Free Trade

Thos. G. Shearman, the eminent Brooklyn lawyer, in his address before the Detroit Free Trade League, began : "I am, I trust, a reasonably honorable man, but I hope not more so than all those present. "What is free trade? There is a great deal of confusión of opinión upon this question. There are two kinds of freedom of trade- absolute and qualifled. At present we have only a qualifled form of free trade in many respects, and yet we are as free as we wish to be. Absolute free trade we do not want; that is, absolute freedom from taxation. We now absolutely prohibit ships and obscene literatura, and while no one wants to see the restriction on the latter removed, we do desire it for ships. "We want to see just the same freedomof trade bet ween the countries of the earth as we have between the States of the Union. Every system of restriction of trade and commerce taxes the poor man many times as much as the rich. Under a system of free trade there would be no taxation except for the support of the government. Some of the Pennsylvania gentlemen who now struggle along in respectable poverty on an income of $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 a year would then not be able to further enrich themselves by what we put into our homes. A revenue tariff can be framed that will go to the support of the government and not into the pockets of the rich. We can derive a revenue of $250,000,000 per year upon wines, spirits, malt liquors, tobáceo, sugar, fruit and spices, now taxed, and cotfee, tea and cocoa, now on the free list, and a uniform tax of 20 per cent. upon those luxuries will produce the whole of it. This can be done under a free trade jjariff, and under it our manufacturing interests would increase $1 - 000,000,000, and United States would, in a few years, become the greatest commercial country in the world. This tax would be purely for revenue, and would not pnt one dollar into the pockets of the rich, except in the way of mercantile commission. CALUMET & HEOLA MINING COMPANY OKLY PAYS 1,000 PEK CENT. There are salt and lumber men in Michigan and Detroit who manage to live in genteel poverty, build comfortable houses and amass fortunes of $5,000,000 or less. By the present system of taxation we pay about $400,000,000 annually; not direct, but through other hands, and those other hands we pay from $60,000,000 to $80,000,000 per year in the way of commission for handling the $400,000,000. By the free trade system these $60,000,000 or $80,000,000 will be saved to the payéis. me Ualumet & Hecla Mining Company struggles along and has never been able to pay over 1,000 per cent, per annum, andone year the times were so hard that the yearly dividend was but sixty per cent., but in that year a dividend of sixty per cent, was laid away in the treasury for a rainy day, and this was upon stock that has been watered írom par to 500. Protection in this instance has put millions into the pockets of the stockholders, while the government, which the advocates of protection proclaimed was to be vastly beneflted by the tariff, got the duty thatyear oh precisely seven pounds of imported copper. The duty on steel rails has brought the government $4,000,000. In 1880 the cost of manuf acturing1 a ton of steel rails was $36; the average selling price $67, or a net proflt to the manufacturer of $31 per ton. In that year there was manufactured in this country 850,000 tons of rails, at a proflt of over $26,000,000 to the eleven manufacturers, while Uncle Sam got $4,000,000. And even then, when making over $2,000,000 per year each they reduced the wages of the workmen from fif teen totwei ve and one-half cents per hour, upon the plea that they couldn't afford to pay flfteen cents. Now the price has tumbled to $55 per ton, and the raw material costs $20 per ton. The workmen struck under this reduction, and then what did these poor manufacturers, who, while telling you of the beneflts of protection, prate of the dangers to be apprehended from the pauper laborera of Europe, do? They imported an invoice of 1,000 of these same pauper laborers fill the places of these strikers, and actuallyput them to work in the self-same milis that were to be ruined by pauper labor if they did not have protection. For three years past the average price of steel rails has been $60 per ton, of raw material $20 per ton, and the laborer has been paid $5 01 J per ton. It is easy to see how protection protects the workingmen in the steel rail business. It costs fif ty cents per ton to mine coal, but at the very outset the mine exacts a royalty of forty-two cents per ton, so it costs the ürstbuyerninety-two cents per ton, of which labor gets a trifle more than one half. That is all labor gets out of it, but the coal is turned from hand to hand, until wheu it reaches the consumer, the labor part of its cost is but a trifling portion. In Northern liew York the manufacturers are protected from sixty to seventy per cent., but when their employés strike for higher wages the manufacturers turn them out and import Canadian Frenchmen (pauper labor, mind you!), who cannot speak theEnglish language, aud this is the way protection protects the workingman. Is there any country on earth that can injure us by giving us goods for nothing ? And yet France will givo us one-half our silk goods for aothing if we will pay them i'or the other half as much as we pay our proteeted silk manufacturera. Is there a lady present who remeinbers the names sne read upon her spools of thread twenty years ago ï Wel], I do, and the only thread I ever saw was stamped "Coats" or "Clark." Well, the attention of Congress was one day called to the fact that large quautities of thread were used in this country, and it setabout making it an American industry. A heavy duty was imposed upon thread to encourage it3 manufacture aere, and this is how it sueceeded. "Mr. Clark" immediately transplauted his machiuery to tliis country, brought to h'America 'is h'Englishmen with a strong 'h' accent and "Coats" brought over his machiuery and a lot of Scotchmen, aud under a protection that they did not enjoy at home, "Clark" and "Coats" are to-day the strongest kind of protectionists. It was unpatriotie to buy Clark's and Coats' thread tlien, but now that it is made in ttais country, by the same workmen and upon the same maehinery, it is patriotic to buy it, and pay a higher price for it. FIVE DOLLARS OUT, BECAUSE OF A CLEAN PAIR OF BREEOHES. Eecently an emigrant landed at Castle Garden who had two pairs of breeches: one pair thathe wore on the trip, and another pair that he had kept clean so that he could put them on and present a respeetable appearance wheii he should arrive in the land of the free. Because that pair of breeches was clean the customs offlcer made him pay $5 duty on them. And a like outrage was perpetrated upon every one of the 660,000 emigrants to this country last year, who had suflicient self-respect to keep their clothes clean while coming over. Even women who have on a clean pair of stoekings, have to pay a duty on them, while those who have dirty ones, do not, so that there is actually a premium upon dirt and fllth,the government discriminating in favor of dirt. Are the millionaire lumbermen of Michigan afraid of the competition of pauper lumbermen ? Are your merchants. mechanics and builders afraid of the competition of pauper merchants, mechanics and carpenters ? And yet they are not protected against it. There is nothing to prevent paupers coming to this country and engaging in any business, except a few pampered industries that receive protection, and have made millionaires of their proprietors. If in my profession I had no opposition but that of pauper lawyers, l'd get as rich na a Bessemer steel manufactura-. Masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, millers, etc., receive no protection, but tlie manufacturera of iron, steel, cotton, wool and silk, are protected. ín other vvords, 500,000 people are protected, at the expense of 50,000,000. And yet a majority of those 50,000,000 of people believe that the percentage of their earning3 that goes from them as increased prices of the necessaries of life, comes back to them in some mysterioua marmer, and not one of them can teil how he is beneflted by proteetion, or how he receives one cent back. It is claimed that protection is a tenet of the Kepublican party, and that all true Eepublicans must be protectionists. This is a strong argument until the facts aae known. I helped to form the Republican party, and the free traders were the most active and eminent men in it. The mild protectionists were next, while the strong protectionists clung to the old Whig party. A plank in its platform declared that the question of free trade or protection was not to enter into the party. a proteotionist's view. A correspondent in the Post and Tribune replies in brief as follows : The very fair discussion of free trade by Hon. Thos. G, Shearman granting his premises, gives an answer in favor of free trade. At an expense of about $280,000,900 we are thoroughly protected each year. It is true that we pay much more for almost everything than we would have to pay if they could be imported without duty. is that all of the question V Let us see. Protection is pure selfishness - taking care ot ourselves. How doea it work? About 1852 every rolling mili in this country was dead. We purchased iron rails from Europe at.$52 per ton, which were so soft, burnt and rotten that with the light work of those days lasted only about three years. To-Uay a steel rail sells for 55, which lasts 13 to 15 years with the immense trafflc of the larger roads, and passenger trains running safely 40 to 50 miles an houv against a speed of 25 miles an hour then. Foreign rails bought in this way made profltable railroading impossible. Cotton cloths of the best quality are now made in even our far western states. British cottons sent to África, India, South America and China are so weak, slazy and filled with starch that the first washing discloses their uselessness, and American cottons are much preferred. In woolen goods, carpets and cloths we make very high grades that wear well and have no shoddy in them. In silks, our American silk to-day, price forprice, is better than foreign silks, which are f uil of grease and plumbago, and which wear greasy and crack soon. Plate glass of clear quality costs not over half what foreign glass did then, and is of common use in stores and houses. Edged tools are made here of lightest temper far better than were then made for us by Europe. Shelf hardware ia forma of lightuess and beauty then unknown are made here. Shovels, axes and hoes are made here of quality and price better than anything we oould buy abroad. As to agricultural implements, light, useful and also ornamental, they are far ahead of the clumsy implements which our free trade brought across the sea. Does any one suppose that Great Britain would have made iron rails that would last or cotton goods that were honest and would wash, or cheap woolens - not shoddy - or improved and neat shelf hardware and cutlery if we had not been selflsh aad looked out for our own interests ? True, the manufacturers grow rich, but they spend a great share of their wealth in the country in houses, jewelry, works of art and in donatioiis for public affairs. ïüe savings banks constantly increase their deposits, whicli show the condition of labor. A watch costing $50 forty years ago liada a better watch here for $10. Any 50 workmen who will give up jealousy and strong drink can get together a capital of $10,000 to $50,000 and be their own bloated monopolists.