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The Commoner.
Vol. a, No. 3t.
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wlth England for our sharo of tho
cotton goods trado of tho world.
Honry Clay said In tho senate In
1832 sixty years ago
I have beforo mo another state
ment of a practical and respect
able man, well vorsed in tlio flan
nel manufacture in America and
England, demonstrating that tho
cost of manufacture is precisoly
the same in both countries.
Are wo loss independent because of
tho protection wo havo had? Mr. J.
B. Sargent of Now Haven, has beeu
engaged for thirty years In tho hard
ware business, being one of tho larg
est manufacturers in the world of
locks, bolts, builders' and furniture
hardware, and, in certain lines, of car
penters' tools. Ho employs from fif
teen hundred to two thousand men.
iio has nearly 12 acres of ground under
roof. His daily output is nearly 50
tons of goods per day. Ho says, in re
gard to tho cost of manufacturing in
this country:
American manufacturers can
successfully compote in any mar
ket whoro skilled labor is tho test,
in spito of tho low pay for which
men work In China, in India, and
in overy country where labor is de
based. My observation has taught
ino that the greatest obstacle to
Amorican competition in foreign
markets to nearly overy class of
goods is tho high price of our raw
material. Take off tho duty and
wo will send our goods every
where. Wages would increase, hero
under such a system rather than
become lower.
Now these are tho statements, cool
and unimpassloned, of officials and
men in position to know. I submit to
you my friends that those statements
are amply borne out by tho illustra
tions of the gentleman from Maine
(Mr. Dingley) and the gentleman from
Massachusetts (Mr. Walker) when
they tell you that notwithstanding the
greater wages paid, the actual prod
uct in this country is cheaper than
it is in Europe! If that be true, then
whoro. is your need of protection?
Tf that be true, then who can justify
put up with tho "cahoots." Yc3, and
when the employe asks for tho higher
wages that woro promised him last
year, you find Pinkerton detectives sta
tioned to keep him off and foreigners
brought in to supply his place.
Why do wo need a contract-labor
law? It is to prevent tho protected
industries of this country from send
ing abroad to get cheap labor to take
tho place of American labor. Is not
that the result? Were we not promised
last year just what the gentlemen from
Now York tells us today will still come
by and by? The "sweet by and by"
has been tho hope of the people for
these thirty years; the "present" has
been the enjoyment of the men who
mado tho promises.
Wo wero told of the number of la
borers to be employed because of the
McKinloy bill; yet scarcely had the
bill passed when there appeared In
Now York an advertisement for la
borers to make tin plate; and the point
of it was the statement that they
would be pail higher prices than la
borers wero paid in Wales. Why was
that stated in New York, except with
a view to having that paper sent to
Wales and importing here the labor
to make thesogoods?
No, my friends, the manufacturer
has not dealt "fairly and honestly with
the employe. What has been the re1
suit? Who has been getting the ben
efit? Is it the great mass of our peo
ple? Are they the ones that have
profited by this transaction? If, Mr.
Chairman, you undertook, by the
method proposed awile ago, to raise
money by passing around a hat in this
body for some protected friend or
some one'you wished to benefit, what
would be the result of your efforts?
If you passed it often enough you
would get all the money we had in our
pockets, and the man to whom you
gave it would have all you collected;
and it we did not get out of motley it
would be because while you wero emp
tying tho hat we would bo scratching
around to get the next contribution
ready, while the man to whom you
gave it would get rich without having
to scratch at all. Thus this system has
operated. You have built up wealth
uiB iiuijowuuu ol a uiuu uu ma Biuuuu ln tWB country to-a degree unparal-
that it is necessary to protect tho la- lfiled in thQ history 0l the 1nited
, . ""'T, ' , - rotates or of the world.
ivir. uauirruuii, tne muorer mis oeen
used as a cat's paw to draw chestnuts
out of the fire for the manufacturer.
The manufacturer comes hero and
pleads for a irofective tariff in order
that iie may give employment with
remunerative prices to labor. You give
him the protection he asks; you make
him a trustee for tho benefit of his
employe; you give to that employe
no law by which ho can enforce his
trust The manufacturer goes back to
his factory and puts in his pocket the
bonus you havo given him. And then
tho employe ploads, and pleads in
vain, for his portion of tho promised
benefits.
I will tell you a story. I do not know
whether you allow stories here (cries
of "Go on!"), but there is a story
which to my mind illustrates this
point. A white boy said to a colored
. boy, "Let's go into cohoots and go a
coon hunting; you furnish the dog
and climb tho tree, and I'll do the hol
lering." They went. Tho white boy
."hollered;" the colored boy furnished
the dog and climbed tho tree. They
caught three coons. When they came
to divide tho white boy took them all.
The colored boy asked, "What am I
going to have?" "Why," said the
white "boy, "you get the cahoots."
Mr. Chairman, tho manufacturer has
been making just,such a combination
of partnership with his employe. Tho
manufacturer says to his workmen,
"You come on and furnish the dog and
climb the tree; you bring out the
votes; and I will do tho talking." They
get their coons they havo been get
ting them. But when the division
'comes, tho manufacturer takes the
coons, and tho employe is compelled to
These men tell us that they cannot
livo without the collections they make;
and yet they are the ones who build
their stately palaces, who give their
banquets, which rival in magnificence
the banquets of ancient times. These
are the men who can gather around a
banquet board as they did, I think it
was in New York, to celebrate "home
industries" at $10 per plate, when
within a stone's throw of their ban
quet hall were people to whom a 10
rent meal would bo a luxury. Yes, sir,
you take tho statistics 'furnished by
Mr. Sherman in the Forum, and ho
shows that 25,000 people own one
half of the wealth of this country, and
65.000.C00 of people divide the other
half between t)'n.
If, Mr. Chairman, you should ask
tho friend receiving the contributions
which you were supposed a moment
ago to gather here and give to him, I
presume ho would toll you it was the
best system of government ever in
wonted I am not surprised that a
man like Mr. Carnegie is willing to
write articles in monthly magazines to
show what a great benefit a protective
system is. But, Mr. Chairman, I ask
you whether the people who pay this
money believe that it is a good sys
tem? You went beforo them a year
ago; ycu took your idea of protective
tariff with you, and said to them:
"This, genllomen, is the way wo bring
relief to tho people." You said in
your report "agriculture is depressed,"
and then you applied as a remedy the
earliest principle known to surgery,
"Bleed' him again."
Under our protective party 'banner
you1 wont to the country and boasted
that you had fastened on the people a
law which they could not change for
ten years. But you wero as ignorant
of the power of the peopld as you wera
careless of their welfare. You say
that wo deceived them; that wo ex
ceeded you in misrepresentation. You
havo tho consolation of knowing that
if we did It was the first time we ever
went beyond you In that respect. But
we did not. Because as a successful
fabricator the average republican will
be recognized as one the latchet of
whose shoes we are unworthy to un
loose. No; the people knew what you were
doing; they knew what you had done,
and thev rose in their might and
hurled you from power; and today tho
once proud republican party, thaUused
to take the election of president as a
matter of course, thinks it worth whilo
to announce to this body through "the
gentleman from New York (Mr.
Raines) that the republican party has
made a gain in supervisors in New
York.
Mr. Raines. Let me suggest to the
gentleman that all the people are get
ting as a result of the change is free
wool, free binding twine, and free cot-
J ton ties.
Mr. Bryan. I only hope, Mr. Chair
man, that what the gentleman says is
true, and that they will get these
things. I hope ;that the body at the
other end of this capitol, which differs
from us in tho political complexion of
its majority, will not stand between
the people and this relief.
Yes, sir; they boasted that nothing
could be done; that they had the peo
ple bound hand and foot Where are
those conspirators today? Where the
men who were the most largely instru
mental in fastening that iniquitous
legislation on this country? When
they went back 'to their people the ex
pression of confidence was in the other
man.
Mr. Raines. Oneof them is gov
ernor of Ohio.
Mr. Bryan. Yes; I believe he did
succeed in being elected governor of a
republican state.
Mr. Davis. By a minority vote.
Mr. Bryan. Yes, by a minority vote.
And to such extremity has this great
Caesar come that he welcomes the
holding of a republican state now more
than before he boasted of the conquest
of an empire. We do not feel unkindly
toward our friend from Maine, the ex-
speaker, although he seems more sensi
tive to remarks now than when Jn the
chair. And he has rather contradicted
the statement that the "leopard can
not change his spots," or a person his
skin. Ho seems to have made some
kind of an exchange by which he got
one much thinner than the one he
wore, two years ago.
A Member. A thinner hide.
Mr. Bryan. Wo shall not find fault
with him if he consumes much of his
time, as he gazes around upon the
chairs once occupied by his faithful
companions, in recalling those beau
tiful words of the poet Moore:
'Tis the last rose of summer, left
blooming alone.
All her lovely companions havo
faded and gone.
No flower of her kindred, no rose-bud
is nigh
To reflect back her blushes, or
give sigh for sigh.
And it is barely possible that the
great revolution which began a year
ago may some time reach even to the
coast of Maine; and for the good of
me country, but perhaps for the In
jury of our party because he has been
a faithful friend to us, and in the lan
guage of another noted gentleman
from Maine, "has done us a great favor
without knowing it"
Llr. Wheeler of Alabama. Without
Intending it
Mr. Bryan, a he time may come, I
say, when his constituents will adrift
him in the language of that other
verse, as beautiful in. words and as
appropriate in sentiment
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,
to pino on tho stem;
Since tho lovely are sleeping, go
sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves
o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden lie
scentless and dead.
Mr. Chairman, some reference has
been mado to the effect of a protectlvo
tariff upon manufactured articles, and
the argument has been advanced that
the aim and 'results are to reduce the
price of protected articles to the con
sumer. I want to say to you that such
was never the intention of a protective
tariff upon the part of those who sup
ported it; anjl that if the price is re
duced, it comes as the effect of im
proved machinery, and not aj the ef
fect of a law which enables the man
ufacturer to sell here protected from
competition, while he often sells
abroad in competition with-the world,
'ihe gentleman will tell us that goods
are cheaper today than they were thir
ty years ago. It is true. But if pro
tection did it, let him explain why it
is that not only here, where we have
prptection, but in Erigland, where they
have free trade, goods are cheaper
than they were before.
The gentleman from Massachusetts
(Mr. Walker) told us that steel rails
had fallen in price because of a pro
tective tariff.
I will append to my remarks a sche
dule given by Mr. Carlisle in. an articlo
in the Forum, in which he shows tho
price of steel rails in England from
1871 to 1882, and the price of steel rails
in this country during that time, and
the amount consumed. This shows
what the Englishmen paid for them,
and also what the American paid for
the same amount of rails. And when
you add up the difference you find that
"in these ten or eleven years-the Amer
ican people paid ?159;000,000 more for
their steel rails than tho English peo
ple paid. And yot you say that pro
tection makes them cheaper.
During all that time they were
cheaper in England. Is your system
such a one that it will take hold of a
price and'pull it down in this country,
and then, not satisfied with that, go
over to some foreign country, grab
the price there and pull it down? And
then, not satisfied with that, will It
pull down tho price in foreign coun
tries more than it "pulls it down In
this country? Some one has said that
the onion is a vegetable that makes
the man sick who does not eat It It
would seem that protection does the
greatest good to the country that does
not have It.
Until you explain what it is that re
duces the price of steel rails and other
manufactured products, not hero alone
but Cil over the world, you cannot at
tribute it to a protective tariff; but
,you must attribute it rather to the In
ventive genius that has multiplied a
luousand times, in many instances, the
strength of a single arm, and enabled
us to do today with one man what
fifty men could not do fifty years ago.
That is what .has brought the price
down in this country and everywhere,
and so far from the protective tariff
helping it, it has stood as a bar and
prevented us, step by step, from tak
ing advantage of tho inventive genius
of other countries. It .has compelled
us, eaca. time and all the time when it
has benefited the protected industry, to
pay more for those same things than
the people elsewhere, y
I asked my friend from Maine (Mr.
Dingley), when he was telling us of
the benefits of protection, if a man in
this country bought his goods as
cheaply as in England, and he said
whilo we might get them at a higher
price ln dollars, that wo got them
cheaper in labor, and that labor was
the only standard of measurement.
I asked j whether, if the farmer in
.
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