Speech #440010443

Now let me tell the gentleman that. if he will study the commerce of his country through its official statistics and the leading trade journals. he will find that we are selling iron goods in Birmingham and other leading iron districts of England. that we are selling cotton goods in Manchester. that we arc selling saws in London. (and through London to every part of the British Islands.) .that we have driven almost all commodities produced chiefly from the useful metals out of Canada or compelled British manufacturers to sell them there without profit. and that we have done this by virtue of the protective system which made wages so high that the inventive genius of man has been applied to the production of labor.saving machinery for use in every art. trade. and mystery. By this means we have lessened the cost of production and improved the quality of our wares and fabrics. But protection. by thus stimulating the development of our multiform raw materials. made such a demand for labor as raised wages and tempted millions of immigrants to come and dwell anmong us and pay duties and taxes upon the imported and domestic articles they consume. Under free trade and hard money our immigration. which had once attained the dimensions of 250.000 in a single year. shrunk away so that in 1801 and 1862 the total immigration was less. in each of those years of free trade and hard money. than 92.000. while. under the influence of the protective system and the "ragbaby." as our national currency has been derisively called from the very steps of the presidential mansion. it grew up to 449.483 in 1872 and 437.004 in 1873. Under the influence of contraction and the dread of free trade. consequent upon the incoming of the democratic party as a majority in this House. with the threat of a return to low duties. it is shrinking away again. and last year amounted to but 191.231. And in the six months of the current fiscal year that have elapsed there is a further shrinkage of about 30 per cent. as compared with the same period of last year. Go on. gentlemen. and pass the bill you are in such hot haste to advocate. and the consequence will be that the farmers of Illinois will burn their corn. as they did in the old days of free trade and hard money. though the fields upon which it will grow arc underlaid with coal at a depth ranging from but thirty to two hundred and sixty feet. Strike down the workshops of the country. reduce wages sb as to prohibit immigration. buy your manufactured goods from foreign nations. so that employment in England. France. and Germany. at good wages. can readily be had. while the machinery of the United States stands idle. and our workingpeople are beggared. and where then will be the farmers market ? Who will come into the new States of the West and Northwest. or swarm into the fertile and sunny South to add value toland and promote the improvement thereof.