337.3 T 174 Z THE TAR IF T H t U . . Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library 1 mai - d iZ vl'ffH -5 SBS | SEP IS 1! 3 ? I • L161 — H41 jhaos of : i of some at, with mufac- and yet ' on raw tnred, Qctures. jsing the protect- | led tariff j otective, milar in uence ; educed eby, re- vests, Price 5 cents, MANUAL. TO WHICH IS ADDED THE LABORING-MAN’S INTERVIEW WITH THE PARTY CHIEFS ON THE GREAT ISSUE OF THE TARIFF. BOTH PLATFORMS BEING GIVEN. AMERICAN LABORERS’ EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY, PUBLISHERS , 81 MILK STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 1884 . Copyright, 1884. Republican Tariff Platform. It is the first duty of a good government to protect the rights, and promote the interests, of its own people. The largest diversity of industry is most productive of general prosperity, and of the comfort and independence of the people. We therefore demand that the imposition of duties on foreign imports shall be made, not for revenue x only, but that, in raising the requisite revenues for the government, such duties shall be so levied as to afford security to our diversified industries, and protection to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that active and intelligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring-man his full share in the national pros- perity. Against the so-called economic system of the Democratic party, which would degrade our labor to the foreign standard, we enter our earnest protest. The Demo- cratic party has failed completely to relieve the people of the bur- den of unnecessary taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. The Republican party pledges itself to correct the inequalities of the tariff, and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and indiscriminate process of hori- zontal reduction, but by such methods as will relieve the tax- payer without injuring the la- borer or the great productive interests of the country. We recognize the importance of sheep-husbandry in the United States, the serious depression which it is now experiencing, and the danger threatening its future prosperity ; and we there- fore respect the demands of the representatives of this important agricultural interest for a re-ad- justment of duty upon foreign wool, in order that such industry shall have full and adequate pro- tection. Democratic Tariff Platform. Knowing full well, however, that legislation affecting the oc- cupations of the people should be cautious and conservative in method, not in advance of public opinion, but responsive to its de- mands, the Democratic party is pledged to revise the tariff in a spirit of fairness to all interests ; but, in making reduction in taxes, it is not proposed to injure any domestic industries, but rather to promote their healthy growth. From the foundation of this gov- ernment, taxes collected at the custom-house have been the chief source of federal revenue : such they must continue to be. More- over, many industries have come to rely upon legislation for suc- cessful continuance; so that any change of law must be, at every step, rega.rdful of the labor and capital thus involved. The pro- cess of reform must be subject in the execution of this plain dictate of justice. All taxation shall be limited to the requirements of economical government. The necessary re- duction in taxation can and must be effected without depriving American labor of the ability to compete successfully with foreign labor, and without imposing lower rates of duty than will be ample to cover any increased cost of production which may exist in consequence of *he higher rate of wages prevailing in this country. Sufficient revenue to pay all the expenses of the Federal Govern- ment economically administered, including pensions, interest and principal of the public debt, can be got under our present system of taxation from custom-house taxes on fewer imported articles, bearing heaviest on articles of luxury, and bearing lightest on articles of necessity. We therefore denounce the abuses of the existing tariff; and, subject to the preceding limita- tions. we demand that federal taxation shall be exclusively for public purposes, and shall not exceed the needs of the govern- ment economically administered. CONTENTS cno.b American Laborers T Education- al Society. American laborers politi- cal manual. To which is added the laboring-man T s interview with the party chiefs on the great issue of the tariff. Both platforms being given. 1884. c no .2=> Stebbins, G-. B. "British free trade,” a delusion, c 1865a cno.3^ Frye, W. P. What Senator Frye saw in Europe. How wage-earners live and are paid in free trade countries, and Hoar, G-. F. Senator Hoar on the influence on the tariff, c 1887 n c no.4a Donnell, E. J. The impending crisis. c188-3 cno.5a McKay, N. Free trade toilers. An open letter to workingmen. Which shall it be? The results of an Ameri- can^ tour among England 1 s masses. c18903 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/thetariffquestioOOunse PSBl 0 Z l nr )ryvr ?W ^ Wit Tariff Rates. A few of the principal articles given with present rates and those proposed by the Morrison bill : — O O 3 /_a Present Rate. Morrison. Bituminous coal and shale . . 75 cts. per ton. Free. Iron ore 75 cts. per ton. Free. Copper ore 2k to 3£ cts. per lb. Free. Lime 10 per cent. Free. Decorated china, etc 60 per cent. 48 per cent. Plain china, earthenware, etc. 55 per cent. 44 per cent. Steel rails $17 per ton. $13.50 per ton. Bleached cotton goods . . . 3£ cts. per yard. 2.8 cts. per yard. Colored cotton prints, etc. . . 5 cts. per yard. 4 cts. per yard. Wool 10 and 12 cts. per lb. 8 and 9.6 cts. per lb. Woollen goods under 80 cents per lb Woollen goods above 80 cents 35 + 35 cents. 28 + 28 cents. per lb 35 4- 40 cents. 28 + 32 cents. Sugar lyMe' cts. Pei' lb. 1-nfo cts. per lb. Molasses per gal 4 and 8 cents. 3.2 and 6.4 cents. Rice per lb 2\ cents. 2\ cents. Valuation of the United States, 1880. Z*™ • • • , $10,197,000,000 Residence and business, real estate 9,881,000,000 All real estate exempt from tax 2,000,000*000 5,536,000,000 419.000. 000 3.056.000. 000 5.000. 000.000 781.000. 000 Railroads and equipments Telegraphs, shipping, and canals [ ! Live-stock, farm-tools, and machinery Household furniture, clothing, paintings, books, jew- ellery, household supplies of food, fuel, etc. . . . Mines, etc., with one-half the annual product . . . 1 hree-fourths the annual product of agriculture and manufactures, and imports of foreign goods . Specie 6,160,000,000 612,000,000 Total $43,642,000,000 Foreign Immigration since 1872, by Fiscal Years — Offici Years. Number. Years. Number. Years. Number. 1872 . . . 404,806 1876 . . . 169,986 1880. . . 457,257 1873 . . . 459,803 1877 . . . 141,857 1881. . . 669,331 1874 . . . 313,339 1878. . . 138,469 1882 . . . 788,992 1875 • . . 227,498 1879 . . . 177,826 1883 . . . 599,114 Of the arrivals in 1883, 191,643 were from Germany, 79,852 from England and Wales, 64,971 from Dominion of Canada, 63,720 from Ireland, 34,596 from Sweden, 31,715 from Italy, 21,849 from Norway, 19,612 from Scotland, 10,517 from Austria. y ’ Ordinary Revenues and Expenditures of the United States. Revenues. 1881. 1882. 1883. Customs Internal revenue . . Public lands . . Miscellaneous . . . $198,159,676 02 135,264,385 51 2,201,863 17 25,156,367 87 $220,410,730 25 146,497,595 45 4,753,140 37 31,863,784 21 $214,706,496 93 144,720,368 98 7,955,864 42 30,904,851 62 Totals $360,782,292 57 $403,525,250 28 $398,287,581 95 Expenditures. [ 1881. 1882. 1883. Civil list Foreign intercourse . Navy department War department, in- cluding rivers and harbors, etc. . . Pensions Indians Miscellaneous . . . $17,941,177 19 1,093,954 92 15,686,671 66 40,466,460 55 50,059,279 62 6,514,161 09 45,381,192 60 $18,042,386 42 1,307,583 19 15,032,046 26 43,570,494 19 61,345,193 95 9,736,747 40 34,539,237 50 $22,343,285 76 *2,419,275 24 15,283,437 17 48,911,382 93 66,012,573 64 7,362,590 34 43,915,461 21 Int. on public debt . $177,142,897 63 82,508,741 18 $186,904,232 78 1 71,077,206 79; $206,248,006 29 59,160,131 25 Total expenses . . $259,665,638 81 $257,981,439 57 $265,408,137 54 * Including $785,000.87 Japanese indemnity, and $140,000 to offi- cers and crews of ship “ Wyoming” and steamer “ Takiang.” National debt, less cash in treasury, Dec. 1, 1883 . $1,509,785,060 85 United-States Population Statistics, 1880. Total population 50,155,783 Male “ 25,518,820 Female “ 24,636,963 Native born 43,475,840 Foreign “ 6,679,943 White 43,402,970 Colored 6,580,793 Chinese 105,465 Indians (excluding Alaska) 256,407 Population of working-age : — 10 years and over 36,761,607 ' Male 18,735,980 Female 18,025,627 Actual number laboring in all occupations: — Male laborers . . " 14,744,942 Female “ 2,647,157 Total 17,392,099 Number engaged in Agriculture : — Male 7,075,983 Female 594,510 Total 7,670,493 Professional and Personal Service : — Male 2,712,943 Female 1,361,295 Total 4,074,238 Trade and Transportation : — Male . 1,750,892 Female 59,364 Total 1,810,256 Manufacturing and Mechanical and Mining industries : — Male 3,205,124 Female 631,988 Total 3,837,112 Population 'of States Alabama .... . 1,262,505 Arizona 40,440 Arkansas .... . 802,525 California .... 864,694 Colorado .... . 194,327 Connecticut . . . . 622,700 Dakota 135,177 Delaware .... 146,608 District of Columbia . 177,638 Florida . 269,494 (Georgia . 1,542,359 Idaho Illinois Indiana . 1,977,301 Iowa . 1,624,615 Kansas . 996,096 Kentucky .... . 1,648,690 Louisiana .... . 939,946 Maine . 648,936 Maryland .... 934,943 Massachusetts. . . . 1,783,085 Michigan . . . . . 1,636,937 Minnesota . . . . . 780,733 Mississippi .... . 1,131,597 Missouri .... . 2,168,380 and Territories, 1880. Montana .... Nebraska .... Nevada 39,159 452,402 62,266 346,991 New Hampshire . . New Jersey . . . 1,131,116 119,565 New Mexico . . . New York .... 5,082,871 North Carolina . . •• , 1,399,750 Ohio 3,198,062 Oregon 174,768 Pennsylvania . . . 4,282,891 Rhode Island . . . 276,531 South Carolina . . 995,577 Tennessee . . . . 1,542,180 Texas 1,591,749 Utah 143,963 Vermont . . . . 332,286 Virginia 1,512,565 Washington Territoi y, 75,116 West Virginia . . 618,457 Wisconsin . . . . 1,315,497 Wyoming Territory 20,789 Total . . . . 50,165,783 Electoral Vote, 1880. Garfield, R. Hancock, D. California 1 Alabama 10 Colorado 3 Arkansas 6 Connecticut 6 California 5 Illinois 21 Delaware 3 Indiana 15 Florida 4 Iowa 11 Georgia 11 Kansas 5 Kentucky 12 Maine 7 Louisiana 8 Massachusetts 13 Maryland 8 Michigan 11 Mississippi 8 Minnesota 5 Missouri 15 Nebraska 3 Nevada 3 New Hampshire .... 5 New Jersey 9 New York 35 North Carolina .... 10 Ohio 22 South Carolina .... 7 Oregon 3 Tennessee 12 Pennsylvania 29 Texas . . 8 Rhode Island 4 Virginia 11 Vermont 5 West Virginia .... 5 Wisconsin 10 Total 214 Total 155 Majority 59 Total vote 369 Electoral Vote, 1884. New Apportionment. Alabama 10 Nebraska 5 Arkansas 7 Nevada . » 3 California 8 New Hampshire. . . . 4 Colorado 3 New Jersey 9 Connecticut. .... 6 New York 36 Delaware 3 North Carolina .... 11 Florida 4 Ohio 23 Georgia 12 Oregon 3 Illinois 22 Pennsylvania 30 Indiana 15 Rhode Island 4 Iowa 13 South Carolina .... 9 Kansas 9 Tennessee 12 Kentucky 13 Texas 13 Louisiana 8 Vermont 4 Maine 6 Virginia 12 Maryland 8 West Virginia .... 6 Massachusetts 14 Wisconsin 11 Michigan 13 — Minnesota 7 Total vote 401 Mississippi ...... 9 Missouri 16 Necessary to choice . . 201 Election d ty, Nov. 4. Electoral Colleges meet Dec. 3. Popular Vote, 1880. Total vote, 9,219,947: Garfield, 4,454,416; Hancock, 4,444,952; Weaver, Greenback, 308,578; Prohibitory, Independent, and Scatter- ing, 12,001. Garfield over Hancock, 9,464. POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES . 1 INTRODUCTION. — At the close of the Revolu- tionary war the insufficiency of the existing form of government was a matter of much concern. It was a mere confederation of sovereign States, with no chief magistrate or general judiciary ; and Congress had no power to compel obedience to its laws. In 1786, by the advice of Washington and other eminent states- men, a convention of a minority of the States was held at Annapolis, followed in May, 1787, by one called by Congress, at which all the States except Rhode Island were represented. George Washington presided. In September, 1787, this convention adopted “ The Con- stitution of the United States ; ” and copies were sent to the several legislatures of the States for ratification. On this question arose the first great political agita- tion, and parties appeared. Those favoring the Con- stitution were called Federalists. FEDERALISTS, THE, were the advocates of a strong government. Under the leadership of Alexan- der Hamilton, who, with the aid of James Madison and John Jay, published eighty-six essays known as “The Federalist,” in which these views were urged, aided, too, by the known opinions of Washington, their efforts for the adoption of the Constitution were successful. The wealthy and commercial classes were generally in accord with them ; and the party came into power on the accession of Washington to the presi- 1 People’s Cyclopaedia. deucy, April 30, 1789. On Sept. 11 Hamilton was ap- pointed Secretary of the Treasury, and his genius had much to do with the success of the administration. The most pressing matter was the debt. He proposed that the indebtedness of the United States and the Rev- olutionary expenses of the States, in all nearly eighty million dollars, should be assumed by the General Gov- ernment, and fully paid by revenue derived from cus- toms and a duty on ships. This met with sharp opposition, but was finally adopted, and the credit of the country set on a firm basis. In 1791 the Bank of the United States, with a capital of ten million dollars, was established, three-fourths to be paid in United-States stock at six per cent, thus furnishing a market for the bonds of the government. There was no opposition to the re-election of Washington in 1793 ; but, during his second term, the diverse ele- ments of his cabinet caused an explosion. Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox were earnest Federalists, while Thomas Jefferson and Edmund Randolph were opposed to that party. This led, at the retirement of Washington, to a party strife on the election of a President. The Federalists were successful ; and .John Adams became President, March 4, 1797, and, as the electoral law then stood, his competitor, Thomas Jefferson, having the next highest number of votes, Vice-President. Ilis administration was unfortunate ; and some of his acts gave offence to his own followers, especially in his dealing with France. The Alien and Sedition Laws, for which the Federalists were respon- sible, had made the party unpopular; and Mr. Adams was defeated as a candidate for a second term by Thomas Jefferson, which virtually destroyed the power of the Federalists. During the administration of James Madison, who had long before left the Feder- alists, June 4, 1812, war was declared against Great Britain ; and the measures adopted pressed hardly upon New England, where many had opposed it from the beginning. The Hartford Convention met Dec. 15, 1814. Its president, George Cabot of Massachu- setts, and all its members, were Federalists. It sat with closed doors, and its proceedings were assumed to be hostile to the government : and this, coupled with a suspicion of disloyalty, wrought the complete ruin of the party ; and it disappeared on the election of James Monroe in 1S16. ANTI-FEDERALISTS. — This party arose during the discussion of the ratification of the Constitution. Its principles were based on opposition to the cen- tralization of power in the General Government. It was also known as the Republican party ; and this name, Mr. Jefferson, its greatest leader, was anxious to retain : but its members became known as Demo- crats, and the other titles were dropped. Its first success was the election of Thomas Jefferson Presi- dent in 1801. Mr. Jefferson transferred at once the chief offices to members of the party : internal reve- nues were abolished, and the Alien and Sedition Laws were repealed. lie was elected a second time in 1805; and, on the expiration of his term, the ' sympathy of the Democrats with France, and their enmity toward England, whose conduct on the seas had rendered her obnoxious, caused the election of James Madison to the presidency in 1809, who was again chosen in 1813. The successful issue of the war of 1812 continued the power of the party; and James Monroe became Presi- dent in 1817, followed by a second term in 1821. In the election of 1824, there were four candidates for President; namely, 'John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and W. H. Crawford, all of whom claimed to be Democrats. None having a majority, the election was thrown into the House of Repre- sentatives, when Mr. Adams was chosen President; John C. Calhoun being Vice-President by the votes of the electoral college. In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected President after a sharp struggle with the advo- cates of Adams, no principle being at stake ; and he was again chosen in 1832. The acts of Gen. Jackson caused strong opposition, and it was during his ad- ministration the Whig party was formed. And as the lines were drawn, and men ranged themselves on either side, the Democrats took tho name of the Democratic party, and claimed to be the successors of the old Jeffersonian party. DEMOCRATIC PARTY. — The political features of Jackson’s administration were, the opposition to the United-States Bank, the denial of the right of any State to nullify the laws of Congress, and the excite- ment over the tariff question. In 1836, through the influence of Jackson, Martin Van Buren was elected President; and, during his administration, the prestige of the Democratic party began to wane. In 1837 the country went through a severe commercial panic. Credit, speculation, and banking had been carried to extreme limits, and disaster followed. For this state of affairs the administration was held responsible. The election of 1840 was a revolution; and, in the choice of Gen. Harrison by the electoral vote of two hundred and thirty-four to sixty, the Democratic party, after forty years of power, was forced to retire. But the Whig triumph was short-lived. Gen. Harrison died one month after his inauguration ; and John Tyler, who had been nominated for Vice-President to conciliate Virginia, succeeded to the presidential chair. All his life he had held and advocated Democratic doctrines, especially the opposition to the United- States Bank, a protective tariff, and internal improvements by the General Government. On his accession he continued the cabinet of his predecessor, Daniel Webster being Secretary of State. But, after two successive vetoes of the “ Fiscal Bank of the United States ” bill, his cabinet left him, — Mr. Webster remaining only till the con- clusion of the Webster- Ashburton treaty, — and his ad- ministration became essentially Democratic. In 1844 James K. Polk was elected President, after a bitter and exciting contest, over Henry Clay. The annexa- tion of Texas, which was urged by the Democratic party, was the great question in determining this elec- tion, and was accomplished March 1, 1845, three days before the inauguration of Mr. Polk. This led to a war with Mexico, which was declared May 13, 1846. At its successful conclusion, not only was the Rio Grande established as the boundary of Texas, but all New Mexico and Upper California were relinquished to the United States. In March, 1820, an Act, known as the Missouri Compromise, had been passed, forbid- ding the introduction of slavery in any of the States formed from the Louisiana cession north of 36° 30'. On Aug. 8, 1846, the rejection of the so-called Wilmot Proviso by the Senate, which provided, “ That, as an express and a fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the republic of Mexico by the United States, . . . neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory,” became the starting-point of the Free-soil party in 1848. Mr. Wilmot, the mover, was a Democrat. The popularity of Gen. Taylor caused the defeat of Lewis Cass in the election of 1848; and the Democratic party went out of power till 1853, when Franklin Pierce be- came President. In 1856 it elected James Buchanan President, and John C. Breckinridge Vice-President. At the convention held in Charleston, S.C., April, 1860, the slavery issue caused a disruption of the party, — the slave section nominating JohnC. Breckinridge, and the free, Stephen A. Douglas ; and, on Mr. Lin- coln’s election, it lost the supremacy which it had held with little interruption for sixty years. It has had, however, a vigorous life, and has contested hotly every presidential election ; its unsuccessful candidates being George B. McClellan in 1864, Horatio Seymour in 1868, Horace Greeley in 1872, Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, and Winfield S. Hancock in 1880. WHIG PARTY. — During the administration of Andrew 7 Jackson, the opposition took definite shape under the leadership of Henry Clay and Daniel Web- ster. This was afterward known as the Whig party,- though Mr. Clay was their candidate in 1832 under the name of National Republicans. It was joined by Federalists and the descendants of Federalists ; and its active principles were the advocacy of the United- States Bank, a protective tariff, and internal improve- ments by the General Government. And it opposed the system adopted by Jackson of removal from office on account of political opinions, which he had justified on the plea that “to the victors belong the spoils.” Its first success w 7 as in 1840, when Gen. William II. Harrison was elected President, and John Tyler Vice- President ; but the fruits of the victory were lost by the course of Mr. Tyler after his accession to the presidency at the death of Gen. Harrison when only a month in office. The “ spoils ” system proved too at- tractive for the virtue of the incoming party, and was adopted. The country was agitated during Mr. Tyler’s administration over the annexation of Texas ; and on that issue Mr. Clay was defeated, and the Whig party lost the position it nominally held. In 1848 the Whigs nominated and elected President Zachary Taylor, a popular general in the Mexican w r ar. The slavery question was now constantly intruding itself, and both parties were trying to avoid its difficulties. Mr. Clay, on May 9, 1850, brought forward a series of com- promises known as the Omnibus Bill, of which the concessions made to Texas, the admission of Cali- fornia as a free State, and a more stringent Fugi- tive-slave Law, were the chief features. During its consideration Gen. Taylor died; and Millard Fillmore became President, July 9, 1850. The bill was passed complete Sept. 18, but did not satisfy the growing sentiment against slavery and the slave-power. There was little heart in the party ; and the death of Mr. Clay, June 28, and of Mr. Webster, Oct. 24, 1852, tended still further to its decline. In 1852 it put for- ward Gen. Winfield Scott as its candidate, but not even his splendid military reputation could save it from defeat. The slavery issue now overbalanced all else. A new party arose, — the Republican, — and the Whig party disappeared. LIBERTY PARTY, THE, grew out of the Anti- slavery Society, and was more widely known for the persistent agitation of its adherents than its numbers. In 1840 it nominated James G. Birney, Secretary of the Anti-slavery Society, for President, casting 7,059 votes, and again in 1844, when he received 62,300 votes. It contained such men as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Lewis Tappan, Gerrit Smith, Samuel Lewis, and Salmon P. Chase. It merged into the Free-soil party in 1848. FREE-SOIL PARTY, THE, was organized in Buf- falb, N.Y., in 1848, and comprised the Liberty party, the Barnburners (anti-slavery Democrats of New York), and anti-slavery Whigs. Their first candidate was Martin Van Buren, but he received no electoral votes. In 1852 it nominated John P. Hale, who met with no better success ; and in 1856 it became part of the Republican party. AMERICAN PARTY, THE, more generally known as Know-Nothings, appeared in 1854. It was based on a widely spread secret society, and advocated twenty- one years’ residence as a qualification for citizenship, and native-born citizens as office-holders. It swept- the country like a tornado, carrying the elections in nearly every State. But it lived a very short time. In 1856 it nominated Millard Fillmore for President; but the slavery question took precedence of every thing else, and he received only 874,534 votes ; after which the party disappeared. CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY, THE, con- sisted of moderate Southerners and some Webster Whigs. It claimed for its platform the Constitution of the United States and the enforcement of the laws. At its convention, held May, 1860, it nominated John Bell for President, and Edward Everett for Vice-President. They received only thirty-nine electoral votes ; and the outbreak of the war saw the end of the organization, which was mildly pro-slavery in its tendency. REPUBLICAN PARTY, THE, was organized during the administration of Mr. Pierce, 1853-57. Its plat- form rested mainly on the prohibition of slavery in the Territories, declaring that freedom was the public law of the national domain ; the prohibition of polyg- amy, which it classed with slavery as “ the twin relic of barbarism ; ” and the admission of Kansas as a free State. In 1856 the party was in good working-order, and fairly divided the country with its Democratic competitor. In June of this year its convention met at Philadelphia, and nominated John C. Fremont for President. But the American party drew something from its strength, and, though showing a popular vote of 1,341,264, it was defeated; the slave States, with the exception of Maryland, which voted for Mr. Fill- more, going solidly for All*. Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, who was elected with the aid of five free States, eleven of the latter voting for Gen. Fremont. Iii 1860 the Republicans elected Abraham Lincoln President. The sectional issue was still more strongly marked ; and he received the electoral votes of all the free States except those of New Jersey, which were given to Mr. Douglas. On the announcement of his election, the Southern States prepared to secede ; South Carolina leading, followed by ten others. Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861 (Gen. Scott carefully supervising the ceremony), and his address was con- ciliatory but firm. He asserted that there was no right to interfere with slavery in the States where it existed, and acknowledged that of the reclamation of fugitive slaves; but he expressed his determination to execute the laws, and protect public property. April 12, 1861, South Carolina precipitated the war by firing on Fort Sumter, which was abandoned on the 14th ; and on the 15th Mr. Lincoln made his first call for 75,000 men. The cabinet at this time consisted of Wil- liam H. Seward, John A. Dix (afterwards succeeded by Salmon P. Chase), Simon Cameron (succeeded by Edwin M. Stanton), Gideon Welles, Caleb B. Smith, Montgomery Blair, and Edward Bates. On Sept. 22, 1862, Mr. Lincoln issued his Emancipation Procla- mation, which was essentially a war-measure. The principles which it involved were confirmed by an amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1865. In 1864 Mr. Lincoln was unanimously nominated by the Republicans, and was re-elected by an overwhelm- ing majority. The war was brought to a close by the surrender of Gen. Lee, April 9, 1865 ; and on the 14tli Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, and died the next day. Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President, immediately succeeded him, and continued his cabinet. Mr. John- son had been a loyal Union man of Tennessee, and was chosen in view of the reconstruction of the South. He soon disagreed with the party, and came into actual conflict with Congress. He was impeached March 23, 1868, but acquitted May 16 and 26 for lack of one of two-tliirds for conviction. Chief-Justice Chase presided at this trial. In 1868 Ulysses S. Grant was elected President. His election was urged on the ground that the Republican party, having suc- cessfully finished the war, maintained public credit, abolished slavery, and secured liberty, was the proper one to carry on the government. In May, 1872, the Liberal Republicans met in Cincinnati, and nominated Horace Greeley ; which action was indorsed by the Democratic convention. The Republicans nominated Gen. Grant, and re-elected him by a larger vote than that of the former term. In 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes, by the decision of the Presidential Electoral Commission (q. v.), was declared elected. It was during this administration that the resumption of specie payments took place, Jan. 1, 1879; and the re- construction of the South went forward smoothly. In 1880 James A. Garfield was elected President, and died Sept. 19, 1881, from wounds inflicted July 2 ; and Chester A. Arthur, the Vice-President, took his place. ANTI-MASONIC PARTY. — In 1826 William Mor- gan, who was preparing a revelation of the secrets of Freemasonry, suddenly disappeared. It was rumored that he had been foully dealt with by members of the order; and intense excitement was the result, followed by the establishment of a political party based on opposition to the order. It cast in New York, in 1828, 30,000 votes ; in 1829, 70,000 ; and about 128,000 in 1832. In 1832 it nominated William Wirt for President, but only carried one State, — Vermont. In 1835 it elected Joseph Ritner governor of Pennsyl- vania. The excitement gradually died out, and the party disappeared. William H. Seward owed his start in political life to this party, which sent him to the New-York Senate in 1830. PROHIBITION PARTY. — This party arose in Maine, where, in 1851, Neal Dow procured the pas- sage of a law to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. In 1880-81 Kansas did the same, and the party has considerable following in the North-western States. Its votes for President in 1872 were 5,608, James Black being its candidate ; and in 1876 it cast 9,223 for G. C. Smith. Its work has been chiefly directed to State reform, and- its national influence has not yet been developed. GREENBACK PARTY, THE, called by its members the Independent National, was organized in 1876, and was the outgrowth of the Granger and Labor Reform movements. Its convention at Indianapolis in May, 1876, “ demanded the unconditional repeal of the Specie Resumption Act of Jan. 14, 1875; ” urged the issue of United-States notes as a circulating medium, and the suppression of bank paper; and protested against the further issue of gold bonds, and the pur- chase of silver to replace the fractional currency. Peter Cooper was nominated for President, and re- ceived 81,740 votes. In 1880 its candidate was James B. Weaver, who received 307,306. It has never gained any electoral votes. 17 THE GREAT ISSUE. Constant Hardpan of Pittsburg, Penn., seeks an interview with the chiefs at Augusta and Albany to know the effect of their respective tariff-views on laboring-men. Augusta, Sept., 1884. L. M. — Good-morning, Mr. B . I am a labor- ing-man from Pittsburg. My name is Hardpan, and I came all the way to Augusta to learn your views about the effects of your proposed tariff policy on the laboring-men. J. G. B. — Have you read my letter? That tells all about it. L. M. — Yes, I know that tells a great deal ; but there are a few things that I would like some further light upon. ./. G. B. — Very well, sir : I will make it all clear to you. L. M. — First, we laborers want work ; and, secondly, we want fair pay for it. Now, how can we be guar- anteed by your policy, — fair pay, and steady work ? J. G. B. — Protection, sir, is the only thing that we need to secure you what you desire. If we make manufacturing profitable, business will be good ; and you need give yourself no concern about work and wages. L. M. — Have we not been amply protected for the last twenty years ? J. G. B. — Certainly ! certainly ! See how we have prospered! This country has increased thirty billions in wealth, in about twenty years, — all because of protection. L. M. — Has not the richness of the soil, which has been given free, and been developed, had something to do with it ? J. G. B. — Our manufacturing interests are what have made farming profitable, — nothing else. L. M. — Has not the increase of population had much to do with our increased wealth? J. G. B. — Yes ; but it is work and wages that have brought the people hither, which have made the wealth. L. M. — Have there been more children born be- cause of protection ? Much of our increase has come from that source. * J. G. B. — Indeed it has ! If young men can earn good pay, they are encouraged to marry. The better the business, the more population ; and, the more popu- lation, the better the business. L. M. — On this theory, you would encourage the Chinese to come ? J. G. B. — We would in theory; but in policy we would have to regard our brethren on the Pacific slope, who are prejudiced against this people. L. M. — Admitting the general prosperity of the country, admitting that there is more wealth in pro- portion to the population, yet many a man seems to be like me, — to have gone through all this pros- perity, and not laid up a dollar. While the rich in our city have grown very much richer, the poor seem more wretched in their condition. J. G. B. — Well, I’ll tell you how that is. Some men get into the wrong business, and this is the cause of failure. AYhat is your business ? L. M. — I did work in a rolling-mill, but was turned out of work two months ago. J. G. B. — Perhaps the iron-men need a little more protection. L. M. — Our boss told me that we needed a mar- ket for our goods more than protection. J. G. B. — What makes trade dull, in his opinion ? L. M. — Our selling-agent says that competition is so strong at home, that there is not any sight for work unless we accept wages that no American can live upon. J. G. B. — I think it would be well, when the mar- ket is overstocked, to shut down for a while. L. M. — Our firm suggested it : but Mr. Jones, another manufacturer, got some cheap foreign labor, and was getting the market ; so our firm had to do the same thing, in order to compete. J. G. B*. — This is another argument against the Democrats, who would reduce you to the level of the pauper labor of Europe. L. M. — I fear most the pauper labor in this coun- try. J. G. B. — Why do you not get a job at something else ? I fear the iron business is overdone. L. M. — I have tried at every factory between here and Pittsburg, and I find wages and work are on the decline in all of them. J. G. B. — Did you try in other than iron-mills? L. M. — You bet I did! I thought I should like shoemaking, but I found out in Lynn that they did not average more than six months’ work in a year. I tried to get work in a woollen-mill here in Maine, but they said things w r ere growing worse and worse. They say you propose to raise the tariff on wool, which may close them up entirely. J. G. B. — That wool-plank was only put in the platform to patch up things in Ohio. We really do not mean any harm to the manufacturers. L. M. — To come to the point again, I can’t see how protection guarantees work or wages. J. G. B. — Now, the real difficulty is, people will not buy when they already have enough. So no party can guarantee steady employment. L. M. — I don’t find any that have enough, but I find lots that ha’n’t got money to buy with. J. G. B. — Let me proceed. There is a pernicious principle established by free-traders, which is, that demand regulates price. Now, if it were not for that principle, we could guarantee high wages all the time. Now, if we have work for only fifty men, and there are fifty more out of work, they will offer to work cheaper ; and that is what carries prices down. Now, these men that offer to work for less are free-traders because they act on that principle. L. M. — Well, my difficulty is not removed. Even if I get work at the reduced prices, I shall be unable to give my children an education. In fact, they have got to begin to work when far too young in order to dress decently and live comfortably, — say nothing of the luxuries that they can see around them constantly. G. B. — Now, you are a Republican, I take it. L. M. — Yes, sir : I always have been. ./. G. B. — Do not be discouraged. I have a grand scheme in my mind for laboring-men, into which I shall enter after election ; and I do not feel that I shall prove a deadhead in the enterprise if I once embark in it. I see various channels in which I know I can be useful. L. M. — Things have grown worse so fast, that I feared that there might be something wrong in your tariff system. ./. G. B. — You had better be thinking how much worse Democratic free trade would be. L. M. — They say they would bring it about gradu- ally. Now, how long would it take? J. G. B. — It will not do for us to talk that way. We must represent to the people that all the evil pos- sibilities of fifty years to come will be heaped upon them at once if the administration should change. L. M. — Is that a fair representation ? J. G. B. — Should we let the people know that they did not propose to take all duties off at once, it would rob the present campaign of all its enthusiasm. L. M. — Just what is your system of changing the 'tariff? J. G. B. — Very simple. Let the manufacturers get together, and tell w r hat they want : then give it to them. L. M. — Well, don’t their interests often conflict? J. G. B. — Yes, but we let them fight it out among themselves. L. M. — Is there not some injustice done by the stronger having more influence than the weaker ? J. G. B. — Certainly, but that cannot be helped. We advise them all to grow stronger. L. M. — Aren’t many protected who don’t need any protection, making them simply a monopoly? J. G. B. — Ye»; and this is a very large class. They must be protected, however ; for, if they are not, they threaten to become free-traders, and cut every- body else off from protection. This is a very valua- ble class, for they are exceedingly liberal in campaign contributions. Please excuse me from a further in- terview. L. M. — Just one more. What shall I answer when Democrats say that the present depression is the re- sult of protection ? J. G. B. — Tell them it’s the Morrison bill. L. M. — But how can I make it appear that manu- facturers expected Morrison, who could not pass it in a Democratic House, was going to pass it over a Republican Senate and a Republican President ? G. B. — Tell them we are intensely American, and this is but the natural tide of indignation from a people who wish to show a proper resentment to a British free-trade measure. Good-morning. L. M. — I guess I’ll go to Albany. Albany, Sept., 1884. L. M. — Good-evening, Mr. C . I am a labor- ing-man from Pittsburg. I just came to Albany by way of Augusta. I am an honest, hard-working man, and have a wife and four small children. I have been out of work for the last two months ; and, were it not for a little money just received by my wife from the legacy of a friend, I should have to let my children become paupers. Now, I am a Republican, and have usually got all my information from Republican sources. I have been told again and again that the laboring-man was protected by the Republican tariff. I have been told that the Democrats were British free-traders, and would have all the laboring-men on a level with the pauper labor of Europe. I lost my job two months ago because a pauper laborer from Europe came to my employer, and offered to work for less than what I could afford to ; he having no wife and children to support. This event has set me to thinking ; and I thought I would not depend on cam- paign papers any longer for information, but go direct to the fountain-head. Now, are you willing to show me what the Democratic policy proposes to do for the laboring-men ? G. C. — Please walk into the parlor, as it is getting a little cool on the piazza, and I will give you any information you seek, within my power. L. M. — What do you mean by tariff reform ? G. C. — We mean by tariff reform to so change the present tariff that an unnecessary surplus of one hundred millions shall no longer burden the people. L. M. — How much revenue do we now raise, and how much would be necessary ? G. C. — We raise about four hundred million^ now, while three hundred millions would be sufficient for the economical administration of the government. L. M. — Would three hundred millions be sufficient to pay the debt as fast as it becomes due ? G. C. — Certainly, and pay liberally all govern- ment employes and pensioners. L. M. — Why do any favor raising this surplus ? G. C. — There are several reasons given ; but osten- sibly it is to maintain corrupt schemes, such as Credit Mobilier and Star-route contracts, which prove to be sources of great campaign funds. L. M. — Is the surplus the only thing wrong about the tariff ? G. C. — By no means. The present tariff discrimi- nates in favor of some, and against others. L. M. — Does it hurt any manufacturers? G. C. — Certainly. The raw materials and operating machinery of some are so highly taxed, that it more than balances the protection they get, thus rendering them unable to compete with foreigners, who do not have to pay a duty on raw materials and operating- machinery. L. M. — Why is it that some manufacturers get these great advantages, while others are injured? G. C. — I do not know : we can only think. We do know, however, that certain rich corporations are always represented in the lobbies of Congress, and always subscribe liberally to the Republican campaign fund. L. M. — Is there any evidence to be drawn from the general prosperity of the country to show the present tariff unjust? G. C. — Yes, there are many evidences. I will only mention a few. While our country has increased in wealth thirty billions in about twenty years, our poorer classes have not received their share, but have actually grown poorer. The poverty of to-day is not only more common than twenty years ago, but more terrible in its sufferings, and more degraded in its character. To prove this, you have only to visit any large city. L. M. — I know it is so in Pittsburg. The poor have been growing poorer, the rich very much richer, and paupers more plenty and more degraded. This state of things has been very noticeable within the last three years, even in all the iron-districts that I have visited. G. C. — Then, again, we can see the inequality of the present tariff by comparing it with what an equal share would be if the tax were direct. Now, if we allow that you pay an average tax, with a family of six it ought not to be but thirty dollars annually. L. M. — How do you get at that? G. C. — Three hundred millions tax, divided among sixty millions of people, makes but five dollars each. L. M. — I see : if rich and poor all paid alike, it would be only thirty dollars then for a family of six. How much does a family like mine pay now? G. C. — If you live economically, and cut out most every luxury, and have only those comforts that should be denied no laboring-man, you pay, according to the lowest estimate, a hundred dollars annually because of the tariff. L- M. — How can that be if the government re- ceives but about four hundred millions at the most? G. C. — The government revenues do not represent the amount of tax the people pay because of the tariff. L . M. — Now, my just share of the burden — if I pay as much as Vanderbilt — is but thirty dollars ; and yet you say I pay a hundred dollars. Now, where does the other seventy dollars go to ? G. C. — Every thing your family eats and wears, — yes, and the house you live in, — is higher because of the tariff. Take, for instance, the article of rice. Now, the tariff is two and a half cents per pound. Now, if three-fourths of what is used in this country is raised here, then the government revenue would rep- resent but one-fourth of what the people pay. While we pay one-fourth to the government, we should pay the other three-fourths to the rice-growers and rice- speculators, who advance the price two and a half cents because of the tariff. You may never wear a yard of foreign-made cloth, yet every coat you buy is much higher because of the tariff. In regard to your clothing, all the extra you pay may be a bounty to the wool-growers and manufacturers, while none goes as a tax to the government. L. M. — Why not abolish such a tariff which works such manifest in j ustice ? G. C. — We do not propose to abolish the revenue system, but reform it so as to make the burden rest as near equal and as lightly as possible. L. M. — Then, you believe in some protection? G. C. — We believe in the fullest protection. We believe in a protection that protects all and every class alike. We do not believe in privileged classes, nor in special legislation designed to help the few to the injury of the many. L. M . — How much protective tariff do we need? G. C . — We must raise annually three hundred millions for the expenses of the government. Among these expenses is money for pensions, a burden which loyal citizens will ever patiently and generously bear. L. M. — Would you let this be a means of pro- tection ? G. C. — Certainly. This amount legitimately raised would serve an ample protection to all our industries and laborers. L. M. — What is the difference, then, between pro- tection, and tariff for revenue only ? G. C. — There might be no practical difference if both parties were agreed as to the amount to be raised, and were both seeking to treat the whole people equal- ly fair. The difference may be very great, because a strictly protective tariff seeks first to benefit special interests regardless of the many, which may or may not be benefited; while a strictly revenue tariff seeks first the general good, and is sure to benefit the many, and will not harm any legitimate enterprise, which is adapted to the country. L. M. — What is the basis of fixing or changing the tariff according to a protective system ? G. C. — They have no basis, and this is the reason of so much injustice. One industry having great influence in Congress, may get sufficient favors to create a monopoly ; while others are greatly in j ured thereby. L. M. — I learned this by applying to a woollen-mill for work a few days since. They told me that the wool-growers had been injured by the last tariff, and the Republicans had promised to change it, which would certainly injure the manufacturers, and prob- ably close up every mill in the country for a time : therefore they would give me no encouragement to wait for a job. G. C. — Yes : injury will follow certainly by being guided by private interests. If the woollen-mills close, there will be less demand for wool, which will carry the price still lower; for demand is what regulates price. L. M. — I can see that. The farmer will be in- jured rather than benefited by such a move. Now, this is a free country ; and, if one thing receives more advantage than another by protection, why don’t every- body go into the business most favored ? G. C. — They could go into many kinds of business, but it would cost a great sum to buy a coal-mine or iron-mine as long as they are highly protected. L. M. — Well, but could they not go into many kinds of manufacturing? G. C. — Most certainly; and this is a great injury to laboring-men. When a business becomes very profitable, too many go into it. L. M. — Don’t it hurt the capitalist as much as the laboring-man ? G. C. — Well, let us see. A highly protected screw- company in Rhode Island once paid a dividend of twelve per cent a month, or at the rate of one hundred ^and forty-four per cent a year. Now, who could best stand a shut-down of six months a year, — the capital- ist, or the laboring-man ? If it run one month, the capitalist could get along on twelve per cent quite comfortably ; but could a laboring-man get along with one month’s pay in a year ? L. M. — Well, that is an eye-opener ! I can testify to the fact that the most highly protected industries have so overdone business that they are closed up much of the year. They have cut down my pay three times within the last two years, and the last year I have not had work half of the time. My idleness has also been a curse to me as a breeder of vices. I should have been ten times as well off to-day, had I gone West, and taken up land. I noticed, while read- ing an official report, that the unprotected farmer pays his help more on an average than the most highly protected industry. Now, I have been taught to fear the Democratic doctrine, because it was called British free trade. What is your method of adjusting the tariff ? G. C. — We have a regular system that should ope- rate regardless of outside influence. First, as soon as possible, make all raw material free. This would help the manufacturer to make a cheaper product, and still pay higher wages. It would give him a wider market, making a greater demand for raw material, which would keep the price reasonably high and firm; and this increase of business would give the laborer more employment. L. M. — If you begun that way, it would also lower the cost of living. Now, coal would be raw material ; but I understand Mr. Blaine owns a great amount in coal-mines in Western Pennsylvania, and would object to this method. G. C. — We do not look at private interests when we operate in accordance with a principle. Now, I will ask you what the result would be on coal alone if the duty were taken off? L. M . — I could not begin to tell. I could see a few effects, however. It would certainly help every poor man that has got to keep his family warm the coming winter. Again, it would help every manu- facturer who uses it. G. C. — Would it hurt any one ? L. M. — Well, the coal-men who own the mines are very few and very rich. They would still have a “ Bonanza,” but not quite a monopoly. G. C. — That is the idea. Free raw materials would help everybody very much, and hurt but few a very little, if any. L. M. — I could go that much of free trade, but what would be your next step ? G. C. — Well, it involves the same principle, and is very simple. If raw materials which cost little or no labor are free, then those that cost the least labor should receive the least protection, and those that cost the most labor receive the most protection. L. M . — Why, a laboring-man could help make a tariff if it were as simple and as honest and as fair as that. I think it would cost the country less to regu- late the tariff according to such a principle, than to have no principle except that the strongest in the lobby shall receive the greatest consideration. G. C. — Can you see any effect that it would have in your vicinity ? L. M. — Yes : it would leave but little duty on pig- iron. This would help every manufacturer and user of iron in the country; and our boss reckoned the amount of protection necessary for pig-iron the other day, and found that if we had but half the present duty on it, and paid three dollars per day for wages, we could beat the English, even if they got their labor for nothing. In fact, distance makes the freight about all the duty we need on that. But are you not de- ceiving me? Was not the Morrison bill a free-trade measure ? G. C. — AVhy should I deceive you? I have ex- plained it as fair as possible. L. M. — Then, my friends have deceived me; for they say the Morrison bill takes off all duties, and leaves us at the mercy of free-trade England. G. C. — It is not worth while to talk much about the Morrison bill, only as it represented the principle of tariff reform. The bill may have had many im- perfections; but, as far as the principle of reducing the tariff was concerned, it only aimed at a twenty per cent reduction. That would reduce our revenue but one-fifth, and thus leave four-fifths. Now, all the deception your Republican friends are practising upon the laboring-men generally, can be summed up in a nutshell. They are trying to have you believe that one from five leaves nothing (5—1 = 0), in order to get up a free-trade scare. We believe that one from five leaves four ; and we mean that we have lessened the burdens of taxation one-fifth, at least, by such a measure. Now, which arithmetic can you best under- stand ? L. .1/. — I am sure I should be willing to get along with four-fifths of my present burden for a while to try it. G. C. — Our tariff then would be ample protection. Where w r e have a dollar now, we should have eighty cents then. For example, suppose an article cost two dollars in England, and the same article two dol- lars and a.quarter in this country. Now, twenty-five cents would be all the tariff necessary for protection. Now the Republicans have a dollar : the Democrats propose to cut it down to eighty cents. Now, would you be afraid of such free trade as that? L. M. — I am convinced that my supposed friends have been my deceivers. I wonder now that I ever believed that you would try to raise three hundred million dollars annually without any revenue tariff. I hope I have not troubled you too much, and desire your consent that I tell our conversation to my friends. G. C. — It has been a pleasure for me to talk with you, because I believe you to be sincere; and I am willing to go on record for what I have said ; and I would further say, that no tariff reformer proposes, to reduce the tariff so that the tariff will not more than cover the difference between the cost of produc- tion here and the cost of pi’oduction in foreign coun- tries, even if wages are higher here than at present. L . M. — Then, there is nothing for the laboring- men to fear from tariff reformers, or what Repub- licans choose to call Free-Trade Democrats. G. C. — I believe you omitted to give me your name. L. M. — My name is Constant Hardpan. The only book of the kind ever issued, THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE High Protectionists # Revenue Reformers TO APPEAR IN THE SAME VOLUME. $300 for $2. The opinions contained herein would cost at least three hundred dollars if obtained through other books; besides the new contributions that have never been given to the public before. The names of a fep of the contributors to this book: — Hon. James G. Blaine. “ James A. Garfield. “ Justin S. Morrill. “ William D. Kelley. R. G. Hf*RR. Professor Thompson. “ Wilson. “ Bowen. Horace Greeley. Henry Clay. Hon. John G. Carlisle. “ Samuel J. Randall. “ David A. Wells. Professor Perry. “ Sumner. “ Frederic Bastiat. “ ^Imile de Laveleye. “ A. L. Chapin. “ John Bascom. Thomas G. Shearman. This book will contain nearly seven hundred pages, and be sold for the small sum of $2. This will be a bonanza for agents. Circulars sent on application. AMERICAN LABORERS’ EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY, 81 MILK STREET, BOSTON, MASS. ■ AND ALL VOTERS OF THE WESTERN & NORTH-WESTERN STATES. READ, AND LEND TO YOUR NEIGHBOR. Iritish Free Trade ” a Delusion. TO THE FARMERS, MECHANICS, LABORERS, We haye : jHSt passed through the terrible strife of a great rebellion. Vast sums of money have been expended ; great loss of precious lives has been our lot. The blind rage and insane folly of traitors, rising: up against the rights and inter- ests of free labor and self-government, have brought this upon us. But in the trial of battle, the right has triumphed. Tho interest of our broad land is one : — tho dignity, prosperity, unity and lasting success of Free Labor. We have shown, in our great contest, the inherent strength of a free government. If we can wisely . ordef affairs, so that agriculture, inventive skill, ••manufactures and commerce shall thrive, we shall crown bur triumph with the signal blessing of peaceful prosperity, provide the means where- by a finer culture can be gained, and show the world the glory of a true Republic. feWe must adapt ourselves to the great changes in our national condition and necessities, put aside the prejudices of the past, and work earn- estly for a better future. Wise care of the industry of a nation is a manifest and important duty of Government. Centuries ago, when Governments were all, and popular industry and manufacturing skill nothir^, save as servants to aristocratic or kingly wants, monarchs held monopolies of trade in wool, salt, Ac., Ac., and granted them tofavorites who would pay well therefor. Now such monopolies and prohibitions are passing away, and among civil- ized nations tho protecting and fostering of industry and skill, not only as a means of revenue, but to increase wealth and civilization, is the prevalent policy. We hear much said about “ fret trade.” To 4 those who look slightly or partially at this sub- ject, there is magic in the words; they aro 2 associated with ideas of reform and popular good. * Looseness in the use of terms on this matter , makes great mischief. Absolute free trado, the removal of all custom duties, as tho world is, would pauperize tho richest nation in half a generation. Too much leaning that way is disastrous. Qualified Free Trade , the impo- sition of dutiefe for revenue on articles not pro- duced at homo, or that do not compete with home products, and the free admission of such articles as are specially needed. Qualified Protection to such branches of industry as need it ; the adjustment of duties to protect home industry as well as for revenue. Such is the present policy of the most prosper- ous nations. With wars banished, and free trade reciprocal all the world over, the question might assume a different aspect. A large revenue is now a necessity to us. Home taxes and 'tariff are in operation . Is it not plain that duties should bo sp fixed as to protect home industry? This loose talk about free trade, delusive and dangerous as used, has its origin, as we shall see, from foreign self-interest. It is largely a cry raised by British capital- ists and manufacturers , to unsettle our policy, and that of the world , that they may reap the benefit , by making England the workshop for the world , and her ships and traders the carriers of raw material and finished products to and from her workshops — a cry of those who would monopolize , but not reciprocate. During our civil war just closed, all will remember how the majority of the trading and manufacturing classes in England, and tho tory aristocracy, sympathized with rebellion here. The falsehoods of the London Times , the sneers of lesser journals, the fitting out of Alabamas, escaping from their docks through the feeble meshes of “British neutrality,” to prey upon our commerce, are all fresh in every mind. Without casting any reflection on the conduct or feeling of the English people, the conduct of these classes is palpable enough. And now efforts are being made by these men to induce us to adopt what they call the “ free trade system! - ■•»» -fb^**** The following extract from a letter from osir American Consul in Liverpool, England, received, in Washington May 18th, is a timely and needed warning : 2 “ Great efforts will now be made by English capitalists and manufacturers to induce us to reduce our tariff, and permit them to do all our manufacturing ; they are beginning to stir this matter already. Our warm personal friends will be put forward to move the matter, such men as John Bright, Goldwin Smith, and others, who have. stood by us through this war. I have seen decisive evidence of this purpose here. Person- ally we owe them very much, but we may fright- fully abominate their free trade principles. ” “ They will struggle hard to break - down our tariff. 5 5 “ There will be a terrible pressure put on the Government. 55 While urging free trade upon the world, Eng- land has always jealously protected her manu- factures and does to this day. 2 n a speech in the House of Lords, Lord Goderich 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 advantages 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 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, 4 EXCEPT THEIR OWN., 'This English nobleman. has at least the merit of frankness. Within a few years, having 'made 'some modi-' ncations of her tariff, she proclaims herself the triumphant examplar and disinterested champion of free trade.* ■d commenced any change of note in British policy on this question/ A , Committee was then chosen, with J oseph Hume as chairman, L ™ ln( iuir 0 into the several duties levied on imports . 5 . How likely he would be to inaugurate tree trade, - may be judged from M 3 wish, ex- pressed in Parliament years before, that “the manufactures of the Continent might be strangled in their cradle.”^ This committee’s report said, * he tariff presents neither t congruity nor unity of purpose ; no . general principles seem to have been applied.” Id 1842 the famed tariff of Sir' Robert" Peel was enacted. Was it free trade? Let Mr Gladstone, Chancellor 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 ot duties on manufactured articles and protective duties generally, , to an average of twenty per cent, ad valorem ; thirdly , on partially manu- factured articles to rates not exceeding ten per cent ; fourthly , on raw materials to rates not over nvo per cent.” Simply a reducing to order of a centuries of patchwork acts, a reductioi duties in view of the well known fact, tu such, reduction , their well established m turers would still undersell the world seem magnanimous , and lqw duties materials, and , articles partly manufj which ; of course, would help homemahuft But Peel himself said, in his speech cl debate on the bill : “I do not abolish al ive duties; on the contrary, the amen maintains many duties that are purely p as distinguished from revenue duties.” The tariffs of 1845 and 1846 were si. their general tenor, but bf less conseq carefully protective, where necessary x where.no home interest was hurt therjj duced indeed sometimes to benefit homo intq|M| by giving raw material cheaper to the mS! faoturor. , In 1849 came, after long and warm debate the virtual repeal of the corn laws, placing th duty on grain at a shilling a q iwter, or thre< cents a bushel, where it still remains. The opposition to corn law repd&l came fron the landowners; but the manufacturers gaine< the day, for it was an imperative necessity t< them. England cannot feed, her own people the factory workers must have bread, or the mills must close ; stop those mills, and down goe< the vast fabric of British power. . So the people had breadstuff's cheaper— a bless- ing to them, yet a protection to the manufac- turer, called free trade . No. tariff changes of moment have since been made, and these are a slight foundation on which to base the boasted free trade claim. Taking twenty-two years, from 1838 to 1859, and the total annual custom receipts on sixteen leading articles some ninety-four per cent, of all tho duties, varied /ess than seven million dollars. This takes in five years before any change and six years after Gladstone’s tariff. Indeed, the duties on these articles yearly, from 1838 to 1841, before any change of tariffs was made, were $1,152,000 less than from 1854 to 1859. When the British corn laws were repealed the inducement was held out by the English, and the hope entertained by our grain growers, that a Urge market would open there for our products. But, in twelve years after the repeal of the 'corn laws, from 1848 to 1860, our exports of breadstuff's to England had decreased , in pro- portion to, our population, almost thirty per cent even by English estimate 27^ per cent. During the same years the British imports of grain from this country were only one-fifth their imports from other countries. Take our exports of provisions and breadstuff's to Great Brittiin, and to all the Western Hemis- phere, from 1846 to 1860, and wo find our yearly exports to Great Britain the least, and the demand this side the Atlantic much larger the last part of tho time. The averago of three years’ oxports of pro- visions. closing with 1860, was, to Groat Britain $5,792,268, and on this side the ocean $9,917 838 Our. exports. of breadstuff's to Great Britain 3 )r each of these same three years, averaged ,542,991 bushels ; but to ports of our Western Iemi3phere 16,034,586 bushels. Chicago alone often sends off in ten days more rain and four than England has taken from :s each year , on the average, for twenty years ast, arid the grain export from that city in a ingle day, often exceeds what England has ought of us for a whole year. In 1860, the total products of our soil were 1,860,000,000 in value; our total exports of hose products $272,282,873, or but one- eventh. Taking out the cotton exports, and ur home market and consumption was twenty lines' as great as our exports to all foreign inds. Would it not be well to think more of this Teat home market? At a late meeting in Boston Oi guests of the loard of Trade, J. W. Brooks, President of the liebigan Cbntral Railroad, in a speech, said : ‘.‘ And now I may mention a subject which has ften given me, as a Western railroad manager, ause for anxiety. It is the want of a more teady and reliable market for the produce of the reat food-producing region. Its power of pro- uetion has hardly begun to be developed, but ven now it is often without a market for its roducts. The natural buyers of surplus food re the manufacturers, and the great body of hese live too far away from us. England does ot import food from this country until she has xhausted those nearer home, which usually upply nearly all she requires. Sometimes a hort crop will bring her here for a considerable mount, and run up prices so high as to stimulate n over production and render the surplus there- f ter more unwieldy than ever. Estimating the rowers’’ portion of the price received, at an verago of 25 cents per bushel for corn, and 80 ents for wheat, the exports of breadstuff's for he last 18 years, have yielded to the growers an verage of about thirteen millions of dollars per nnura, rising as high as $34,800,000 and falling s low as $860,000 per annum, some years more han forty times as great as others, yielding to he nation a maximum of but a little over a ollar per head, and sometimes falling below hreo cents. This outlet is too insignificant at cst, and too unreliable at all times, for so im- portant an interests our national economy. It as not prevented the price of corn to the armer of Illinois from falling to eight cents per ushel, when it is sometimes over eighty cents, t is not a wise arrangement, of the world’s conomy for those who raiso a surplus of food nd those who havo a deficiency to be separated y a thousand miles of land carriage and three housand miles of ocean. Thus situated, it is no sender that the agriculturist and the manUfac- urer, who should be natural allies, meet so eldom and to such small purpose. Who pays or this anomalous condition of things, for the ransportation of raw material and food from this •ountry to the European manufacturer and a mrtion of the product back again? The west- *rn producer makes a large contribution in the ower price and reduced amount of his produce, and the foreign operative d very large contribu- tion in wages ; apd, sh'amd :to tap natiqns ! long hours of childhood’s labor, bringing ignorance and degradation, misery and want into hundreds of thousands of what ought to be cheerful and happy homes. It is claimed in England that her cheaper labor will always in’ake it for our interest to employ her people to do pur manufacturing. Without questioning the unselfishness of this advice, its soundness may well be doubted. A hundred thousand educated, thinking operatives will invent, in a short time, more simplifying processes to cheapen the product, than will equal the difference in wages, and though cheap labor will avail of these inventions, the great result, cheaper product, is due to the educated, higher paid labor. Among all the favors of which Rations boast, may we be delivered froin that of cheap labor; it would be fatal to the institutions of a self-governing people. It is the province of Boards of Trade — those most useful organiza- tions — to aid in securing to our land tho means of most fully developing its resources. It is the duty of every well-wisher of his kind to place the hungry where they can get food, to educate the ignorant, and to restore men of all oolors from slavery to freedom. “Whenever the statesmen of the West shall feel it their duty, in the National Council, to promote home manufactures, they wilt know where to find New England, and when we are all convinced, and act upon the principle, that agriculture, manufactures, and commerce are natural allies, this people, who have had, of late, so much of common sorrow and of common joy, will not need to tell the story of our common glory, for that will tell its own to the nations of the whole earth.” We may safely estimate , to-day, the New England market as worth, to the western grain grower, more than that of England. We import goods from Europe, the making of which keep3 busy a million workers. Could wo build up our home manufactures, we might draw a large portion of them to this country, and feed them here, greatly to mutual benefit. Great Britain is poor in resources of soil ; her territory is narrow, her population crowded Even taking into qccount the products of her mines, and manufactures of raw material pro- duced on her soil, and tho yearly balanco against her is over $300,000,000. This vast sum she must make up in some way. After making allowance for her profit from shipping and ex- changes, she must, to maintain her position and power, find yearly market for her manufactures to tho amount of $650,000,000 in foreign lands. To do this she is compelled to gather, so far as possible, the raw materials of the world, and send them out again manufactured, from her workshops, using her vast capital and groat skill TO BREAK DOWN FOREIGN COMPETITION, AND KEEP THESE DISTANT MARKETS, WITHOUT WHICH HKR RUIN COMES, SWIFT AND SURE. 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 4 gain and keep possession of foreign markets ,’ ’ and of works being carried on for this purpose, “ at an aggregate loss of three or four hundred thou- sand pounds sterling ,” and of the ability of a few wealthy capitalists “to overwhelm all foreign competition ” and thus “ step in for THE WHOLE TRADE WHEN PRICES REVIVE.” 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 Lad spent money here largely to break down our tariff of 1842, and get instead the lower tariff of 1846 with its ad valorem (or invoice value) duties, 'Under which system frauds in the import- er’s invoice could push his duties down to a low rate. 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 closqd 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, controling the market, and running up the price, sold us 1,000,000 tons of rail road iron at $80 per ton. < | With an adequate protection, our own mills could have furnished the iron at $50 per ton, but for want of it they were stopped, and thus $30,000,000 went into the hands of British capitalists, and soon came , inevitably, the terrible distress of the crisis of 1857. Why did English capitalists spend $1,250,000 in Washington to break down our tariff of 1812 7 It 'WAS THE INEVITABLE RESULT OF THEIR PITIFUL POSITION, COMPELLING THEM, IF POSSIBLE, TO RULE OR RUIN THE WORLD’S manufactures. A much larger sum they will spend again, if necessary, to make us tributary to them, holding out the promise of larger mar- kets in their ports for our grain and provisions, a promise, as we have seen, never redeemed in the past, nor like to be, as the currents of trade set, in the future. All the while is the free trade cry kept up by these needy monopolists, the British manufacturers, because it helps greatly to unsettle the minds of 'our and other countries and prevents the adoption of a stable policy of fair protection to home industry. With our broad extent of fertile soil, and our vast wealth of mines, we are under no necessity of seeking to crush industry the world over, to save ourselves. We wish no such wrong to other nations, but simply desire to protect our home interests, and leave them fair scope to do the same. All the world’s experience and the present condition of nations show the protective policy to be the only safe and wise means for national growth and the highest culture ; that is, where it is carried to the extent of simply fostering homo industry, and stops short of efforts to monopolize and crush down all industry elsewhere. This latter course, as we have seen, is that to which free trade ‘England is driven by the narrow- ness of her territory, and the poverty of her resources, aside from capital and skill in manu- factures and trade. Her policy has made mil- lions of her people paupers, has wrought ruin and starvation in her Irish and Indian posessions, and has well nigh ruined whatever nation has been induced to follow it. In her colonies, England has full sway. Is the philanthropic free trade policy, so kindly com- mended to other nations, carried out there 7 No. The constant aim has been to discourage and pre- vent manufacturing among them ; to bring their raw materials to England to be wrought into finer forms there, and sent back again. Fearful, in- deed, has been the ruin wrought in this way. In Bengal, sixty years ago, looms for making cottons were in well-nigh every household. The fine muslins of India had a world-wide celebrity. Calicoes and coarser stuffs were made, not only for home use, but a hundred million pounds of cloth were exported yearly. Macaulay, who would not overstate the case f against his own countrymen, said : “ The misgovernment of the English was car- ried to a point such as seemed hardly compatible with the existence of society. They forced the natives to buy dear and sell cheap. They insulted with impunity, the tribunals, the police, and the fiscal authorities of the country. “ Enormous fortunes were rapidly made in Cal- cutta, while 30,000,000 of human beings were reduced to the extremity of wretchedness. They had been accustomed to be under tyranny, but never under such as this. * * * * “ Under their old masters they had, at least, one resource ; when the evil grew insupportable, the people rose and pulled down the government. But the British government was not to be shaken off. Oppressive as the most oppressive form of barbarian despotism, it was strong with all the strength of civilization.” The importation of machinery into Hindostan was forbidden, and down went the vast manufac- tures of cotton, for hand labor could not compete with power-lootns, and wide tracts of the best cotton lands in India ran to waste and wild jun- gles. England gained thereby, for a time, but na- tions make no lasting gains by injustice, and Hin- dostan, made poor by British monopoly, is a far less valuable customer than she might have been with fair treatment. These horrid evils are partially remedied, but too late to save death, and haggard, want, and pitiful suffering of millions of poor Hindoos. The Sepoy rebellion, but a few years ago, in which babies were tossed down the mountain gorges of Hindostan from the bayonets of British soldiers, was one of the latest tragedies in that unhappy country. It may bethought, too, that the late “opium war” with the Chinese— fought to push that bale- ful drug down the throats of the natives at the bayonet’s point, for the sake of the trader’s gain — i3 not the best illustration either of philanthro- py or free trade. Look at England’s course toward Ireland. Irish wool manufactures, once flourishing, dis- couraged and broken down ; Irish shipping cut off from equal privileges, Ireland must send her raw materials to England in English ships, and take back fabrics wrought in English shops. Her 5 soil grew poor, her famished people were kept at the rudest labor, and, while want ruled there, one - third of the surface , including the richest lands in the Kingdom , were lying waste. Ire- land’s suffering is largely owing to this grasping policy of England. Free trade indeed ! The colonial policy of England is 'prohibition of that association of man ■with his fellows, in varied labors , which leads to individual growth and culture and wealth . Her course toward the West Indies has been marked by the same features, mitigated somewhat of late to save utter ruin. Canada has - been „ better treated. Let us look at the condition of other countries that have come under this so-called free trade” policy. Portugal, in ” 1703, * signed 'the v “ Methuen Treaty * with England, by which, in return for favors given her wines, she cut off almost all protection from her wool, food, &c. Her manu- factures were ruined ; British goods poured into her ports ; she became a purely agricultural country, poor, with population decreasing, bad roads, and mails carried on horseback, r Such is the condition of a country, naturally . rich, but made poor by her miserable policy. Turkey has produced wool, silk, corn, and cot- ton, 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 France, 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 exportation of her machinery to Turkey, as well as of her mechanics who might have 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 weaving shops in Tournova in 1812, but two hundred were left in 1830. As in most purely agricultural countries, the cultivators are in debt. Recently the total exports of Turkey were but $33,000,000, while those of England to that coun- try were but $11,000,000 yearly. Thus grasping selfishness defeats itself, and Turkey, unjustly treated, is too poor to be a good customer. Let us look at the condition of countries that have protected their industry, deaf to the siren voice of “British free trade.” At the close of Napoleon’s wars, great quantities of British goods were sent into Germany, to the injury of their domestic industry. In 1818, Prussia enacted a tariff in self defense, on which occasion Lord Brougham, in the House of Commons, at London, made the benevolent statement that “ England could afford to bear some loss on the export of her goods, for the purpose of destroying foreign manufactures in their cradle .” The German States soon united to form their Zoll-Verein, a Custom-Union, for duties abroad and free intercourse among themselves, and since then have gained in wealth and independeuce. In 1835, Germany exported to England 28,000,000 pounds of wool; in 1851 the imports were 25,000,000 pounds, adding some 50,000,000 to the quantity made into cloth at home. So in other departments, and we see proof of German wealth in the fact that some $200,000,000 or more of our National Bonds are held there. In 1825, Russia, before almost wholly agricul- tural, encouraged manufactures by a more pro- tective policy, and has gained largely in wealth. The abolition of serfdom has come, too, helped largely by the moral effect of that growth of per - sonal power and character, which comes with varied industry. Other features and conditions of national life have their effect to help or hinder growth, but we can see plainly enough the good results in wealth of purse and character, .of wise protection, fos- tering varied industry The policy of France has been to comoine a small amount of foreign raw material, with a larger quantity produced at home, and thus ena- ble her farmers to keep up commerce with distant lands. < Her skill and taste make most of the value of her exports. 1 ** With vast military ex- penses, she yet gains in wealth, for her industry thrives and is . cared for Much noise has been made about the so-called “ free trade treaty ” between France and England in 1860, concluded mainly under the care of Rich- ard Cobden, but that title is a strange misnomer. The present French tariff, then decided on, though modified in many particulars, and re- duced to a clearer system, more adapted to mod- ern wants and customs, is yet carefully protect- ive, and averages quite as high as our own. Earl Gray said of it, in the House of Lords, and none refuted his words, “The advance France has made on the road to commercial freedom, is most inconsiderable. She retained her whole system of navigation laws, and bound herself to no duties on her manufactured goods, lower than thirty per cent, and twenty-five per cent, afterward.” Mr. Ilorsman, in the House of Commons, de- clared the duty of thirty per cent, “prohibitory, as toward England.” The Leeds Chamber of Commerce had the same opinion, and the Journal des Debats — the Emperor’s organ — deemed it pro- hibitory, and held the English outwitted. So far as the influence of race and religion go, France, Portugal and Ireland are of Celtic origin, and of Catholic faith. The first protects its in- dustry and grows in wealth, the two last are in the clutches of “ British free trade.” groaning under the yoke. The solicitude of England touching our manu- factures, was manifest in our colonial days, and still continues. In 1710, the House of Commons declared, that the erecting of manufactures in the colonies tend- ed to decrease their dependence on Great Britain. At a later period the exportation from England of artisans or tools for making wool, silk, cotton or iron, was prohibited Lord Chatham said ho would not let tho col- onists make even a hobnail for themselves. Wo have no wish to create or increase any un- just prejudice against the English people. Sure- ly wo would not depreciate tho noble words in our behalf, of the little band of our faithful 6 friends there, through our yoars of trial just past. Any fair measures for mutual good, between our governments, will be met, let ns hope, in the future as in the past, in a friendly spirit. But there seems a strange blindness, even among Englishmen who have been our intelligent friends in other respects, as to our right and duty to pro- tect our home industry from the deadly grasp of their great monopolists. The gro S3 amount of revenue from customs yearly, from 1856 to 1859, in Great Britain was - ,$120,486,165 and in the United States 57,082,014 During the same time the average rate of duty, on dutiable imports in Great Britain was 32.41 per ct. and in the United States.... 22.54 “ “ With a revenue from customs more than double ours ) and duties on such articles as she chooses to protect, ten per cent, higher , it is quite mani- fest the golden age of real free trade will not da wn on England this generation. Of course it is not fair to charge all fluctuations in trade to varying tariffs ; yet the fact is signifi- cant , that every great panic and commercial revulsion voe have had in this country was when tariffs were reduced,, under the influence of the free trade cry , while our periods of prosperity in all our industrial interests have been under a more protective system. It may be asked, “ why are so many of our im- porting merchants, especially in New York, in favor of free trade 7 ” The cost of foreign goods being less accurately known than that of domestics, gives more chance for profits. Nearly sixty-five per cent, of all imports, and more than eighty per cent, of our imported dry goods, are brought into New York. The dry goods importing is largely in the hands of foreigners or of those connected with foreigners. Swayed by interest as men are, the partiality of many, not all, importers for low duties is no marvel. — - , Our forefathers felt that they must have com- mercial independence, always denied them by England, or their political independence would be but an empty name. The necessity of a pro- tective system for the States, was a main subject of deliberation at the first Convention, in 1786, of delegates at Annapolis, met to consider the formation of a Constitution, and also at the Convention of 1787, in which the Constitution was framed. Washington, as President, met the first Con- gress, 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 encouragment and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares and merchandise imported. Be it enacted,” etc., etc. This bill being passed, was signed by Washington, July 4,1789, marking thus, the great truth no doubt deeply felt by him, and by that august body, that the birth of politi- cal freedom should bo followed by that of indus- trial independence, that a great nation might fulfill its high destiny— free and independent indeed. And Jefferson, made President b 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 nurseries of navigation and for the nurture of man, and to protect the manufactures adapt- et to our circumstances — these are the land- marks by which we are to guide ourselves.” The sagacious Dr. Franklin, writing from Lon- don to Humphrey Marshall, in 1771, said : “Ev- ery manufacturer encouraged in our country makes part of a market for provisions within ourselves, and saves so much money to the coun- try as must otherwise be exported to pay for manufactures and supplies. Here in England, it is well known and understood, that whenever a manufacture is established, employing a number of hands, it raises the value, of lands all about ; partly by the greater demand near at hand, and partly from the plenty of money drawn there by the business. “ It seems, therefore, the interest of all OUR FARMERS, AND OWNERS OF LAND, TO ENCOUR- AGE OUR MANUFACTURES, IN PREFERENCE TO foreign ones.” Wise words, and true now as then. In a letter to J. C. Cabal 1, in 1818, James Madison said, “The theory of ‘let us alone,’ sup- poses that all nations concur in a perfect freedom of commercial intercourse. * * * No nation can safely do so until at least a reciprocity be insured to it. A nation leaving its foreign trade to regulate itself in all cases, might soon find it REGULATED BY OTHER NATIONS INTO A SUBSER- VIENCY TO FOREIGN INTERESTS.” Andrew Jackson, in his Presidential Message of 1830, said, in favor of the constitutional right to so adjust tariffs as to encourage domestic in- dustry : “In this conclusion I am confirmed, as well by the opinion of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, who have repeatedly recommended the exercise of the right under the Constitution, 1 as by the uniform practice of Congress, the con-' tinual acquiescence of the States, and the general understanding of the people.” In a private letter, in 1824, he said, “ Take from our agriculture 600,000 men, women and children, to be employed in manufactures, and you will, at once, give a home market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now gives us. We have Seen too long subject to the policy of British merchants. It is time we should be-' come a. little more Americanized.” Men of America, choose between the . words of these great Americans, and the British cry of free trade. Farmers, mechanics, manufacturers, there is no conflict of interest between you. “ Each for all, all for each,” is the divine law, in political economy, as well as in ethics or religion. The permanent success of one branch of indus- try is only secured by the prosperity of all. No country in the world is so well adapted to that association and diversity of labor, whiob 7 grow with, and help increase civilization and freedom, as ours. Rich in abundant and varied products, rivers and lakes, natural highways far inland, water power in every State, steam and the skill to use it, everywhere, — all combine to bring producer and consumer side by side. ■ All this would come naturally with a true policy of government, to put obstacles aside. That pol- icy can help or hinder greatly ; bringing thereby prosperity or ruin. A farmer, in Michigan or Wisconsin, for in- stance, raises wool. A waterfall is heard from his door, or the putf of a steam engine, cutting lumber from the. adjacent forest; but his wool is taken to the seaboard, and the cloth he wears, and the tools he uses, brought from some workshop in a foreign land, thousands of miles away. His wheat, corn and cattle, go to New England or to Eucope to be sold, always at a price governed by A foreign market, and he gets that price, LESS THE COST OF TRANSPORTATION AND COM- MISSION, AND THE RISK OF SHIPWRECK. Spend half these costs in putting the water-wheel in place, whereby the stream might be his servant; or in making the waste power of the steam engine turn lathes and wield trip-hammers, and his wool is woven and his tools made. Naturally, the Northwest, with its great extent of rich soil, will have a surplus to send away, while New England, with its water-power, capital, skill, and dense population, will manufacture largely. There is ample room for both, and no jealousy between them. The Northwest, with raw materials here, with food cheap and abundant, can really manu- facture with less expense tihan the East. On Lake Superior, in Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri, in Ohio and Kentucky, we have vast mineral wealth — copper, lead and iron. Wewant such conditions .as shall help the lasting success of our mining and the manufactures that grow, there- from. Why should not the West make its own iron and steel, and send abroad fine qualities for special uses'? But now English iron comes to Chica- go and Cincinnati, sent by those “ great capital- ists,” who, as they themselves admit, suffer losses for a while, “ to break down competition,” and “step in for the whole trade, when prices re- vive,” — making us, in the end of course, pay both their losses and profits. What folly in us ! The Northwest should manufacture, too, the wool it now exports so largely. No COUNTRY, EXCLUSIVELY AGRICULTURAL, EVER GREW PERMANENTLY RICH. To take from the earth and not wear it out, the farmer must give back. Let this be done, and crops increase with the growth of population ; neglect this, and when decay shall come to the best land is but a question of time, come it will, inevitably. In New England, with a poor soil, crops increase; in the West, with a rich soil, they decrease in the average. In New England, factory and farm are near each other, making a home market for the farmer’s produce, and enabling him t(d^ manure to enrich his soil. In the West, our produce being carmd off, the soil loses thousands of tons of its most precious constituents for crops every year, and receives no equivalent. A distinguished agriculturalist said, in 1856: “ It would be improper to estimate the annual waste to the country at less than an amount equal to the mineral constituents of 1, 500,000, OoO bushels of corn.” Put the factory beside the farm, and this drain stopped. We cannot have the best farming, until WE HAVE the best manufacturing, in varied FORMS AND MATERIALS, EACH An INDIS- PENSABLE HELP TO THE GROWTH AND PERFECT- NESS OF THE OTHER. Give us 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 ft 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 larbor, and all the while, the thrill of inventive ger»ius pulsing through the serene quiet of his life in the fields, saving it from all narrowness or stagnatibn, that he may the more enjoy Nature’s beauty, and the better make her forces sefve him. Our country has a great national debt. Tariffs and taxes wo must have. It is important so to SHAPE THE POLICY OF GOVERNMENT,, AS TO PRO- TECT HOME INDUSTRY, WHILE RAISING THE REV- ENUE. There has been a grave mistake in the action of Congress in this matter. Important domestic manufactures are less protected than formerly. Take for instance, railroad bar iron, and pig iron, woolens, etc. ; all can be shown to suffer more or less in the same way. The tariff on foreign rail- road bars is $14 00 per ton, and there is no other special addition to the cost of its manufacture. The revenue tax upon the domestic article is $3 60 per ton ; but this is but a small part of The ADDED COST TO THE MAKER. Pig iron is taxed $2 40 per ton, and coal, machinery, freight, salaries, etc., etc., all pay taxes, WHICH GO TO INCREASE THE COST OF THE finished article. Thus a ton of American railroad bars really pays a tax of at least $10 00. The tariff is paid in gold, the tax in currency ; this at present rates, makes the tariff equal in currency to $19 60 per ton. But, before any rev- enue tax was imposed, the tariff on foreign bars was fixed at $12 00 per ton, so that with the gold premium, the real protection is but $9 60. Beduce gold to par and it would be but $4 00, or EIGHT DOLLARS PER TON LESS THAN IN 1861. So long as a great war-demand for manufac- tures existed, this was not felt, but, as that ceases, it is beginning to tell with great severity. Un- less this mistake be soon corrected, manufactures are crippled, inventive skill discouraged, the Northwest made tributary to England, and all fluctuations of foreign trade severely felt. There is a danger, too, rapid in its approach, swift and terrible. Continue our present large importations, and wo increase our great foreign debt, our specie and bonds flow to Europe, (some $400,000,000 of National konds, and $500,000,000 of State and railroad securities are there now, in 'all « $900,000,000,) and, in two years or less, we shall have to pay $80,000f000 in specie, 'yearly, for our foreign interest money, and for goods we can far better make at home. This will be paralysis of business, failure of capitalists, want to the poor, such as we have never had in the “ panics ” of the past. ‘ ,h Just at this critical juncture, as we are warned by our Consul at Liverpool, the trading classes and aristocracy of England are plotting to re- duce even our present inadequate tariff. Should they succeed in doing so, or even in holding it where it is, and preventing protection, just and indispensable in our present emergency, they would rejoipe at our calamity, knowing that, by crafty management, they had dealt a blow at us, and at the sacred cause of free government, more terrible than the clash of iron-clad ships, or the smiting of heaviest cannon shot, could in- flict. h All this is needless. “Forewarned, forearmed,” is a good motto. The manufacturers do not com- plain of their taxes, but can pay even more, read- ily, only let home-skill and labor have a fair chance for our great home market. •*» Let it be borne in mind how large a part of our national income is from this internalre venue, and that this income must be had to preserve our national honor. In the fiscal year, just closed, while the in- come from internal revenue was $200,000,000, the tariff on foreign goods, with large impor- tations, was but $76,000,000. The next year will show a decrease in the manufactures at horde, and in the tax they pay, of course. Thus it is plain that adequate protection to home indus- try is the ready means of paying our national ex- pense^ as well as helping that common and last- ing prosperity we so muchmeed. The^cattle and corn of Europe, in their raw shape, , cannot come to Wisconsin, but they do I commend this valuable pamphlet to tne people. Detroit, July 1st, 1865. come worked up into cloth, tools, etc. Protection is no selfish measure, for the benefit of the rich mill-owner, but simply the preservation and in- crease of certain branches of industry for the ben- efit of all. Let us remember that our fathers, in “ the times that tried men’s souls,” favored protection to home industry as the means of read independ- ence; that Washington and Jefferson saw that the people’s industry and skill must be self-sus- tained above the reach of foreign craft or power. Remember that one great grievance of our days of colonial dependence on England, was her persistent resolve to crush our manufactures, and thus keep us dependent and poor, and that, in the present hour of trial, the same spirit of selfish monopoly would break down our industry, make us again dependent and poor, and craftily lead us to pour our gold into British coffers, already filled with the ill-gotten gains of “neutral” piracy, and rebel blockade running. We must avoid foreign' debt, decrease importa- tions, protect home industry by a tariff which shall -thoroughly guard its interests; and we shall have no panic or bankruptcy , but health in business ; work and fair wages for all, real National Independence, and Revenue with- out Ruin. ,, G. B. STEBBINS. DetroP Mich., July 1st, 1865. Note. — In so brief a pamphlet only a general acknowledgment can be made. - From a late and able work of E. B. Bigelow, of Boston, on “The Tariff Question, considered in regard to the policy of England, and the interests of the United States,” from the well-known and able writings of Henry Carey, and from various other sources, facts and arguments of great value have been gathered for this work. the careful and thoughtful reading of E. B. WARD. Valuable Books. — “ Manual of Social Science,” condensed from II. C. Carey’s Works, by Kate McKean, 1 vol., $2.50 ; H. C. Baird, Philadelphia, publisher. “The Tariff Question, considered in regard to the policy of England, and the interests of the United States.” late and excellent, by E. B, Bigelow. Price $5. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, publishers. v For the Protection of New England Homes. v * h a \ 1/vX : — -v What Senator Frye Saw in Europe. HOW WAGE-EARNERS LIVE AND ARE PAID IN FREE TRADE COUNTRIES. Senator Hoar on the Influence of the Tariff. ISSUED BY THE HOME MARKET CLUB, 56 Bedford Street, Boston. ! THE DANGER SOUND THE ALARM. When a fire breaks out the alarm bells are rung, and at once all efforts are directed to subdue it. Why? To prevent ruin. The free trade fire that will ruin New England has broken out, and it is time to sound the alarm. The House of Representatives in Washington is in favor of free trade. The leading members of the present administration, from President down, are prominent free traders, many being members of that foreign institution, the Cobden Club, and also of the New York Free Trade Club. The Senate is for protection only by a small majority, so that if Rhode Island and New Jersey should elect free traders to the Senate there would be nothing to prevent a free trade tariff bill passing both houses. The present Secretary of the Treasury, who is charged with the administration of a protective tariff, is a free trader. As well might a rumseller be charged with the administration of a prohibitory law. Everything is being done to make popular sentiment against the protective tariff. It is time for those who believe and are concerned in a protective tariff to come to the rescue. Vote only for protectionists, — for men who will preserve New England’s vast interests in manufactures, her capital, her hands and their wages. Do not be humbugged by free trade arguments about how much you can save. What you can earn is of far more importance ; but what you could earn under free trade, in order for New England to compete with foreign labor, would be about half what you are now earning. Read what Senator Frye, of Maine, found out and observed in his recent visit to Europe, and see if you care to compete, unprotected, i with European labor. 1 A protective tariff protects alike the manufacturer, with his capital " invested in a mill, and all who work in that mill, and do not be humbugged into thinking it is not so. Wage-earners should all be protectionists for the preservation of their wages secured under a ^ protective tariff. 4 LIST OF OFFICERS — OF THE— home: market cjlub. PRESIDENT TIMOTHY MERRICK, Holyoke, VICE-PRESIDENTS. Hon. OLIVER AMES, Easton. FRANCIS BATCHELLER, N. Brookfield. Hon. ALANSON W. BEARD, Boston, Hon. THEODORE C. BATES, Worcester. JAMES PHILLIPS, Jr. Fitchburg. J. W. BENNETT, Lowell. E. H. BAKER Ware. HON. FREDERICK L. BURDEN, North Attleboro. LEWIS N. GILBERT, Ware. CURTIS GUILD, Boston. J. D. W. JOY, Boston. Hon. W. W. RICE, Worcester. HOWARD STOCKTON, Boston. GEO. W. WEEKS, Clinton. Hon. ELIZUR SMITH, Lee. PHILLIP L. MOEN, Worcester. STEPHEN HOLMAN, Worcester. JAMES RENFREW, JR., Adams. E. T. SLOCUM, Pittsfield. FRED E. CLARK, Lawrence. Gen. WM. F. DRAPER, Hopedale. J. S. LCD LAM, LoAvell. IION. WM. II. HAILE, Springfield. Hon. RUFUS S. FROST, Chelsea. II on. J. II. GOULD, Medfiekl. W. E. BARRETT, Boston. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, ARNOLD B. SANFORD, Fall River. J. R. LEESON, Boston, JOHN HOPEWELL, Jr., Boston. AM AS A CLARKE, Boston. HON. WEsTON LEWIS, Boston. A. I. CROLL, Boston. COL CHAS. W El L, Boston. HENRY F. COE, Boston. FREDERICK B. TAYLOR, Boston. T. F. PATTERSON, Boston. JOSEPH G. RAY, Franklin. H. N. DAGGETT, Attleboro Falls. W. D. HOWLAND, New Bedford. W. II. BENT, Taunton. JOS. W. GREEN, Jr., Easthampton. J. S. HOLDEN, Palmer. F. W. BREED, Lynn. W. B. PLUNKETT, No. Adams. Hon. GEO. L. DAVIS, No. Andover. O. S. GREENLEAF, Springfield. Hon. GEO. P. LADD, Spencer. ROBERt’ BATCHELLER, No. Brookfield. CHAS. IL COLBURN, Milford. JOSEPH GRISWOLD, Turners Falls. HON. RODNEY WALLACE, Fitchburg. CHAS. E. WHITIN, Whitinsville. GEO. A. DRAPER, Hopedale. Secretary .— HERBERT RADCLYFFE. EBEN S. DRAPER, Hopedale. SIM EON B. CHASE, Fall River. E. D. M ETOALF, Mittineaque. HENRY L. J A VIES, Williamsburg. ROBERT S. GRAY, Walpole. HON. A. L. JOSL1N, Oxford. HON. JAMES S. ALLEN, Brockton. L. ANDERSON, Skowhegan, Me. ROBERT DOBSON, Pittsfield, Me. R. A. CLOG HER, N. Vassal boro, Me. JOHN R. POLLOCK, Guilford, Me. WM. R. WOOD, Portland, Me. THOMAS WALKER, Warren, Me. HERBERT BAILEY, Claremont, N. H. Gen. GEO. M. HARMON, New Haven, Conn, E. N. SHELTON, Birmingham, Conn. N. D. SPERRY, New Haven, Conn. L. M. HUBBARD, Wallingford, Conn. E. N. SHELTON, Birmingham, Conn. T. 1>. SAYLE3, Mechanicsville, Conn. A. W. EATON, Burnside, Conn. HENRY R. PARROTT, Bridgeport, Conn. H. C. NOBLE, New Britain, Conn. E. JENCKES, Pawtucket, R. I. HENRY A. STEARNS, Pawtucket, R. I. HENRY B. METCALF, Pawtucket, R. I. E. MORRIS, Hartford, Vt. Treasurer . — BEVERLY K. MOORE. HEADQUARTERS: Boston Merchants Association, Cor. Bedford and Chauncey Streets. This pamphlet does not discuss political economy. It is for every-day people — for the millions and not for the few. Daniel Webster once expressed himself very freely to a friend. He said: “For my part, though I like the investigation of particular questions, I give up what is called the science of political economy. There is no such science; there are no rules on this subject go fixed and invariable that their aggregate constitutes a science. I believe I have already run over twenty volumes from Adam Smith to Prof. Drew; and from the whole, if I were to pick out with one hand the mere truisms, and with the other all the doubtful propositions, little would be left.” £Fo\-u>oVcl/ Wu4 all jilted ujv to the ^e&vet>oAA^. (pteaAe hA&ve'nt {k>l ‘yfoeynkeidfiiifa, I< %a/m©. (HkitU©&6 ^n,oto6od \A 0/dmi6MoW/ &ee of $S The Vast Interest New England has in a Protective Tariff. Examine this table, showing the number of manufacturing establishments, the capital and number of hands employed, and the Tvages they earn, — figures all taken from the census of 1880 : No. of Estab- lishments. Capital. No. of Employees. Paid in Wages. Connecticut, 4,488 $120,480,275 112,915 $43,501,518 Maine, 4,481 49,988,171 52,954 13,623,318 Massachusetts, 14,352 303,806,185 352,255 128,315,362 New Hampshire, 3,181 51,112,263 48,831 14,814,793 Vermont, 2,874 23,265,224 17,540 5,164,479 Total, 29,376 $548,652,118 584,495 $205,419,470 According to the Census of 1880, therefore, there were at that time nearly $550,000,000 invested in New England in manufacturing establishments. There was and is a great deal more than that. A mill’s capital may be a given amount, say $300,000, but it may have to borrow as much more. It is safe to estimate the capital invested in New England, in manu- facturing establishments, at $1,000,000,000. Do our manu- facturers and business men want to imperil this capital by free trade? The 584,495 hands in 1880 earned $205,419,470. Do the wage-earners want to have their earnings put upon a European basis, and cut down about one-half by free trade? Do the business men of New England want the $205,419,470, earned by those employees in manufacturing establishments in New England, cut down by free trade one-half? Imagine the condition of New England with her manufacturing interests ruined by free trade. &S~ It is full time to realize the dangers of the situation. The President, in his last message, comes out for free trade, free raw materials, and tariff reduction. We are told that with free raw materials our manufactures would capture foreign markets. Thus : if wool were admitted free of duty, our woolen mills would export woolen goods. The whole basis of this argument is that something will take place; whereas the protectionist argument points always to accomplished facts, — not what will take place, but what has taken place and does take place. We have free hides, and it is true some leather is exported, but it is always done at a nominal profit, and the leather is only shipped abroad in order to better sustain prices in the home market. Where our cotton and woolen mills import machinery to be used in their mills in order to produce goods, our boot and shoo machinery excels that of any other in the world, and is exported. Where, in other countries, the labor of making shoes is performed by hand, here it is done by machinery. Put, with all these advantages, what does the export trade in boots and shoes amount to? Whv, it figures up less than WG50,00<) worth, and that is not equal to the annual product of one good sized factory in New England, making goods for the home market. It is the home market which is valuable. Where the wage-earners in Europe go around barefooted, here they wear boots and shoes ; hence the great value of tho home market. If there was no duty upon boots and shoes, this would bo lost. Speech of Hon. William P. Frye, of Maine, At Home Market Club Banquet, Hotel Vendome, Boston, October 19, 1887. Gentlemen of the Home Market Club , — Your Secretary, in inviting me to be present on this pleasant occasion, told me that he desired me to speak of my impressions of the necessi- ties of a protective tariff, as suggested by what I saw in a recent trip abroad. I comply with his request, and yet I have no such boldness as authorizes me to think for a moment that I can say anything which shall be interesting or new to this intelligent audience before me — men whose line of thought has run this way for years, practically ; nor that I ought to be selected to speak in the presence of many of the fathers here, almost, of protection ; at any rate they are the wet nurses, like my friend Porter, who sits over here, and Mr. Ammidown, over there. And yet it is not an unpleasant duty which has been assigned to me. I did feel a deep and profound interest in this question while I was in Europe ; I did, for I have been in the habit of making tariff speeches, and of illustrating them by reference to wages abroad. Now, I know this as well as you do, that a public speaker is always under great tempta- tion to exaggerate, in order to sustain his argument, and I did not know but that I had been guilty of exaggeration hitherto. I determined to know for myself. And, therefore, when I was abroad, I took more interest in men and in women and in things, than I did in churches and in ruins, in architecture and paint- ing. I investigated, so far as I could, of course hampered by an unfamiliarity with the language of the country, and, if under- standing a smattering of those languages, being entirely unfa- miliar with the dialects of the people who work for a living. We have some wonderful advantages in this country of ours in this matter of manufacturing, over any I saw ; I believe over any in the wide world. In the first place, we can feed a billion 5 more men on our land than we do to-day, and suffer no harm either. Then, again, we have an enormous sea-coast, and rivers and lakes which the Almighty planted just exactly right for us to use for our purposes, to make cheap freights all over the country. Then, again, we have more railroads than all the rest of the world combined ; and to-day our freights are cheaper in the United States of America than in any other country on this earth. On our through lines the rates are not one half what they are on the through lines in England. That is a great advantage. Again, we raise our own cotton and a part of Eng- land’s. We can raise all the cotton the world needs, if we please. Texas alone can produce every pound of cotton you use to-day, and England purchases from us, and yet not be exhausted at all. Again, we can raise all the wool we need in this country without the slightest difficulty, unless the free- traders get it on the free list. (Laughter.) Again, we have iron in twenty-four states and territories, piled up in mountains now and then, like those in Missouri with 500,000,000 of tons in their bosoms ; accessible, more accessible than the iron of any other country. Again, we have inexhaustible coal fields, accessible, too. Again, we have, for I have seen it, mountains of salt ; I saw one in Louisiana, where, with a pick, you could pick the salt out in blocks. Mountains of sulphur, granite, sand-stone, marble, lime-rock, slate, supplies of borax, gold, silver, copper. Every conceivable thing that we need to make us a great manufacturing nation is spread out here for our use ; ninety one-hundredths of it to-day lying as untouched as when planted there in the earth by the finger of the Almighty. Again, and this meeting to-night illustrates this, we have the most active, earnest, vigorous business men that are to be found on earth. Why, abroad they will go to sleep while a man in America is making a fortune (laughter;) open their stores at ten o’clock, close them at four ; idle behind the counter, seeking no trade. Again, we have the most ambi- tious, hopeful, reasonable, intelligent laboring people that are to be fouHd. I know that sometimes to employers these days of lively ambition among the laboring men seem to be some- what irksome ; but I tell you, business men of Boston, it is all working together for good, and that the good sense and intelli- gence of the laboring men of this country are to work out noth- ing but good from the present ferment ; and I rejoice, myself, in it. (Applause.) Now, why don’t we manufacture for the world? Why did we last year bring into our own market — I mean the year « 6 which ended J une 30 last — why did we bring into our own market $31,250,000 worth of silk goods? You can manufac- ture every yard of them here. Why did we bring from abroad $29,000,000 worth of cotton goods made out of cotton raised on our own land? Why should we import $44,900,000 worth of woollen goods? Why should we import $49,250*000 worth of manufactures of iron and steel, when, as I tell you, ninety one-hundredths of our iron is lying untouched in the earth? Why did we import last year $7,250,000 worth of glass, when the material for making glass is lying around here everywhere ? Why did we import $5,750,000 worth of pottery, when the best clay in the world for making pottery is found in every State of the United States except Florida? Why did we import $12,250,000 worth of the manufactures of hemp, flax and jute, when you can raise hemp and flax in your own country ad libi- tum? With all the advantages I alluded to in the outset, why is it that we do not manufacture for our own market? Why, there is but one reason, Mr. President, in the race we are handi- capped — handicapped by cheap labor in Europe — and no other reason can be given. (Applause.) The free traders are constantly referring to the infant industries of the country still needing protection. They seem to imagine that protection is needed only to establish an industry; whereas, protection is needed, not only to establish manufacturing industries, but to keep them running after they have been established. Our industries will always need pro- tection, so long as European labor is as poorly paid as it is now, and is likely to continue to be under free trade. Cheap labor in Europe. And is labor such a factor in the production of manufactures as to overbalance and overcome all these advantages we possess? Aye, Mr. Presideit, it is; because labor makes up one half the cost of all manufactured articles. I do not mean to say that labor is one half the cost of a cheap piece of cotton cloth, but I mean that the average is one half labor in all manufactured products. I was over to Waltham one day — a marvelous workshop — and I spent a day there. I was in the office of the Superin- tendent. He showed me some watch screws ; he said they were screws, they were so infinitesimal that with the eye I 7 could not tell they were. My curiosity was aroused. I asked him if he could figure out for me what those screws cost. He said he could. He did. What do you suppose they cost a ton by wholesale? Four million six hundred and sixty-six thou- sand dollars. And the hair springs he showed me — $3,120,- 000. How much is silver worth a ton ? Thirty-two thousand five hundred dollars. How much is gold worth a ton? Six hundred thousand dollars and a little over. Now, when those screws were lying in the bosom of the earth, what were they worth? Two dollars a ton. And labor alone has made them worth $4,666,000. Now the difference between $1 and $2 a day on those screws would count, would it not? [Applause.] John Roach, one of the best men that ever lived in America, [applause] — killed because, though imported from Ireland, he loved America, and was for American ships and American workmen always (applause) — John Roach said that 90 per cent, of an iron ship was work going to the forest and mining the coal and iron. So 90 per cent of your machinery is work ; so 90 per cent, of your factory and of your furnace and of your forge is work. When I was in Dresden I saw a report which the bureau of statistics had just made there, in which they undertook to show the exact cost of spindles in the world. They said spindles cost in England from $5.79 to $7.60 a spindle ; in France, from $8 and a little over to $9 and a little over ; in Germany, the same as in France ; and in the United States, from $12 to $18 a spindle. Why? Wood is as cheap here as there; so is clay, and the only thing that is not is labor. I was in Paisley. I went there as a matter of great curiosity, for I had known of the thread mills of Paisley. Mr. Clark said it cost from 80 to 85 per cent, more to build his mill here than it did to build his mill in Paisley. Mr. Coates said it cost twice as much to build his mill here. Now, that is labor. So you see that, after all, is the most important factor in the matter of production. The question as to whether or not they have cheap labor in Europe is a question that must be met and must be understood by men who legislate on this subject of protective tariff, or revenue reform, or whatever they call it. I know that free traders say there is little difference between here and there. I know they say that when you take Ihe cost of living into consideration there is no practical difference — that is the usual statement — as though the cost of living had anything to do with it. It is the manner of living that tells the story. Now, let me give you a few illustrations of what I saw, and 8 they will be facts, not fancies. I will start with Italy. “Ah, but we haven’t got much competition with Italy. Why go • there?” Why, my friends, Italy is one of the coming powers of Europe to-day. Her voice is potent, and will be more potent as the years pass by. She has entered upon a new life. She has to-day nearly 30,000,000 of people, and has, in my judgment, the most sagacious ruler in all Europe, King Hum- bert. She has a great navy ; she is reaching out for commerce in a way that this great American people never has dared to try. I went into a cotton factory. A great many people of the United States hardly know that Italy has entered upon cotton manufacture. But King Humbert says : “ I have millions of people here without work, sleeping in the streets” — as I have seen them by the scores, and as some of you have — men and women lying down on the curbstone, with no homes. King Humbert is sagacious enough to say : “ If I am going to have a great Italy, a great nation, I must have it a nation of workers, and of men who can live in homes with their families around them.” And King Humbert is doing everything in his power to build up Italy as a manufacturing nation ; and they have commenced on cotton mills. The agent of this cotton mill happened to be a German who could talk English enough for me to understand. I was fortunate. I inquired about his operatives. He said they were first-class workmen ; good people ; they did not understand machinery very well, but they were good people to work, both men and women. Said I : ‘ ‘ What are the average wages you pay in your cotton mill here in Naples?” “Well,” said he, “I pay on the average about $4 a week.” Well, that was the old cry, and I didn’t believe it. Said I : “ Will you be kind enough to tell me how you make your average?” “Yes,” said he ; “I have to put about two skilful men in each room, because Italians do not know much about machinery, and those men are Englishmen ; I am obliged to pay them little better than English wages, in order to get them, and I pay them about $7 or $8 a week.” “Well,” said I, “ what do you pay the rest?” “I pay my women from 15 to 18 and 20 cents a day, and my men from 35 to 45 cents a day.” That is the way he got his average. Now, there was not a score of men there working for $7 or $8 a week, not a score. And that is true, as Mr. Porter knows, in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, in Germany, and everywhere else where you undertake to find out the wages. They will pick out and say, “We pay from $3 a week up to $15.” And you get to the bottom of it and you will find they have got two men at 9 $15 a week and 2,000 at $3 a week. So that the great bulk, the 90 out of a hundred at work in this cotton mill, were at work for 20 cents a day, for four out of five in the mill were women. How will that be for competition when Italy gets to 100 mills or 200 mills? Will you then look at Italy and make inquiries as to labor there ? I went into the quarry, not the quarry, but where they were manufacturing the granite and marble which had been quarried. I found that the average rate of wages of the men was from 40 to 50 cents per day, the most skilled getting 50 cents ; and that they regard as a high price. Four dollars a day here for the same man. I asked my driver — I hunted a long while to find one who could talk English, and I found one who could a little — I asked him what he got, and he said he got 30 cents a day and the little nips, pour boires, strangers gave him. A pour boire in Italy is about three cents, I should judge. I went out with him a great many times, and he always carried his dinner with him. Here is a free trader’s cheap living. I asked him three times to show me his dinner, and he showed it tome, and every time it was macaroni and grease. “But he was happy, was he not?” says the free trader. The happiest man I ever saw in my life. But do you want your laboring men and women to live on macaroni and grease and be happy ? (Laughter.) I went up to Venice and went into the government lace factory there. Fortunately, there I found a man in charge who could talk English, and he was very communicative too — about the only one I found in all Europe who would answer my questions when I asked them. I went over the establish- ment. It had been long established. He showed me first the work, and it was superlatively magnificent — laces from $5 to $400 a yard. I then went into the workshop. There were, perhaps, 200 or 300 women and girls at work. I spent two or three hours with him looking through the concern. I finally settled upon one woman who was doing remarkable work. She was apparently about 70 years of age, but did not turn out to be, I think, over 60. She was working at a piece of thread lace. My recollection is that she was using 200 bobbins at a time. She would move them with a swiftness of speed that I could hardly see them when they moved. Said I : “ Mr. , that woman is very expert.” Said he: “She is the most expert woman in this factory ; that woman has worked here 40 years.” Well, I remembered it. I then went into his office, and said I ; “Will you be kind enough to show me your pay-roll?” 10 Said he : ‘‘I will, with pleasure; I have nothing to conceal.” He showed me his pay-roll. “Now,” said I, “ point me out the name of the woman whom I saw working there, who had worked there 40 years.” He pointed it out. How much do you suppose was the most that woman succeeded in making a day? Twelve cents, and the average 11 J cents. And the average earnings of the women in that mill were 10 cents a day, and of the girls, six and seven cents. They may go into a cotton mill by and by, and then you will be interested in their wages in Massachusetts. You can go out there in Venice and hire a gondola that cost nearly $200 or $250, and a gondolier, elegantly dressed, four men can hire him and pay for ten hours of hard work one dollar. How much does the gondolier get of that dollar? The Lord knows ; I could not find out. That gondolier may be at work in a shop in Italy before you know it, making machinery. They are as fine-looking a set of men as you can find in the United States of America, — patriotic, too. Why, you look at that Italian army of 500,000 men, and there is not an army in all Europe, in my opinion, superior in its material ; and what do they get? Two dollars a month. (Laughter.) Well, what do you suppose they get in Germany. Two dollars and a half ; and a lieutenant gets the enormous sum of $150 a year. That is an indication of wages in Europe. Why, you may go in Venice into one of those shops where they make that beautiful jewelry, — no, £0 into that shop where I went, where they make this magnificent Venetian glass ; take the pay-roll, and you may start with the overseer. I think, — not, perhaps, with the superintendent, but with the next man to the superin- tendent, — and follow it away down through, and there is not a single man except the blower who gets over one dollar a day ; and you may hunt all Europe through to-day on their pay- rolls, and it is only once perhaps in 100 names that you can find a man who is getting one dollar a day. Every inch of Italy is farmed, as you may well suppose, to support 30,000,000 of people. You may take every man, woman, and child there is in the United States to-day, — 60,000,000, — add 15,000,000 to them, and drop them right down in the single State of Texas, and it would not be as thickly populated as Italy is to-day. So they farm every inch of land, away to the tops of the mountains, where there is a bit of soil. The women do it. I have seen twenty women in one field. They employ from six to eight persons on an acre of land where we do not employ more than one. What are 11 their wages? From fifteen to eighteen cents a clay, working the livelong day in the hot sun. If with a hoe, with one of these old-fashioned stub hoes that would weigh from three to four pounds, with a handle nearly as large as that bottle, — not half so exhilarating as that bottle was. (Applause.) The President desires me to say that this is an Appollinaris bottle, as it sets right in front of him. (Laughter.) I was through there in haying time, and the women did the haying ; they did it with a scythe like our own bushwhacker, as we call it, only about three inches wider than that. Suppose in a short time they get our agricultural implements in Italy, that will free from that sort of labor four out of five who are at work at it, and they can go into the cotton mills and the silk mills to work against your people at fifteen to eighteen cents a day. A reliable home market is the best of ail markets. People consume more when prosperous than when poverty stricken. Our fifty-five millions of prosperous Americans afford a better market than any other 250 millions in the world. As a con- sumer, every American is, undoubtedly, equal to more than a dozen Chinese. Go up to Switzerland. I was at Interlachen, and I stopped at an elegant hotel. I remember Jungfrau was right in front of me. I remember, too, there was a very elegant garden and grounds splendidly laid out, splendidly taken care of. I saw a young man there who was at work from early in the morning till late at night, and I found that he was the landscape gar- dener. I said : 44 Mr. Landlord, I want to know what you pay that man. He is a good man, is he not?” 44 Yes,” said he, 44 lie is splendid.” Said I: 44 What do you pay him?” “I pay him eighty dollars a year and he boards himself, I giving him a few vegetables.” (Laughter.) 44 Well,” said I, “what do you pay those fellows that help him?” “Well,” said he, 44 that fellow who is working there I pay thirty-five cents a day, and I can hire just as many as I want for thirty cents a day.” His immense herd of cattle had that morning started for the mountains, inhere they would stay the livelong summer through, and away into the fall, so long as the grass was green on the mountain side, going gradually up the moun- tain as they ate the grass below. Herdsmen were put in 12 . charge of the cattle, lived in little huts on the mountain side, stayed there, and made butter and cheese the whole season through. Said I: “What do you pay your herdsmen?” Said he : “ Forty cents a day is a heavy price to pay herds- men, but I think a good deal of my cows.” (Laughter.) Go into a Swiss silk factory, and you will find there, competing with your silk manufacturers of the United States, women working for an average of twenty cents a day, and you will find men working for forty-one cents a day, — skilled laborers, too, in that manufacture. Step up to Belgium. Belgium is a perfect bee-hive. It is about one-third the size of the State of Maine in territory, and has 6,000,000 of people, — more people to the square mile than any other country in Europe. And they seem to love to work. Why, the manufacturing of Belgium is perfectly amazing. Did you know she was frightening England to-day out of her boots ? Did you know that she compelled Adam- son, only about twelve days ago, the president of the British Steel and Iron Association, in his inaugural speech, made in Manchester, in that free trade country, to say that unless Eng- land protected her steel and iron manufacturers against the competition of Belgium by law, England would be driven to the wall in the business? (Applause.) Did you know that she sold steel and iron rails right under the nose of the British lion within the last year, until Parliament spent almost a whole half day, forgot the Irish question, and talked about Belgium and Belgian iron ? (Laughter.) Well, how about wages in Belgium? I went into a lace factory in Brussels, — the first place I went to,, — and I saw women at work there precisely as they worked in Venice. I was able to get information there, and I found that the women there — skilled workers — earned twenty cents a day. The wages in Belgium are- better than the wages in Italy or Switzerland, and about equal to the wages, in my judgment, as near as I could learn, in Germany and France, — I think a little better than the wages in Germany to-day. In the cotton factory in Belgium they pay their women from twenty to twenty-five cents a day, and their men from forty to sixty cents a day. You may go into the great steel and iron manufactory, and you cannot find on the pay-roll of the whole concern a single laboring man whose daily pay amounts to eighty cents a day, — not one; and they run down to forty cents. The women do all the farming in Belgium, and they do it for from sixteen to eighteen and twenty cents a day. * 13 Go up to Germany. I went first into Munich. And on the first voyage of discovery I made I saw about a score of women, with an awkward-looking saw and a singular-looking block for the wood to rest on, sawing wood in the streets of Munich, and carrying it on their backs into the stores. I had seen women doing almost everything in Italy and Belgium, but I had not seen them doing anything like that, and it struck me as re- markable. And, by the way, the women bear the burden in Europe, everywhere. I, having a curiosity to know about that business, went off and hunted up an interpreter. Said I, “I want you to go with me out on the streets. I wish to know about this business that is going on out here. Why, I saw women sawing wood ! ” 44 Oh, nonsense ! that don’t amount to anything.” 44 But,” said I, 44 1 wish to know about it. Go with me.” He went with me. 44 Now,” said I, 44 you ask that woman” (she was about fifty years of age, stout, healthy looking) , 44 sawing this wood, cord wood, into about three sticks each, ask that woman what she gets a day.” He asked her. She said she got, — she didn’t say fifteen cents, of course, but translated into English, it was fifteen cents a day ; but that she could not work all day, because she had to go home and see to the children ; she could make twenty cents a day if she could work all day. I said to him, 44 Ask her, in heaven’s name, how many children she has, and how she takes care of them.” She said she had six. 44 How does she take care of them with fifteen cents a day ? ” 44 Oh,” she said, 44 1 get the first wash- ings of that restaurant,” pointing to a hotel, 44 for ten cents a day, and that feeds them.” Does the free trader in Massachu- setts want his women to work ten hours a day, take care offsix children, and buy of a restaurant the first washings to feed her children with ? I saw a very intelligent man in Germany, who had studied the subject of wages there, and I asked him if he would talk with me. He said he would. Said he, 44 1 will talk with you freely. I know what you desire, and I wish to tell you that work is not in a fair condition to-day in Germany, although you see they are building mills everywhere.” Said I, 44 1 do, and they look prosperous.” 44 Well,” said he, 44 Manufactur- ing is not so good as it might be, even in Germany. There are some manufacturers in Germany without souls, and they are actually hiring men and women to-day for anything they have a mind to pay them. They are paying, in one factory I know of, women twenty cents a day for their work, while the aver- age they pay men in Germany is not over fifty cents a day.” 14 I am aware that the “ Boston Herald” makes this a knock- down argument against protection. (Laughter.) The other day I saw an article in the paper, and it said, “ Look at it ! See the fact ! Here is Germany paying lower wages to-day than free trade England. Does not that show conclusively that protection does not protect labor?” Why, how absurd an argument! Does not the “Boston Herald” know that there is something in the very air of this free country which makes men aspire ? Does not that paper know that Germany to-day is a despotism where the Reichstag, elected for three years, if it does not do the will of the despot, is dispersed, though its life had only been one year ? Does not that paper know that under a despotism the people cannot be elastic, can- not obtain their rights, cannot acquire the privileges they can obtain and acquire under a free and independent government like ours? Then, again, the question may not be, does protection, pe \ se , increase wages. Of course it increases wages in but one way. It encourages men like you to invest your money in manufacturing. You build great mills here and there ; you have competition. That makes a demand for labor. A de- mand for labor makes high price of wages. Now we have high price of wages, twice as high as any other country on the face of this earth. Is not the maintaining of these high wages worth something ? Does not the ‘ ‘ Boston Herald ” know that protection does maintain the high wages that we have ? May not the contest in the next twenty years, even in America, be : How shall we maintain our present high wages? If it is, can- not any man see that the protective tariff is certain to assist in that beneficent result, and that free trade would simply drag those wages down to European wages? And, oh, T\hat a fear- ful thing that would be for our people. Why, our whole people consume to-day twice as much meat and grain, reckon- ing potatoes four bushels to a bushel of grain, as any people on this earth except Great Britain. It is an absolute necessity for them to-day. The comforts which our laboring people enjoy to-day in America are just as much necessities of life as the macaroni of the Italian is a necessity for him. When you undertake by free trade to drag these workmen of ours down to the level of Italians, Germans, Frenchmen and Belgians in wages, to make them live as they live, you have done a wicked and’ cruel wrong to these people, which no amount of good or profit to employers can justify. (Applause.) But in order to show that the tariff does something even in 15 Germany, I wish to cite to you the report both as to the amount of wages paid in Germany, and as to the advance caused by protection there, made by the German Statistical Bureau this year. “Replies have been received from 233, chiefly large, iron works and engineering establishments, 94 of which are owned by limited companies, from all parts of Germany. From the figures of January, 1879” — I will not read the figures, but these figures show that the number of workmen increased in eight years by 38,000, or 30 per cent., the monthly wages by 30,058,765 marks, or 39 per cent. In 1879, consequently, each workman earned on an average t 61.83 marks per month, or rather under 15 shil- lings a week. Now there is a commentary on German wages. Mind you, these are the wages of men where they command the very highest wages, in iron and steel; and yet, in 1879 they did not earn $4 a week from 233 establishments. Now, what effect did the tariff have ? The tariff increased it in Jan- uary, 1887, to 66.17 marks, a fraction over 16 shillings and 6 pence, so they earned over $4. There has been an increase of 30,000 employes, and that had resulted in an increase of a shilling and a half a week in wages. Suppose it resulted in doubling the number of employes and you had 360,000 more, would not the ratio of increased wages be still greater, because the demand is still greater? And is not the energy displayed by Germany to-day in manufacturing enterprises the result of their German tariff ? I learned from this gentleman I alluded to a moment ago, that in his opinion, from careful investigation, the earnings of the men in Germany would not average $115 a year, — not over that, — and that the women would not average over $50 a year. Now there are families to be supported out of that $115. Another man I talked with put it that in Prussia the average earnings of men are not over $105 a year. I do not know what my friend Porter found. He found great difficulty in discovering what wages were in Europe, I know that. They refused me admission in more than a dozen establishments ; they would not answer any questions, or if they did, they would not tell the truth. They do not like to have it known what the wages ^are in Europe. Now cross over to England, to Scotland and to Ireland. Take Ireland ; you know that it is in a fearful condition, with- out anybody telling you. You know that you cannot ride through the western part of Ireland without hundreds of 16 children, men and women following your carriage for miles, asking for a penny to get food to appease hunger. You know there are thousands and tens of thousands of people in Ireland to-day right on the ragged edge of starvation. You may imagine the state of affairs where there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of men and women who cannot find employment. Why, there were 250,000 little holdings in Ire- land, of five acres each and under, holdings under landlords. How did they pay the}r rent? Why, for six, eight or ten years they used to go over to England and Scotland, hire out to the farmers for the summer, earn a few pounds, save it and take it home to pay their rent, while their wives and little chil- dren were cultivating the half acre, the acre or two acres of land they rented. You know as well as I do that that is all cut off, and that there cannot an Irishman hire out to do farm- ing in Scotland or England to-day. You know as well as I do that American competition has killed agriculture in England, and Ireland, and Scotland, that the people out of employ there are as thick as blackberries, that women do farm work in Ire- land for 16 to 18 cents a day, and are glad to get it. 4sr W© do know that under a protective tariff wages are higher in this country than in any other country in the world. Do you want this changed ? Do you want to have the experiment of free trade tried, when your wages are so much higher than in free trade countries? Take England. My opinion, from the best sources I could reach in England, is that the average wages there are not one half of the average wages in the United States of America. I was up in Manchester and made some inquiries there. They told me that in Manchester there were nearly 90,000 women at work in cotton mills, two thirds of the work being done by women, and that those women were not averaging $60 a year for their wages. Mind you, you must count out holidays, sick days, feasts, fairs, saints’ days, and all that sort of thing; and when you come down to the net at the end of the year you will find that the English laborer is getting but a mere baga- telle. The men in England are not averaging, according to the best light I could get, over $125 or $135 a year. 17 Am I talking too long? (Applause, and cries of “ No,” and “Go on.”) Take Scotland, which is a fair test of wages in England. I was in Glasgow, and I felt a profound interest in the Clyde. It had been hurled at my head more than a thousand times since I have been in Congress, — the Clyde and the shipbuild- ing 'of the Clyde, that they could "beat us, that we were handi- capped with the tariff, and all that sort of thing. So I took a deep interest in the Clyde. I went up to the Longloam Iron Works. They cover thirty-five acres of ground ; they are right near to the coal and the iron ; the average haul of the coal is two miles, and the average cost of the coal delivered is five shillings a ton ; the blast furnaces are seven in number and the average product is 300 tons of pig iron a day. What are the wages? Laborers from two shillings and two pence to two shillings and six pence a day. What would a Pittsburg laborer say to that? Skilled labor, three shillings to seven shillings, and more of them at three than at seven. Coal miners, $5.59 to $5.88 a week, and board themselves. Iron miners, from $5.34 to $5.59 a week. Pit hand foreman, — that is one of the high-priced fellows, one of the aristocrats — (laughter) — from $6.25 to $6.32 a week. Wages have decreased for five years in Glasgow. And Bright said, in a speech that he made, — and I stole this from Mr. Porter, as I do most every good thing that I say (laughter) — Bright said in a speech that he made, that in Glasgow alone 41,000 families out of every 100,000 lived each in one room. And I should say, from my observation, that half the men and women in Glasgow to-day were out of work. Now what could you expect wages to be? And the same is true in England. I was in Liverpool for ten days, and almost every day went to look over those docks. I could whistle Yankee Doodle almost all over Europe, but when I struck these docks I was silent. I do believe they beat anything in the United States or in the world. I was unusually attracted to them, and in the habit of going down there mornings and afternoons. I am safe in saying that I have seen 500 able-bodied men, looking- hungry, as a hungry man looks, stalking about those docks and begging for a little work, not getting it ; coming down — after dinner, 1 was going to say — coming down after the time men ordinarily eat dinner, their numbers augmented, and beseech- ing again for work, ten cents worth, twenty cents worth, “ any work, for God’s sake, and to feed my children.” How can wages be high where that thing endures? 18 But I am not going to weary your patience. I have spent enough of your time on the question of what wages are worth in Europe. I say, from all my observations made there, and they were made as carefully as I could make them, and in all honesty of purpose, there is only one country in Europe that comes within one half of our wages, and that is Great Britain ; that in Germany, France, Belgium and Switzerland, they are not one third of our wages, and in Italy not one quarter. Now, if labor is the factor I said it was, I ask you what you are going to do about that ? If it ever was a factor of import- ance, it is infinitely more important to-day. Why? John Bright, fifty years ago, made a speech in Parliament in which he rather congratulated the English nation on the fact that America was an independent people. He said that the trade of Great Britain with the United States independent was worth a great deal more than it would have been if the United States had remained a British colony ; and then he added this : Said he, “On all the merchandise you have exported to the United States of America during the last thirty years, your merchants and manufacturers have averaged forty per cent net profit.” Well, now forty per cent net profit, fifty years ago, was pretty good protection for a man who wanted to go to manufacturing in the United States. But under the beneficence of the tariff we went to manufacturing, and to-day the net profit of English manufactures in the United States can be counted on the fingers, 1 guess (laughter) , for I understand they sold steel here in the United* States for nine pence a pound which they sell at home for twelve and a half pence, and paid the duties besides ; I understand that to be the fact. So that they are not making this profit to-day. Again, you and I can remember when England was an im- mense distance away from us, when Italy seemed to be away back in the dark ages, when Belgium was equally unknown to us, and Germany was a kind of a myth in the distance. But now all the nations of the earth lock arms, we are close together, side by side, and they can pour their manufactured goods on to you to-day in ten days’ time. Why, Manchester to-day is nearer to you than San Francisco is in time, and in freight it is three times as near. So that in the matters of freight, distance, communica- tion, telegraph and everything else, — and this extends not alone to the seaboard, but away into the interior of these countries, — here we are, locked right up, elbow to elbow, and that makes this matter of cheap labor of infinitely greater im- portance than it was fifty years ago, and it is growing more 19 important every moment of time. Now what are you Ameri- cans going to do about it ? Are you going to allow men who call themselves reformers, men who pretend to believe in free trade, — an utter absurdity, no nation believes in it, — are you going to allow them to strike at your home market? Instead of giving Europe $180,000,000 of your market as you did last year, are you going to give up to them $400,000,000 or $600,000,000? Will you allow these reformers to carry out the purpose which they now so freely express ? Will you do it ? They say you have duties to-day which are almost pro- hibitory, and it is not very often that you find a tariff man who does not admit that the duties are high. Now that is a most singular thing. Why have not the tariff men the courage of their convictions? Is the duty on fine muslins and lace and curtain stuff too high when under it we imported last year $29,000,000 worth into your market where the cotton is grown, and where you can make it as well as they? And yet you never hear a man who talks about reforming your tariff talk about increasing the duty, it is about decreasing the duties all the time. Now I have to say this, I do not know, myself, why the tariff needs revision. I do know why the views of the present administration need revision. (Applause.) I have heard the men who are free-traders, and all the men who are reformers, or claim to be, insist upon revision ; and I know that the Democratic party in Congress has been trying to revise it for the last fifteen years. If it is to be revised, — and heaven forbid that the work be entered upon, — I wish to see some of the duties increased. (Applause.) I wish to see a duty put on silk that will prevent 31,250,000 yards being imported into this country. I wish to see duties placed on woolen goods that will prevent $44,900,000 worth being brought into this country. I wfish to see a duty laid on the manufactures of iron and steel that will prevent $49,250,000 worth of their manufactured goods being purchased by us. If these gentlemen will undertake the revision of the tariff, do it honestly and fairly, decreasing duties where it is apparent they ought to be decreased because they afford more than protection enough, and increasing where it can be made perfectly plain that they do not sufficiently protect American manufacturers and American laborers ; then I will go in for the revision of the tariff’. (Applause.) But I am not willing to leave that revision in the hands of its enemies, of those who propose to cut down everything just so far as it can be. (Applause.) 20 But they say there is a surplus that must be taken care of. I know there is a surplus. I wish I was autocrat and had con- trol of the United States of America for about ten years ; they would not complain of any surplus. (Applause and laughter.) What is the necessity for a surplus in the United States of America to-day? They say it is $100,000,000. Why don’t they expend that $100,000,000 where every dollar of it will do good to the republic ? (Applause.) How? Put $10,000,- 000 a year into the subvention of American steamers and American ships. (Applause.) I saw one ship carrying the American flag in all my trip abroad, and only one. And yet, the time was when we boasted that our flag was omnipotent and omnipresent, on every sea and on every ocean. What would be $10,000,000 a year for ten years to restore our pres- tige on the sea? Again, what would be $10,000,000 a year, if it would enable the manufacturers and merchants of this republic to send their goods and merchandise in American ships directly to those countries to the south of us that are ready to receive them with open arms? (Applause.) Who in this enlightened audience would object to spending $10,000,000 a year to educate the men who vote our tickets in this republic ? 1 voted against the last bill which appropriated $70,000,000. Why? Because I disliked some of the provisions of the bill; I feared it did not give security enough for the expenditure of the money ; in fact, to be honest, I have not a great deal of the Massachusetts gush about the South in my heart. (Laughter and applause.) When men won’t let their fellow men vote, drive them away from the polls and murder them if it is neces- sary to keep them away, refuse to count their ballots after they are cast, I will not trust them with the expenditure of money to educate those voters any farther than I am compelled to. (Applause.) I will do them the justice to say that up to the present time, so far as I have examined, they have given a fair share of their money for the education of the blacks. But if a white man is teaching a black school they will not permit him to go into the society of white men, not by any manner of means. Under the Glenn bill they undertook to put men into the chain gang for a year, down in Georgia, because, forsooth, the professors in the Atlanta college, established by $150,000 paid in by northern churches and northern churchmen, edu- cated their children at that school. So threatening, however, has this terrible peril to the republic — over 2,000,000 of voters who cannot read — become in my mind, such a ter- rible menace is there in the fact that so many men cannot 21 read their ballots, sufficient in numbers to hold the balance of power in almost every state in the United States, I would risk it all, were I an autocrat, and distribute $10,000,000 or $15,- 000,000 of that surplus every year while the surplus lasted to educate those people north and south. (Applause.) Again, I would put $10,000,000 or $12,000,000 a year into fortifica- tions for our rivers and cities. (Applause.) Again, I would put $10,000,000 a year into a navy until we had one that would command the respect of the world ; and I would not be as long as Secretary Whitney has been in building one ship. (Ap- plause.) And if that would not take care of the surplus, I would set 50,000 men digging the Nicaragua canal, I would connect ocean with ocean, and the government should own the canal and control it forever in the interests of our ships and our commerce. (Applause.) The policy of protection to home industries is not only national, it is local. Everywhere the value of an industry to a community is recognized, hence so many towns all over the country are offering inducements for manufacturers to settle in them. The benefits are so much appreciated that for many years such property is exempted from taxation. If a factory is of such importance to a community, what must they all be to the entire nation? If you believe in this policy you must be a protectionist, and should vote only for protectionists. But I am aware that the Democratic party will not do any of these things, that there is the surplus and you must take care of it. How will you do it? They say : Take the duty off of raw material. Now, what a tremendous lot that will dispose of, about $14,000,000, I believe, at the highest estimate, out of $100,000,000. What next? Tobacco. I think that is about $28,000,000. What are you going to do with the rest? Well, once in a while you will find a free trader who says : We will take it off from sugar. Now, there is some sense in that. Every man, woman and child eats sugar. The duty operates as a direct tax, because under our climate there is and can be no 22 competition which will make sugar cheaper, as in the case of manufactured goods. But the great bulk of the reformers will not consent to this. I remember that in the Senate of the United States I made a proposition to strike off 20 per cent, of that duty, and every free trader in the Senate voted “No;” then a proposition to strike off 30 per cent., and still they voted “No.” Then, I called Senator Coke, from Texas, to account, and asked him why every free trader voted “No” on that pro- position. “Why,” said he, “that is a tariff for revenue only.” So, I suppose these gentlemen who are for a tariff for revenue only will keep the duty of $50,000,000 on sugar. Then, what disposition will they make of the balance? Will they remove the internal revenue tax from whiskey ? Why, the proposition suddenly makes the Democratic party and even the vinous association earnest temperance organizations ! What, give cheap whiskey to the people? Monstrous, say they. And yet, Judge Kelley, after careful computation, declares that it would cheapen a drink from J to £ of a cent ! ‘ ‘ Outrage the temperance sentiment of the country?” Why, my philan- thropic vinees are you certain that the temperance men of the country believe in supporting the Government from such a tax ? Do not thousands of them look upon it as a Government recog- nition of the tariff, increasing two-fold the difficulties of sup- pressing it in the States ! When Senator Logan made the proposition to appropriate the proceeds of this tax to a perpetual fund for education, didn’t the friends of education and temper- ance both object ? Why, the most serious obstacle to temperance movements in Europe to-day is the immense revenue derived by their Governments from the manufacture and sale of spirits. It places the rulers in antagonism to temperance. Bismarck is now endeavoring to induce the people ot Germany to give the manufacture and sale of brandy to the Government, and is telling them that the liquor will be both better and cheaper. Every government of Europe to-day is in league, practi- cally, with the rum-sellers of Europe to increase rather than to diminish the rum traffic. Our government, thank fortune, is not driven to any such expedient as that. _And yet there is a tendency of the government to protect to a certain extent the manufacture and sale of liquor when it derives from it the benefit of seventy, eighty, or one hundred millions a year. I do not know myself now how I would vote on this proposition. It may be the very best thing to take off the tax on whiskey, the tax on tobacco, all internal revenue tax, and let this gov- ernment derive its revenue from imports. (Applause.) But, 23 as I say, the Democratic party and the free-traders to-day are the temperance men of the country ; and they deplore the horrible evils, as they say, of cheap whiskey, and they refuse to do it. Where will they take off the balance? They will take it from your duties to-day on manufactured goods. Now, how much ? Suppose they reduce your duties twenty per cent. , will that decrease the revenue? Who knows? My judg- ment is it would double your surplus. That instead of import- ing, as we do to-day, $180,000,000 worth of manufactured goods, we should import $400,000,000 worth. (Applause.) There is something which never occurs to these men. Suppose $200,000,000 worth of manufactured goods were imported into this country last year, if their statement is correct that the duty averages forty per cent., that would make about $80,000,000 which may be derived from it. Now, it never occurs to them, does it, that there is a way, by increasing these duties, by making these goods pay more than that amount, you might prevent their importation, and thus reduce your surplus by $80,000,000, And yet, why not? There is one thing absolutely certain, if you reduce the rate you are liable to increase the amount ; because there is a point at which there will be a temptation to import into this country, and the importations will come. Who knows where that point is? We are dangerously near it to-day. Why? The duty may be high enough, I admit, to protect our labor, and that is all we want ; that is, a duty equivalent to the difference between labor there and labor here. If it comes to within twenty per cent, of it we can beat them, because we have other advan- tages. Our laborers are better and can do more work. We need enough to make us their equals, and no more ; and I do not believe there is a protective tariff man in this country who will ask any more than that. Very likely the present rates of duties would be sufficient. But you know very well there are undervaluations going on which take off at least twenty-five per cent, of these duties on all manufactured goods. Why, at Stuttgart there }s a corset manufactory where every single corset is sent to this country to compete with yours, where the wages are not one-third of the wages in your factories ; and yet the consul told me that he found out that every one of them was exported to this country for half their value. So that decreases the duties by that amount. Now, my friends, I have talked to you a great deal longer than I ought, and have wearied your patience. (Applause and cries of “ Go on.”) But I confess to feeling a good deal 24 of interest in this matter. I confess that I feel an interest in the American people ; that* I think a hundred times more of them than I did before I saw the other peoples of the earth ; that the most delightful part of my trip abroad was the journey home. I love to see the manufacturing laborers coming out of the mills in my city and to contrast them with the people I saw coming out of the mills abroad. Why, the difference is world-wide. What though the ambitious restlessness of these men may trouble us for a season, is it not infinitely better than that solemn hopelessness that you see in the faces of those operatives abroad ? And is it not better that the weaver of to-day shall be an overseer to-morrow than it is for a man to be content to do to-day what his grandfather or his great- grandfather did a hundred years ago ? Is not all this turmoil and excitement better than that apparent sleep of death amongst the working people of Europe. What though it cause us trouble for a while, as I said before, good will come out of it. Let us make this American people not worse ; let us make them happy. They are the people who govern this country and con- trol it. This is a government of the people ; it ought to be intelligent and it ought to be comfortable. There ought to be homes and comfort in homes. And every man who works in the United States of America, and is temperate and frugal, can have a home under your wages. Within the last twenty years now we have progressed mar- velously under our tariff. It was forced upon us by the war. It was one of the most beneficent things that the war achieved for us, — that Morrill tariff. From 1860 to 1870 we increased our manufactures over two billions of dollars ; and from 1870 to 1880 over a billion dollars; and no other country in the whole world increased in the same time over $500,000,000. In 1880 we outstripped Great Britain by $650,000,000 a year, and to-day are richer than she is, are a greater manufact- uring nation. Why should we give up this vantage ground ? Why should we trifle with it? This splendid meeting to-night ; this Home Market Club ; the interest which so many gentlemen in this city evince in the purposes of the club ; this organization in itself ; the fact alone that there is organization with your purpose, gives me courage and will give the working people of New England courage, too. I care nothing for sentiment, it is worth nothing without organ- ization. Remember that organization is worth nothing without work, and that you cannot do work without money. (Ap- plause.) Do in this for the education of the American people 25 what the churches do in religion for the working men and women of the world. Organize, raise your money, send out your workers to every manufacturing town in your state and N in New England, and I tell you that this club cannot to-day dream of the power that it may become for good. Why, Mr. Draper himself, now dead, to whom we owe this organization, in his wildest thoughts never dreamed of what it, thoroughly united, thoroughly in earnest, thoroughly determined to work out this problem, could accomplish in the United States in a quarter of a century. I say to you, Mr. President, and to you, gentlemen of this club, go on with the work which you have commenced ; go out into the whole country with your power and let it be felt. There is an organization in New York, of which the president is here present, which has been doing an immense amount of good for the last two or three years. This will supplement that. And this work has not been without its results. I tell you, friends, that the protective principle of our tariff is more powerful to-day in this republic than it ever was before ; there are more men who believe in it from princi- ple, more men ready to work for it from principle, and it will not be long before the working men and the working women of this country will see that their only safety is in a protective tariff. (Applause.) It is claimed that the protective tariff is no benefit, but a tax upon the farmers. Every farmer whose farm is located near a manufacturing centre knows better than this, for the good wages paid are sources of income to him, which would be lost under foreign competition and a foreign basis of wages. Speech of Hon. Geo. F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. Mr. President , Gentlemen of the Home Market Club : — Brethren of the Home Market Club, I would also say, — for I have the honor of being enrolled in its ranks, — I do not think I ought, at this late hour of the evening, and after the masterly address of my friend, Senator Frye, to undertake to make a speech. I came at the last moment, crowded with other duties, a “Minute-man” only, to attend this gathering; and however excellent may have been the services of the “ Minute- men ” in the Revolution, I am not aware that any of their speeches have survived. (Laughter and Applause.) But it is certainly quite time that an association of this kind should be formed at this great manufacturing centre of the great manufacturing industries of New England. I have been amazed, as I have thought of this matter, to see how the question of the protection of American industry has been left of late years to be discussed by men who know least about it. One would think that if you desired to know what was for the interest of American manufacturers, what would enable our business men to compete with their rivals abroad, what would enable them to maintain the rate of wages, what would enable American workingmen to live in comfort and in honor in American homes, you would ask the business men whose lives are spent in maintaining those industries, and would ask of the skilled laborers whose lives are spent as operatives in their employ. If you desired to know what policy would tend to the strength and glory of this republic, — what would make her strong in war and prosperous in peace, — you would also look for the opinions of the statesmen who founded it, and of the statesmen who have administered it. And without a single exception worthy of consideration, the opinion of all these classes is in favor of the public policy which you meet here to-night to promote. (Applause.) Why, the business men of Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and New York, and Pennsylvania, know what 27 has created the great work shops to which they owe their dig- nity, and honor, and success. The business men of Worcester know what sort of legislation enables her great wire industry to support in comfort 15,000 people; and her great loom industries, her great manufactures of agricultural implements, her great manufactures of machinery to send their products far and near. The instincts of the workingmen, as it seems to me it is no flattery to say, may at least be supposed to be equal to the instincts of birds. How is it that you account for that constant stream of emigration westward from the great manu- facturing nations of Europe, which has gained and grown with the beginning and growth of the protective policy in this coun- try? Can any of you think of a statesman whose reputation has survived as a man of the first-class the falling of the gravel upon his coffin, who has not left on record his judgment that the glory and the prosperity and the independence of America depended upon achieving and maintaining the independence of her manufactures? (Applause.) The long list of great presi- dents, every president of the United States whom the people have re-elected after they tried him, has left on record his testi- mony to the protective doctrine ; — Jefferson, and Washington, and Jackson, and Madison, and Lincoln, and Grant. With theirs are the names of Webster, and Clay, and Choate, and the Adamses, and if there be any others honorable enough to be named along with these, they are on the same side. And yet — you will correct me if I mistake — the list of first-class men in our public life who have been committed to the doctrine of free trade, begins and ends with the name of John C. Calhoun. This same intellect that in the seclusion of the study reasoned out the doctrine of free trade, reasoned out also the doctrine of nullification and of secession. But the American people are asked, in dealing with this vital question, not to take the experience of her manufacturers, not to trust the instinct of her workmen, not to sit at the feet of her statesmen, but to go to the young gentlemen who have been less than 10 years out of our colleges, and to the profes- sors of political economy, men who never earned a dollar by any hard labor, men to whom no man ever looks to invest a dollar in any secure place. (Laughter and applause.) And it is a marvellous instance, — I won’t say of ingratitude, but of perverted ingenuity, — when we remember that the modern prosperity of the colleges of New England itself is the creation of the protective tariff. (Applause.) Take away from them the funds which the princely generosity of the men 28 of Boston and of our other cities and manufacturing com- munities, who have gained their fortunes under this policy, have given to our colleges as their endowments, and the pupils whom these communities, owing to the prosperity that it has created, have been enabled to send them, and there would not be a great deal left, even of Harvard. (Laughter and Ap- plause.) Now, my friends, it is time that the great and irresistible power of the brain of New England and of New York, and the great industries of the North, aroused themselves to the neces- sity of instructing the American people upon this question. Yon have great foes and rivals with whom you have to contend. The whole power of the vast business capital and the vast military and naval power of England is bent upon securing to herself the control of the markets of the world, and the control chiefly of the unrivalled market of America. You talk about the American people paying out in the price of their blankets, or their coats, or their shirts, the little pittance which this protective duty imposed upon them. What do you think England is doing to promote her manufacturers in this great race ? She has planted herself at the gate of Europe, the best business stand on earth, with her marvellous coast line. She has made her dominion to-day, either by direct sovereignty or by an influence which makes them her commercial dependents, more than 350,000,000 of the population of this globe. China, and India, and Egypt, and Turkey ; the vast South American regions are to-day in commerce but vassals depending upon her. She has taken possession of the gieat routes of commerce. The carrying trade of the world, as held by England, pays her, as I under- stand, at this moment, less than three per cent, on the capital that she has engaged in it. All her subsidies, all her great diplomatic agencies, all her cost of army and navy, all her mighty conquests are to bring about the result at which she is aiming — that the clothing, and the luxury, and the necessity of the world shall be supplied hereafter by the manufacturers of England. You have, in addition to that, to encounter the power of the South at home. Now, you know very well, all of you, I sup- pose, that the South, during the Kebellion, when they made their Confederate constitution, put in it, as the expression of the permanent will and conviction of that people, that there should be no revenue ever raised for the sake of protecting any industry ; and you have in this opponent an opponent unequal- led for political sagacity, permanent, constant, indefatigable r 29 whose opinions last from generation to generation, where the father instructs the child in his political faith. You have great allies, but you have also great antagonists, and it is a worthy conflict to which the instructed brain of the people of Massa- chusetts is invited by this assembly. Remember that the basis of New England’s prosperity is in her manufacturing industries. Foreign competition with these must do for them just what competition with the West has done for New England farms, located away from the manufac- turing centres. No man with any business experience would claim that increased competition would benefit him, but yet this is just what free-traders are trying to have people believe would benefit our home industries. I think there are several practical things that you want to look out for. One thing at which I have been amazed is the want of understanding on the part of even our best business men of the great importance of the American house of repre- sentatives as a factor in our legislation. You let a representa- tive be lost by some little local quarrel or by some dislike, some petty personal dislike, and you send in his place, as a representative, some man like my worthy friend, Mr. Leopold Morse, who represents, I suppose, a very large number of gen- tlemen assembled at this table c And what happens? Mr. Morse’s first act when he reaches Washington is to vote for Mr. Carlisle, the speaker of the house of representatives, an officer in whose single will there is more power over this sub- ject, so interesting to you, than is vested in any fifty members of the house over which he presides ; an officer who, at the last session, finding that some of the democratic members were compelled by their fear of the interest and opinion of their own constituencies to yield something on this measure, finding that Mr. Randall, in order to save the State of Virginia to the dem- ocratic party, and in order to save his own seat in Philadelphia, was prepared to propose the abolition of a large proportion of the internal revenue and a revision of the tariff in the interests of protection, refused to put the question to the house over which he presided. Mr. Frye spoke of maintaining our present position. You want to look out for every branch of the government. What advantage is it to you to maintain your present position so far 30 as legislation is concerned, if you have a secretary of the treas- ury under whose ruling the great worsted industries of Massa- chusetts are stricken down? (Applause.) What advantage is it to the manufacturers of Massachusetts to maintain the present tariff upon the statute book, if you have a department under whose administration from twenty to thirty per cent, of the duties are lost by a system of undervaluation in the port of New York? (Loud applause.) You cannot afford to trust your interests in any hands except the hands of a protectionist senate, a protectionist house of representatives, a protectionist President, and a protectionist secretary. (Loud applause.) An English club, which has been alluded to to-night, has been pouring out the capital of that people like water in its attempt to control and affect public sentiment in this country. I sup- pose 3 r ou remember the story of that great meeting of the Cobden Club, w’hicli took place in Europe a few years ago. There was a majority of the then members of the British cabinet. The prime minister, absent himself, sent a letter of sympathy and was represented by his son, himself a prominent and able member of the British parliament. Seventy members of the British parliament were seated around the table ; and the gentleman who reported the doings of that club for the year, said it was their purpose to turn their attention in future to the matter of the public sentiment of America, where, he was polite enough to say, they expected to encounter a foeman worthy of their steel. I should not myself, for one, think this a matter of the greatest public importance if it affected merely, or affected chiefly, the interests of the gentlemen whom I see about this table. I take it you could get your living in comfort somehow if every Massachusetts factory were to be closed to-morrow. (A voice, “ No ! ”) But to me it is a question of the very life of the American people. It is a question whether henceforth and in the future the American home shall be overrun and supplan- ted by the squalid population whom my honorable friend has so eloquently described. We do not care to emulate England, or France, or Germany, in any of the things which make up their glory. They may have the glory of war and of peace. They may have the splendors of art, and architecture, and music. I do not care for the galleries which Raphael or Angelo have adorned. I do not care that domes shall rise here which Wren has builded. I do not care for the music of Handel or Beet- hoven. But I do mean that health shall paint with her roses the cheeks of the factory girl. I do mean that we shall im- 31 prove the architecture of the people’s dwellings. I do mean that we shall, if we can, hear the music of children’s voices in the well-paid workman’s home. (Great applause.) When you determine the question whether you shall pay a shilling or two dollars a day to a workman, you are not dealing with the condition of a serf ; you are fixing the salary of your mon- arch. (Applause.) If these men can be educated and be happy, can dwell in comfortable homes, can know the pleasure of church, and of lecture, and of town meeting, and of social gatherings, the American republic will go on in its pathway of honor and of glory. But if European policies, European princi- ples, European examples, European wages shall ever come here, you may not lose your capital, — it will be but a trifle, — but the American republic will go down. (Loud applause.) A protective tariff protects labor; protects goods; protects mills and workshops. Read what Senator Frye says about the starvation wages paid in free trade countries. Do you want such wages to prevail here? Every wage-earner should be a protectionist and yote only for out and out protectionists. JOIN THE Home Market Club, ORGANIZED TO PRESERVE HEW ENGLAND'S MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES, AND THE Prosperity of Her People Engaged in Such. CO-OPERATE IN THE WORK OF THE CLUB in diffusing information concerning the Principle of Pro- tection to Home Manufactures, the Suppression of Undervaluations, and the Maintenance of such a Tariff as will Secure the Home Market to Home Manufacturers, Home Capital, Home Labor, and Home Trade. Send in Your Name to the Secretary, 56 Bedford Street. Admission Fee is $3; Annual Dues, $1, IMPENDING CRISIS. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY E. J. E O 1ST 1SI E L L , OJY JVCOJVDA- Y EYJSJSTIJVG-, JULY 16tTi, At Irving Hall, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NEW YORK FREE TRADE CLUB. NEW YORK: THE N. Y. FREE TRADE CLUB, 39 Nassau Street. c AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY E. J. DONNELL, OJST MONDAY DYDNINGh, .JULY 16th, At Irving Hall, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NEW YORK FREE TRADE CLUB. NEW YORK : THE N. Y. FREE TRADE CLUB, 39 Nassau Street. ~n /, {■ ' JO ^ THE IMPENDING CRISIS. No man capable of understanding tbe signs of tbe times, who will give tbe present condition of American industry adequate attention, can doubt that we are rapidly approaching a crisis radically different from, and immensely more important than, any which we have hitherto experienced. For the first time in more than thirty years, the public mind is directed toward the study of that de- partment of economics which concerns the relations, of taxation and industry. The minds of the people are getting ready for independent action. Hitherto they have trusted implicitly to Congress, regarding the government as, in some sense, a guardian and bene- factor. Everywhere there is a growing conviction that something is radically wrong. Nearly all those in- dustries of which the government has taken special charge, are in a condition approaching collapse. Pressed with the keenest competition on one side, on the other side restricted in the sale of their products to a wholly inadequate market; and loaded down with taxes, levied on nearly every article they use or consume, they are forced to reduce both work and wages. They are nearing the conclusion that this cannot and must not continue. More than at any time in my memory, the^ people are emancipated from the control of parties. They 4 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. are becoming every day more and more disposed to listen to discussions of fundamental principles; and all the more so, because they find that the men who have always ridiculed the application of science to legisla- tion, have undoubtedly shown themselves to be blind leaders. At last the people are willing to hear the naked truth. Under the circumstances, prudence dictates as strongly as principle that the whole truth be told. That is what I propose to do to-night, with your kind permission. Nearly two years ago I became satisfied that we were approaching a crisis in industrial progress in this country and in Europe that would result in so expos- ing and discrediting the whole so-called “protective” system, especially in the United States, as to wipe it from our statute-books in a very few years. During the past eighteen months events have pro- gressed almost exactly on the lines I anticipated. The elimination of the “protective” principle from our tariff I expected to be practically accomplished by 1887. There remain from three to four years in which to realize my expectations. I will state, as briefly as possible, the grounds on which I based my calculations ; the general course of events since ; their probable course during the next three to four years ; and, lastly, I will endeavor to point out what I consider the true policy and obvious duty of the advocates and propagandists of industrial freedom. THE IMPENDING CRISIS. I. The increase in manufactures in this country has nearly always exceeded the percentage of increase in the population, since the first organization of European colonies on this continent. Whether our tariff was low or high it has been so ; sometimes more and some- times less, but always advancing. The percentage of our population residing in cities is now double what it was a hundred years ago. This tendency of population toward cities is equally marked in the most advanced nations of Europe. It is evident that there is a considerable portion of man- kind who prefer city life to the country, and the vari- ous industries that bring communities close together to the comparatively isolated life of the agriculturist. This preference cannot be overcome by much inferior product or compensation for labor, and an even still greater disparity of physical comforts. Nothing short of actual starvation seems to be sufficient to drive the multitude from the cities, even where land is to be had for the asking. Forty years ago it was estimated that more than three-fourths of our population were em- ployed in agriculture ; now it is known there is less than half. Of course, our industrial progress under the influ- ence of this irresistible tendency must, sooner or later, produce an excess of manufactured products beyond all possible needs of the home market, when an outlet must be obtained into the world’s markets, unless our workers submit to be pauperized. If we reflect for a 6 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. moment on tlie industrial history of the past ten years, it will be clear to us that these conditions were reached ten years ago and probably earlier. It is probable that the panic of 1873 only brought to the surface a disease that had been in the blood for some time. All through the five years’ depression, our mechanics and laborers did not average more than three-quarter time, at the outside. Of course, some managed to do bet- ter^ but this was at the expense of others. Many of our working people returned to Europe, where they at least obtained steady employment. I saw many of them in England and Ireland in 1875, waiting impatient- ly for the return of better times in their beloved America. Much the larger portion were driven into the streets and highways to beg or steal for a living. At last there was a general movement toward western lands, where they helped to raise those great crops that started the so-called “boom” of 1879. Under speculative purchases mining and manufactures be- came very active, yet within two years there was un- mistakable evidence that the disease which had been eating at our vitals during the depression was still in our blood and as virulent as ever. So much for the condition of affairs in this country which entered into my calculations as to the future of the tariff question. The other facts I found in the industrial condition of England. After twenty-five years of free trade, a matchless maturity of industrial forces and organization, perfected by the exigencies of five years’ depression, was coinci- dent with one of those periods of natural expansion THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 7 which are always periodical and are exclusively psy- chological in their origin. On this basis I calculated that before 1887 there w^ould be such an expansion of English industry as was never before known or so much as dreamed of. I was then convinced and I still am, that so great w’ould be the contrast between the gigantic progress under free trade, and the backward condition under “ protection” that it would create a veritable panic among protectionists all over the world, but especially in this country, where the system is carried out to an extreme elsewhere unknown. Nearly two years have passed since I arrived at that conclusion. Let us see how far we have advanced toward the realization of my expectations. II. In nearly all departments of our mining and manu- facturing industry there is the same complaint, viz. : what is called over-production : more correctly, an in- sufficient market. Our excessive and discriminating taxation of commodities used in or by the workers in every branch of our industry, makes the cost of pro- duction so high that our producers have no customers for their products but those compelled by law to buy from them. This market being wholly insufficient, forces short time on the employes and, in may cases, bankruptcy on their employers. Again, our working people who depend on their daily labor for their sup- port, are either driven into the streets or tortured by doubts and anxiety as to their future. I I 8 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. So much for “ protection.” Now let us see how it is with free trade. Those who are aware that during the five years of depression the number of paupers in England de- creased while in this country the number increased with a rapidity rarely known in history, will have no difficulty in understanding how it is that there is no want of employment there now. Everybody in Eng- land who wishes to work is fully employed — no short time, no forced idleness. This is the truth and the reason for it is obvious. England has free access to all the markets of the globe. Even protective tariffs can- not exclude her more than temporarily, because such tariffs at once raise the cost of production where they exist, and by lowering the cost of raw materials in the free trade countries reduce the cost of production there. English commerce in 1882 was the largest ever known in her history. The great merchants and man- ufacturers complained that profits were meagre; but the workers and wage-earners did not suffer from that. If capitalists make three per cent on their capital in- stead of ten or twenty per cent, nobody suffers very much. Such are the conditions in each country, and such are the facts as developed in the past two years. Now let us see what progress public opinion has made tow- ard a correct knowledge of causes. In times of transition party conventions rarely, if ever, reflect public opinion accurately. It is only after the transition is ended that politicians begin to compre- THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 9 bend it ; even then they as often fall before it as yield to it. For the first time our manufacturers begin to see that they are the victims of a mistaken policy. Through all the depression following the panic of 1873 they thought of anything and everything but the tariff. Many of them now, when they look back at their blindness and infatuation, are surprised. The workmen themselves, so long deceived, are be- ginning to understand how they are affected by heavy taxation on commodities. Their conventions and dis- cussions show that their attention is now, for the first time, turned to the real cause of their sufferings. This is all that is necessary. No device nor invention of the protectionists will again deceive them. Everything the workingman uses is taxed excepting his bread and meat ; and the same law that taxes him practically prohibits him from selling his products in the open markets of the world. On the whole I think I have never seen more rapid progress in public opinion on any great question ; nor have I ever known more powerful causes at work to push forward that progress. Nor has this change been entirely confined to pri- vate citizens. Some prominent politicians have seen new light, and many more are already “ on the way to Damascus.” Whoever reads carefully Senator Bay- ard’s late letter in The World , can see that it announces principles that must ultimate in free trade, absolute and unqualified. I venture to say that one year ago he would hardly have published such a letter. Cer- 10 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. tainly when I expressed the same opinions in my pam- phlet last September the majority of our newspapers considered them too extreme to be so much as dis- cussed. How is it in England ? A change of opinion is taking place there that will be a surprise to many though not to me, for I fully expected it. The English people, I mean the masses, are not scientific economists. They have been in favor of free trade in America because they supposed it simply meant an open market for their goods. Lately the progress of events has presented it to them in a new light. They begin to see that free trade here means a rival in all the markets of the world more formidable than all other nations put together. A magazine writer in' England argues that, though free trade is good for England it may not be good for the United States. This sentiment is repeated in all forms of English economical literature. In “ Bradstreet’s ” newspaper of June 23d, I find a curious letter from London, written by a Hew England protectionist, and headed “ The Commercial Peace of England and America.” I extract the following pas- sage from it : “ Many intelligent and very observing manufacturers in Great Britain are beginning to feel that free trade in the United States means stagnation to the trade of British producers, and this view is shared now by many economists. A very observant American, who has resided in Europe much of the time for ten years, does not hesitate to say that the establishment of free trade in the United States would THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 11 result in war between the countries. While this view seems very far from the conditions that might be ex- pected, it gains standing when it is remembered that all England’s wars, for many generations, have been waged upon commercial grounds.” I do not believe that England will ever go to war with this country if she can reasonably avoid it ; but I do believe that with free trade in this country there will be a most gigantic struggle for industrial and commercial supremacy; and I believe that strug- gle will drive England into a condition of feeling and temper that will only stop short of war from a strong conviction of its futility and folly. I would not give the above extract if it stood alone, but, in fact, it is confirmed by much that I learn from other sources. Nor would I, perhaps, attach so much importance to these indications of public opinion if I had not been expecting them as part of a larger move- ment — a necessary stage in the progress toward the revolution I predicted, and to the early consummation of which I look forward with perfect confidence. III. In view of the facts stated, what may we reasonably expect to be the course of events during the next three to four years, as bearing on the tariff question ? In the first place I look for continued expansion in English trade. There is no gambling speculation in England at present, and much less than the average investment of capital in foreign countries. Her in- vestments are largely in raw material, which is exces- 12 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. sively cheap all over the world. Hence her imports are large. The low price of raw materials is a favorable cir- cumstance of the first imj)ortance to manufacturers. To those who sell to semi-civilized and barbarous people who know nothing about prices current, it is peculiarly advantageous. Next year there will be in- creased activity and more extensive investments in foreign countries, which will correspondingly increase the volume of exports. This expansion will continue until a crisis takes place, indicating the temporary cul- mination of the movement. As I have already inti- mated, these crises are periodical and have their origin in the law of mental dynamics. The next general crisis will originate in England, but before it is due I expect to see our protective system wiped out. As to the progress of events in this country, it is obvious, if I have stated the true cause of the present depression in our protected manufactures, that there can be no real improvement until taxation is taken from the back of labor : until our manufacturers are permitted the same advantages in cheap raw materials (including iron, of course), which are enjoyed by other countries, especially the free trade countries, England, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland, and thus the mar- kets of the world are opened to our people on equal terms with the best. The vocabulary of protectionism has been so per- sistently sown into the brains of our people that it is constantly sprouting out even in our free trade clubs. THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 13 We hear sometimes of twenty per cent or thirty per cent being u sufficient protection v for this or that ar* tide. Strange language that for a free trade club. Such ideas are as obnoxious to economical science as they are practically unsuited to the present emergency. Almost the only thing that is certain about a tax on commodities, and especially a so-called protective tariff tax, is that it is, though called indirect, in fact a direct tax on labor, so direct that nothing can ward it off Who receives the benefit of the tax depends on its nature and on circumstances. It may be paid to the government ; it may, in part, go into the pockets of capitalists like the steel rail ring ; more frequently it is wholly wasted, benefitting nobody. It is doubtful if any part of it ever returns to the pockets of the workers from whom it was taken. A large part of the art of governing — that part which may justly be called statecraft — consists in devising the most effectual method of extracting money from the people without exciting discontent. One of the tricks of the trade is to tax the innocent and divide the proceeds among the cunning. This is prac- tised extensively, nowhere more extensively and suc- cessfully than in a republic under universal suffrage. In modern times the use of brute force is considered the last resort of incompetent politicians. A states- man who knows his trade never resorts to it. The originality and audacity of American genius are no- where more conspicuous than in this department. It has actually succeeded in making a great number of Americans believe that taxation is good for them, and 14 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. the more of it the better; better still, that it will make them rich. That politicians have had- the audac- ity to preach this doctrine is certainly no more strange than that masses of the people have believed it. Permit me to state here broadly what I understand free trade to mean, and what the final issue must be, sooner or later. As I understand it, the ultimate of free trade is that all taxes should be levied on realized property, no tax of any kind on the act of creating property or value ; in other words, no tax on commodi- ties necessary to the uses and consumption of the workers. How soon this issue will come up for legis- lative decision will depend upon the intelligence of the people. If the working people understood the question now the present system would not last any longer than the time required to get together an extra session of Congress. Alas ! the inability of the masses to understand their real interests, even in the common- est necessary business of life, their constant liability to become the victims of error and fraud, constitute the uninterrupted tragedy of the ages. ' It is, perhaps, fortunate for the cause of truth that the present depression in our protected industries fur- nishes, and will continue to furnish ocular demonstra- tion, plain as the figures on a blackboard, that it is the present system of taxing commodities that debars us from access to the markets of the world ; that causes bankruptcy among employers, and short time with pinching want and pauperism among employes. Of course, I am aware that ultimately all taxes must be paid by labor — that is, by those combined forces of THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 15 brain and muscle, together with the forces of nature and capital, which constitute the whole industrial movement. But there is all the difference in the world in the way the tax is levied. To levy the taxes on the workers in the act of working is, of all systems, the most barbarous, the most brutal. It is most in- jurious to the best interests of society in all its parts. It impairs the wealth-producing forces; it cripples and embarrasses industry, and, above all, it is unjust and cruel. When all taxes are levied on realized property, it is in the nature of a loan to labor without interest ; and yet the lenders are trebly paid from their share in the general prosperity and happiness. The peculiar condition of our industry, and the shameful contrast it will present when compared to free trade England, pouring her products into every ham- let, defying competition, will, if I do not greatly over- estimate the intelligence of my countrymen, develop a condition of public opinion before which no protec- tionist party will stand for a moment ; nor will it ever again be possible to deceive the people on the tariff question. As to the two parties, Republican and Democratic, I expect nothing from them directly. The question of industrial freedom is far above all party strife. The probability is that the Republican Party w r ill do most toward hastening the crisis, by forcing their false principle to its logical conclusion. That is the way that parties founded on fundamental error gener- ally destroy themselves. So long as they are empiri- 16 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. cal and moderate they may, by dexterity, steer clear of the rocks. Such are the times when society hob- bles along on the crutches of compromise and so-called expediency. Nature has ordained that such conditions shall not endure always. There is a period in every great contest for principle when both Parties are forced into what is called extreme views. Then crutches are thrown away and society is restored to itself. The Democratic Party will probably dodge and try to hide its head for a time. It may, and probably will fight at last. As to the conscious purposes of politicians, I know, of course, that there are several upright scientific econ- omists in the Democratic Party, but I am satisfied there is not a single leader in either Party who comprehends the present situation. No matter about the politicians; the people will learn more about the effects of tariff taxation on industry in a few months, since their attention has been turned to the subject, than all the politicians know at present. With these views and facts before us, what is the duty of patriotic Americans ? IV. In reading the narrative of the prolonged agitation which ultimated in the adoption of free trade in Eng- land, there is no fact more striking and instructive than this, viz : Though the protective system had re- duced the masses of the people to the greatest ex- tremes of suffering — riots in the manufacturing centres, THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 17 starvation and pauperism everywhere — yet it was only through the most strenuous and persistent agitation, by large expenditure of money, by enlisting the ablest speakers in the nation, by the most persistent presentation, not only of the sufferings of the people, but of the scientific economical truths that explained the true cause of that suffering, that the advocates of industrial emancipation so much as gained a hearing in the parliament of the nation. Indeed, it is evident that the law-makers were literally coerced into hear- ing and discussing the subject by the intelligence of the people, brought about by one of the most gigantic and best organized and most liberally supported prop- agandas ever known in politics. We are now in a condition similar to that of Eng- land from 1836 to 1846, excepting that we have still unoccupied lands on which labor, when driven from the manufacturing centres, may find a painful refuge. Some of our professed free traders seem to think they can safely leave the necessary reform to be brought about by the sufferings of the people. Even if this opinion were correct, as a rule of conduct it is most odious. But it is not correct. Suffering does not necessarily produce wisdom. On the contrary, by re- ducing the mind to a negative, that is to a helplessly receptive condition, it makes its victims an easy prey to the wildest delusions. Mr. Horace AVhite is reported as stating at the re- cent Cobden Club dinner, that abstract free trade prin- ciples have made little progress in this country, but 18 ' THE IMPENDING CRISIS. that free trade itself has made much progress. A lit- tle more bankruptcy, he says, will do more for knock- ing off the tariff than free trade doctrines. There is much truth in this statement ; mark it well. From want of an enlightened, patriotic, heroic news- papers press devoting itself to instructing and guiding the people, they are left to find their way through darkness, bankruptcy, pauperism — perchance revolu- tion — into the daylight of eternal truth. Since the death of the noble, inspired Bryant, our newspaper owners seem to devote themselves almost exclusively, to the acquisition of fortunes, by catering to, or at least compromising with, popular errors and prejudices. What would be thought of our common schools if the people were left to acquire a knowledge of the addi- tion and multiplication tables through their blundering calculations in buying and selling ? God knows I would not consciously do anything tending to alienate the mighty power of the press from the great cause of industrial emancipation. In a cause involving the in- terests, the happiness — yea, the very existence of so many thousands of my countrymen, as well as the pros- perity and grandeur of the nation, I feel that no sacrifice would be too great for me to make, if I could enlist the all-powerful press on the side of the people. Surely each of our great newspapers could afford to have on its editorial staff at least one thoroughly in- structed economist and able writer. I think it is most fitting, if not the special province of the newspaper press, to deal with social science. The exigencies of society in the rapid movements of modern times are THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 19 too great and urgent to wait for instruction through books alone, even with the aid of the lecture-room. I am w^ell aware that in the application of scientific principles to legislation, it is sometimes necessary to make grave concessions to circumstances arising gener- ally out of popular ignorance. It is the business and imperative duty of free traders to see to it that, during the year that must elapse before the presidential can- vass fairly begins, as much light shall be poured into the public mind as possible, and as little ignorance and misconception left for the law-makers to contend with. It is our business to present principles, and to speak the truth pure and simple. You cannot reach the un- derstanding and conscience of the people by mixing truth with error, light with darkness. You cannot successfully assault the fortress of “ protection,” armed and defended as it is by the pride and pow T er of ill- gotten wealth, under the banner of compromise. Af- ter all that may be done there will be concessions enough made when the question reaches the halls of Congress — to ignorance directly, and to interests de- fended by ignorance. The propagandists of liberty will have an immense advantage in illustrating principles by existing facts. The markets of the world will remain closed to us, while English commerce will disport itself, free from all apprehensions, on every wave and island continent. Our manufactures cut down carefully to the needs of a single nation under ruinous competition, walled in by a tariff that lets out nothing and lets in everything — even paupers. 20 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. No important branch of our manufacturing industry, and no mining industry that is confined to the home market, is able to work full time. Some of the most important, such as shoes and woollens, can only work half time. It is known that the existing plant in these branches can supply a whole year’s wants of this coun- try in six months, and that they have the means of indefinite and rapid expansion if they had free access to the open market. We export plain cottons, in the manufacture of which no tariff- taxed chemicals are necessary, but most of these go to England because we have no regular communication direct with the con- sumers. Thus we pay toll on the little we do export. During twenty years the increment of the national wealth has been almost entirely derived from the settlement of new lands and the building of railroads connecting them with the marts of commerce; nearly all the rest has been wasted by legislative interference with industry through the tariff. We are approaching the crisis of the tariff question through a process which furnishes a perfect illustration of what is commonly known as the logic of events. Again and again that part of our population whose tastes drew them to the cities to engage in commerce and manufactures, have been driven out into the high- ways, because they could not compete with free trade in the markets of the world, owing to the heaviest tax- ation on commodities used by labor known to the whole history of legislation. Once more this painful process has begun. Operatives are being discharged from our mines and factories by thousands. Commod- THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 21 ities are so loaded down with taxation that they cannot be moved out of the country. Under these conditions the assertion that the tariff makes wages becomes a cruel mockery. The logic of events is illustrating the truth of science that taxes on commodities tend to pau- perize labor. These conditions will soon convince in- telligent manufacturers that half-measures of tariff re- form may injure them, but cannot afford the only relief possible — access to the open markets of the world, on equal terms with the free-trade countries, which are rapidly monopolizing the trade of the world. The vested interests, so-called, are now suffering more than they would suffer from an immediate enact- ment of free trade. A slow, tentative process of reform will simply bleed them to death. Yet such is the tim- idity of capital that many would cling to it until their last dollar had disappeared. Thus the logic of events is instructing the people, slowly and painfully. The momentous question of the day is this : Will our statesmen help the process or will they retard it ? If parties could always learn the truth from their own experience, there would be no doubt about the answer. ♦ For nearly twenty years the Democratic Party has been trying to get possession of the National govern- ment through evasion — by leaving its position on ques- tions dear to the popular heart, undefined and uncertain. The people distrusted it, fearing it had some occult policy it dared not avow. Gentlemen of the Demo- cratic Party, you know this is true ; you gave the people no choice ; you forced them to gulp down the 22 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. rottenness and stench of the Republican Party, to hold their nose, and make the best of it. Will you again try this policy of obscurantism ? If you do, I can con- fidently predict it will be the last time ; and the result of this last experiment will be a lesson to your chil- dren and your children’s children forever. Still, the position of the Democratic Party on the tariff question is of far more importance to the party itself, than to the ultimate success of tariff reform. If it evades and dodges it, and, in consequence, the Repub- lican Party carry the election, it will not postpone the reform very long, because the latter Party, though elected on a protectionist platform, will be forced by the inexorable necessities of trade to pass a sweeping reform. When the Republican Party passes an exclu- sively revenue tariff, it will be over the grave of the Democratic Party. When this happens, Olympus will fairly shake with the laughter of the gods at beholdiug such a comical, yet righteous denouement. We cannot be too urgent in trying to impress the public mind with the fact that this is no ordinary oc- casion in which the question at issue can be disposed of tentatively or empirically. This is one of those rare crises, in which the mere politicians and straddlers will, sooner or later, be relegated to a back seat, and statesmen only be permitted to the front. The popular cry in the coming Presidential election should be, and I trust will be : DOWN WITH TAXES ! NO MORE TAXES ON LABOR ! ! The genuine statesman does not require to wait for the full development and expression of public opinion THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 23 before acting. In common with the people he sees the evil, but above and beyond the people he discerns the remedy. Who among our statesmen will have the boldness to propose a tax bill promising an annual deficit in the revenue of fifty to a hundred millions ? When we enter the open markets of the world, our workingmen, capitalists also, for that matter, will re- quire just this thing, and they have a perfect right to demand it. It would be a small part of what has been squeezed out of their hearts' blood during the past twenty years. The deficit would not last long. Under free trade the expansion would be so great that the deficit would soon be covered, without any increase in the rate of taxation. In the meantime, our workers will have become masters of the situation. A large surplus in the revenues is always proof of incompetency on the part of those who frame and enact the laws, and, when permitted to continue, of neglect or ignorance among the people. Whenever and wherever reduction of taxes will cause expansion of trade, the reduction should be made without hesitation, trusting to the expansion to recover the revenue. I beg you will pause here and consider this carefully. It is the very essence of econom- ical science and statesmanship. Yet, as a rule of con- duct, it is simplicity itself. A great commercial and manufacturing nation, pos- sessed of a governing body adequate in intelligence to the needs of such a nation, will never permit a surplus of revenue without an immediate reduction of taxes ; 24 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. and they will always prefer a slight deficit to a large surplus. In short, a large surplus should be treated as evidence of want of foresight or something worse. Who among our statesmen will be the first to pro- pose the enactment of an income tax producing a hun- dred millions per annum ? This is the most just of all taxes, and in its operation the easiest of all burdens on industry. It is an immense relief to labor, and still, in the end, benefits property. As a property-owner myself I am decidedly in favor of it. Nor will I pretend that I am so from exclusively philanthropic motives. Not only will I be amply com- pensated by my share in tlie general prosperity ; I be- lieve it is just, and I am convinced that justice is the only sure defence of property. The system of levying taxes on commodities of nec- essary consumption is terribly oppressive to the worker, and therefore it is unjust. No man who has himself passed through the struggle of poverty, arriving ulti- mately at the possession of wealth, if he be just and wise, will desire to see those who are now struggling as he once struggled ground down by taxation to support the government. It is this unjust system of taxation which is the cause of that alarming unrest which is seen all over the civilized world, and heard with something of the feel- ing produced by the first rumblings of an earthquake. Hitherto this has had its origin in ignorance, hencefor- ward there shall be no excuse. Such measures as I have indicated or others equally effective in the same direction, will be a necessity as THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 25 soon as we enter tlie open markets of the world to sell our manufactures. The immediate purpose of this address is to start a propaganda to visit all parts of the country and address all the people, especially the working people who are most deeply interested on the tariff question. When the industrial people of England began their struggle for freedom of industry in 1840, the first thing they did was to raise a fund of $250,000. Afterward there was a call for $500,000, and nearly $600,000 was subscribed. Finally, on a call from the Free Trade League, a million and a quarter dollars was subscribed in a short time. The richer men among the reformers did not wait for the first $250,000 to be subscribed, but clubbed together and guaranteed it to the Free Trade League, confiding in the popular subscription to reimburse them. The free traders in this country are poor. They have been able to print and distribute a few thousand tracts which a few people of leisure have read, but which rarely get into the hands of the masses, who are much more attracted by partisan stump speeches, or in fact any kind of public speaking. We are now within a year of the presidential can- vass. Already the politicians are laying their wires to catch by any means the popular vote. The Republican Party seems to realize that it is irretrievably committed to the system of discriminating taxation called a pro- tective tariff. Its leaders are carefully spreading a gigantic net, in which to entangle and mesh the popu- lar intelligence. Two of their projects have already 26 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. come to tlie surface, and extraordinary and audaciously absurd as they may seem to the scientific economist, they are a legitimate natural outgrowth of the “ protec- tionist ” system. They look like fraud, but in truth they are to a large extent unconscious fraud. The tree of “protection” secretes fraud at its roots, and it must necessarily exhale fraud from its foliage. It is as natu- ral, and generally as unconscious as the growth of a tree. The first project is to send an emissary to Europe — an expert writer, as expert in the coloring and use of facts — as a professional statistician in the use of figures — to write home a series of letters about the condition of European labor, in the interest of the protectionist system here. Now, once for all, let us dispose of this device. I intend to make it so plain that any school-boy will un- derstand it. The question is as to the merits of two opposite kinds of economical legislation on the industry and physical support of the people. What is the final test in the answer to this question ? I will tell you. That is the best and most successful system which supports the largest number of human beings on the smallest area of earth, other things being equal. It so happens, and depend upon it it is no accident, that the largest population to the superficial area is in the free trade countries, England, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland. England has about 400 to the square mile, Belgium 485, Holland 316, and Switzerland, in the midst of snow-clad mountains, the best governed country in the world, has 177. No protectionist country has yet succeeded in sustaining tolerably 200 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 27 to the square mile ; France has 180, Germany 199, and her people are flying from the country with a rapidity that threatens to Germanize the whole world. Austria has 156, Spain, the country most like the United States in tariffs and natural gifts, has only 84, and 46 per cent of her area is totally uncultivated. The United States has only 14 to the square mile. Leaving the others for the present, let us compare this country and England. They are most alike in race, climate, pro- ductiveness of soil, and mineral resources. Nearly forty years ago England started on the way toward free trade. The United States took the flrst step and a halting second, after which there was a complete reversal, since which we have driven the restrictive system to an extreme not known in any really industrial nation in history. In forty years England has added fifty per cent to her population without a single additional acre to put them on ; she has reduced her pauperism sixty per cent and the number of her criminals much more than sixty per cent. The wages of her mechanics and laborers have been doubled. In 1846 it required four and one fifth days’ wages to buy one bushel of wheat. Now two and one half days of similar work will buy it. The United States in the same time has nearly doubled her territory, so that, notwithstanding the in- crease of population, the number of inhabitants to the square mile is not much greater than in 1840. Then there was not a street beggar or a tramp reported any- where in the nation. Then there were no strikes and no short time. Then our foreign commerce was equal 28 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. to that of England per capita. Our merchant marine was equal in tonnage, and admittedly superior in quality. Our national navy was worthy of the nation, and deemed a match for any on earth. I will not state how all these things are now — I would spare your feelings — I must spare my own. Great God ! what a contrast. Eight hundred years ago the English were a conquered people, trodden under foot by Norman robbers, the whole soil wrested from them by violence, and never to this day returned to its rightful owners, though the contest on the questions arising out of that robbery continues to this day, and is now more bitter than at any time in many hun- dred years. Yet with all that, simply through freedom of industry, they have gotten almost as complete pos- session of the commerce of the globe as the Normans had seven hundred years ago of English land. In the face of these facts, our protectionists have undertaken to reconcile the American people to a protective tariff by comparing the condition of labor in the two coun- tries. I have no right to doubt the integrity of these gentle- men ; I willingly believe they think they are doing their country good service, though one would suppose, if that were the only motive, they would have gone among our tenement-house population, among the thousands of our operatives working short time, and consequently for short wages, and the other thousands entirely idle for want of a market for their products, paying double price for their tools and for the clothing that protects them from the blasts of winter, in order THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 29 to support a government that does nothing but oppress them. It seems strange, but still I will admit that their intentions are honest ; but the thing for us to con- sider is this: if gentlemen of education, in some sort of training and culture, such as the schools and colleges furnish everywhere, will seriously undertake such a childish, illogical, mountainous absurdity as this, what is to protect from imposture and delusion the poor workingman, without training, without time for reflec- tion, toiling all day, and sleeping all night the sleep of the weary ? I appeal to intelligent and patriotic Americans : Are you going to sit still and see the blind leading the blind into an abyss ? How much less are you willing to do for your coun- try than Englishmen did under like circumstances ? Remember that under popular government you cannot ordinarily expect the Legislature to move with- out a demand from public opinion. In modern society public opinion is the one power that approaches om- nipotence. When it is alive and active, it not only dictates the enactment of laws, but it also enforces them. Without a sound, well-defined, resolute pub- lic opinion, society drifts toward disintegration, the laws become a dead letter, and private vengeance takes the place of legal punishment, and if not ar- rested by an aroused popular intelligence the upshot is anarchy. I call my address the Impending Crisis. In truth the crisis is upon us. There is not a moment to spare. The other scheme of the protectionists to which I 30 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. referred is this. After convincing the working-people that taxation is good for them, by telling them all about the “ pauper labor of Europe,” they are devising a new scheme to get rid of the surplus revenue, with- out resorting to the scandalous methods that have ex- cited popular indignation in the past. It is now gravely proposed to divide the surplus revenue among the States. When this was first pro- posed it was not considered serious. It should be re- membered that, after all, this scheme is not new at all. It is forty years old. It is merely an imitation of Henry Clay’s scheme to divide the proceeds of the public lands among the States. “ Whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad ; ” Pennsylvania seems to be drunk with the proceeds of public plunder. Consider this for a moment. Nearly all State taxes are levied on realized prop- erty ; nearly all National taxes are levied on articles necessary to the industry and comfort of working peo- ple. The brigand has put his head out of the bush to reconnoitre and see if his purpose is suspected. What think you, workingmen, of his countenance ? It is deliberately proposed that the small fraction of the revenue now paid by the rich shall give place to taxes levied on the poor. The protectionists have so long successfully deceived workingmen — and them- selves also, most probably, that they have at last con- cluded that the masses of mankind are donkeys, made to be ridden. The State taxes being mostly paid by property, there is rarely any surplus, and expenditure is closely watched. THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 31 National taxes being mostly paid by tlie industrial classes, there is a constant surplus and nobody to watch the expenditure, because working people are too busy, and according to the estimate of Pennsyl- vania, too ignorant. It is said that the socialists and communists propose to divide the property of the few among the many. If that is deemed robbery, what shall we call the Penn- sylvania scheme to divide the earnings of the many among the few? It is an attempt to reverse the whole order of our free Constitution by securing the greatest good to the smallest number. Surely I have a right to appeal to workingmen for subscriptions to a propagandist fund. This is the workingman’s cause preeminently. It is proposed to appoint a National Committee to take charge of the fund, and that every patriot in the nation will be appealed to. I hope to see a million dollars raised in a short time. The protectionists raise their funds in secret. This is the cause of the Nation, and it should be open and above board. If the rich, the thrifty-and well-to-do do not subscribe liberally, it will be to them an ever- lasting shame. This is a cause worthy of the most strenuous efforts of every patriot. It is not a question between five dollars a ton and seven dollars on pig iron, it is a question of liberty, with all that word means. It is a question of industrial emancipation. It is not merely a question of improving our industrial condition some- what, and thereby making it tolerable. The question 32 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. is, whether we are to be the first commercial nation on earth, or among the last — a hissing and a byword, for having squandered the richest gifts of nature, like a spendthrift born in a palace, and reaching premature old age in poverty. Born to be the leader and ex- emplar of social and political liberty, degenerating into a nation divided into tribute-payers and tribute-re- ceivers, monopolists and helpless toilers, into million- aires and paupers. The question is, whether the people will rouse themselves, and by one great effort purify the atmosphere as with a thunderstorm, or permit the poison to spread, until our whole social and political system degenerates under it. This is no time for timid counsels. In such times, mediocrity, either of intelligence or patriotism, takes refuge in conservatism. He whose soul is dominated by love for his country and for truth, will not take counsel with his fears. Never was the counsel of Danton more appropriate and more wise than now: De Vaudace , encore de Vaudace , tons jour de Vaudace . The originals of the Illustrations used in this Pamphlet can he oeen at Mr. McKay's office, 15 Whitehall St., New York. / ' r FREE TRADE TOILERS. Ah Opeh Letter to Workingien. 9*' „ # - a i ** [REISSUED SEPT. 1890.] WHICH SHALL IT BE? THE RESULTS OF AN AMERICAN’S TOUR AMONG ENGLAND’S MASSES. STARVATION WAGES FOE MEN AND WOMEN. NEW Y0I1K : E8TATK OF DAVID H. GILDER8LKEVE, PMKTRi:, 45 to 61 Rose Street. 2 New York, Septembek 10th, 18&Q. Hon. MATTHEW S. QUAY, Chairman of the Republican National Committee : Dear Sir: In July last I visited Europe on private business, and to get some facts in regard to the working people, to defeat Cleveland. While traveling in Great Britain, I saw so much distress, poverty, degradation and starvation among the working classes that I was forcibly impressed with the idea that the American working people would shrink in disgust from supporting the Free Trade system, if the misery of “ cheap labor” was fairly brought to their notice. It occurred to me also that people as intelligent as are tbe mechanics and laborers of this coun'ry, would begin then to consider their present comparative condition and, in the coming election, stamp out forever the unscrupulous blatant politicians who are now endeavoring to delude them with a deceitful revision of the Tariff. I feel assured that after comparing their present condition with that of the working classes of Great Britain , every American working man and woman would be interested in this burning issue— this Tariff question. I have gathered material enough, I thiuk, to convince any intelligent working man of his probable future condition , if the bulwark of governmental protection should be torn down. I have collected a large and various quantity of books, pamphlets, papers, lithographs and bill posters, that testily to the futile struggle that the starving working classes of Great Britain are now making against the fallacy of the Free Trade system. I have brought with me, as evidence of the present deplorable condition of the British working people, the very clogs, even, that the men, women and children are compelled, in their destitution, to wear ; and as evidence of their pitiful degradation the very chains that the women are obliged to forge in smitheries and for the merest pittance. All this I am ready at any time to exhibit. My information has been gathered judiciously, and the testimony bearing on this subject waa taken by me from the people (men and women ) per- sonally. It is my hope and desire that your Committee may utilize this material, which I herewith present to you, free of charge. It will be convincing evidence, I think, to the American working people, that the ambitious and unscrupulous politicians who are endeavoring to tear down our beneficent system of protection, are nothing more nor less than natural allies of the greedy British speculators who struck such dastardly blows at the life of this Government during the late Re ellion. These same mercantile jackals have been fattening on the distress of their own countrymen for years. They are. too, watching ‘ cat like” for the slightest diminution of our Protective Tariff, that, they may then flood our markets with the products of British “cheap labor,” in which event, the suffer- ing now prevailing throughout all European Free Trade countries would be car- ried into lhe home of every working man in the land. The nature of such a lamentable state of affairs can be very plainly seen in the data that I have gath- ered and which is referred to in the foregoing. It is simply appalling, and I fancy that you will agree with me that gathered, as it has been, solely for the benefit of the American working people, this information shou d be scattered broadcast over the country. I am, very truly yours, NATHANIEL MoKAY. #sa{ 1 | LETTER OF NATHANIEL McKAY. r * Mr. Nathaniel McKay, of New York City, has just returned from a two months’ tour through England, where he spent nearly all his time in investigating the wages and living of the British working people. Mr. McKay went among the mechanics and artisans of that country to see and hear for himself, and to ascertain the effect of England’s free trade policy on her toilers. He has returned here with what he calls a “log” of his journejings, and has put into the form of an open letter to his countrymen the results of his observations, llis accouut of his trip is couched in plain, simple language, but it presents a striking contrast between the condition of the average working man in this country and his brethren in free trade England. The letter is as follows: To the Workingmen of America: Two months ago I sailed for England bent on learning the real condition of the working classes of that country by going among them and asking them to speak for themselves. Many years’ experience has taught me what it is to earn a living by the “ sweat of my brow,” for I have toiled as a mechanic and spent the greater part of my life amoug the working people; but never before have I seen the bone and sinew of a great land so shackled with the sla ve chains of poverty and degra- dation as during my short stay among the t'-iiing masses of free trade England. I have no wish to paint the picture in dark colors or exaggerated language— God knows the best is distressing enough — nor have I any motive save to lay the plain, unquestioned facts before you of America, so that you can judge for yourselves whetheryou prefer that this governmentshall continue toaflordyou the protection which your labor now enjoys, or that it shall open its ports to the free importation of the products of the land I have just been in. The decision is in your hands, and will be made by your votes. It is without re made at Darlaston are rented by the workmen or attached to their living houses. At one time, years ago, the men who made these locks got as much as Is. Id. each for them, but wages have been cut down until the rate is 3^d. per lock, at which a smart workman is hardly able to earn a shilling a day when in full work. MAKING GUN LOCKS AT STARVATION WAGES. I entered one of these workshops. Two persons were engaged at different benches, each rasping away at the piece of metal fastened in his vise. One of them, a hale old man of 76, is at work upon flint locks; the other, his son, a veteran of 50, is making steel rebounding locks for breech-loading guns. These aretwoof the be3t workmen in Darlaston, and it takes them six hours to complete the lock, work as hard as they may. For making them and finding some of the material, they receive the munificent sum of 2s. Id. for the pair! “I call it a dead robbery,” said the old man. “Perhaps you would be sur- prised to hear that a man over the way, who puts th^se microscopical flowerings on the steel plates — an artist he is -gets only a shilling each for them. Do I put my children to the trade? Not me,” exclaimed the man, with emphasis. “I’d sooner break a boy’s legs than teach him how to make these locks and starve.” Mr. Richard Juggins, whose earnest work in behalf of the poor of this dis- trict, is known all over, gave me a copy of the following letter, which he wrote last November. It explains itself : No. 60 New Street, Darlaston, Nov. 17. Mv Dear SIR: — A most painful case was reported to me l^et night. Y'U will remember speaking the other day in my company io a flint gun look flier, named Joseph Adams, In Darlaston. On Tuesday last he had worked all day without food, which was due to a cir- cumstance that Ioughtioexplain f ryour information. It is customary for the men to take home < aoh night the looks made during the day ai d get the money for them so as to buy provisions lor the nex' day. Thus you wl'l understand that when a workingman has noihingtodo f >r the day he has to work without foo 1 t>>e nest. Adams could average Is. per day of 14 t<> 16 hourp, but he was unfortunately without work on Monday, and had to live through Sunday. After working all day on Tuesday without food, as described, he went home, and borore a little refreshment could bo provided he sat down and died. I am very sincerely yours, Richard Juggins. 10 Another gentleman to whom 1 am indebted for information is Mr. Thomas Harris, of the Manchester Chronicle , whose pen has vividly described the condition of tne poor people of Cradley in a series of letters to that paper. He wrote me as follows: The Sunday Chronicle, 1 Offices, Mark Lane, Withy Grove, v N . McKay , Esq.: Manchester, Aug. 16, 1888. j Dear Sir— I am sorry not to have seen more of you, but business calls have been somewhat pressing. I am exceedingly glad that you have taken up the Craaley question, and should be much obliged if you would forward me copies of the American paper containing your reports. Perhaps when the press of the great republic speaks its mind on the subject, our authorities may be induced to move. But the cry of the poor and starving has little effect upon them, for their hearts are hard as the nether millstone. The parcel will be forwarded to Liverpool as you request. If I can render you any further assistance pray command me. Thanking you for your kind expressions and sympathy, I am very sincerely yours. Thomas Harris. HUSBAND AND WIFE AT THE FORGE. Women blacksmiths ! Husband and wife stripped to the waist at the same forge, with their offspring crying to the tune of their sledge hammers. Ten shillings a week for such work as this for the men and five shillings for women. “ Surely, ” I say, “people cannot exist upon the wages you have mentioned ? ” “They not only can, sir, but they do to the number of 20,000 in this district, and right glad would the chainmakers be to be always sure of such favorable terms.” This is the answer I received from a workingman when on the 7th of August I visited Cradley Heath, and there saw the most pitiful sight of my whole life — the women blacksmiths making chains! Cradley Heath is a town where, some months ago, many of the workingmen’s buildings fell in because of the undermining by the coar tunnels. They are now strapped up with iron rods, running outside of the houses, and big timbers placed against them. It almost looks as if one were risking his life every moment he remained in them, but a majority are rented, and the blacksmith family accept them as inevitable. I visited the blacksmith shop where the men and women are at work in equal numbers. Four women were at work making a chain in one shop, each at a forge. One woman weighed 228 pounds, she is 45 years old, and lias had twelve children, of whom five are now living. Three of these children work with her in the shops, and her husband is at the furnace. He gets 3s. per day for bis labor. She gets 4=*. per week. Theentire family works from 7 till 7. ‘Wfftle 1 v as in the shop she forged for me a back chain similar to those used for truck hors* s to hold up the shafts, and she told me that she got l^d. for it. That w: s the highest price she ever got. I bought another chain of her 8 feet long, which I now have with me, and for which she gets Id. for making. It takes her one hour to make it. Her daughter, Anna, makes small rivets and works an Oliver with her foot and a hammer in her hand. She rmikes a shilling a day. The son oi this woman makes a chain that weighs 224 pounds, and gets 2s. 8d. for it. He pays out of the amount 6d. for a boy to blow the bellows. The woman’s name is Fowkes, and she lives in Gray’s lane, her house adjoining the shop. She pajs 6s. rent for it. I asked her what the family usually had for breakfast. She said, ‘ I eat bread, bacon and tea.” I asked her if she usually had meat, and all f ur of them crowded around me and laughed. “ No, sir,” she said, “ and I am sorry enough to con f ess it. I have the same for dinner as for breakfast, except that I get half a pint of beer, if I can afford it. For supper we have neither bacon nor meat, but simply bread and tea. I have worked thirty-eight years at this business.” 11 TWELVE CENTS A DAY FOR A GIRL. Another shop near by had four furnaces. A young woman, probably 22, was making a chain at one of the forges. She says she can make 6d. per day of ten hours. She declined to say how she managed to live on that pay. Two men and a boy tell me in another shop that they make a thousand weight of chain between them in a week and receive 8. 4d. for the work. One man who makes block chain that is used in pulleys says that he works twelve hours a day and has 18s. or 20s. left on Saturday afier paying his coal boy. He pays 5s. for his rent. At a yard abutting on the same street is a shop in which I found a man and his three children at work, while the wife was at the door taking care of the other seven that made up their offspring. He was laboring as if he were pulling to some foreign shore, and with his unbuttoned shirt expos- ing his thin frame, he seemed a per- fect skeleton. While he swung a big hammer a son stood on one side of him and a daughter on the other, both helping in the work. The three of them working together every day at this forge until after dark have averaged 28s. a week. The man’s name is Omar. He has struggled for forty-six years at this forge. And for what? Let him tell it in his own words. I quote: “I can get meat once a day since my children are grown. I generally have it at dinner and on holidays I have mutton. Bread and butter and tea are all that I have for breakfast and supper. I pay 5s. rent per week.” A half a century of toil, and this is the reward ! Samuel Watts is the name of this man's next door neighbor, and by working ten hours a day — som etimes longer — he gets 18s. at the end of the week. His oldest child, just reached 15, is making a shilling for every 16 hours of work that his tiny little frame can pull through. Watts has toiled in this shop for twenty-eight years and his reward is a suit of clothes for himself for Sundays, but none for his children. Sometimes he can afford 2d. for a quart of beer, but he tells me that if he averages a pint a week throughout the year he is content. Sometimes he has meat too, which is a luxury not within the reach of all his kind, but he pays up for this extravagance by using lard instead of butter on his bread. John Woodward and his wife work together at the forge. The woman made for me a dog chain and said that she got Id. 3f. for her Jabor. It takes her forty minutes to make it. I have carried this chain back with me to America, as well as two others made by women. AN OLD WOMAN COAL-SHOVELER. A STRIKE FOR “HIGHER” WAGES. There was a strike in this district a year ago — a strike for higher wages, a ten per cent, increase. The chain makers held a public meeting. Women, child- ren and men crowded the hall. The chairman explained to those on the platform that it was not a strike for anything but food. He began to tell of the wages. 12 A young woman, he said, can make on an average in a week of sixty hours, 100 weight No. 4 short link chain. For this she would receive 7s. gross, which meant but 4s. as the price of her labor. Here he was j nterrupted ~by the audi- ence. No young woman could make that much chain in a week. The orator changes his statement with an apology. A young woman must make 100 weight or 3,600 links for 4s. Is that admitted? “Yes, but not in a week.” Further- more, a dog chain that sells for Is. 6d. is made by this typical young woman for 1 penny. They asked 5 farthings a while ago and were refused. Turn to the sterner sex, a young man can make in a week 300 weight of short link chain, of which many tons are turned out at 3s. per cwt. Deduct his blower’s pay and “breeze,” and he is lucky if he has 5s, for himself. And yet they were on strike ! It was a relief to get out of this poverty-stricken district and into London, where, though the thirty-live casual wards for paupers are always filled, the dis- tress of the people is not so open to the eye. It is said that there are 28,000 idle people in London to-day who sleep in the parks and on the roads. I visited one of the casual wards at Srnithfield, and watched the men come in to goto their lodg- ings. It was a pitiful sight, about the worst that you could ever witness. Each man is sent below and is kept splitting oakum two days, and beating large ropes on blocks, as a penance for his poverty. WAGES IN THE BUILDING TRADES. I visited London docks at 6.30 one morning to hear the roll-call for laborers. A thousand men were clamboring for employment. I asked one laborer what he got. He said 4Jd. per hour. These are what we call longshoremen. A carpenter at work on a building near by said he was getting 9d. per hour, and his assistant was paid 5^d. The carpenter told me he paid 15s. per week for rent. His assist- ant said that he paid 4s. 6d. for one room and “privileges.” This carpenter adked that his wife worked when she could and got 2s. a day. I waited until 8 o’clock to see the workmen on this building eat their breakfast. Four of them had banded together, made some tea in a big kettle and brought out bread and butter only. “ That’s all, for breakfast, sir,” said one. He explained that they usually had meat for dinner as late in the week as Wednesday, because they always had enough left over after their Sunday meal to last till that time. From Wednesday till the next Sunday they went without meat, except perhaps bacon. The carpenter said : “I get uo at 4 o’clock in the morning and work from 6 until 5 30. When I am out of work for three days at once there is not a farthing in the house, and we must live on what my wife earns ” The foreman of the gang had half a loaf of bread with a square hole in it about two inches square. In that hole be had placed some butter. That was the way he carried it to his work. He made some tea; most of the other workmen, however, had a herring apiece besides the bread and tea. One fellow, luckier than the rest, had a piece of meat pie for his dinner. The masons on this building were paid 9d. per hour, bricklayers 9d. per hour; pavers 9d. per hour in the streets of London, reamers, 7d. per hour ; stonecutters, 9d. per hour for ten hours labor, plasterers 8d., painters 7d , iron workers on roofs 9s. 2d. per dav of ten hours. An omnibus driver working sixteen hours a day gets 6s. and out of that has to care for his wagon and horses. Farm laborers can get 18s. per week ten orfifteen miles out of London, but they have to board themselves. At the large dry goods stores the superintendent of the sales counters gets about £75 a year, and sewing girls are paid 12s. a week. A gang of sixteen men working on a macadamized road to make it softer, said they were paid 4d. per hour by the city of London. Some granite cutters told me they were getting 9d. per hour. 13 THE POOR MAN’S BREAKFAST ABROAD. From London I went back to Wigan and rode in a workingman’s train, third class. The fare is two cents per mile in our money, eyen in this dirty third rate car, while in America you can travel in the best car on any road for that price. The “third-class” in England can only be compared to a pigsty. At Wigan I went to the laborers’ lodging house and the next morning joined in their breakfast. It was indeed a frugal meal, for it consisted of a piece of bread which each man had kept in his coat pocket over night. A square hole in the bottom of each loaf served as a receptacle for the butter. They made tea on a furnace. The meal only gave me an appetite for a rather hearty one an hour later; but these men had to go to their work and labor until noon. I asked one of them how he stood it ; he replied that it was a pretty good meal, for it only cost him a penny. He man- aged to live on 18d. per day, of which 4d. was spent for lodging. This is the average poor man’s break- fast within 20 miles of Liverpool:— Tea and sugar, Id.; bread, Id ; bacon, 2d.; total cost in American money, 8 cents. Dinner at 1: — Two pounds of potatoes, Id. ; half a pound of steak, if he can a fiord it, 4d. ; milk, Id. ; making in all 6d. for his dinner. His supper consists of tea and sugar, Id. ; two eggs, Id.; bacon, Id. ; bread, Id. ; making 5d. in all. ENGLISH FREE TRADE ILLUSTRATED. These are the prices paid by the Liverpool workingmen for their food : English beef, per pound American mutton chops English mutton chops American beef American beefsteak American round steak, per pound American ham Bacon Tripe Salmon Flour, 12 pounds Sugar, brown, per pound Sugar, white Coffee, per pound. Tea, mixed .Os. 9d. .Os. 6d. Os. 9d. .Os. 7d. . Os. 8d. 03. 10d. • Os. 7d. ■ Os. 6d. Os. 6d. . Is. 2d. 2s. lOd. Os. 2d. Os. 4d. Is. 8d. 2s. Od. 14 BACK TO THE LAND OF HAPPY HOMES. This market price completed my inquiry, and on August 25th I stepped aboard the steamship bound for America— the land where, thanks to protection, progress and enterprise, the sun never shines on such things as I had witnessed in my short stay in the land of free trade. Never did a weary traveler turn his footsteps toward his native land with such joyous feelings as did I after having journeyed through more misery, destitution and poverty than was ever shackled on honest labor in my own land. It was a sight, Mr. President Cleveland, which, if you could have spared the time from your shrievalty duties at Buffalo to witness, you never would have written that message to Congress which must forever be your condemnation in the eyes of every wage earner who looks for meat on his table more than once a week, clothes on his children, and a school house for them instead of a factory, and a decent home for his wife instead of a place at a chainmaker’s forge. Nathaniel McKay. New York, Sept. 12, 1888. DISTANCES.— hi EW YORK (Sandy Hook) TO Queenstown 2, 800 Miles. Southampton 3, 100 Miles. Liverpool 3,108 “ Havre 3,150 “ NO DODGING ABOUT THIS. “The Democratic Party is a Free Trade Party, or it is nothing.”— Henry Wa t - terson, leading Democratic editor of the South. THE FRUITS OF PROTECTION. [From Mr. McKinley’s Speech in Congress, May 6, 1890.] The accumulations of the laborers of the country have increased, and the work- ing classes of no nation in the world have such splendid deposits in savings-banks as the working classes of the United States. Listen to its own story. The deposits of all the savings banks of Now England in 1886 equaled $554,532,434. The deposits in the savings banks of New York in 1886 was S482.686.730. The deposits in the savings bauks of Massachusetts for the year 1887 was $302,948,624, and the number of depositors was 944 778 , or $320.67 for each depositor. The savings banks of nine states have in nineteen years increased their deposits $628,000,000. The English savings banks have in thirty four years increased theirs $350,000,000 Our operatives deposit $7 to the English operatives’ $1. These vast sums representthe savings of the men whose labor has been employed under the protective policy which gives, as experience has shown, the largest possible reward to labor. THE RIGHT KIND OF FREE TRADE. [From a Speech in Congress by the Hon J. C. Burrows, May 8, 1890.] The Republican party does not believe in a tariff for “revenue only.” We do not believe in imposing a duty on articles of foreign production, the like of which are not and can not profitably be produced in this country, but all such products we would admit free of duty, that the purchaser may s* cure them as cheaply as possible in the markets of the world. Upon this principle we have materially en- larged the free list in our bill, and if we have failed to place on the free-list a sin- gle article of foreign production which is not and can not be produced at home, it is an error which the majority of the committee will be prompt to rectify. 15 THE COUNTRY GROWING RICHER EVERY DAY. [From a Speech in Congress by the Hon. C. A. Russell, May 20, 1890.] In 1880 the aggregate debts of all the States and Territories in our Union were $260,000,000. To-day these debts on careful estimate are $215,000,000. This shows a reduction in the decade of $45 000,000. In 1880 the county, city, town, township, and school-district debts aggregated, in addition to State and Territor- ial debts, $942,000 000 They are estimated to-day at $782,000,000. This shows a reduction in the decade of $160,000,000. The national debt on the 1st of Jan- uary, 1880, was $2,120,415,000; on the 1st of January, 1890, it was $1,052,000,000, a reduction of $1,068,415,000 The aggregate public indebtedness of all kinds is, therefore, some $1,274,000,000 less than it was ten years ago. According to the statistical abstract as published by the Treasury Department, the increase in the amount of taxable property, as assessed in the States during the past year, has been $1,381,024,835. CARING FOR THE FARMERS. [From a Speech in Congress by the Hon. J. C. Burrows, May 10, 1890.] No tariff bill that has ever been brought before the American Congress has been so thoughtful of the agricultural interests of the country. No matter how caval- ierly the subject may be treated by the other side of this Chamber, those of us who live in the agricultural regions, those of us who spring from the loins of agricul- ture, so to speak, know that this bill extends its arms to the agricultural interests of this country as no tariff bill has ever done before. DELAWARE’S DEBT, State of Delaware $824,750 County debt: — New Castle, (bonded) $486,800 “ “ (floating) 83,000 Kent, (1888) 44,300 Sussex, (1889) 23,000 637,100 Municipal debt : —Wilmington 1 . 41 6. 800 $2,878 650 ie official count of the counties hich has been announced : of Delaware and of those cities the population Cities and Towns. Pop. 1890. Pop. 1880. Increase. Per Cent. The state, New Castle County, 168,063 146,608 21 455 14.62 96,775 77,716 19.059 24.52 Wilmington, 61,437 42,478 18,959 44.63 New Castle, 3,916 3,700 216 0 58 Sussex County, 38,612 36,018 2.368 Decrease. 7.20 Kent County, 32,676 32,874 198 o.co ENGLISH DUTIES. On Tea, 12c; on Coffee, 3c. There is butone rate for the poor as well as the rich on Tea and Coffee. It is said by many that England has no tax or duty, which is not true. The British Government collects from the poor working people every year £89,829,773, or $449,148,865. House Tax. Chicory. Plums. Customs. Cocoa. Prunes. Stamps. Coffee. Raisins. Income. Currants. Tea. Liquors. Silver Plrte. Tobacco. Beer. Figs. Wine. All of these taxes come out of the poor working people. McKAY TO GLADSTONE. THE LETTER THAT CALLED OUT THE GRAND OLD MAN’S ARTICLE. New York, October 9, 1888. To the Right Honorable William E. Gladstone : Sir: — D uring my last visit to your country, I made a short tour through some of the manufacturing districts. I inspected closely the condition of the working people, my object toeing to make a comparison of the condition of the British working classes, with that of the wording people in my own country. The result, of my observations have been embodied perfunctorily in the Tribune, Mail and Express, and the pamphlet which accompanies this letter. My views on the present situation of the laboring classes in England arc most respectfully presented to your notice as being those ot an American workingman, and possibly my appeal to the wage-earners of the United S.ates may interest you. 1 nave attempted no discussion of the causes that underlie the present deplorable position of the British laboring man. The question of whether tha free trade system, as it works in Great Britain, or the protective tariff system, as such system operates in the United States, is the better for the “bone aud sinew'’ of either country, has a great range. A lull anil thorough discussion of such a subject is beyond the power of any one man, I fancy : though, like all other practical men who have been in clos8 contact with working people for many years, I have my opinion. You are, no doubt, aware of the political contest now going on in this country, and that Presiden Cleveland has advised a reduction of the tariff. He supports his views by plagiarism from the arguments of prominent British advocates of free trade You have said, I think, that at some future day “America would wrest from England her commercial primacy,” and whether she will achieve this by her present policy of protection or by a change to the free trade system oi England, is an important que-tion at this time to the people of the United States. Tne experiment of free trade has been made in Great Britain to an extent not equaled in any other country. Has it been successful? Is not the term “free trade,” as applied io the com- mercial system of Great Britain, a misnomer; and does such a policy confer upon the British nation the “greatest good to the greatest number?’’ Has the Cobden system of political economy fulfilled in any one feature the predictions of its early advocates? Has not the pres- ent conunerciil supremacy of England been obtained, and is not such supremacy now upheld, at the expense directly of the *■ bone and sinew ” or the industry of the British working people? Questions like the foregoing, as well as other cognate questions, just now, are forcibly suggested to the people of the United States We are, in this country, a nation of “working people,” and I speak “ by the card ” when I say that thousands of workingmen on this side of the Atlantic would be glad to know your views regarding the relative value of ft ee trade and protection to the English-speaking people. As a profound philosopher, eminent statesman and representative Englishman, your opinion on such a matter, however cursorily given, would have a weight superior to any other authority, 1 tbink. Some thirty years ago we built ships for England, the fastest that ever sailed the ocean. My late brother, Donald McKay, built for the Black Ball Line of Liverpool, the “ Lightning,” the “James Baines,” "Champion of the Seas,” “Commodore Perry,” “Japan,” “Blanche Moore, ’ and otners. We could compete with your labor before tie war I was a young man with him in the building of these ships, and was obliged to work for sii. shillings per day, while now I would get fourteen shilllnus per day. While we were fighting our Southern brethren, your ship- builders were building ships, and the Alabama and other vessels were destroying ours, so to-day we are practically without ocean commerce. I attributed it to the cheap labor in E gland. If our workmen would submit to receive the same wages as yours, it would reduce the price of material also, and we could once more gain our place on the ocean, but American mectiani swill never consent to have their wages reduced so low as thos< of your workmen ; therefore, we must be content without commerce until we can get some relief from our Government. We are confident of aid if we get a Republican form of Government, one that will act iu sympathy with the best interests of the working people. The present Govern- ment is more than anxious to put the working people on the same footing as those in the free trade countries of Europe. This we are determined shall never occur. In closing, I pray you to absolve me from anything like impertinence when I express the hope herewith that sometime in ihe near future you may see fit to make public your views on the subject. I am, dear sir. Yours with great respect, 15 Whitehall Street, New York. NATHANIEL McKAY. MR. GLADSTONE’S REPLY. Dear Sir : — On the 9th of October, you addressed to me a detailed and courteous letter. I have now felt myself free to write a yet more full reply, and have sent the MS. to the editor of the North American Review, in which it will be published. I remain, dear sir, Your very faithful and obedient, LONDON, April 9, 1889. W. E. GLADSTONE. Nathaniel McKay, Esq., 15 Whitehall St., New York. [The MS. Mr. Gladstone speaks of was published in the North American Review, in January, in answer to my letter. — N. McK.J / \ \ \ X' .* UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 0112 032517291