The Studebaker Brothers: The Lives and Legacy of the Family Behind the Famous Automobile Company by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors [Charles River Editors]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2020-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

The Studebaker Building

In addition to their business, the Studebaker Brothers were active in national politics, and for the most part the brothers backed Republican candidates and their policies. The Rochester Republican reprinted an account of a meeting in Chicago in August 1884 where Peter Studebaker extolled the economic virtues of protective tariffs: “Mr. Studtbaker said: ‘I remember distinctly the good times before the war so often talked about. We then had a comparatively small public debt, and had the revenues from the sales of the small public lands. The tariff was low, but our industries were lower still. We had a tariff for 'revenue exclusively,' and no Republican war debt to pay, yet we paid 63 per yard for calico when it was at its lowest point. Every manufactured article made abroad cost more than it does now under the present 'robber tariff' and the only defense our people had against the high prices was in spinning and weaving the most of their own goods. Farm hands were paid at the highest $13 per month. Corn sold as high as thirty-eight cents. Wheat once reached eighty, but the spurt was only temporary, for it fell back to sixty in a few weeks. Horses sold at from $35 to $60, and the best cows could be purchased at $15 or $20. Hogs sometimes reached $3.75 per hundred, but the average price from 1810 to 1860 was about $2. Butter sold from six to ten cents per pound, and eggs ranged from three to eight cents per dozen, and at points remote from rivers and fast transportation there was no market for farm products except the cereals and live stock. In those days we sold wagons at retail at $110 which we now sell at $80. Plows which then sold for $12 are now sold for $6. Labor of every kind commands from 25 to 60 per cent, more now than it did then, while every manufactured or imported article which labor uses or consumes sells from 20 to 200 per cent, cheaper than it did before the war, and the only articles which command higher prices are those products on the farm.’"

In 1884, Republican James G. Blaine ran for president against Democrat Grover Cleveland, and during the race the Studebaker brothers were accused in national newspapers of coercing their employees to vote for Blaine. A letter to the Cleveland Commercial Gazette in December asserted, “The most dastardly attempt that I have seen was practiced, or attempted on the Studebaker Bros. Manufacturing Company at South Bend, Ind., and with considerable success. Just before the election they received threatening letters from different sections, charging them with advertising to their own men that their services would not be required if they did not vote the Republican ticket in November, threatening to withdraw their patronage from such a black Republican firm.”

The rumors enraged Democratic voters, especially in the South, where Studebaker wagons were burned by crowds of angry farmers, most notably in Texas. This prompted

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