Published by THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION at No. 265 South 
 Fourth Street, Philadelphia , at which place copies, of this trad may' be had free, 
 for distribution, on application by letter. 1, > 9 * > , j ’ n J , 
 
 WHAT THE WEST SAYS ABOUT 
 
 PROTECTION 
 
 
 DIVERSIFIED WESTERN LABOR. 
 
 Extracts from an Address delivered by Hon. Frank W. Palmer, 
 at the Agricultural Fair , at Morris , III., Thursday, Sept. 11, 1873. 
 
 We have met not exclusively as farmers but as citizens of the 
 county of Grundy — agriculturists, artisans, mechanics, members 
 of all the industrial pursuits which contribute to the security and 
 comfort of life. We have met to give and receive encouragement 
 in the prosecution of honorable toil. This being the purpose of this 
 assemblage, it is not necessary, it would not be fit, that I, coming 
 from a mechanical pursuit, should address you upon theoretical or 
 practical agriculture. There is another and a more appropriate 
 topic, viz. : the relation which agriculture bears to other branches 
 of industry; and of this I propose to speak. I trust no one will 
 apprehend that in presenting this subject I shall transcend the pro- 
 prieties of this occasion by discussing questions of partisan differ- 
 ence. Partisanship, fortunately or unfortunately for the country, 
 has by systems of imposts long affected the interests and relations 
 of classes of American labor; but there is an inter-state or com- 
 munity relation of industrial branches which, to a degree, is inde- 
 pendent of Federal imposts, and to this I shall endeavor to confine 
 myself. 
 
 Labor — labor of the hands, labor of the head, honest, progres- 
 sive, productive labor — is the natural inheritance of man. It is 
 the means placed within his reach to aid and defend him in all the 
 changes, embarrassments, and perils of life. Isolated, it is nothing. 
 
 p 2.6 3°° 
 
2 
 
 DIVERSIFIED WESTERN LABOR. 
 
 Associate^.lfe'is everything. Fettered, like the galley-slave to one 
 pursuit, it**h8CS;*b5eji and impotent. Free, like the aspirations 
 
 of meij, it ;ha^, .been* fnflf pendent and strong, battering down the 
 arbitf&ry* <iistif£ticms frf «oagte, obliterating fiefs, manors, and lordly 
 estates ip entail, ‘and ‘.brlijgjhg /to nearer equality laity and clergy, 
 serfs and;lJaro.ns, $&«&njts # ahcf £ings. Time was when labor in cul- 
 tivation of the sfoilj tfr/ fn; the thousand arts which minister to the 
 comfort and good of men, was debased ; when it cowered submis- 
 sively before petty chiefs, shut up in lordly castles, and worshiped 
 the victors in war as men fit for the companionship of gods. All 
 this is changed. Legion has borne down legion, chief vanquished 
 chief, victor leveled victor ; but the power of associated industry 
 and the arts of peace have been greater levelers than all. Wealth 
 does not consist in money and lands, nor in beneficial titles and 
 possessions. Without labor to till the soil, to penetrate into the cav- 
 erns of the earth, and to court the winds and breast the billows of 
 the main, all these possessions would be as valueless as the sands of 
 Sahara. Three or four centuries ago the masses began to compre- 
 hend this fact. Then began permanent advancement. Agriculture, 
 as the primary pursuit, and commerce and the trades, were strength- 
 ened and elevated ; industry encouraged intelligence ; intelligence 
 pushed liberty, and at last the “ toe of the peasant galled the heel 
 of the courtier.” 
 
 Labor has not since retrograded, but among the several nations 
 stands in various relations. In some it may be regulated by cir- 
 cumstances of climate, or soil, or special governmental control ; but 
 in others it is subject to regulation by the laboring classes them- 
 selves. In a large majority of the States of the American Union 
 agriculture is the predominant pursuit. Commerce and trade are 
 simply supplementary industries. Federal legislation may influence 
 somewhat the products of these States, but it would not be true to 
 say legislation determines them. Tobacco is the staple of Virginia ; 
 rice, of South Carolina ; cotton, of Alabama ; sugar, of Louisiana. 
 Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota raise corn and wheat. Climate and 
 soil favor these several branches of husbandry. But they do not 
 limit them, nor does legislation control them. All these States 
 might produce manufactured articles profitably; might fabricate 
 cotton, and wool, and iron, as well as can the States of Massachu- 
 setts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The people in these several 
 States have voluntarily given direction to their forms of industry, 
 and, when they will, can diminish, or modify, or multiply them. 
 
DIVERSIFIED WESTERN LABOR. 
 
 3 
 
 Labor in the United States being thus under , J the control of the 
 industrial classes, it is their privilege‘s— ay', -their dtity— to ascertain 
 the best system under which it may thrive. ' The -history '’of nations 
 teaches that the limitation of labor- W ahy bnfe 1 department of 
 human industry does not tend to thfc ‘geher^T good. " Whether the 
 pursuit be agriculture, or commerce, or manufactures," the result is 
 the same. Turkey, India, Ireland, Spain jahd Portugal are agricul- 
 tural countries. Their national dependence is everywhere known. 
 Russia grows grain extensively, as do France, England, Belgium, 
 and the States of Northern Germany; but the number of their in- 
 habitants engaged in other branches of industry, except perhaps in 
 Russia, bears nearly an equal proportion to those employed in the 
 cultivation of the soil ; and these nations collectively represent the 
 wealth and independence of European powers. 
 
 It may be urged that these results are influenced by special laws, 
 and are not, therefore, conclusive effects of an industrial system. It 
 will, then, be well to compare different American States working 
 under the same general laws. Two States, Virginia and Pennsyl- 
 vania, which are similarly situated relative to climate and extent of 
 sea-coast, may be taken as fair representatives of the two systems of 
 industry. Virginia is an agricultural State; Pennsylvania is an 
 agricultural and manufacturing State. Virginia has 15,352 more 
 square miles of territory than Pennsylvania, and has nearly as ex- 
 tensive mineral deposits as the latter State. Between 1790 and 
 1800 Virginia increased in population 17.63 per cent., and Pennsyl- 
 vania 38.67 per cent. In 1810 the increase of Virginia was 10.73 
 per cent. ; that of Pennsylvania 33.49 per cent. In 1820 the in- 
 crease of Virginia was 9.51 per cent. ; that of Pennsylvania 29.55 
 per cent. In 1830 Virginia showed a gain of 13.17 per cent. ; Penn- 
 sylvania 28.47 per cent. In 1840 Virginia showed an increase of 
 2.34 per cent. ; Pennsylvania 27.87 per cent. In 1850 Virginia 
 showed a gain of 14.60 per cent. ; Pennsylvania 54.29 per cent. In 
 1860 the increase in Virginia was 12.29 per cent.; Pennsylvania 
 25.71 per cent. In 1870 the two Virginias, the separation of those 
 States having been accomplished in that decade, showed an increase 
 of 3.52 per cent. ; Pennsylvania 20.82 per cent. To what cause 
 other than the diversified industry fostered by the latter State could 
 this rapid increase in its population be attributed ? The soil of the 
 State was neither so rich nor her climate so genial as those of the 
 Old Dominion. Virginia schooled its sons for one pursuit — agricul- 
 ture ; Pennsylvania taught the skilled labor of the forge, the loom, 
 
4 
 
 DIVERSIFIED WESTERN LABOR. 
 
 337.3 
 l\m 34 W 
 
 and the a^vij** .eighteen counties in Virginia the number of 
 inhabitants in* ZStCkwas/ijot ;so large in each as it was in 1790 — 
 eightv-jthrfef .ago. ' ' *’ « « ; 
 
 If it *Be trueih^t tl!e.*j&Gsgerity of cities is indicative of the opu- 
 lence o£6t€ybfs 4 *and *itf nfeGcl/rfof he doubted, a comparison between 
 the States hll , j?adynSentU)n«ed will show the importance of diversified 
 industry. In 1870 ’t^efinsylvania had seven cities containing over 
 20,000 inhabitants; Virginia had one. Which State, think you, 
 afforded the readiest market for the products of the farm ? In the 
 four counties surrounding Philadelphia the average value of farm- 
 ing lands is $125, $127, $160, and $215 per acre, respectively. In 
 1860 Virginia had in farms 10,745,244 acres, the value of which 
 was $314,625,226, and the products of which were valued at $85,- 
 754,493. Pennsylvania had 11,515,965 acres of farming lands, 
 worth $1,043,481,582, the products of which were valued at $183,- 
 946,027. This shows that Pennsylvania, with little over 1,000,000 
 acres of cultivated land more than Virginia, had farm products 
 worth double those of Virginia, while the soil itself was worth the 
 most by nearly $730,000,000. 
 
 As a more comprehensive evidence of the benefits to agriculture 
 of diversified industry, Mr. Caird, the highest British authority, in 
 his work entitled “English Agriculture in 1 850-1 ” after carefully 
 exploring thirty English counties, reports that in twelve northern 
 counties, which include the coal region and the seat of mining and 
 manufacturing enterprise, agricultural wages average $2.79 a week, 
 while in eighteen southern counties, whose productive industries 
 are greatly less diversified, agricultural wages are not above $2.04. 
 “ The influence of manufacturing enterprise is thus seen,” he ob- 
 serves, “ to add thirty -seven per cent, to the wages of the agricul- 
 tural laborers of the northern counties, as compared with those of 
 the south, and the line is distinctly drawn at the point where the 
 coal ceases to be found.” In 1771 Benjamin Franklin wrote from 
 London as follows : “ Here in England it is well known and under- 
 stood that whenever a manufactory is established which employs a 
 number of hands it raises the value of lands in the neighboring 
 country all around it, partly by the greater demand near at hand 
 for the produce of the land and partly by the plenty of money 
 drawn by the manufactures to that part of the country. It seems, 
 therefore, the interest of all our farmers and landowners to encour- 
 age our young manufacturers.” 
 
 Illinois, with its unparalleled richness of soil and its illimitable 
 
DIVERSIFIED WESTERN LABOR. 
 
 5 
 
 deposits of coal, and iron ; its water communication with the Atlantic 
 seaboard, either by the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of St. Law- 
 rence ; and its unequaled railway lines stretching to the shores of 
 either ocean, has already profited largely by the diversification of 
 its productive industries; but in almost every county there is 
 room for enlargement and encouragement of the system. What is 
 true of Illinois in this respect is also true of all the States in the 
 Northwest. We can not afford to be dependent on the production 
 of corn and wheat alone, and the exportation of them to a foreign 
 or even a distant market, when, by the establishment of manufac- 
 turing industries among us, we can furnish a far better market 
 at home. The West will never have universal, durable prosperity 
 until it shall have what New England, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 
 vania have, viz. : diversified productive industry. 
 
 In the very constitution of man varied employments are necessi- 
 ties. Men are not all of one type ; their bodies and minds of one 
 capacity ; their actions ruled by one law. What lights the imagin- 
 ation of one falls insensibly on another. Contiguity of varied in- 
 dustries begets incalculable benefits. A few months ago the super- 
 intending physician of one of the largest insane asylums in the 
 United States was asked, in my presence, from what class the largest 
 percentage of his patients came. From what class would you say ? 
 Lawyers, doctors, preachers, or editors ? From neither ! The an- 
 swer was that farmers furnish the largest class, and for the reason 
 that their occupation is ordinarily an isolated one, and, as a large 
 share of the grievances and sorrows of this life are mere fancies, the 
 illusions are nursed and brooded over in the loneliness of the field 
 and the seclusion of the fireside, and not dissipated by contact 
 with other classes, as among men in other pursuits. So it may be 
 safely assumed that the physical and mental as well as the financial 
 interests of men are promoted by the contiguity and intimate associ- 
 ation of various industrial classes. 
 
 Farmers of Grundy county, you may take your own experience 
 as an illustration of the policy I am endeavoring to advocate. Some 
 of you came here before the advent of railways or even canals. To 
 profit by the advantages of cheap lands, under the protection of free 
 and equal laws, and to establish homes for your wives and your 
 children, you came here and encountered the hardships, privations, 
 and suffering of pioneer tillers of the soil. Compelled to haul your 
 corn or your wheat by wagon loads to Chicago, what was the net 
 return for all your labor ? As the tide of immigration approached 
 
6 
 
 WESTERN MANUFACTURES. 
 
 nearer and nearer to you, for what class of neighbors and helpers 
 did you look most eagerly ? Did you look for farmers like your- 
 selves, who would aid in swelling the amount of surplus agricultu- 
 ral crops, or did you look, rather, for the advent of blacksmiths, 
 carpenters, shoemakers, manufacturers, merchants, printers, school- 
 teachers, artists — men who would be consumers of the products of 
 the farm, and help to bring to you a market at your own doors ? 
 What a limited diversification of labor has already accomplished 
 for you, a generous system of manufactures might accomplish 
 almost unlimitedly. Your farms are underlaid with coal; you 
 have an abundance of good water ; you can have skilled labor with- 
 out stint; and your facilities for transportation are good. Why 
 should your prosperity be circumscribed ? 
 
 Within the last quarter of a century there have grown up 
 throughout the Great West a long line of industries of such magni- 
 tude that they are now boldly competing with the same class of 
 industries that in Great Britain have a growth of two or three 
 centuries. These include nearly the whole range of mechanical 
 industries, with the exception of textile manufactures. Among 
 these are not only the rougher grades of machinery, like saw mills, 
 flouring mills, iron mills, nail mills, and rail mills, steam engines, 
 (stationary, locomotive and marine,) rails and rolling stock, bridges, 
 etc., agricultural implements of every description, heavy and light 
 wagons and carriages, but the finer and more elaborate kind of 
 manufactures, such as watches, jewelry, scientific instruments, silver- 
 plated ware, cutlery, edged tools, hardware, etc., etc. — Chicago 
 Western Manufacturer. 
 
 Protecting Home Industry. — The Appeal , of West Point, 
 Iowa, stands up for home industries, as the following bears witness : 
 “ Charity begins at home, and self-preservation is the duty, not only 
 of individuals, but of communities. Public enterprise is the lever 
 that has made the civilized nations of the world what they are 
 to-day ; and the lack of public enterprise has made other nations a 
 blot upon the surface of the earth, a clog on the wheels of progress, 
 a drag on the march of improvement. But we are not particularly 
 exercised over the manifestation of public spirit in other parts of 
 the world. Our interest begins here at home.” 
 
 Machine-made doors, window frames, and sashes of Western 
 manufacture are becoming a large article of export. 
 
PROTECTION AND AGRICULTURE. 
 
 7 
 
 PROTECTION AND AGRICULTURE. 
 
 From The Indianapolis Journal. 
 
 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 manufacturing 
 interest, and consequently is interesting only to a class. There could 
 be no greater mistake than this. It concerns all interests, the de- 
 velopment of the whole country, and the prosperity of every indi- 
 vidual. If Protection is the true policy, as reason, experience, and 
 facts prove it to be, the farmers of Indiana 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 devel- 
 opment of manufactures means the creation of a home market for 
 the products of the soil, with diversified industry and general pros- 
 perity. The development of manufactures not only creates a new 
 demand for labor in that field, thus inuring to the benefit of the 
 laboring man, but adds to the class of consumers and creates an in- 
 creased demand for the products of the soil, thus contributing di- 
 rectly to the prosperity of the farmer. That this was the view of 
 the fathers of the Government is very clear. Hamilton was the 
 father of the Protective policy. Washington and Jefferson, the first 
 two Presidents, were both farmers, and both repeatedly urged in 
 their messages a governmental policy to promote manufactures. It 
 is not to be supposed that they did this to develop one class at the 
 expense of others, or to build up manufactures at the expense of 
 agriculture. They did it because they knew the development of 
 manufactures meant the development of agriculture by the creation 
 of home markets and increased demand for agricultural products. 
 The direct benefit to agriculture of the development of manufactures 
 " will appear from a few considerations : 
 
 First, 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 inaccessible 
 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 ma- 
 chinery and implements, but all that he produced over and above 
 the wants of himself and family would be sheer waste. It would 
 be dead loss for the lack of a market. The condition of such a 
 farmer would be most deplorable. Second, suppose that instead of 
 
8 
 
 PROTECTION AND AGRICULTURE. 
 
 no market at all he had a very distant market, say a manufacturing 
 city or town a hundred miles distant, and accessible only by country 
 road. This would be an improvement on the former situation, but 
 still very far from a happy condition. The remoteness of the mar- 
 ket and the difficulty of reaching it would prevent him from avail- 
 ing himself of it with any regularity, and would practically compel 
 him to accept whatever might be offered him for his products. If 
 other farmers were situated near the market he would be completely 
 at their mercy in every respect. He could market but very few 
 articles, and would have to take the buyers’ price for what he did 
 market. But, third, suppose a manufacturing town to spring up 
 within a few miles of the farmer’s house, and the means of com- 
 munication were such as to enable him to market his products every 
 day or whenever it suited him. Now, he not only has a steady and 
 reliable market for all he can produce, at good prices, but he is en- 
 couraged to engage in branches of agriculture untried before, and 
 to produce articles which he had never dreamed there was any de- 
 mand 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 
 produce which before w T as accustomed to decay on his hands now 
 finds steady and profitable sale. 
 
 The foregoing simple illustration, if applied on a large scale, will 
 show the effect of developing manufactures on agriculture. To 
 state the case in a nutshell, Protection creates a home market for home 
 products. It tends to shorten the distance between the farmer and 
 the manufacturer, the producer and the consumer, thus diminishing 
 to both the cost of exchanging their respective products, and secur- 
 ing to the farmer not only surer and steadier markets for his pro- 
 duce but a better recompense for his labor. If the farmers of In- 
 diana will only think about this matter they can not fail to see where 
 their true interest lies, and to see, also, the suicidal folly of a policy 
 which would destroy their home markets. 
 
 When the United States were colonial dependencies of Great 
 Britain she governed us by bad laws ; now that we are politically 
 independent she seeks to govern us by bad logic. She urges upon 
 us the adoption of a Free Trade policy, not because she believes it 
 will be beneficial to us but because she knows it will be highly 
 advantageous to her. Not until she had developed and diversified 
 her industries to a marvelous degree by centuries of the most strin- 
 
WESTERN FARMERS FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. 
 
 9 
 
 gent Protection the world ever saw ; not until she excelled all other 
 countries in the quantity, variety, and excellence of her labor-sav- 
 ing machinery ; not until she had so organized resources, multiplied 
 skill, and accumulated wealth as to be able to bid defiance to all 
 foreign competition, did she begin to open her ports as an invitation 
 to other nations to do the same. Even then her supreme object was 
 to kick down the ladder by which she had mounted to the heights 
 she occupied, so that no other people could follow after her. — Chi- 
 cago Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 WESTERN FARMERS FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. 
 
 From The Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
 
 Soon after the panic of 1873 the pressure of unprofitable prices 
 descended with increasing severity upon our manufacturers, accom- 
 panied by a diminishing demand for their products. Meanwhile 
 the values of breadstuff's and provisions were sustained to a remark- 
 able degree, to which was added a continuous demand in foreign 
 countries, augmented to quantities never before equaled in the his- 
 tory of our exportations. The exchangeable value of wheat, of 
 corn, of cattle, and of hogs, as measured against the value of man- 
 ufactured articles, was largely enhanced by the shrinking prices of 
 the latter. It became notorious that Western farmers constituted 
 the most prosperous portion of our people, they least of all our 
 classes having been touched by the almost universal and calamitous 
 depression which quickly followed the financial revulsion. Not 
 until last year did the embarrassment of unremunerative prices 
 reach the agricultural community. But, however unsatisfactory 
 and unrewarding may have been the prices of farm produce since 
 the close of last year, the condition does not begin to compare with 
 the deplorable severity which existed throughout the West some 
 fifty-five years ago. Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, in a speech delivered in 
 the United States Senate in February, 1832, made the graphic state- 
 ment given below : 
 
 In short, every portion of the world was searched by our intelligent mer- 
 chants, and all combined did not furnish a market adequate to our surplus 
 productions. Every farmer in Ohio long knew and felt the pressure conse- 
 quent upon this state of things. Year after year their stacks of wheat stood 
 unthreshed, scarcely worth the manual labor of separating the grain from the 
 straw ; 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. 
 
10 
 
 WESTERN FARMERS FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. 
 
 Our farmers are very far above such an abyss of depression as 
 that. The privations of those days of ruinous cheapness are in no 
 danger of repetition now. Since then comparative comfort has en- 
 tered the homes of those who cultivate the soil, and it has come to 
 remain. If prices for agricultural produce are unprofitably low, 
 there is a steady market for the surplus, and there is a strong prom- 
 ise of continued vastness in the foreign demand. Assuredly the 
 farmers in 1824 were very much worse off than the farmers are in 
 1879. The latter enjoy a paradise of privileges and blessings, as 
 contrasted with the disadvantages and hardships of the former. 
 
 In another part of his speech Senator Ewing said : 
 
 Our manufactures were annihilated ; our home market was thus cut off; the 
 foreign ports were, in effect, closed against us ; the market which our armies 
 had afforded the Western farmer during the war had ceased; that army dis- 
 banded ; the soldiers became farmers, and added their quota to the vast amount 
 of our surplus agricultural products ; the only market that remained open to 
 us was a small portion of the Eastern and Southern States, the West India 
 Islands, and, to a limited extent, the coast of South America; consequently, 
 our produce was freighted upon the waters, and sent downward to New Or- 
 leans, but the supply exceeded the demand twice told ; the market was glut- 
 ted ; the price went down almost to nothing ; and many a mercantile enter- 
 prise there has involved even more than a total loss. I well recollect an in- 
 stance in which, after the sale of boat and cargo, and placing the proceeds to 
 the credit of the freighter, the balance against him, as claimed by the commis- 
 sion merchant, was something more than $400. This, however, was an ex- 
 treme case ; but, generally, from about the year 1821 to 1825 the export trade 
 was ruinous to all who engaged in it. The truth is no foreign market what- 
 ever, beyond the very narrow limits which I have specified, did exist. 
 
 How different the situation to-day, with all its ground for com- 
 plaint ! If, as then, nearly the whole of our surplus products should 
 be deprived of an outlet to foreign countries, and should remain a 
 glutting weight upon our domestic markets, crushing prices down to 
 the very minimum, the case would be infinitely worse than it is. 
 Perhaps no other comparison could more vividly illustrate the pro- 
 digious improvement which has taken place in the character and 
 position of American agriculture during the last half century. It 
 has a vital force, an elasticity, a diversification, and a world-wide 
 influence not dreamed of in the days of 1824. The overwhelming 
 vicissitudes of the olden times are scarcely to be feared when the 
 mechanic arts have been brought to such a high degree of develop- 
 ment, and locomotives, with their trains of cars, have become our 
 beasts of burden. 
 
TARIFF PROTECTION IN THE LIGHT OF EXPERIENCE. 11 
 
 TARIFF PROTECTION IN THE LIGHT OF 
 EXPERIENCE. 
 
 From The Chicago Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 The most convincing proof in favor of thq, Protective policy is 
 that all the prosperous periods enjoyed, Jjy> thjs .country have been 
 when the duties on imports have been high. Tlje most conclusive 
 argument against the Free Trade policy ig that levy .duties have 
 always been followed by the oispigamzation of opr industry and 
 the pressure of hard times. More than, -,h^ pur tariff, history is the 
 history of a see-saw of experiments with hostile systems, in which 
 Protection succeeded partial Free Trade, and partial Free Trade 
 supplanted Protection. Until the series of tariffs which began in 
 1861 we had tried only two periods of Protection — one of nine 
 years, and another of four. In both of these cases partial Free 
 Trade had so completely broken down industry and commerce that 
 a resort to Protection was rendered compulsory ; and, in both cases, 
 our business interests were rescued from paralysis, imbued with 
 robust life, and raised into conspicuous prosperity. 
 
 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 every- 
 where overmastered by ruinous competition from abroad. Employ- 
 ment was scarce and wages ridiculously low. An embarrassed 
 condition was the common lot. Gloom and despondency filled the 
 public countenance. Enterprise was dead. 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 ex- 
 pensive wars were entirely paid off. Such a scene of general pros- 
 perity had never before been seen by our people. More stringent 
 Protection was provided by the act of 1828, and affairs still more 
 rapidly 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, 
 
12 TARIFF PROTECTION IN THE LIGHT OF EXPERIENCE. 
 
 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. gQQds poured like an inundation into our 
 markets. Embarrassment-. took the place of thrift. Less than 
 three and a half years brought the panic and the collapse of 1837. 
 Affairs went from bad /to worse.. 'The Government became impover- 
 ished with the:* people. Its resources sank so low that President 
 Tyler could ijQt at , phe; tijnp obtain the payment of his salary, and 
 had to resort to the brokers for loans. The credit of the United 
 States was so damaged that a loan for so small a sum as twelve 
 million dollars could not be negotiated at home nor abroad, and the 
 President bewailed this fact in his annual message to Congress, 
 December 7, 1842. 
 
 Alleviation was sought and obtained by the Protective tariff of 
 1842, the best measure of the kind we have had in all our history. 
 The effect was almost magical. Recuperation began at once, and was 
 accelerated with the progress of time. A most extraordinary revi- 
 val of production and trade was speedily accomplished. We may sum 
 up the results in the words of President Polk’s annual message, 
 December 8, 1846, as follows: “Labor in all its branches is re- 
 ceiving an ample reward, while education, science, and the arts are 
 rapidly enlarging the means of social happiness. The progress of 
 our country in her career of greatness, not only in the vast exten- 
 sion of our territorial limits, and in the rapid increase of our popu- 
 lation, 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. Again the country 
 took the downward way. 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 re- 
 duction of the tariff took place in 1857, followed, in a few months, 
 by the panic of that year. Revenue declined. Wages went down. 
 Employment at any pay was hard to find. Just before the Rebell- 
 ion the Government was borrowing money to pay its ordinary ex- 
 penses 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 produc- 
 tion and commerce. For about eighteen years we have been living 
 
TREATIES OF COMMERCE. 
 
 13 
 
 under that system. It has given to the country a diversification of 
 employment and development of resources without a parallel in our 
 history. The panic of 1873 is the only financial revulsion we have 
 had in a Protective period, and from the effects of that we are re- 
 covering with Protection in full force. Production in many branches 
 of the mechanic arts is so far above our own wants that we are be- 
 ginning to look abroad for new markets. Our manufacturers have 
 so largely secured the home demand that the balance of trade has 
 turned immensely, and it is thought permanently, in our favor. 
 
 Such are the fruits of Protection to native industry. The teach- 
 ings of experience are worth far more than the enticing yet falla- 
 cious plausibilities of so-called political economy. We have abun- 
 dantly the tests of experiments to guide us in forming our judgment 
 of the respective merits of Tariff Protection and Free Trade. 
 Those tests indicate it to be the part of wisdom to adhere unflinch- 
 ingly to our present policy of duties on imports. 
 
 TREATIES OF COMMERCE. 
 
 From The Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
 
 A recent cable dispatch makes the following announcement : 
 
 A delegation from the French committee to promote the Franco- American 
 Treaty of Commerce waited on M. Tierard, the Minister of Commerce, and 
 called his attention to Fernando Wood's motion in the United States House 
 of Representatives, relative to commercial relations. Tierard received the 
 delegation very cordially. He stated that he was in favor of a reciprocity 
 treaty, and his Department would give the matter the most serious consider- 
 ation. 
 
 We do not perceive where the power on the part of our Govern- 
 ment is to be found to negotiate the sort of commercial treaty which 
 is contemplated. Under the constitution, authority to make treaties 
 is lodged exclusively in the hands of the President and of the 
 Senate, acting concurrently ; but no participating power, either to 
 initiate, or to promote, or to modify, or to negative, has been confer- 
 red upon the House of Representatives. On the other hand, the 
 constitution provides that “all bills for raising revenue shall origi- 
 nate in the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose 
 or concur with amendments as on other bills.” From the founda- 
 tion of the Government it has been recognized as a principle of our 
 legislation that every measure which would have the effect of in- 
 creasing, or diminishing, or regulating the revenue must be initiated 
 
14 
 
 TREATIES OF COMMERCE. 
 
 in the popular branch of Congress. With reference to treaties and 
 to revenue acts, the division of power between the Senate and the 
 House is clear, definite, positive, and permanent. It is unconstitu- 
 tional for either branch to cross the threshold of the power granted 
 to the other. Each of the two bodies has its peculiar functions to 
 exercise and its separate duties to perform. The House would be- 
 come less than the constitution designed it to be if the Senate 
 should invade or subvert its sole authority to originate bills to raise 
 revenue. 
 
 Now, this proposed treaty of commerce between France and tBte 
 United States is open to this very objection of encroachment upon 
 the constitutional prerogative of the House. It is proposed to fix 
 by treaty the duties on a considerable number of articles imported 
 into this country from France, so as to grant special rates in ex- 
 change for concessions made from the French general tariff, to suit 
 the wishes or to promote the interests of those of our citizens who 
 are engaged in exporting merchandise to France. Such an arrange- 
 ment would take away, for the time stipulated in the text of the 
 treaty, the power of the House of Representatives to either increase 
 or diminish the specified duties, so far as the treaty-country was 
 concerned. No matter what might be the exigencies of our Gov- 
 ernment, nor how urgent the need for additional revenue, the com- 
 merce of France with the United States could not be made to 
 contribute anything further to our national income, by advancing 
 the duties on imports. If it should be deemed advisable by Con- 
 gress, as it was during the War of 1812, to double the tariff on all 
 articles, the imports from France would have to be excepted from 
 the sweeping provision. Whenever the changed circumstances of 
 this country should render necessary a new adjustment of our tariff, 
 our commercial relations with France could not be brought within 
 the scope of the new regulations. So much of the revenue derived 
 by our Government from duties on imports as came or could come 
 from imports from France would be irrevocably fixed by the action 
 of the President and the Senate, in the shape of a treaty ; and, to 
 that extent, the authority over the revenue given exclusively to the 
 House by the constitution would be subverted, and transferred to 
 the treaty-making power, where its existence and exercise would be 
 a usurpation and a misapplied function. It never could have been 
 intended by the organic law that a power given to one branch of 
 Congress in express terms, and to that one alone, should be enjoyed 
 also by another department of the Government. Nor is the force 
 
TREATIES OF COMMERCE. 
 
 15 
 
 of this reasoning diminished by the fact that the prerogative con- 
 ferred upon the House of Representatives relates to “ bills for raising 
 revenue.” It is only through the medium of “bills” that, under 
 our political system, any proposition for raising revenue can take a 
 practical shape. Treaties have not been employed for that purpose, 
 and were not designed by the framers of the constitution to fulfill 
 that office ; otherwise, the sphere and object of treaties would have 
 been more clearly defined, or else the exclusive control over revenue 
 measures given to the House would have been modified by an ex- 
 ceptional reference to treaties. All enactments, including treaties, 
 made in pursuance of the constitution are declared to be the su- 
 preme law of the land ; consequently, a constitutional treaty is no 
 less a law than a constitutional bill passed into a law. A treaty law, 
 however, originates with the Executive Department, and receives 
 its binding force from the concurrence of the President and the 
 Senate, co-operating with some foreign government, while a revenue 
 law originates , in the shape of a bill, wholly and exclusively within 
 the body called the House of Representatives — the body which most 
 nearly affiliates with the principle that taxation and representation 
 go together, and receives its binding force from the concurrence of 
 the House, the Senate, and the President, or from the concurrence 
 of two-thirds of each branch of Congress overriding an Executive 
 veto, and without the participation or intervention, at any stage of 
 the legislation, of any foreign government whatever. How is it 
 possible, then, to do by a treaty law what is specifically reserved to 
 a revenue law, without violating an express stipulation of the organic 
 law, and making usurpation the measure of authority? A wise 
 dread of “ entangling alliances ” — of “ European ambition, rivalship, 
 interest, humor, or caprice” — was upon those sagacious men who 
 formed our Union; and a considerable part of Washington's fare- 
 well address is devoted to warnings of which the following sentence 
 is an example : “ Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence I 
 
 conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free 
 people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience 
 prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of re- 
 publican government.” It is not supposable that patriots who held 
 to such views designed in the constitution to make any treaty, neces- 
 sarily involving the concurrence of a foreign country, an appropriate 
 or an available medium through which to fix duties on imports, and 
 thereby determine how much or how little revenue should be raised 
 from our commerce with some favored nation. 
 
16 
 
 TREATIES OF COMMERCE. 
 
 Another insuperable objection to the proposed treaty is the con- 
 stitutional provision that “all duties, imposts and excises shall be 
 uniform throughout the United States.” Would there be uniformity 
 if one set of duties should be levied on imports from France, and a 
 totally different set on imports from all other countries? Would 
 duties be uniform when French silks could be entered at our custom 
 houses at a lower rate than German or English silks ? The consti- 
 tutional provision seems to signify that there shall be, in fixing du- 
 ties, no favoritism, not merely of one State of the Union over an- 
 other State, but also of one nation over another nation. There 
 appears to be no escape from this interpretation, when we reflect 
 that, at the time of framing the constitution, a belief was universal 
 among the people that the surest way to avoid foreign complications, 
 and to secure immunity from external annoyance, was to adopt an 
 impartial foreign policy. “ Equal rights for all, exclusive privileges 
 to none,” was the motto of those days, and should be of these. 
 
 But, aside from the constitutional question, there is an invincible 
 obstacle of a practical nature. We have a number of treaties with 
 various nations containing what is technically known as the “favor- 
 ed-nation-clause,” which is a stipulation that every privilege of 
 commerce which is allowed by us to any one country shall also be 
 enjoyed by the other countries with which we have these treaties. 
 As regards ourselves, such an engagement is both consistent with 
 the provisions of our constitution and harmless to our interests, be- 
 cause our tariff is of a general character, affecting all countries 
 alike, leaving us perfectly free to abolish or to vary the duties as 
 experience and circumstances may require ; but, if we should inaugu- 
 rate a conventional tariff with France, allotting to her special privi- 
 leges and advantages of import into the United States, those 
 countries to which we are bound by the “favored-nation-clause” 
 could and might justly demand equal participation in such privi- 
 leges and advantages. The proposed Franco- American treaty of 
 commerce might, therefore, in practical effect, amount to a general 
 revision of our customs laws of the most unfortunate kind, since we 
 would thereby lose, to the extent of the change effectuated, all power 
 to rectify, alter, amend, or modify, by legislation, so long as the 
 treaty with France should continue obligatory upon our Govern- 
 ment, or until the expiration of the treaties which contained the 
 “ favored-nation-clause.” Under such conditions the encroachment 
 of the treaty-making power upon the constitutional prerogative of 
 the House of Kepresentatives to “ originate ” all measures affecting 
 
TREATIES OF COMMERCE. 
 
 17 
 
 the revenue would be radical and sweeping indeed. Surely, in 
 defining the treaty-making power, the framers of the constitution 
 can not reasonably be supposed to have designed to create such a 
 confusion of functions, and such a clash between agencies. It would 
 be not only illogical but even rashly puerile to assume the ex- 
 istence of any such intent. From whatever point of view we regard 
 the proposed treaty, it appears to be a project violative of the ex- 
 press provisions of our organic law, and hence unworthy to be 
 entertained, as well as impracticable in its nature. 
 
 There is a paragraph in Washington’s farewell address, so feli- 
 citously suited to the subject in hand, that we can not refrain from 
 quoting it now and here : 
 
 Harmony and a liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by 
 policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold 
 an equal and impartial hand ; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors 
 or preferences ; consulting the natural course of things ; diffusing and diver- 
 sifying by gentle means the stream of commerce, but forcing nothing ; estab- 
 lishing with Powers so disposed (in order to give trade a stable course, to 
 define the rights of our merchants, to enable the Government to support them,) 
 conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and 
 natural opinion will permit, but temporary and liable to be from time to time 
 abandoned or varied as experience and circumstances shall dictate ; constantly 
 keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors 
 from another — that it must pay with a portion of its independence for what- 
 ever it may accept under that character — that by such acceptance it may place 
 itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and 
 yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not having given more. There 
 can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from 
 nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just 
 pride ought to discard. 
 
 These are the parting counsels of one of the most noble minds 
 and patriotic hearts connected with our history. Washington’s 
 farewell address stands as a revered landmark in our politics. Two 
 generations of eminent American statesmen were fond of quoting 
 from its appropriate and wise warnings. These never were more 
 pertinent or more needed than now. The voice of the Father of 
 his Country calls from his grave to posterity to beware of such com- 
 mercial treaties as show partiality to one nation over others, and 
 hence to beware of the proposed treaty of commerce with France, 
 which would be a treaty of that very kind. 
 
 Our favorable balance of trade is mainly due to the policy 
 which has built up domestic instead of foreign manufactures. 
 
18 
 
 THE DUTY NOT ADDED TO THE PRICE. 
 
 OTHER TRIBUTES TO THE EXCELLENCE 
 OF THE PROTECTIVE POLICY. 
 
 THE DUTY NOT ADDED TO THE PRICE. 
 
 Says one of the newspaper advocates of a tariff for revenue 
 only : “ It is one of the beauties of the Protective system that it 
 raises the prices of all the articles produced in the country up to 
 at least the price of the imported article plus the amount of the 
 duty/’ This is not true. 
 
 Many years ago, when Congress had imposed a duty of eight 
 cents per square yard upon coarse cotton cloth, the same grade and 
 quality of the domestic fabric were selling in the American market 
 at six cents per square yard. 
 
 In 1844 and 1846, in the debates in Congress on the tariff ques- 
 tion, it was shown that, though the duty on glass was $4.00 a box, 
 glass was actually selling at $3.50 a box ; that the duty on nails 
 was three and one-half cents a pound, while nails were selling for 
 three and a quarter cents a pound ; that the duty on cotton cloth 
 was seven cents a yard, and cotton cloth was then freely sold for six 
 cents a yard. 
 
 When Congress, in 1870, reduced the duty on pig iron from $9 
 to $7 per ton, British manufacturers immediately held a conference 
 and voted to put the sum of $2 per ton into their own pockets by 
 increasing their prices by just so much. 
 
 In 1872, when Congress reduced the duty on salt in packages to 
 just half of what it had been, and on salt in bulk to less than half, 
 the price at once went up in the country from which the major part 
 of our importations usually came. A correspondent of The Inter- 
 Ocean, who showed a remarkable familiarity with the salt question, 
 wrote to that paper in December, 1877, as follows : “ A few years 
 since Congress did reduce the tariff on salt more than half, but 
 the very same day that the new tariff went into effect British salt 
 dealers advanced their prices fifteen cents per bushel, and the con- 
 sumer in America got no benefit from the reduction.” 
 
 The duty on chloroform is to-day $1 per pound, and American- 
 made chloroform is quoted at eighty-five cents per pound in the 
 Chicago market. 
 
THE DUTY NOT ADDED TO THE PRICE. 
 
 19 
 
 Said Senator Davis, of Illinois, when the question of reducing 
 the duty on quinine was pending in the Senate : “ If this Congress 
 does nothing else than repeal the duty on quinine, it will not have 
 been in vain that it was called together.” The rise in the price of 
 this medicine shows that Senator Davis was not a wise prophet. 
 The English manufacturers advanced the price of quinine about 
 37 i cents an ounce the next day after the repeal of the duty in 
 the United States became telegraphically known in Europe, and 
 in New York the price at once advanced from $3.40 to $3.50 
 an ounce. The price still tends upward. The result of the action 
 of Congress in repealing the duty shows that the duty had not en- 
 hanced the price. Were the Free Trade theory correct, the repeal 
 or the reduction of any tariff duty should be followed by an equiva- 
 lent decline in the prices of both the foreign and the home-made ar- 
 ticle in our market. 
 
 Under the late Canadian tariff the duty on printing type was five 
 per cent. The new tariff, going into force on March 15, 1879, in- 
 creased the duty to 20 per cent. Thereupon the importing agents 
 of a firm of British manufacturers advertised in the Dominion 
 newspapers in these words : “ The new tariff will cause us consider- 
 able loss, and impose fresh outlay upon us ; nevertheless, we have 
 determined to sell our celebrated extra hard metal Scotch type at 
 our old prices .” Under the operations of the new tariff the price of 
 printing ink has been reduced in Canada. The St. John Sun says : 
 ** Our printing office bought Canadian-made printing ink of a su- 
 perior quality yesterday at a cent per lb. less than the same quality 
 of United States ink is offered. That is to say, the Canadian ink 
 cost us $8 per 100 lbs., with freight from Montreal added. The 
 United States ink costs $9 per 100 lbs., with freight from Boston, 
 and 20 per cent, duty added. Before the tariff, United States 
 ink such as we use cost $9 and freight charges ; and, as freight char- 
 ges are about the same from Montreal as from Boston, it is plain 
 that we save $1 per 100 lbs. under the new tariff. There are now 
 two ink factories in Canada. The new duty has led to home com- 
 petition.” 
 
 Under the Mackenzie-Cartwright tariff, in Canada, there was a 
 duty of eleven cents a gallon on imported vinegar, and yet home- 
 made vinegar sold as low as twelve cents per gallon. 
 
 If there were any force whatever in the theory that the duty is 
 added to the price, then are the farmers of this country also monop- 
 olists. There are several millions of these farmers. Our Govern- 
 
20 
 
 THE DUTY NOT ADDED TO THE PRICE. 
 
 ment levies duties on all foreign products which compete with the 
 products of American farms. If these duties are added to the price 
 of the domestic products, then are we indeed a fearfully taxed 
 people, for we consume more agricultural products than all other 
 products combined. We will let Judge Kelley answer such non- 
 sense. In his speech in May, 1878, in reply to Hon. Fernando 
 Wood, he gave the following statement of the quantity of wheat, 
 barley, potatoes, corn, oats, and rye raised in this country in 1877, 
 the quantity exported, the quantity retained for home consumption, 
 the rate of duty on each, and the consequent tax imposed on the 
 people of the country at large by the farmers if it be true that 
 duties are added to the price not only of imported articles but also 
 to those of domestic production. 
 
 Products. 
 
 No. of bushels 
 raised in 1877. 
 
 No. of bushels 
 exported. 
 
 Balance for 
 home 
 
 consumption. 
 
 Duty 
 
 per 
 
 bushel. 
 
 Amount of tax im- 
 posed on the con- 
 sumers in the 
 United States, cal- 
 culated in accord- 
 ance with the 
 Free Trade dog- 
 ma that the duty 
 is added to the 
 price. 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Barley 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 Corn 
 
 360.000. 000 
 
 35.600.000 
 
 146.000. 000 
 1,340,000,000 
 
 405.000. 000 
 
 22.100.000 
 
 57,043,936 
 
 1,186,129 
 
 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 
 21,820,552 50 
 126,689,948 20 
 40,214,587 20 
 1,987,300 00 
 
 Oats 
 
 Rye 
 
 
 Total 
 
 2,308,700,000 
 
 136,941,361 
 
 2,171,758,639 
 
 
 $256,465,681 35 
 
 If we take into consideration the other protected agricultural 
 productions of this country, it would appear by the Free Traders’ 
 assumption that the farmers assessed us with not less than $600,- 
 000,000 of taxes in the year 1877. But who believes that they did? 
 
 It is one of the beneficent effects of the Protective policy that it 
 stimulates competition in the production of manufactured products, 
 which competition reduces prices invariably. Without the Protec- 
 tion afforded by high duties, many of our leading industries would 
 never have had an existence — the manufacture of steel rails, for 
 instance, while others would have had only a sickly existence. 
 Protective duties reduce prices because they oppose domestic com- 
 petition to foreign monopoly in the production of manufactured 
 goods. 
 
THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE PROTECTED FARMER. 
 
 21 
 
 THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE PROTECTED FARMER. 
 
 From The Toronto ( Canada ) Mail. 
 
 The Yankee farmer rises in the morning tolerably refreshed. 
 True, he has been sleeping on a bed, the sheets, blankets, and mat- 
 tress 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 manufac- 
 tured 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 market town at 7 cents a 
 yard, and sees enormous quantities of it going to England in com- 
 petition with Free Trade cotton, to Canada, to South America, and 
 even to Australia. Moreover, he knows that it is to that import 
 duty he owes the establishment of the neighboring cotton factory, 
 whose operatives consume his produce, and give him a profitable 
 home market for rotation crops. The same is true of his blankets 
 and mattress ; indeed he is well satisfied with his bed. It is home- 
 made ; it cost him if anything less than an imported article ; and 
 its manufacture has given employment to artisans who buy the 
 products of his farm almost direct from his wagon. 
 
 He proceeds to put on his clothes, nothing alarmed because there 
 is a heavy import duty on foreign tweed cloths, felt hats, boots, and 
 cotton shirts. His suit from head to foot is of American make ; the 
 profits of its manufacture have gone to enrich the American people, 
 and he thinks this is better for him than if his tweed coat had come 
 from the West of England, his hat from Nottingham, his shirt from 
 Manchester, and his boots from Stockport. The clock tells him 
 it is breakfast time. He has no hard feelings against the clock mere- 
 ly because foreign clocks are taxed 35 per cent. ; on the contrary 
 it reminds him of the clock factories of Connecticut and the thou- 
 sands of hands to whom they give employment, and who in their 
 turn give a market and an increased value to every adjacent farm. 
 
 Breakfast over — by the way, American importers bring his tea 
 direct from China, not via Montreal or London — he takes to his farm 
 implements. F oreign implements such as spades, shovels, hoes, forks, 
 rakes, etc., are taxed 35 per cent. ; wooden pails, tubs, churns, etc., 
 35 per cent. ; and plows, harrows, seed-sowers, cultivators, mowers, 
 
22 
 
 THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE PROTECTED FARMER. 
 
 reapers, threshing machines, etc., 35 per cent. ; and in 1860, 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 discovered, however, that this is not true. Home factories 
 have sprung up everywhere, and the keen competition has not only 
 kept down prices but incited the inventive genius of the American 
 mechanic, so that Yankee farm implements have become the cheap- 
 est and the best in the world. The heavy and cumbrous Eng- 
 lish machines are being driven from foreign markets, and even from 
 the English market ’ itself, which McCormick, of Chicago, has in- 
 vaded with great success. In fact, when our farmer contemplates 
 the amazing growth and proportions 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 con- 
 sciousness that Protection would deprive them of the American 
 market, and by the fear that it would in the long run make the 
 Yankee manufacturer a formidable rival in other markets. 
 
 This is what the farmer thinks as he works in his fields and about 
 his barnyard during the forenoon. He is startled out of this reverie 
 by 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, and the dresser where the dishes are stored, is 
 taxed 35 per cent, when of foreign make. This duty has helped to 
 establish hundreds of furniture factories and to give employment to 
 tens of thousands of mechanics throughout the Union, and in this 
 way has benefited him ; for the home manufacturer is everywhere 
 the farmer’s best friend. 
 
 After dinner he sets out for the market town, and as he journeys 
 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 gath- 
 erers, each levying his tithe, between the Kanuck farm and the for- 
 eign 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 market to which he 
 can supply almost every variety of crop. He is following this train 
 of thought when he enters the market town at one o’clock ; and his 
 sympathy for the Canadian farmer is deepened as he sees troops of 
 
THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE PROTECTED FARMER. 
 
 23 
 
 Canadian operatives returning to the factories from their dinner. 
 
 “ I wonder,” he communes, “ if the Kanuck farmer ever sees a 
 crowd of Yankee operatives going to work in a Canadian factory? 
 Guess not. Then what do Free Traders mean by arguing that Pro- 
 tection, such as we Yankees are cursed with, ruins 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-Can adians be at work in Montreal, and would 
 not our Yankee mechanics be pouring over there also ? How is it, 
 ye Free Trade theorists, that the census of 1870 showed that Canada 
 with four millions of people had sent us nearly half a million, or one 
 in eight, of her children? And how is it that the Canadian census 
 of 1870 showed that we, with ten times four millions, had sent 
 Canada only 70,000 Yankees?” 
 
 By this time he has reached the store, and soon disposes of his 
 wheat, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, etc. With the money received 
 in payment he makes his little purchases, and finds no small conso- 
 lation in knowing that almost every dollar he pays out goes to home 
 industries. Outsiders get nothing except for raw articles the United 
 States can not produce, such as tea and coffee. “ Even if I have to 
 pay a little more for some of my purchases,” he says to himself, “it 
 is satisfactory to know the money will be kept in the country, and 
 paid out again for the produce I grow, and the beef, mutton, and 
 pork I raise.” 
 
 He thinks this over as he travels homeward, and talks Protection 
 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 that is pretty good evidence that this is a habitable 
 country, Protection and all. If you had gone to Canada or Eng- 
 land, and settled there, and were writing over for your friends and 
 acquaintances to join you, as the half million Canadians and the 
 hundreds of thousands of Englishmen in the States do, I should be 
 inclined to suspect something was wrong. But here we are, draw- 
 ing thousands of immigrants every year from Free Trade countries, 
 while retaining our own folks at home ; paying off our war debt 
 rapidly, and getting our bonds into our own hands ; exporting 
 $300,000,000 a year more than we import ; developing our home 
 industries, pushing our foreign trade, and going ahead like thunder, 
 in spite of panics and bad politics — boys, I guess we’ve every reason 
 to thank God.” 
 
24 
 
 WAGES AND THE COST OF LIVING. 
 
 Wages and the Cost of Living. — The annual report of the 
 Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor contains an important 
 report upon the comparative cost of living and comparative wages 
 of 1860 and 1878. The returns for 63,515 employes show that 
 average weekly wages, on a gold basis, were twenty-four and four- 
 tenths per cent, higher in 1878 than they were in 1860. 
 
 Groceries have advanced in price 7 per cent. ; provisions, 28 ; 
 fuel, 5 ; dry goods have fallen 9 per cent. ; boots have advanced 18 
 per cent.; rents, 25; board, 49. On all these items of expense 
 entering into the cost of living the average price was fourteen and 
 a half per cent, higher in 1878 than it was in 1860. 
 
 In other words, the average’ weekly wages of workingmen in 
 manufacturing and mechanical industries in Massachusetts, allow- 
 ing for the advance in the cost of living, were ten per cent, higher 
 in 1878 than they were in 1860, no account being made of the fact 
 that the wages in 1878 were paid for fewer hours of labor per week, 
 in many industries, than were required in 1860 . — Boston Commer- 
 cial Bulletin. 
 
 The Truth about Wages. — A few days ago a distinguished 
 United States Senator is reported to have said : “ There has never 
 been a day when a day’s labor would buy so many of the necessa- 
 ries and the luxuries of life as a day’s labor will buy to-day.” 
 There is truth in this utterance, and the Boston Advertiser point- 
 edly suggests that those who are trying to foment discontent, and 
 proclaiming that the present times are the worst times, would 
 do well to think upon it. There have been times when the wages 
 of labor were higher, but they were times when everything which 
 was bought with the wages was higher too. Low as wages are, 
 the improvement of business that has come leaves very few 
 idle who are willing to work, and all who will work can get 
 to-day a better living for their wages than ever before, better than 
 during the flush times of the war or the period after the war. The 
 poor man who will work has as good a chance now to get ahead 
 and become a capitalist as the poor man ever had. 
 
 The purchasing power of farm products is now nearly double 
 what it was before the war, and considerably greater than it was 
 during the flush times of 1873. Whatever the farmer has to buy 
 he buys at lower prices than ever before prevailed in our country ; 
 while the prices of everything that he has to sell remain satisfactory. 
 
 
 in 
 
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 1 
 
 III 
 
 
 301 
 
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