35 mission, “has decreased the cost of machine twist, 56 per cent.; fine silk and scarfs, 55 per cent.; handkerchiefs, 62 per cent.; ribbons, 54 per cent.; laces, 50 per cent.” AXES, NAILS, STEEL. Before axes were made here, English axes cost us from $24 to $48 per dozen. In 1876, American axes, better than English, were sold at $9.50 per dozen, and exported to foreign markets. When nails were first ipported, and we made none, the charge was 25 cents a pound. For the last few years they have been often as low as 2^ cents a pound. Would this ever have happened, except for American competition? We could never have made nails save for the tariff to protect us. Until Bessemer steel rails were made in this country, in 1867, England controlled our market, charging us from $112 to $150 in -gold per ton. In three years after we began to make them, the price was reduced in England to $50.37 in gold. Since that time our American mills have furnished our railroads with over three million tons, employing 20,000 workmen, paying seven million, four hundred thousand dollars in wages, and selling for less than the fifty dollars above mentioned. In July, 1884, the price was $35 a ton. Mr. Park, of Pittsburgh, recently showed before the Congressional Committee that the making of steel, under protection, had saved our country $23,000,000. Several firms attempted to make watches before 1863, but they soon failed. We protected them by a tariff, when lo! we soon make watches equal to the best, and cheaper than other nations. One establishment, alone, turns out a watch every minute for ten hours each day. * The annual product of watches and cases is now over $16,000,000. The yearly product of American plate glass is now about two million square feet, and the price has been reduced one-half in ten years. THE SPIDER AND THE FLY ARGUMENT. “Will you come into my parlor?” says the English free trader to the American farmer. “’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.” Let our manufactured goods come in freely, and all of you dear people become farmers and export grain to us! Says the Free Trade Cobden Club, in its pamphlet, “The Western Farmer in America,” scattered over here, through English money, by the thousands, “Support no candidate for a beat in the House of Representatives who does
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