
 At Chicago he said : 
 
 "Visionary theories are disappearing before the substantial 
 advance of accomplished facts. Here the East, the West and the 
 South meet together with a common purpose and a common inter- 
 est to foster and encourage such legislation as will by its protective 
 features build up the mechanical industries whereby We can fab- 
 ricate within the borders of our own country the natural products, 
 of our soil, our mines and of our forests, thereby securing an 
 enhanced and diversified prosperity, by making sections and com- 
 munities more homogeneous and less dependent upon artificial 
 means of transportation. 
 
 "It is a trite saying, but none the less true, that the farmer 
 needs the mechanic to consume his surplus of provisions, and the 
 mechanic needs the farmer to use his surplus of fabrics. 
 
 "I have said this gathering marks an era. It is within the. 
 memory of the youngest man here that corn has been burned as 
 fuel in this section, when underlying the fields upon which that 
 corn was grown were veins of the finest coal. 
 
 "I regret to say that in my section we are to-day wearing out 
 the points of plows not made at home, by dragging them through 
 the iron ore that lays upon our hill-sides." 
 
174 Common Interest 
 
 In a late speech in the Capitol at Washington, Hon. 
 <r. W. Hewitt, M. 0., of Alabama, said : 
 
 "No great measure has promoted the general prosperity of the 
 country to a greater extent than the protection of American labor 
 and American industries. * * * New England farmers have 
 prospered because they have factories near, and a market at their 
 door for all they have to sell. The Alabama farmers are as much 
 interested in the development of coal and iron, and the building 
 •of cotton mills, as any class of persons." 
 
 Mr. Hewitt spoke of the coal and iron of his State, 
 " equal to a supply of the world for many centuries." 
 
 A WESTERN VIEW. 
 
 The Indianapolis Journal says : 
 
 "Nothing in the moral world is more certain than that the pros- 
 perity and welfare of the country demand a policy of judicious 
 protection. It is the habit of some to dismiss the consideration of 
 this subject with the remark that it concerns only the manufact- 
 uring interest, and consequently is interesting only to a class. 
 There could be no greater mistake than this. It concerns all 
 interests, the development of the whole country, and the pros- 
 perity of every individual. If protection is the true policy; as 
 reason, experience, and facts prove it to be, the farmers of Indi- 
 ana and the West are as much interested in its establishment as 
 are the manufacturers of New England and the East. For it 
 stands to reason that the development of manufactures means the 
 creation of a home market for the products of the soil, with diver- 
 sified industry and general prosperity. 
 
 " Suppose the case of a farmer without any market at all for 
 his surplus products. Suppose him to be located in the midst of 
 an extensive plain or valley, fertile and productive, but inaccessi- 
 ble and so completely cut off from the rest of the world that he 
 would have no market at all. Not only would the results of his 
 toil be greatly lessened by the impossibility of procuring labor- 
 saving machinery and implements, but all that he produced over 
 and above the wants of himself and family would be sheer 
 waste, — dead loss for the lack of a market. The condition of 
 
Instead of Sectional Jealousy. 175 
 
 such a farmer would be most deplorable. Second, suppose that 
 instead of no market at all he had a very distant one, say a manu- 
 facturing city or town a hundred miles distant, and accessible only 
 by country road. This would be an improvement, but still very 
 far from a happy condition. The remoteness of the market and 
 the difficulty of reaching it would prevent him from availing him- 
 self of it with any regularity. If other farmers were situated 
 near it, he would be completely at their mercy. He could sell but 
 veiy few articles, and would have to take the buyer's price. But, 
 third, suppose a manufacturing town to spring up within a few 
 miles of the farmer's house, and the means of communication 
 such as to enable him to market his products every day or when- 
 ever it suited him. Now, he not only has a steady and reliable 
 sale for all he can produce, at good prices, but he is encouraged 
 to engage in branches of agriculture untried before, and to pro- 
 duce articles which he had never dreamed there was any demand 
 for or any profit in. By the cheapening of many things which 
 he needed, and which are now produced almost at his door, his 
 labor is rendered more easy and productive, while the surplus pro- 
 duce which before was accustomed to decay on his hands now 
 finds steady and profitable sale. To state the case in a nutshell, 
 protection creates a home market for home products." 
 
 The aggregate value of the manufactures, leading 
 mechanic arts and flouring mills included, of seven lead- 
 ing cities in the Northwest in 1880 was $587,000,000. 
 (This includes Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Louis- 
 ville, Detroit, Cincinnati and Cleveland; see U. S. 
 census.). The great coal fields of Iowa must be utilized 
 there. California and Oregon are beginning to manufact- 
 ure woolens and iron, and with the growth of manufact- 
 ures protective opinion gains. New York City is 
 becoming a great centre of home industry as well as of 
 foreign trade. The quarter of a million workmen this 
 employs cannot be the dumb slaves of a policy that ends 
 in low wages. The men who have invested over $150,- 
 000,000 in these establishments cannot sit quiet and see 
 
176 
 
 Common, Interest 
 
 efforts for legislation which would discriminate against 
 them and in favor of foreigners. So we find in New 
 York, a great tariff convention and a strong industrial 
 league. 
 
 The Chicago Inter Ocean, in commenting on the sta- 
 tistics of the census of 1880 relative to the manufactures 
 of leading cities, says: 
 
 "It is important as showing the vast extent to which New York 
 City is indebted for its commercial prestige to the fact that it is 
 the centre of American manufactures. The total manufactures 
 of the port of New York proper, including merely those of New 
 York City, Jersey City, and Brooklyn, and excluding those of 
 Paterson, Newark, Elizabeth, Yonkers, and other manufacturing 
 suburbs of New York, are as follows: 
 
 Cities. 
 
 Establish- 
 ments. 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Workers. 
 
 Annual 
 product. 
 
 
 11,163 
 
 5,089 
 
 555 
 
 - $164,917,856 
 56,621,399 
 11,329,915 
 
 217,977 
 45,226 
 10,688 
 
 $488,209,248 
 
 
 169,757,590 
 
 
 59,581,541 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 16,806 
 
 $232,869,170 
 
 273,891 
 
 $717,548,379 
 
 
 
 "The total imports and exports of merchandise at the "ort of 
 York for 1880 were as follows: 
 
 Imports of merchandise . . . • $459, 937, 1 53 
 
 Exports of merchandise 385,506,602 
 
 Total $845,443, 755 
 
 "It appears, therefore, that the annual product of the manufact- 
 ures of New York City alone exceeds by $30,000,000 its entire 
 imports, though these imports are for distribution over the entire 
 country, and the aggregate annual product of the port of New 
 York very nearly equals its entire imports and exports combined. 
 Indeed, if the two manufacturing suburbs — Newark and Pater- 
 son — are included, the total annual product considerably exceeds 
 
Instead of Sectional Jealousy. 177 
 
 the entire imports and exports of that great mart which has been 
 supposed by some to live out of its foreign trade. The fact is that 
 New York, like the rest of the country, is acquiring a volume 
 of business in connection with its manufactures and domestic 
 trade which, in relative importance, rises far above its foreign 
 trade. The entire foreign trade of New York, import and export, 
 probably does not support more than 100,000 out of its 1,250,000 
 people." 
 
 Philadelpnia, with her longer established and more 
 varied industries, aggregating $430,000,000, prizes the 
 thrift and wealth they bring her people. It must be 
 borne in mind that manufactures give employ to many 
 more persons than mercantile business of a like amount 
 does, or can. 
 
 A careful article in a late International Revieiv shows 
 that in 1850, in nine "Western States — Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, 
 and Nebraska — there were 24,921 manufacturing estab- 
 lishments employing 110,501 persons, and producing 
 $146,348,554 worth. In 1880 these had grown to 124,- 
 763, employing 755,286 persons, and producing $1,819,- 
 588,355 worth. In 1850 the "Western States and terri- 
 tories had about 12 per cent, of the total investment 
 of the United States in manufactures ; in 1880, over 30 
 per cent., with 3,500,000 of their 20,000,000 people sus- 
 tained by manufactures and mechanism, and purchasers 
 of farm products. 
 
 An early settler, now owner in a large *ron mill in a 
 Western city, tells of an old and valued friend, a pioneer 
 farmer, who was an earnest and honest free trader, 
 opposed to "monopolists." He came one day for a 
 visit, and they went through the. mill together, talked of 
 its product wages market for produce and the like, but 
 no word of protection or free trade. Going back to 
 
 12 
 
178 Common Interest 
 
 the office the visitor sat silent and in absent thought^ 
 until he was asked what troubled him. He rose up and 
 said: "I've been a fool on this tariff question all my 
 days, and looking over your mill has let light into my 
 old head. I'll go with you for any fair thing to build 
 more such mills among our farms." 
 
 A protective policy binds together all parts of our 
 country as with hooks of steel, and helps to good work 
 and good will for all. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 OUR HISTORY TEACHES THE BENEFITS OP PRO- 
 TECTION. 
 
 Our national history teaches the benefits of protection 
 and the perils of free trade. Within three months after 
 his inauguration as our first President, Washington 
 readily signed the first tariff act, " for the encourage- 
 ment and protection of manufactures." Jefferson and 
 other leading men held like opinions, and Fisher Ames, 
 of Massachusetts, said in- Congress, in the debates on 
 the first tariff bill : "The present Constitution was dic- 
 tated by commercial necessity more than any other cause. 
 The want of an efficient government to secure our man- 
 ufacturing interest and advance our commerce was long 
 seen by men of judgment and patriots." No marvel in 
 this, since Great Britain constantly crushed our com- 
 merce and manufactures by oppressive laws, so long as 
 we were her subject colonies. Yet to-day men in Con- 
 gress and elsewhere profess to doubt what no man of 
 any party doubted then, — the Constitutional right to 
 enact protective tariff laws, a right maintained by the 
 words and acts of Hamilton, Madison and other framers 
 of our Constitution. Modern free , traders claim to 
 know what that instrument means better than its 
 framers. Theorists like Professor Perry arraign the 
 wisdom of these great men, and assert that they 
 established an "utterly false principle" in "national 
 legislation, " which has grown " more unjust and 
 
 179 
 
180 Our History Teaches the 
 
 abominable." The protective idea was prominent, too, 
 in the minds of the people. Horace Greeley says (in 
 Political Economy) : 
 
 "When the Federal Constitution was adopted in 1787, and it 
 was announced that enough States had voted to ratify it, there 
 were instantly great rejoicings in all the seaboard villages, and 
 great processions were formed, wherein the laboring classes: 
 appeared parading the hammer and the anvil, crying out, 'Pro- 
 tection to American industry !' They had had free trade since 
 the war ended, and they had had, enough of markets glutted with 
 foreign goods and no demand for American labor." 
 
 He states, also, that when a protective tariff act was 
 passed in 1828, the British vessels in Charleston harbor 
 put their flags at half mast as mourning over a calamity. 
 
 But the early protective measures were inadequate, 
 although beneficial to some extent. 
 
 At the close of the war of 1812 the country was over- 
 whelmed by the enormous importation of cottons and 
 woolens, admitted at a duty of five per cent, ad valorem. 
 Although Great Britain lost heavily by the first importa- 
 tions, she consoled herself for this loss by the prospect 
 of permanently commanding our markets. It was at 
 this very period, namely, on the 9th of April, 1816, that 
 Mr. Brougham remarked in the House of Commons : 
 
 " It was well worth while to incur a loss upon the first exporta- 
 tion, in order, by the glut, to stifle in the cradle those infant 
 manufactures in the United States, which the war had forced into 
 existence, contrary to the natural order of things." 
 
 Mr. Greeley gives his personal recollections as follows: 
 
 "My distinct personal recollections on this head go back to- 
 the period of industrial derangement, business collapse, and wide- 
 spread pecuniary ruin, which closely followed the close, in 1815, 
 of our last war with Great Britain. Peace found this country 
 dotted with furnaces and factories, which had suddenly sprung 
 up under the precarious shelter of embargo and war. These — not 
 
Benefits of ^Protection. 181 
 
 jet firmly established, in a country whose commerce, before canals, 
 Tailroads or steam were known, was almost wholly external or on 
 the seaboard — found themselves suddenly exposed to a determined 
 . and relentless foreign competition. Great Britain had pushed her 
 fabrics into almost every corner of the world. Of some of these great 
 stocks had nevertheless accumulated, out of fashion, and only salable 
 far below cost. These were thrown on our markets in a perfect 
 deluge, being advertised in Boston journals at 'pound for pound,' 
 — that is, what cost $4.44 (really $4.80) to make in England being 
 soldinBoston,dutyandchargespaid,for$3.33. Thetariff of 1816, 
 mainly framed by William Lowndes, was meant as a barrier 
 against this inundation, but proved inadequate, except on coarse 
 cottons and a few other rude products. Our manufactories went 
 down like grain before the mower ; our agriculture and the wages 
 of labor speedily followed. In New England I judge that fully 
 •one-fourth of the property went through the sheriff's mill; and the 
 prostration was scarcely less general elsewhere. In Kentucky the 
 presence of debt was universal and intolerable. In New York 
 the principal merchants united (1817) in a memorial to Congress to 
 save our commerce as well as our manufactures from utter ruin 
 by increasing the tariff and prohibiting the sale at auction of 
 imported fabrics." 
 
 The tariff act of 1816 extended and increased specific 
 duties, and was passed by a vote of 88 to 54 in the House 
 and a majority in the Senate. Twenty-five votes in its 
 iavor were cast by Southern members, such eminent men 
 as Lumpkins and Cuthbert of Georgia, E. M. Johnson 
 of Kentucky, Barbour and St. George Tucker of Vir- 
 ginia, and Lowndes and John C. Calhoun of South Caro- 
 . lina, among them,— the last named strongly advocating 
 the measure as necessary for prosperity and national 
 unity. 
 
 But tnese able men, aiming to build up our manufact- 
 ures and thus benefit our farms, had not learned the 
 persistent resolve and power of our British competitors, 
 and the tariff they framed, although protective in its 
 
182 Our History Teaches the 
 
 aim and method, did not prove to be a barrier strong 
 enough, and a few years showed that it must be strength- 
 ened, as it was by the tariff of 1824. 
 
 The Chicago Commercial Advertiser sums up later 
 tariff history as follows: 
 
 "Our first tariff worthy of the name of protection was that of 
 1824. For a number of years previous to that date the condition 
 of the whole country was deplorable. The American markets 
 were flooded with foreign merchandise. Home manufacturers 
 were everywhere overmastered by ruinous competition from abroad. 
 Employment was scarce and wages ridiculously low. An em- 
 barrassed condition was the common lot. So soon as the tariff of 
 1824 went into operation the whole aspect and course of affairs 
 were changed. Activity took the place of sluggishness. Capital 
 sought investments. Labor came into demand. Wages advanced. 
 Mines were opened, furnaces built, mills started, shops multiplied. 
 Business revived in all its departments. Revenue flowed copiously 
 into the coffers of the government. The debts created by two expen- 
 sive wars were entirely paid off. Such a scene of general prosperity 
 had never before been seen by our people. More stringent pro- 
 tection was provided by the act of 1828, and affairs still more rap- 
 idly improved. President Jackson said, in his annual message, 
 December 4, 1832: ' Our country presents on every side marks of 
 prosperity and happiness, unequaled, perhaps, in any other por- 
 tion of the world.' 
 
 " Then came the nullification times of South Carolina and the 
 compromise tariff of 1833. This act took effect January 1, 1834, 
 and was to operate by a series of periodical reductions of the rates 
 on imports until June 30, 1842, after which date no duty was to 
 exceed twenty per cent. Under this legislation industry and trade 
 soon declined. Foreign goods poured like an inundation into our 
 markets. Less than three and a half years brought the panic and 
 the collapse of 1837. Affairs went from bad to worse. The gov- 
 ernment became impoverished with the people. Its resources sank 
 so low that President Tyler could not at one time obtain the pay- 
 ment of his salary, and had to resort to the brokers for loans. 
 
 "Alleviation was sought and obtained by the protective tariff of 
 1842, the best measure of the kind we have had in all our history. 
 
.Benefits of Protection. 
 
 183 
 
 A moat extraordinary revival of production and trade was speedily- 
 accomplished. We may sum up the results in the words of Presi- 
 dent Polk's annual message, December 8, 1846, as follows : ' Labor 
 in all its branches is receiving an ample reward, while education, 
 science, and the arts are rapidly enlarging the means of social hap- 
 piness. The progress of our country in her career of greatness, 
 not only in the vast extension of our territorial limits, and in the 
 rapid increase of our population, but in resources and wealth, and 
 in the happy condition of our people, is without an example in the 
 history of nations.' 
 
 "When these glowing words were published the free trade tariff 
 of 1846 had been in operation just eight days. Although the 
 movement was slower than from 1833, the decadence went on 
 steadily. Our Presidents ceased to congratulate the country on its 
 prosperity. Yet a further reduction of the tariff took place in 
 1857, followed, in a few months, by the panic of that year. Reve- 
 nue declined. Wages went down. Employment at any pay was 
 hard to find. Just before the rebellion the government was bor- 
 rowing money to pay its ordinary expenses in time of peace. 
 
 "In 1861 was passed that protective tariff which the free traders 
 denounced as ' the bill of abominations.' Under that and the fol- 
 lowing acts we once more had a marvelous recuperation of pro- 
 duction and commerce. " 
 
 "With comprehensive terseness Henry 0. Carey con- 
 denses the matter in this way 
 
 "Protection, as established in 
 1813, 1828, 1842, gave, as that 
 of 1861 is giving: Great de- 
 mand for labor. Wages high 
 and money cheap. Public and 
 private revenues large, and im- 
 migration great and steadily in- 
 creasing. Public and private 
 property great beyond all pre- 
 vious precedent. Growing na- 
 tional independence.'' 
 
 "British free trade as estab- 
 lished in 1817, 1834, 1846 and 
 1857, bequeathed to its succes- 
 sor: Labor everywhere seek- 
 ing to be employed. Wages 
 low and money high. Public 
 and private revenues small and 
 steadily decreasing. Immigra- 
 tion declining. Public and pri- 
 vate bankruptcy nearly uni- 
 versal. Growing national de- 
 pendence." 
 
184 Our History Teaches the 
 
 PROTECTIVE TARIFFS BEST FOR REVENUE. 
 
 The Chicago Morning Herald refutes a loose assertion 
 of the Chicago Tribune that "tariffs are a mechanism for 
 promoting protection by choking off revenue," by a tabu- 
 lar statement of receipts in fifteen years of revenue tar- 
 iffs,, from 1847 to 1861, as $708,082,956,— and for fif- 
 teen years with a protective tariff, from 1867 to 1881, as 
 $2,577,601,931, — the revenue for government in the last, 
 or protective,. period, three and a half times greater than 
 in the tariff for revenue period I 
 
 Not forgetful of the effects of good or bad crops, of 
 ■wars, and of the new abundance of gold and silver in 
 the world, we can see that our protective policy has been 
 a power for good through all. It should be borne espe- 
 cially in mind that the panic and financial peril of the 
 last few years, beginning in the United States in 1873, 
 was world-wide; was the only panic ever felt in this 
 country under a protective policy ; and that we felt it 
 less, had less^ distress of workmen and disaster to capital 
 than free-trade England, and recovered from it sooner 
 than England did. Prance, a protective country, and 
 -the United States with a like policy, had less trouble 
 and earlier recovery than any other great nations. The 
 horizontal reduction of ten per cent, in our tariff in 
 1872, doubtless helped to increase the panic of 1873. 
 
 The credit of our government, and the interest it 
 pays on its notes and bonds, tells the same story. In 
 1860, at the close of a dozen years of revenue tariff, 
 treasury notes payable in one year were issued as a 
 necessity to pay expenses. Of these $10,000,000 worth 
 were sold with some difficulty, half of them at 12 per 
 cent., over three-fourths at 10 to 12 per cent., one-tenth 
 
Benefits of Protection. 185 
 
 only at 6 to 8 per cent. , — high rates for those days. Now 
 our government pays low rates, 3 or 4 per cent, as a sure 
 investment for hundreds of millions of capital. 
 
 COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH, IK NEW YORK, OF DEXTER 
 A. HAWKINS. 
 
 A great meeting was held February 1st, 1883, in the 
 Cooper Institute, at which Peter Cooper presided, and 
 Hon. "W. M. Evarts and other eminent men spoke. 
 Extracts from the address of Mr. Hawkins will help our 
 knowledge of the industrial history we are now making : 
 
 "We have had four protective tariffs in this century. Under 
 the ( three former the country was uniformly prosperous. Imme- 
 diately following their respective repeals, the country passed 
 through periods of great depression, insolvency, and bankruptcy. 
 But, as the nation was then small and poor, the free traders may 
 say that what was for our interest then is not for our interest 
 now, — that we are so large and prosperous that a different system 
 is required. 
 
 "Let us consider, then, the effect upon the prosperity of the 
 country of the tariff of 1861, which is now in force. This pros- 
 perity, like a river, is made up of many streamlets. 
 
 "The mining and consumption of coal means force, power, 
 energy for manufactures, transportation, and the creation of 
 wealth. England now mines one hundred and sixty million tons 
 of coal a year. This applied to her machinery gives her the pro- 
 ducing and wealth-creating capacity of six hundred millions of 
 men, though her population is less than forty millions. 
 
 "In 1861 our output of coal was only sixteen million tons. In 
 1882, after twenty-one years of protective tariff, it had risen to 
 ninety million tons, being a gain of four hundred and sixty-two 
 and a half per cent. That means that the effective capacity of 
 the machinery of this country and its power to create wealth are 
 five and five : eighths times what they were twenty-one years ago. 
 
 "Twenty years more of like progress and our output of coal 
 
186 Our History Teaches the 
 
 will exceed that of England or any other country- on the globe, 
 and will, give us a capacity in producive machinery of at least six 
 hundred millions of humairbeings. 
 
 "A high protective tariff is a sort of Titanic steam-pressure 
 put upon this enormous dormant force of wealth and influence to 
 make- it active and productive. 
 
 "In 1861 we had only thirty-one thousand miles of railway, 
 and nearly all of this was single track. Now we have one hun- 
 dred and fourteen thousand miles, one-quarter of which is double 
 track, being a gain in mileage, under the stimulus of twenty-one 
 years of protective tariff, of eighty-three thousand miles, or two 
 hundred and thirty-seven per cent. The value of this eighty- 
 three thousand miles, at the average capitalization of fifty thou- 
 sand dollars per mile, is four thousand one hundred and fifty 
 millions ($4,150,000,000). This is just so much, in this item 
 alone, added to our national wealth in this short period. 
 
 "The gross earnings of this hundred and fourteen thousand 
 miles of railway, last year, were eight hundred million dollars 
 ($800,000,000), or an average of seven thousand dollars per mile ; 
 and yet transportation of freight and passengers has been cheap- 
 ened, until now it is only one-quarter of what it was thirty years 
 ago. 
 
 " The gross earnings last year of our railways were sufficient to 
 buy the entire mercantile marine of Qreat Britain. 
 ********* 
 
 " A tariff, protecting our own industry against injurious foreign 
 competition, compels foreign countries to send us, instead of mer- 
 chandise, their operatives, to save them from starvation, and their 
 capitalists in order to find profitable employment for their money. 
 If we let their merchandise come in without protective taxation, 
 these operatives and capitalists would eke out a subsistence at 
 home, and their countries would send us merchandise instead of 
 men and women. 
 
 "European statisticians inform us that the average cost to them 
 of raising the emigrants that come to this country is one thousand 
 dollars per head. They are worth to us much more than that 
 
 eiiTf* " " "*» * w S w "Sr 
 
 "Arc we now prepared to try the disastrous experiment of free 
 trade for the fifth time? 
 
Benefits of Protection. 187" 
 
 "We have been doing very well, under a protective tariff,. 
 Hadn't we better let well enough alone? 
 
 "Modifications in detail are required, but the principle of pro- 
 tection to our own industries is sound and should not be touched, 
 for it leads only to individual and national prosperity." 
 
 The New York Shipping List says that forty-two years; 
 ago the wealth of Great Britain was computed to be five 
 fold greater than ours, but now Mr. Mulhall, an eminent 
 English statistician, concedes that the United States; 
 exceeds Great Britain in total wealth, though not quite' 
 equal to it per capita. 
 
 Estimates made by Charles S. Hill, Statistician of the: 
 Department of State, representing the Metropolitan. 
 Industrial League, of New York, which appear in evi- 
 dence taken by the tariff commission, are as follows: 
 
 Population— United States, 50,150,000; Great Britain, 34,505,- 
 000; France, 37,166,000; Germany, 45,367,000; Russia, 82,400,000;; 
 Austria, 39,175,000. ■ 
 
 Wealth.— United States, $55,000,000,000; Great Britain, $45,000,- 
 000,000; France, $40,000,000,000; Germany, $25,000,000,000; Rus- 
 sia, $15,000,000,000; Austria, $14, 0QQ, 000,000. 
 
 This chapter of lessons from our history has a solid 
 value, not to be found in any plausible free trade theories. 
 Those theories are like apples of Sodom — fair to the eye> 
 but nauseous to the taste. 
 
CHAPTEE XIV- 
 
 FOREIGN COMMERCE— AMERICAN SHIPS. 
 
 "Of what consequence is it to me whose ships sail from 
 ■our ports? British or American, it affects me little if 
 •any." Something like this the farmer on a "Western 
 prairie, or the cotton grower far up some Southern river, 
 might say. Yet it is very important to them. Let war 
 break out in Europe, and Great Britain be involved, 
 while British ships carry our wheat and cotton and pro- 
 visions, and a blockade rolls back a tide of disaster to 
 every farmer's door, no matter how far inland he may be. 
 Let American ships be our carriers, and our flag, at 
 peace with all Europe, conveys those farm products safe 
 to every land. American ships must carry our exports 
 to foreign countries, and none are more interested in 
 this than our farmers. The manufacturer has like inter- 
 est, for the same reason, and also because foreign ship- 
 owners cannot be expected to help him in getting good 
 markets as Americans would. On the seas, as on land, 
 we want an American policy — the control of our trade 
 and transportation — and for this we must build up a 
 great American commercial marine. 
 
 At an early day, when only a narrow line along our 
 Atlantic coast was settled, and the development of the 
 great West was hardly thought of, the ocean opened a 
 wide field for enterprise, the troubled condition of 
 European affairs favored our ships, and a large ocean 
 •carrying trade fell into our hands. Then came the 
 rapid settlement of the "West, the period of internal 
 
 188 
 
American, Ships. 189' 
 
 development, with capital and enterprise turning west- 
 ward instead of oceanward, railroads built at a cost 
 greater than that of the whole British navy, farms, 
 factories, towns and cities springing up in the wilder- 
 ness and on the prairies, thousands of steamers and sail 
 vessels built to carry on our vast inland commerce, 
 greater than all our foreign trade. In the late civil 
 war British Alabamas in Confederate service swept our 
 seas and crippled our merchant ships. The new era of 
 iron ship building began in England, and Great Britain 
 spent millions yearly in paying for ocean mail service 
 which extended her trade over the world, and our- 
 foreign shipping was fearfully crippled. It has not been 
 built up for two reasons. The great work of internal 
 development still goes on, the railroad pays better than 
 the ship, mines and farms wait to be opened, and to pay 
 well for opening, and so capital goes landward and not. 
 oceanward. Meanwhile the policy of our government, 
 toward our foreign shipping has been blindly unjust and 
 absurd. But the time has come when it is highly 
 important that we shoirid be our own earners, on sea as on 
 land, and so be able to extend our trade and increase our 
 exports, especially of manufactures. It appears that in 
 1860 fifty-nine per cent, of the French foreign trade was. 
 in foreign ships ; in 1880, seventy per cent. Germany, 
 Italy and Spain show like results ; but ours is the poor- 
 est showing of all, being from twenty-nine to eighty-two 
 per cent, in the same time. France is aroused, and is 
 paying millions yearly for ocean mail service. Surely 
 we should adopt a wiser policy than that of our past 
 twenty years. 
 
 Our ship-builders and owners ask that the American 
 ship shall be taxed as little as the British ship is, and. 
 
190 Foreign Commerce — 
 
 ■ shall be decently paid for ocean mail-carrying, instead of 
 being compelled to carry mails at less than a tenth of 
 what coasting vessels, those on inland waters, and rail- 
 roads get for like service. England pays yearly some 
 $4,000,000 to her vessels for carrying foreign mails all 
 ■over the world, taxes them far less than we do ours, and 
 thus builds up a trade of hundreds of millions yearly, 
 and gets some $200,000,000 for freight, of which we 
 pay $100,000,000. 
 
 Prance pays a bounty to her home-built ships. In 
 •opposition to any justice to our shipping, and thus to 
 •our country at large, the senseless cry of "free ships" 
 «.nd "subsidies" is heard, — the echo of a voice that 
 ■■speaks from British counting-rooms and ship-yards. 
 
 The difference in taxation is tersely stated by John 
 Roach, of New York, as follows: 
 
 " Suppose five 4,000-ton steamers had been given to a company 
 •of free-snip men for nothing in 1865, the value of the ships being 
 ■% 5,000,000. The account at the end of a year would stand thus 
 •between them and their English competitors: 
 Taxation of American line on its $5,000,- 
 
 000 of property at 2i per cent $125,000 
 
 Wages, 600 men for the 5 ships, at $2 
 perday 438,000 
 
 Total taxation and running expenses 
 
 American line $563,000 
 
 -Interest on $5,000,000 capital, English 
 
 line, at 4 per cent $200,000 
 
 Taxation, 1 per cent., on net earnings, 
 
 say earning 6 per cent 3,000 
 
 Wages, 600 men, $1.25 per day 273,750 
 
 Total running expenses English line $476,750 
 
 Difference in favor of English line $86,250 
 
American Ships. 191 
 
 "Here, is an ad-vantage of $86,250 a year when the Americans 
 were given their ships for nothing, and no account is taken of 
 interest on capital.' And since the Americans who wanted free 
 ships, or said they did, could not expect to get them for nothing, 
 how would they have stood in the competition when they had 
 bought them?" 
 
 The absurd injustice of our government in the matter 
 of foreign mail carriage is forcibly shown by the fact that 
 lines of ships in our coasting trade carry mails 247,960 
 miles for $142, 766^ while ships in foreign trade carry 
 mails 1,181,309 miles for only $31,405, — our coasting 
 ships being paid 57£ cents per mile, our ships in foreign 
 trade only two and a half cents. In contrast with this 
 strange injustice Great Britain, from 1840 to 1880, paid 
 $240,000,000 to her ships in foreign trade for mail car- 
 riage. Propose anything of the kind here and the cry 
 of "subsidy" is raised. Prom 1872 to 1882 we built in 
 this country 260,000 tons of coasting steam vessels, 
 mostly iron, or more than all the steam-tonnage of Eng-~ . 
 land in 1860, and these vessels, many of them large and 
 fine, have reduced the rates of coasting freight nearly 50 
 per cent, since 1870. 
 
 This shows our ability to build ships, and they are 
 equal to any in the world. Mr. Eoach says : 
 
 "We have no difficulty in raising capital to he put into large 
 American-built ocean steamers for the coasting trade, where it will , 
 be subject to the same laws, rates, and taxation as the other capi- 
 tal employed in that trade. But when we undertake to put capital 
 into the foreign trade, we bring it into competition with the capital 
 of other peoples, who have more favorable conditions of interest, 
 taxation, and labor, and there we find the hunt for capital a vain 
 one. The only way to get it is for our government to pursue the 
 same policy that England did when she was in a like condition 
 (and does still) — encourage capital to invest by opening up new 
 markets through the establishment of mail steamship lines. More- 
 
192 Foreign Commerce — 
 
 over, we urgently need these new markets, and there is no other 
 means except superior facilities of communication (mail and pas- 
 senger), whereby we can obtain them." 
 
 This important subject can only be briefly treated, but 
 its great and vital importance — especially to the growers 
 of grain and cotton, and the producer of provisions — 
 calls for these few suggestive facts. We should become, 
 our own ocean carriers to a far greater extent than we 
 are, and to that end we must build and control our own 
 shipping, as England does hers, and as every great and 
 independent commercial nation must. In 1881 our 
 exports were eleven million tons; in 1890 they may 
 reach fifty million tons. By a wise policy we can carry 
 a goodly share of this vast tonnage in American ships at 
 no higher rates than we now pay to foreigners, — proba- 
 bly lower, — and thus keep over $100,000,000 in freight 
 expenses at home each year, and help our country in 
 other ways. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 My task is done. The facts and statements of this; 
 work have been gathered and presented with patient care 
 and arduous labor. That labor has been lightened by 
 a sense of the justice and wisdom of the principles and 
 the policy advocated, and by a hope that it might help 
 to a better understanding of a subject of great interest, 
 and importance. Guided by experience, we may well 
 avoid the shallow fallacies of free trade or the disaster 
 of a tariff for revenue only, and persist firmly in pro- 
 tection to American industry ; thus realizing material 
 prosperity, national unity, and the well being of the 
 people.