Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1894 — WORSE THAN NOTHING [ARTICLE]

WORSE THAN NOTHING

AN EMINENT TARIFF REFORMER ON THE GORMAN BILL. Its Pretended Redaction* of Duties in Some Schedule* Are me Prohibitory se McKlnleyUm Itself-Wsfes nnd the Tariff—An Honest Democrat. The Tariff Jo((lery. The new Gorman bill is worse than nothing, exoept pos-ibly in the woolen schedule. Its pretended reductions of duties in the metal, cotton, flax, and sila schedules leave most of them as prohibitory as tho McKinley tariff itself. Some duties a e actually increased, and always in favor of some manufacturing c imbination. Sometimes this increase of taxation for private gain is open, as in the case of the Lithographic Trust, which is given specific rates, o ,ual to about thiee times the McKinley rates, and such as it never was able to obtain from Reed and McKinley. But in most cases it is done by means of a trick, in the way of new classification, such as none but the initiated can understand. Some of these tricks have already been exposed, but there are many more. The metal schedule is full of them, especially in cutlery, files, and saws. Tne monopoly secured to the steel-rail and steel-beam combinations is so glaring that it cannot be ca led a trick. It is open and almost avowed robbery. The demands of the minority have grown with every submission of tho nonest majority. We have made a mi-take in urging the of any bill, without reference to what that bill might be. Of course, it was always implied that the bill should be one affording some substantial relief; but our submission has oncouraged the minority to insist upon a bill which gives no relief. If this is ail that a Democratic Senate can do, let the Republican tariff stand. We can then reorganize the Democratic party, renew the struggle for genuine tariff reform, go into a minority for a short time and emorge with victory and honor. If we pass this bill we shall not only be defeated, but disgraced. The Republican party passed a bill which was written by the agents of men who had paid millions for the privilege; but that money was paid into the party treasury and impartially distributed among the workers ana electors, An immense price has been paid for the privilege of writing this bill: but it has not been and will not be distributed outside of Washington. We did not enter into the long and successful campaign for tariff reform with the expectation of making vast fortunes for the Washington lobby. The cause of tariff reform will take care of itself. A few more years oi McKinleyism will give it new strength. The longer the final victory is delayed the more sweeping it will be. The Mills bill was more radical than the Morrison bill: tho Wilson bill was m< re radical than the Mills bill; and when we have, as we soon shall have, a really Dem cratic Congress, it will pass a tariff bill by the side of which the Wilson bill will seem tame indeed. Let us watt until 11)01, if necessary; but let us not aocept any such abomination as this. If any doubt whether this result will oome about, let them observe that the McKinley tariff has already broken down, of its own weight, and must inevitably break down still more. It cannot produce the necessary revenue, especially with the rapidly increasing sugar Bounties to provide for. Let honest Democrats refuse to permit any addition to the revenue from the tariff without genuine tariff reform, and their demands will simply have to be granted. But if they tamely submit to any dictation from protectionists, within or without their ranks, they will never accomplish anything. It is perhaps useless to indulge in reminiscences; but all that is now happenning was substantially foretold in the Evening Post in November, 1892, when you called upon President Cleveland to summon Congress at once, and to settle the tariff question before distributing the offices. He preferred the advice of those who insisted that offices must be attended to before tariffs. The statesmen of the Senate, having got all the offices which they expect from him, are now doing their best to destroy him, his tariff, and his party. Thomas G. Shearman.

An Honmt Democrat. Representative Clifton R. Breckinridge, of Arkansas, being unwilling to leave Washington to look after his political fences at home, has written an open letter to his constituents, explaining why he voted for the repeal of the Sherman silver purchase act, and also his position on the tariff. He makes the following frank statements on the tariff question: “You know that lam a free trader, and do not believe in any protection. I further believe that absolute and immediate free trade would be a prompt and unspeakable blessing to our country. I know, however, tnat the country is not ready to go this far, and I do not refuse to win a great battle and conquer a province simply because the battle does not promise immediately to end the war and give me the whole earth. That there will be a liberal sDirit of agreement in conference between the Senate and the Hou-e is not to be doubted. I regret every proposed increase in the Senate, just as I regret that the bill could not go much further than it did as presented to the House and as passed by that body. “Unpalatable as the promised Senate amendments are, the bill, even with those amendments, will carry a larger measure of tariff reform than all the bills which have been passed by the House or have been proposed by the Ways and Means Committee since we took up this question ten years ago down to the present Coneress. This fact is indisputab e. and it is equally clear that unless we can come to some common ground which we are willing to defend, front and rear, we are in danger of being sadly impracticable. “1 regret every increase from the Wilson bill, and i will yield to none that I do not have to, just as I regret every protective duty that we had still to carry in that bill; but when we agreed to the best we could get, I fought for the bill, front and rear, and I think this is the way all our friends must do, especially in the Senate, where our majority is small and our dangers are great, or else unwillingness on the one hand will hardly be distinguishable from unwillingness upon the other, when both equally lead to the defeat of all reform. Afterward, with the aid of this bill and when the people send up some better Democrats in the place of our invalids, or enough really good ones to enable us to get along without their votes, we can go further than they will permit us to go at this time. * Democrats In Name Only. The manner in which the tariff bill has been mauled and bedeviled in the Senate is in ane sense a shame to the Democrats, but it is no credit to the Republicans, and the protection organs which are affecting to reprobate the inaction of the so-called majority are really firing into their own camp. The

Democrats of the Senate would hare lone ago passed the bill as it came from tne House had they not been hampered by a handful of assistant Republican spies and traitors witnin their ranks. These men call themselves Democrats, but they are no such thing. They are Republicans in everything but name. They train with the true Democrats of the Senate only to betray them, and their demands for “swag" in the form of larcenous duties are even more impudent and brazen those of the avowea Republicans. The McKinley organ- have no business charging the Democracy with the responsibility for this predatory gang. They belong on the Republican side, and the sooner they betake themselves thither —body, boots and breeches—the better the Democratic party will be pleased.—Chicago Herald. WtfM and Tariff. J. Schoenhof, the well-known tariff writer, has been following up a line of Inquiry upon which he entered some two years ago, with results which should be instructive to victims of the protectionist delusion. Taking the census returns of manufactures, he shows that the average of wages and the average increase in wages from 1880 to 1890 is much greater in the unprotected and exporting industries than in the highly protected industries. In neither olass does he include any Industries except such as are classed as manufacturing by the Census Bureau. Wages in seventeen unprotected and exporting industries in 1890 ranged from 8407 to $6lO per head, while In eight highly protected industries the range was from $614 to $367. The increase in wages over 1880 In the unprotected industries ranged from from $22 to $l2B per head, the average being S7B, while in the protected industries the increase ranged from S4O to $77, averaging s6l. From further examination of tho returns it appears that wages ] aid in the manufacture of artio'es made from raw materials carrying tho highest rate of protection averaged in 1890 $414 for males and $276 for females. In the manufacture of artic'os advanced from first stage to articles 11 nished for use tho average for males was $670 and for females $316. Mr. Schoenhof presents tables taken from the census showing tho number employed and tho wages I aid in occupations under those and other heads, all of which go to show very clearly that the tariff has nothing at all to do with making high wages in this country. Mr. Sohoonhof directs attention to the fact that sugar refining, which enjoys a protection equal to four times the entire labor cost of refining, pays an average of only $353 per head in wages, while moat packing, which is not protected at all and which exports largely and competes directly with foreign “pauper labor.” pays an average of $566, and wholesale slaughtering pays an average of $609. In the unprotected building trades the range is from $525 to $662, against an average of only $414 for males In the manufactures which are most favored by the tariff laws.—Chicago Herald.

MoKlnlejr Hill Did It AIL Misery loves company, and It is a mean consolation to know that the prevailing hard times seem to extond pretty nearly over all the world. This fact, of oourso, interferes with the theory of the McKinleyites that all our woes are due to the Wilson bill—which hasn’t been possod yet—but the MoKlnleyltes have as little regard for facte as they have for logic. However, if they would take the trouble to look at England, where the unemployed aro as numerous as they are here; or at Germany, where a beneflclent protective tariff has failed to protect, just as it did in this country —they might tune down their howls an ootave or two. Even in Spain the distress among the working people Is the most acute ever known, ana appropriately enough the town of Tarifa, from which we get the word “tariff," has been the scene of bloody and desperate bread riots. It is not likely that tho protectionists would see any significance in these facts, but they didn’t see the significance of the election of 1892. Tne logic of events has to be made plain to them, as a joke is communicated to the Scotch understanding—by means of a surgical operation.—Chicago Herald.

The Vengeunce to Come. To the Editor The income tax is about all that ia left of the Wilson bill. If Senator Hill and his satellites, voting with the Republicans in the Senate, Cjuld have that feature dropped the remainder would be Just what we have—McKinleyism. The humiliation of the Democratic party would be complete, and Congress could adjourn before the heated term sets in. If Democrats do not remember those two or throe Democratic (?) Senators who are standing obstinately in the way of the fulfillment of Democratic pledges and at the proper time consign them to the oblivion of private life, I have no just conception of the temper of Democrats. J. C. Watkins. Suspense Is Killing. Counseling the Republican Senators to confine their opposition to the tariff bill to reasonable the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (Rep.) says: "Business can eventually adjust itself to whatever sort of a change is made in the tariff by the Wilson bill. It is the suspense which kills. If delay would defeat the bill, there would bo some excuse for it, but as the most sagacious Republicans and protectionist Democrats concede that the measure will probably be passed some time in this session, it were better that it bo passed a month or two hence than four or five months later.” Traitor* In the Party, Of the much-amended tariff bill the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Dem.) says: “The result is just what was predicted would flow from the plan of dickering with Democratic traitors in committee. These men have been enabled to accomplish their un-Democratic ends without assuming responsibility for the work. They have shouldered the responsibility on the j arty. They have been able to reap the profits of a treacherous game which was played under cover. ” Surrender, Not Compromise. Compromise is not the word that properly describes what the Democratic majority in the Senate is now invited to do with the tariff bill. Surrender is the only* word that fits the situation. And no such abject surrender of a great party, backed by a popular majority of 1,300,(XX) in the nation, has ever been proposed or contemplated in any previous American Congress.—Baltimore Sun. Pointed Paragraphs. If the Democrats of the country had as much influence at Washington as the trusts which have contributed to campaign funds there would be no trouble about getting real reform and honest government. As hai* been remarked before, the Senate Tariff bill is reform with whisky and sugar gout in both feet It is worse than anything but delay in disposing of it Vote! | Senator Brice says he is not afraid of the Sugar Trust Nor is the Sugar Trust afraid of the copper-flipping statesman.