Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX. I Recrossed the ocean in midwinter, and before leaving London had made to order by a fashionable tailor a heavy Melton overcoat. It cost sixtecu dollars. In America forty dollars would have been the price. On arriving in New York, I stood on the platform of a Third Avenue surface car and talked with the driver, a wearied-looking man, his face pinched with cold. His overcoat, like Nanki-Poo, was a " thing of shreds and patches." He looked at my Melton admiringly. Presently he addressed me: "I would like to ask yon, sir," he said, "how much yon gave for that coat t" "Sixtecu dollars." His eyes opened with astonishment. "Sixteen dollars! Why, this thing of mine cost eighteen. Tell me, w here did you get your coat?" "In London." The poor fellow turned to his horses sadly disappointed. Protectionists talk of the horrors of an "inundation " of English goods. As I looked at the shivering car-driver, it seemed a pity he could not be "inundated" by a good warm overcoat. That cardriver works thirteen or fourteen hours a day for two dollars. If his clothing, fuel, and other necessaries were reduced fifty per cent, in price he could live on fifty per cent, less than he now spends; he could afford to work fewer hours and have a little time to pass with his family. But Protectionists oppose such a reduction, on the ground that free-trade means pauper wages, and tariffs mean high wages. Investigation showed me that that couutry in Europe with least protection pays most wages, that free-trade has nothing to do with the poverty of any European State. The real cause of poverty in Europe is t lie great wealth of the few. The masses must always be poor when a few kings and nobles hoard such enormous lion's shares. The Czar of Russia drains his...
