CONGRESS. (THE TARIFF BILL.) 



179 



which suits all. By this means the great army 

 of the unemployed can be diminished. A na- 

 tion which keeps its people employed is in the 

 end sure to show the largest gains, even of 

 wealth. Diversified industries educate the 

 people and give them a broader education than 

 books can give, and so help them on the road 

 to greater civilization. We have already seen 

 that greater civilization leads to higher wages, 

 to greater production. In a country of high 

 wages there are greater inducements for invent- 

 ors, for they can save more by their inventions, 

 which are therefore more readily adopted. 



" We were talking a while ago about higher 

 wages. The question naturally comes up, How 

 can these higher wages be got '? There must be 

 something for them to come from. Just think 

 a moment what wages are. They are the de- 

 vourers of consumable wealth. In order to have 

 more consumable wealth you must have an in- 

 centive for its creation. Wealth will never be 

 made unless a consumer stands ready. More 

 consumable wealth, therefore, depends upon a 

 broadening market. This, I have already shown, 

 does not mean more purchasers, but purchasers 

 with better purses, though, for that matter, in 

 this country we have both. 



" But how can you make more wealth with the 



same number of workers ? By using the forces 



of Nature and by utilizing human brains. How 



can you do that ? By incentives. The brain no 



lore works without incentive than the body does. 



" To hear the discussions in Congress you 

 rauld suppose that invention dropped from 

 leaven like manna to the Jews. You would 



ippose that James Watt reached out into the 

 larkness and pulled back a steam engine. It 

 ras not so. All invention is the product of 

 jssities and of pressure. When the boy who 

 ranted to go off to play and so rigged the stop- 

 ocks that the engine went itself, he was not 

 :>nly a true inventor, hut he had the same mo- 

 tive his personal advantage that all inventors 

 have, and, like them, was urged on by business 

 necessities. 



" What originated Bessemer steel ? Sir Henry 

 Bessemer I No ; but the necessities of railroads, 

 under public pressure for lower rates of traffic, 

 which would every one of them have been bank- 

 rupt without steel rails. If Sir Henry had not 

 invented the process somebody else would. It 

 detracts not one iota from the fame of Alexan- 

 der Bell that a dozen men were close on his track. 

 It has been so in every great invention. I say, 

 therefore, that it was the diversification of our 

 industries that has stimulated inventions. Oth- 

 erwise all the inventive power of America would 

 have run to waste; and when a man calculates 

 the wonders of American inventive genius he 

 knows where some of our wealth comes from. 



" As a further proof that invention is born of 

 necessity, tell me why great inventions never 

 come until the world is in such shape as to en- 

 joy them f What would the Crusaders have 

 done with railroads'? There was not money 

 enough in the world or travel or merchandise to 

 keep them going a week. 



"And this brings me to another fact. No in- 

 vention is worth its salt which does not have in- 

 creased consumption behind it. Take the very 

 case of railroads: are railroads economical? 



' Certainly,' you reply. ' They can carry passen- 

 gers for half a cent a mile, for a quarter of a 

 cent, and a New York hack will cost you $2, and 

 even a lumbering coach may cost you 10 cents. 

 Of course it is economical.' But suppose you 

 had only a stage load to carry every day, would 

 it pay to build a railroad, and would that convey- 

 ance be cheap ? Hardly. You can make an axe 

 handle with a machine in two seconds ; without, 

 in three hours. It would pay to build a machine 

 to make a million of axe handles, but not to make 

 one. 



" Therefore I say that the great forces of Na- 

 ture and the wisest inventions are alike unprof- 

 itable except for a large consumption. Hence, 

 large consumption is at the basis of saving in 

 manufacture, and hence high wages contribute 

 their share to progress. If you once accept the 

 idea that necessity is mother of invention, in- 

 stead of regarding invention as coming from 

 Heaven knpws where, you can see how high 

 wages stimulate it. 



' Our laws have invited money and men, and 

 we have grown great and rich ' thereby. The 

 gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Black] has noticed 

 that men come here, and he does not want them 

 to come ; hence he is willing that our wages 

 shall be lowered to keep people away. Well, 

 this is not the time to discuss immigration ; but 

 while people are coming I am glad they have not 

 yet imbibed the gentleman's ideas and have not 

 yet begun to clamor for lower wages. I really 

 can not help adding, that when the gentleman 

 from Illinois starts his reformed emigration of 

 men who come here 'unawed by influence and 

 unbribed by gain ' I hope to be there, for it 

 would be a sight hitherto unknown on earth of 

 men who forsook their homes without being 

 either pushed or pulled. 



'To sum it up, if this protection gives us 

 money and men, and our vast country needs 

 both, it 'may show why we have so wonderfully 

 prospered. If it does, I am inclined to think 

 that the way to have two jobs hunting one man 

 is to keep on making new mills, and try to pre- 

 vent the Committee on Ways and Means from 

 pulling down old ones. 



" ' But,' says some gentleman fuller of political 

 economy than of sense, ' why do you not transfer 

 your capital from these protected industries to 

 the more profitable?' Yes, that would be a 

 good idea. We will commence in West Virginia, 

 and take up the coal-mine holes and stick them 

 down somewhere else, unless we can utilize them 

 as places of refuge for the committee after the 

 election. There is what used to be $8,000,000 

 worth of stuff belonging to the people that make 

 screws. Let us take that up. But it is not worth 

 $800,000, let alone $8,000,000. The bill has 

 dropped $7,200,000 that can not be trans- 

 ferred anywhere. 



"But what do you say about the farmer? 

 Well, on that subject I do not profess any spe- 

 cial learning, but there is one simple statement 

 I wish to make and leave the question there. 



" If, with cities growing up like magic, manu- 

 facturing villages dotting every eligible site, each 

 and all swarming with mouths to be filled, the 

 producers of food are worse off than when half 

 this country was a desert, I abandon sense in 

 favor of political economy. 



