USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 7
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"Shall we close the factories, discharge the workmen, put out the fires, shut up the work shops, sow the fields with salt, and so reduce production that there shall be no surplus? Or, shall we sell this surplus, and with its proceeds, provide ourselves with what we do not produce? Shall we merely labor and produce what
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we can consume as do the Pawnees, and the Sioux, or shall we pro- duce not only enough to meet all our wants but something in ad- dition to sell? What shall we sell? At home, in a market al- ready overstocked, or seek another market where there is a de- mand for our surplus? Shall we burn our ships and establish non-intercourse with the rest of mankind, or shall we carry our products into every port penetrating every clime, and bring back in exchange, as substantial additions to our wealth, products, and riches of other countries. To sell, we must produce at rates which enable us to compete with other producers. We sell annually, in addition to the value of what we consume, products of the soil, the forests and the mines in excess of 500 million dollars. That repre- sents our surplus. That is the profit over and above what we con- sume. The farmer who produces only bread and meat enough to feed himself and family, and has no surplus to be sold with which to buy clothes, increase his stock, extend his acreage under cultivation, provide for the education and improvement of his chil- dren, and generally better his conditions, is unfortunate.
"If all farmers do not better the conditions of the agricultural population would be no better than that of the mechanical and manufacturing laborers who cannot find employment and no wages, because any surplus they may produce must rot and perish be- cause it could not be sold. The shoemaker in a small village who can find among his neighbors customers for only one-third the shoes he can produce, must limit himself and family to such living as his half employed labor will furnish, but if he can find a market for shoes in the next village, and further on, in one or two other towns, then he will have labor for all his time, and perhaps for one or two workmen. The law which should prohibit him selling the products of his labor beyond his own village, and therefore prohibit him from producing a surplus to sell, and reduce him to an enforced idleness, and to be a tramp one-half the year, would be pronounced barbarous and infamous. Yet that is precisely the case in a general way at this time. The mechanical and manu- facturing labor of the United States is capable of producing, work- ing at full time, enough to meet all wants of the country, and to produce a surplus which, if sold abroad, would sell for $500,000,000 or more annually. But the law interferes and pro- hibits exportations. It limits the employment of mechanical and manufacturing labor to the exact wants of the country, and the labor which might be employed the year round, when not work- ing one-half or one-third time and half wages, is driven out to tramp through the country and beg, and perhaps from despera- tion, to do worse. The difference between the material prosperity
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of the agricultural population and that of the mechanical and manufacturing laborer is illustrated in the fact that, while the one industry produces all it needs and has a surplus of $500,000,000 a year, the other not only produces no surplus, but is without em- ployment half the time and suffering the consequences of poverty, distress, and want.
"The great manufacturing competition with whom the labor of the United States have to contend are those of Great Britain. The British manufacturer is permitted to obtain his cotton, his wool, his iron, his steel and his flax, and every material, raw or complete, free from tax. Obtaining this material at prime cost in the place of production, he pays for it in manufactured goods, giving employment to another British industry carrying the manu- factures to the place of exchange and bringing back the other com- modities. We have in our own land vast fields of fuel; we have the ores and metals in inexhaustable quantities; we have unlimited water power; and, greater than all, we have an abundance of cheap food. We have iron in unlimited quantities, and yet in 1877, the total export of American iron and steel did not equal in value that of our export of cheese, and that, too, with hundreds of fur- naces extinguished and 40,000 laborers out of work. We pur- chase nearly $100,000,000 worth of sugar and molasses annually, and instead of paying for it with our manufactures, we ship gold to London, where the money is applied to purchase British cotton goods to be sent to the sugar producing countries. We produce large stocks of wool, which, with the mixtures of certain fine wools, impossible to be raised in this country, could be manufactured in- to fine cloths now only made in Europe; but our law prohibits the introduction of these fine wools by imposing a tax beyond endur- ance, so we send the gold to Europe for the cloth which we might produce at home.
"American grain, American cotton, American provisions and tobacco and petroleum compete in other countries, and are of necessity sold there for what they will bring. We cannot fix their price but must sell as low as others. When we put the mechanical and manufacturing interests to work at full time and at regular and continuous wages, and let them produce all the surplus they can and sell it in other lands, bringing back in exchange for it as we do in exchange for our agricultural surplus those things which other people have to sell and which we want, then, with every man capable to labor fully employed and with every vessel coming to our shores laden with the returns for our surplus products, the measure of individual and national prosperity will be filled, and in the busy din of occupied and remunerative industry, the voice of
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the Communist and the tramp will no longer be heard in the land."
All of which is worthy of consideration.
Bartlett Woods.
Crown Point Register August, 1886
SAYS IT'S A CURSE-1887
A Farmer Puts Forth Some Decided Views on Paternal Government.
Crown Point, Ind., Feb. 28. (Special)-Mr. Lowell at the Union League Club is reported in the Chicago Tribune as saying "that a paternal government on the whole is the most rascally government that mankind ever suffered from." Is not our govern- ment today a paternal government ?
It seems to me that, looking at our legislation for the last twenty-five years, there has grown up a class of politicians who think that government can direct the industries of our people bet- ter than the people themselves.
Our legislation in Congress proves this. It has been directed at building up industries by giving advantages to one man or corporation that others do not have. Part of the people are taxed to help the other part-an inequality of conditions not in accord with the spirit or intent of the fundamental principles of our government. This government interference is paternalism.
The government places a duty on an imported article so as to increase the price of the article made here, compelling the buyer to work more time than he otherwise would to purchase the same article if the government did not exercise this paternal care to the favored ones. We have to submit. If we protest we are answered by the plea it is protection to "American industry". But protection lowers the price of manufactured goods? Yes, so it does when there is a big glut in the home market, but it brings misery in its train-men and women out of work, mills stopped, mines closed, strikes, riots, militia called out, etc. Too much "pro- tection".
The farmers of the United States are today between the upper and nether millstones of paternalism, the injustice that compels it to face the competition of all the world, and the fatherly care of other industries by high duties so they shall not suffer from the
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world's competition. Grown to manhood, paternalism still "pro- tects" them and keeps them safe and secure from the strife and contests that fall to the lot of the agricultural products of the country.
The farmers may stand up under these conditions for a time, but it is only a question of time when this government interference with our foreign commerce -restricting it as it does by high duties, obstacles in the way of a free exchange of products, reducing our exports, throwing our surplus of farm products back on the home market, making low prices and hard times (a prophecy fulfilled 45 years after) compelling the farmers to sell at a price fixed in the open market of the world, and buy at prices raised by this government interference-will ultimately result in ruin to the agricultural interests as surely as night follows day.
This one-sided system of legislation is making a delusive pros- perity in localities, in spots-making lots of millionaires, but com- pelling every farmer to give nearly one and one-half days work for each article which in justice should be bought for the products of one day's work. I commend this to Mr. Carnegie, and hope he will note this in his next edition of "Triumphant Democracy".
Go West, you advocates of "protection", and there see an "Infant industry" crushed by burdens hard to bear. Take the pioneer in his dugout. He surely is "American labor". In his humble way, he is one of many laying the foundation of states. To him it means work. The price he gets for the product of his labor is the bare cost of production. His own American tariff is no help to him. Clothing he must have. To every 100 bushels of corn at twenty cents, he must give another forty or fifty bushels on his purchase to pay the increased price that a paternal govern- ment allows its favored ones to take from this man struggling for a home and an honest living.
He makes an effort to build a house, to get out of the dugout. His lumber is increased in price $2 per thousand; that means rob- bing him of ten bushels more of twenty cent corn. So with nails, window glass and nearly everything he buys. One would think the great solicitude of the fathers and grandfathers of paternalism would in some way have saved this western "infant industry" but it has left him to his fate, it is crushing him, and it is work- ing the same destroying influence all over this broad land of ours.
There is one consolation: That this injustice is a boomerang that in time will recoil and strike back with such force that will
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be convincing proof that a paternal government is a curse, (It did-mill shutdown, men out of work) and that for all to pros- per is for each to receive no favors or special privileges, or father- ly care from the government, but to each to have and to own the fruits of his own labor, with the right of free exchange.
We ask nothing of the government but protection to life and property, non-interference "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- ness," individualism and non communism-in a word, liberty. As Lincoln so well said, "Let every man have an equal chance in the race of life.
WHY NOT TELL THE TRUTH
Some of the city papers are telling their readers what high prices the farmers are getting for their products, conveying the idea that the farmers are having a particular good time and that they are all getting rich by high prices.
Now if these high prices for wheat, corn and oats were paid for full crops, it would be evidence that these high prices were adding to the farmers' profits and to his financial well-being. Why not tell the truth. These prices do the farmer no good when he has none to sell, but an actual loss to those whose crops were short, and instead of selling were compelled to buy. We know that in this county many farmers had to buy food for cows to the amount of several hundred dollars. This was not confined to Lake county as was shown by the high price of middlings, bran and cut food, being double the price of former years. The high price was caused by a shortage of crops, and an export demand from Europe. Wheat last year fell short several million bushels; corn in 1890 was nearly 700 million bushels less than the crop of 1889. The oat crop in this county was about half an average, and taking the whole country, last year's oat crop showed a deficit of nearly 228 million bushels compared with 1889. It is markets that make good prices; a demand for our products. If fair prices would keep up with full crops, it would make all prosperous, but it does not work that way. The foreign demand and poor crops caused high prices, and have been of little financial help to Lake county.
Potatoes at a dollar and to a dollar and fifty cents per bushel or forty cents per peck, at retail, made them a luxury. A farmer that raised enough for his own use was well satisfied-many had to buy. Plenty of hogs, and what was the result? Fattened on 50 cent corn and sold for $3.50 and some for less. Where were the
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boasted home markets that were promised years ago, that would buy all the farmers raised at good remunerative prices. It can- not be done. We raise hogs enough for a hundred million of people and to relieve the market of the surplus we must have markets be- yond the limits of our country, beyond and over the sea.
We are part of the great world and must share in the world's commerce. Europe is our best customer, and is nearer Chicago than Chicago was to New York 50 years ago. Steamships and telegraphs and railways point the way, and the work; they are bringing the nations together, and it is no use fighting, the closing days of the nineteenth century; it is destiny, and whether you or me like it or not, the day is coming when nations will exchange products as freely as we do today between the states of our own United States.
Farmers may hold conventions and advocate unlimited silver coinage and two per cent loans and invoke the paternal care of the government, and for class legislation for their especial benefit, but no help will come; paternalism is cursing our country and robbing the people. It is a delusion and a snare. Farmers must rely on themselves and insist on their rights, not asking for favors, but the right to the results of their own labor; liberty to buy and liberty to sell anywhere and everywhere, where they can find a market. In that day corn will be fed to hogs and cattle, and not burned in Kansas and Nebraska for fuel, and a full crop will bring fair prices, and the country will share in the general pros- perity.
Bart. Woods.
The Register (Crown Point, Ind., 1882) says: "W. P. Fish- back, who claims to be a Republican, etc." Why say "claims to be a Republican". What is the test? "He denounces a tariff for protection," says the Register. Has it come to this that for a Republican to hold his place in the party he must be a protection- ist ? If so, where will the party be in 1884? Who has raised this standard of party qualifications? If this is the best proof of mod- ern Republicanism, Dan. Veorhees is the best Republican in the state. Those that sow the wind must look out for a whirlwind in '84. The effort now made to foist "protection" on the Republican party will meet with failure. It has no claim for recognition or support from Republicans, but some of the bosses, backed by a powerful lobby, are doing their best to make it a test and condition of Republicanism. It may get recruits from such Democrats as Dan. Voerhees, Randall, Thurman, etc., but from western Republi-
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cans, they will get but little strength, and will provoke an opposi- tion that will be met with the same spirit that has asserted itself on so many occasions in our political history.
B. W.
Nov. 5, 1882
They got it in 1932 and 1936. S. B. W.
Lake County Star Oct. 30, 1891
PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY
Protection and prosperity was the theme of Mr. Curry's speech at Central Music hall on Monday. It was a strange talk even for a protectionist but Mr. Curry beat Mckinley. The platform of 1888 on which the Mckinley bill was based said, "We demand a revision of the tariff laws as will tend to check imports." This was restriction to trade and meant to be, but Mr. Curry would have but a little foreign trade, scarcely any at all. He said, "He would not sell a pound of farm products to Europe, if he had his way". Mr. Curry will see if he reads the signs of the times, that the world is not going his way. His plan might do for a little island in the sea, but for a great nation like the United States with the capacity for production, both in agriculture and manufactur- ing, a policy of non-intercourse is impossible.
If Mr. Curry is right in his views, foreign commerce is a curse, there would be no commerce, no need of but few ships for there would be no heavy freights; with his plan the farmer would have no market for his surplus; big crops would be an injury, they would not pay for harvesting; the home market supplied, the rest might as well rot in the field. It is no use kicking the nineteenth century, every effort is made to remove obstacles: steamships, rail- roads, telephones, telegraphs all speak their purpose and their work. We at this day tunnel under rivers and through moun- tains, every way to bring nations and people closer together to exchange products, a trade mutually beneficial to each other.
The World's Fair is in the same direction; a meeting of the nations to see and to know each other better. It means trade and an extended commerce. "Peace on earth, good will to all man- kind."
Bart Woods.
Lake County Star Oct. 28, 1892
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1884
It is hot but everything in field and garden is growing, grow- ing with a luxuriance almost tropical if nothing happens, no frost, no bugs, no worms, no rust, we shall have the biggest crop ever raised in Lake county. What shall we do with them all? The whole country promises the most abundant crops ever raised before. Every agricultural product is low, wheat lower than it has been in 20 years, butter so low as will hardly pay for milking the cows, hogs in excess of demand. Why not strike? But farmers never strike, they keep at work, keep sowing and planting for a crop they may never harvest, they take all the chances, risk of a failure and risks of paying prices or of prices that only pay the very lowest wages, then why not as all other industries are doing, go to Congress for help. (We have all gone to Congress now, 1935). We are fast becoming a nation of paupers, every mine and mill and factory is looking to Congress for legislation, that shall give them some special advantage over the rest, and make other people pay them bigger prices, and the farmers and work- ing men of the country have to bear the burden; this looking to congress for help is robbery of the masses, and this bribe for votes by political parties is just converting our people into a combina- tion. Monopoly on one hand and the workers who do the work and are made the victims of this unholy alliance on the other; it is all wrong, every man should have and own his products of his own labor, let each take his chances with the rest, and all this paternalism and favoritism by class legislation must cease or some- day the people will arouse and a whirlwind will sweep the coun- try, which will hurl Congressional pauperism to oblivion. If wool goes to Congress for help and higher prices why not wheat, and hogs, and butter, and cattle? The whole system is one of plunder and some day the farmers will see that the way things are working they may sweat in the fields, their wives and daugh- ters in the dairy, and this iniquitous scheme makes them and every laboring man simply the "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to the whole country.
Bartlett Woods.
August, 1884
1888-NO COERCION!
Ed. Star :
I have no time to answer mere abuse or personal insult, all I shall insist on is, that every citizen, be he native or foreign born, who has conformed to all laws and answered to all demands on him by his country, and is by proper authority a citizen, shall
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have and possess all the rights of a citizen, be he of German, Eng- lish or Irish birth, or from that Northland, the home of the Hol- lander, the Dane, the Swede or Norwegian, any and all that the laws of the United States admit to citizenship, shall have and en- joy all the rights of free speech and free men. This is liberty ; anything else is slavery.
Fair arguments may be met and answered, but "Fools ac- cording to their folly" to do this I have no time or inclination. Life is too short, and to answer insult by insult proves nothing.
On the question of tax reduction and tariff reform, I have held the same opinion for many years, and have been fortified in that opinion by the utterances of General Grant, President Arthur, President Garfield and his Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Folger, and Secretary of the Treasury McColloch under General Grant and of General Harrison, as expressed in his speech of 1882, all good Republican authority, should I change my opinions on these vital questions affecting the interests and prosperity of our country, simply because Mr. Blaine, Mckinley and Kelley have gone back on the record and formulated a new creed, and made a new de- parture for the Republican party, or should I answer to my con- science, and have the courage of my convictions and refuse to follow ?
The issues presented involving as they do, tariff taxation, revenue, international commerce and markets for our surplus products, are of so much interest to our farmers and every man who works for a living that an appeal is made to every man to decide for himself these questions on their merits.
The best citizens will differ. It is reasonable. they should.
All I claim is that every voter has the unchallenged right to express his choice by his vote.
Every man owns himself and should assert his manhood.
It will be a sad day for our country when the bully and the blackguard can intimidate, or when the ravings and sneers of ig- norants shall be accepted as arguments or when the insults of a fool shall silence honest convictions.
Bart Woods.
Sam B. Woods
Griffith, Indiana
An article which my father wrote in 1882 gave some ideas on what probably caused the plowing under of cotton and the kill- ing of pigs in 1934.
"The Star is opposed to taxing one man's industry to give
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to some other man who is just as able to compete in making woolen goods as the man who raises wheat. Thirty-five per cent duty is tax enough. Where are the 130,000 people in this Congressional district, the consumers whose "home labor" has to purchase these goods, and why should their interests be ignored and their rights disregarded. Talk about encouraging "home labor", the Register, like all other protectionists, can't see that the labor of this district is "home labor". It is an agricultural district and the prosperity of all of our people depends on the good crops of our farms. Everything depends on this. Freights on our railroads, work for the mechanic-the success of trade in every branch. The man who makes the plow and the man who sells it, all are interested that success should crown the efforts of the farmer. If 35 per cent is not sufficient tax to bolster up a losing business, and it must have 85 per cent, better abandon it and put the labor and capital in some other business. But this is all pretense. Woolen goods can be made as cheap here as in any other country. There are to- day no infant industries except the pioneers in their dugouts in the new states or territories. It is an outrage and a violation of faith to thousands of Republicans that the "protectionists" should be allowed to capture the Republican party. It seems strange that the party organized to oppose the slave power, should not be on the side of commercial freedom. Protection is opposed to the foundation principles of the Republican party. Protection is to save some men from competition, while the masses have to be taxed to pay the subsidy, and left to face the competition of the world. Lincoln said, 'Let every man have an equal chance in the race of life.' On this idea, protection could not live a day. The monoply on Bessemer steel rolls would be broken in a week. No man in Congress would propose or vote a tax on woolen shirts, etc., 85 per cent. Garfield said, 'I am for protection that leads to ulti- mate free trade.' Nearly all his votes went for a reduction of duties on imported goods and not to increase them.
The Star knows no man in this matter. This question is now before the country, it is a question of taxation to all the people in this district. The 130,000 people have to pay and the mill in Philadelphia gets the money. Protectionists claim it is not the revenue, but for the purpose of protecting from competition, and increasing the price of the article manufactured. Protection might be justified perhaps 40 years ago, but our conditions are changed, our manufacturing industries are no longer weaklings, but strong and vigorous. We produce an enormous surplus and it has got to go somewhere. It has to face the competition of all the world. We exported in 1880, 153,252,794 bushels of wheat. This year
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