Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1887 — Page 3

A LITTLE TARIFF HISTORY.

Uketch of the Progress of Legislation Hostile to Freedom of Trade. A writer in the Chicago Herald in introducing a brief account of tariff legislation in the l nited States Congress says: “Rightly to comprehend the protect on issue a historic sketch is necessary. By this we can gather clearly how it has happened that legislation so hostile to freedom, 60 repugnant to both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, has been brought about, and is now regarded by so many citizens as sound governmental policy.” He then con innes as lollows: In the preamble of the first tariff law in 1789 one of its objects is declared “the encouragement and protection of domestic manufactures.” By this law the average duty was but 8J per cent. Its purpose was revenue. Direct taxation was hard to gather, as the nation was bankrupt and had repudiated its Confederate debts. Since that preamble, for which no warrant is found in the Constitution, and which, in view of the low duties levied under the law, is a self-stultifying absurdity to a protectionist of to-day, a persistent war has been waged against the people by men eager to use the Government force for personal advantage. In 1791 lhe average duty was 11 per cent.; in 1792 it became 13£ per cent., and the 5 per cent, minimum was then dropped. In 1800 the 10 per cent, list followed it. In 1803 the 12-i per cent, schedule vanished, while at every change in the law the numbers of articles on which duties were collected was increased. In 1812, for the impending war. the duties were doubled, to remain so while the war should last. In all this legislation the rate of duty which would bring the most revenue was the one always claimed in every change to be that sought for. In 1810 Clay declared himself in favor of “decided protection to home manufactures,” and in this year a great increase in the number of taxed commodities occurred to supply the needs of the Treasury resultant from the war. “The father of the protective policy” did not, however, until 1824 succeed in stamping his policy on our legislation, and this by so small a majority—--107 to 102—in the House that it had no assured permanency. But the parasite growth then took root upon the nation’s trunk. Since that, with rare intervals, it has drained the nation's vitality, diverting capital from those uses naturally profitable, and by which the profits w ould flow to the wealth producers, into those artificial channels which, feeding this parasite growth, evolved that foliage of luxury which flourishes only to impoverish labor. By this tariff the people after forty years under a constitution of specific and limited governmental power suffered its limits to be overpas-ed; abjured their natural right to purchase in the cheapest markets, and so get the greatest possible return for their produced commodities, and, infatuated by the demagogic cry of “protection against the pauper labor of Europe,” constituted over them this protectorate, a class usurping control for phrsoual gain. To-day this cry is repeated by Blaine’s followers in the Republican party, ruling it as the Clay coterie ruled tne Whig party. The alleged magnetic man has reappeared, whose magnetism lies only and solely in the fact his record shows—that his instinct is to use the governmental force for his personal advantage; that he has a host of friends glad to accept him as leader, so as to use the Government for their own ends. Clay could, if his correspondence with Madison does not misrepresent him,never have anticipated as permanent such a tariff as we now endure. But, as might have been foretold, the leech could not be satisfied. In 1828 the duties were increased, though the still weak majorities—los to 95 in the House and 26 to 21 in the Senate—indicate determined resistance by the people. In 1829 it became plain that this class legislation did in nowise tend to “establish domestic tranquillity.” New England, her commerce crippled by it, was driven to invest in manufacturing. The South, with ruder labor, was unable to make profit by such investment, and saw with anger and mortification that she had been by law rendered tributary to Massachusetts. In 1816 both Calhoun and Lowndes had supported Clay’s policy. In 1832 South Carolina, with justice on her side if the Constitution has any meaning, but by a method unknown to the compact, and which to admit meant only disintegration, attempted to nullify the unequal law. The national peace was in imminent danger when Clay, as pacifier of the civil dissension he himself, as inventor of the pernicious policy, had generated, introduced his compromise bill, and after a hard struggle passed it. By this the rate of the duties grew less and less from year to year, until in ten years the old revenue limit of 20 per cent, was to be attached. The fact that a civil war was then barely averted gives a warning that the ruling class here—strong enough in the past twenty-five years to control the Republican party and to prevent the policy of the Democratic party—is now, as it then was, too deaf to hear. The surrender of self-government was indicated not only by the tariffs of 1824 and 1828; it appeared also in the form of loose banking laws in almost every State, all in violation of the spirit of the Constitution—article 1, section 8, clause 5. These resulted in the issue of alleged money far in excess of all natural demand as a medium of exchanges. As a measure of values its increasing redundancy resulted in an increased valuation of. all property. Speculation ran rampant. More new towns were plotted than would suffice to contain the then population. On the first attempt to realize on the expanded valuation by demanding coin of the banks for their paper issues the fortunes based on obligations and debts were scattered in 1837 on the winds. By the withdrawal of the United States deposits from the control of the speculating banker, Nicholas Biddle, JacksoD had punctured the bubble and precipitated the inevitable catastrophe while it saved the Treasury. Had he allowed it to run its full course the panic would have involved the Government with th: people, and would have surpassed the explosion of the Law reeime in France in its disastrous results. Still the plundered people were persuaded to hold the administration of Jackson's successor (Van Buren) responsible for a collapse it could not have prevented, and tbe gradual change in the tariff was alleged to be the cause of the worst revulsion the country had so far undergone. The election of Harrison, and the res-

toration to power of the class now combined to use the governmental force for private advantage, was followed by the tariff of 1842, protective even to prohibition of imports. This the people endured for four years, and in 1846 they reduced their taxation, levied for the advantage of their rulers, to 50 per cent, on an average. This vms in force until 1857, when 30 per cent, ad valorem became the average rate, and this stood until the outbreak of the civil war. The so-called Morrill tariff. then cunningly devised to lax the use of impoits by a double duty, specific and ad valorem, has since granted almost unlimited facilities to fraud, and certainly more than doubled the average rate. To this during t e war various supplementary bills were added to our bur dene. Some changes reducing duties were made in 1870, but the general average was scarcely affected. The rale has fluctuated since, but now, in 1887, the duties are about what they were constituted by the war tariff of 1860. We now protect about 1,500 different commod.ties by an average rate of nearly 45 per cent., as closely as can be ascertained. We who produce perhaps threefourths of the world’s marketed cotton, and have it at our doors, protect its manufacture by duties of from 35 to CO per cent. This is the manufacture which Madison more than sixty years ago declared was so thoroughly established here by “the impulse of the war” that it could never again need protection. On woolens the duty is 50 to 65 per cent. We have dropped the duty on wool itself, and so enhanced the profit to those in control of our home market, in which we must buy. And yet this pampered industry has grown only weaker by its protection for two generations. Even before the Revolution this industry was dreaded by the English manufacturers, and English legislation against it was matter of complaint in the Declaration. Now it ha 3 become so despicable that English goods, despite the duly, are sold in open competition with the product of our looms, and in the markets of the world our goods cannot be found. On iron and steel we pay 30 to 70 per cent. We have gas for fuel; our ores are on the surface, for which in other lands miners must delve deep into lhe earth; yet our imports of these are increasing from year to year. The duties enable our iron men to dispense with the improved methods which competition abroad for the world’s market has evolved. Yet, if they were content with the profit foreign capital is glad to get, they could undersell the world and thrive. A table of the average rates of duty from 1824 will pei haps illustrate more clearly our vacillating and inconclusive policy in this respect: Duty average. 1824-1828 38 per cent. 18-28—1832 41 per cent. 18*2-1811 31 per cent. 1812 23 per cent. 1812-1846. .50 per cent. 1816-1857 30 per cent. 1857-1860 20 per cent, Changing only to increase during the war, at its close the duties were perhaps 50 per cent., and, as before stated, from 1865 to 1887 the average has been 45 per cent. It is plain that our government has long ceased to be a people’s government. Now it only performs the functions and duties of a national trust for a protected class. Its varied interests pooled into a concrete bill, apportioning each its respective share of the public plunder, the Government has become as palpably but a trust company for that class as is the Standard Oil Company lor its combining, conspiring corporations. It maintains an unnatural and inequitable price upon all production on which a duty is levied, and compels the people to pay this price as plainly as does the gas trust destroy competition and sustain the price of gas in this city.

“HEPAIRING” NATAL HULKS.

Secretary Wliltney Opposed to tlie Policy of Kepairint- Worthless Naval Hulks. A Board of Repairs recommended that the iron-hulled steamer Palos, now on the Asiatic station, be repaired, and estimated the cost at $5,000 on the hull and SIO,OOO for new boilers and machinery. One of the arguments in favor of the recommendation was that no other vessel now in the navy would serve the same purpose, she being able, on account of light draft, to enter all the ports on the station. The Secretary indorsed the recommendation as follows, Aug. 1, 1887: “This indorsement suggests the expenditure of the sum of about $50,000 upon the Palos, 'lhe Palos is an iron tug of about 300 tons, twenty-three years old, and is in no respect a war vessel as now understood. She cost originally, in 1865, $75,000, when iron was twice its present price, and could probably be built now for SSO,OOO. She has cost in repairs since she was originally built, $183,248. She is kept on the China station as a substitute for a vessel of war on account of her light draft, which enables her to visit the rivers and shallow bays. I do not approve of the proposed repairs. We are not responsible for the maintenance or non-main-tenance of a navy, but we are for the proper expenditure of our appropriations. The excuse that we must keep her afloat or otherwise we shall have no vessel to take her place is a matter for Congress. We can not justify spending $50,000 upon the old iron tug as a vessel of war except upon the ground that Congress has not made other provision for this service, which is a matter for Congress and not for ns to consider. Nothing has done so much to defeat the appropriation as the willingness of the department to spend money upon worthless things. These reports show that an expenditure of about $ O,OOJ Will put the Palos in shape for another year and a half, within which time something could be built fitted for the servic e, and which would not disgrace the country in case of war. One good shot from a modern machine-gun would destroy the machinery of the Palos aud end her career. Ido not believe in spending monev on this kind. Ido not fail to appreciate and credit the responsibility the bureaus feel, but I think by this time, after I have antagonized so often this kind of reasoni g, I ought to be relieved from this sort of recommendation. “ »V. Whitney, “Secretary of the Navy.”

CHEATED THE GALLOWS

How Bill Langley, of Texas, Is £&id to Have Been Hanged Years Ago and Sti 1 Lives. [Fort Worth (Texas) special. 1 Campbell Langley, father of the once notorious and not yet forgotten Bill Langley, removed to Bell County, Texas, from near Lexington, Lee County, Texas, Iwehe years ago. During his lesidence in Lee and Bell counties he has been known as a well-to-do farmer and an upright citizen. Campell Langley to-day told a story to some of the leading citizens which, but for his well-known Christian character, wonld be put down as wildest fiction. He saystbat his son, Bill Langley, who was publ.clv hanged twelve years ago in Giddings. Lee County, by Sheriff Jim Brown, in tue presence of several thousand people, was not hurt at all, but was allow ed to escape. The father says when the Supreme Court and the Governor relused to intervene in Bill’s behalf a rich uncle in California came to the rescue with $4,000, with which he worked upon the sympathy of the sheriff charged with the execution of the sentence; that the friends of Bill were permitted to arrange 111 ngs so that when the drop fell the weight of the body fell upon the iron hoop supported by an appropriate body harness in such a way that he escaped physically unhurt. When he had draw’n h;s legs up and down two or three times the attendiug physicians pronounoed him dead, and he w,i6 turned over to his friends for interment. The coffin, which was actually buried, contained nothing but stones. SVhile the last sad riles wer - being pronounced, Bill Langley was well on his way out of the country. Ho has been living since his supposed execution in Nicaragua, where he has become a leading ciiizen and one of the largest land and cattle herders in Central America. Those who know Campbell Langley dc not hesitate to believe his story, which he now makes public only because Sheriff Brown, who officiated at the supposed execution, died in Lee County last week.

RIGHTS OF BALL-PLAYERS.

A Movement to Prevent the Buying; and Sel Ing of Them. [Boston dißpatch.] Now that all other labor troubles are settled, or in process of settlement, the baseball players are coming forward and demanding that their claims be satisfied. With them it is not a question of pay or hours of work, but simply an abolishment or amendment of the present methods by wLich they are bought and sold as completely as were ever black slaveß before the emancipation proclamation. There is at present a base-ball union, called the Brotherhood of League Base-Ball Flayers, of which Ward, of New York, is President, and before next week is out the brotherhood wiil have informed the League managers fully of what it intends to demand, and the presumption is that most of its demands will be satisfied. There is as yet no talk of strikes or lockouts, and it is hoped that the settlement will be an amicable one, for it is felt on all sides that if the brotherhood should take the bit in its teeth the disruption of the National League would be the result. The brotherhood is weaker in Chicago than other cities, only Williamson, Pfeffer and Flint being members, but the Chicago club has to stand or fall with the League, and if it is broken in New York, Detroit, Boston and Philadelphia President Spalding will find his occupation gone. Jnst as surely, also, if it comes to a fight, the sympathy of the public will be with the ballplayers.

THE NEW ULM MASSACRE.

Celebration of the Xwenty-fiftli Anniversary of the Battle. [New UJm (Minn.) telegram.] Tuesday was the twenty-fbth anniversary of the battle of New Ulm, and the city gave a right royal welcome to the surviving defenders who, a quarter of a century ago, risked their lives in her defense. It was at a time when the drafts upon Minnesota for the civil war had taken away many of her able-bodied citizens, leaving comparatively few to defend the firesides. The Indians seized this opportunity, and then followed the great Sioux massacre, the most sanguinary conflict of which was the battle of New Ulm. But Colonel Charles Flandrau, now of St. Paul, and a few well-armed men came from St. Peter aud the town was saved. Numbers of the old defenders were at New Ulm from Mankato, St. Paul, Le Sueur, St. Peter, and other cities. All the streets were gayly decorated.

A Woman Office-holder.

Miss Minna R. Pollock is the first lady ever appointed Commissioner of Deeds in New York City. She is the daughter of Julius L. Pollock, of Hamburg, Germany, and Mrs. Elliot Haswell Pollock, of Glasgow, Scotland. Miss Pollock was bom at

Manchester, England, and was soon taken by her parents to Hamburg, and three years thereafter to New York City. She received her education at Glasgow and in England, completing it in Vienna, Austria. She is a lady of wide travel and experience. 1

BRUTAL SPORT IN KENTUCKY.

Farmers Set a Bull an<l Jackass to Fighting Each Other—The Latter Victorious. A special dispatch from Cincinnati to the Chicago Herald gives an account of a novel fight near Kenton P. 0., Ky., between Pole Harrison’s bull and a jackass owned by one of his neighbors: The fight was tLo result of Harrison 1 aving mentioned in a bantering way his bull a lighting qualifications Part of a red flaunol sh rt was thoughtfully brought by the reforee. This was tied around'the jack's neck by consent of the owner, and the animals were turned loose. The ass did not like the red, and seemed to blame the bull for its presence, for belaid bock his ears and made a dart lor him. The bull got out of the way, but not In time to escape a bite on the rump. This maddened him and he turned, and striking the ass square on the right shoulder he nearly knocked him down On be came, but the ass recovered himself. He did not have time to turn around and kick, but he go: in a shoulder hitter with his foro foot. It struck the bull a glancing lick on the neck and cut about two inches, from which the blood flowed. A bellow told that the bull was now thoroughly maddened. He went straight for the jack, holding his head low and shaking it. The jaok wheeled to kick, but the bull, in anticipation of this, dodged around to his side. He got in a slight blow, which cut several inches of huir from his adversary’s belly. Thus the fight went on with varying fortune, both animals receiving severe punishment. Both animals were 1 eginning to feel the heat, but they showed no signs of weakness or cowardice. While the bull was trying to evade the heels of the jack he was caught on the rump by his teeth. He held on, and for a few minutes they were spinning around in a small circle. The hold slipped at last, but with it came a bi{ piece of bull hide and a stream of blood. Immediately the bull wheeled and gave tbe jack a lick that knocked him down. He followed up, aud gored him across the side, cutting a terrible gash, from which the bit oil sp irted. He was about to follow it up with another, when the jack struck him iu the eyo with his iron-clad fore foot, and completely mashed that organ of sight. This gave him a clianoe to get up and he went for the blind side of thnt bull like lightning. Both heels Btruck the bull square in the side. He staggered, but did not fall. It could be plainly seen that he was suffering terribly and oould not lsst long, but his grit was still there. The jack led, but the bull struck first and caught his adversary square in the stomach. He pushed on and buried Ids born. The jack fell as the bull tried to rip him open, and began yelling, kioking, and biting, but tbe bull pinioned him fast. At last one of his kicks struck tbe bull 011 the fore leg and broke it. He fell and they rolled over together. Someono cried “Part them I” but their owners said to let them “fight it out," and fight it out they did. until at last the jack planted his heels firmly on the bull’s frontal bone and literally kicked the life out of him.

THE COLOR LINE.

It Has Been Drawn at Asbury Park—Portrait of Mr. Bradley. The sun’s rays beat down with scorching ardor on both the black and white population of Asbury Park, and despite Mr. Bradley’s fiat that the board walk, etc., was exclusively intended for the paying visitor, the colored people defy the decree, and appear as usual on board walk, boach, and pavilion, writes a correspondent from the pretty New Jersey resort. Puck, that has so humorously pictured the situation of

the color line in a recent issue, fully explains the dilemma in an amnsing sketch. There, black belle jostles her white neighbor as though to the manner and station born—equal. James A. Bradley, the founder and owner of Asbury Park, of course has a legal and moral right, as long as private ownership of land is recognized, to decide who shall and who shall not occupy bis private property. Mr. Bradley’s offending lies in the charge that be has said that large numbers of colored persons come to the beach every evening; that they monopolize the choioe seats in the pavilion ana crowd guests off the boardwalks; that some of them behave improperly, and that many try to make the walks and beach lodging places. Mr. Bradley’s words are; “The time is coming, indeed, may have arrived, when some decided action mast be taken to show our colored friends that the board-walk and tbe pavilion are private property, to which the owner invites the guests of the (hotel, aud others, whom he does not invite, will be requested in language not to be misunderstood not to interfere with tbe arrangements he has made for the ‘ permanency of the town and the protection of the capital he has invested.” Mr. Bradley manages the property that he has built, and maintains everything at his own expense. He is an acute, shrewd aud active business man, and, as the owner of Asbury Park, he has certainly a right to exclude whom and what he will.

Exhaustive Statistics on Wool.

Col. Switzler, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, says a Washington dispatch, announces that he will soon have ready for distribution a work of great importance to the manufacturing as well as the agricultural element of tbe country, it will be a statistical analysis of the wool industries of every country of the world, in which will be incorporated all the various acts of Congress relating to the tariff on wool and woolen manufactures from the time that the tax of 1793 was imposed down to the latest revision of 1883. A brief history of the enormous strides made in wool-grow-ing and wool-manufacturing will be a feature of the report, and everything of valne to the farmer and manufacturer in connection with wool which can possibly be inserted in a work of this character will be added.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—Patents have been issued to the following Indianinns: Wallace H. Dodge, Mishawaka, wooden pnlly; Byron E. Foss, Indiannpolis, piston-rod packing; Charles W. Gift, assignor to L. R. Gift, Fairmount, weather strip; Frank Heller, Oakland City, air-heater; James A. Manning, Danville, assignor of one-fourth to E. M. White, Hendricks County, bridle bit; Isaac McCormick, assignor of one-half to C. E. • Hall, Logansport, barn truss; Charles McNeal, assignor to Dodge Manufacturing Company, Mishawaka, rabbeting machine; George Phillion, assignor to Dodge Manufacturing Company, tool for turning the faces of pnlly-rimß; Clayton <fc Potts, Indianapolis, clay disintegrator; William E. Ryan, French Lick, bellows attachment; Alanzon W. Straughn, Lincolnville, automatic corn-dropper; Charles Whittenber, Indianapolis, cash-box drawer. —Prof. B. S. Coppock, Governor of White’s Indiana Mannal Labor lustitnte, near Wabash, has just returned from Pine Ridge Indian Ageuoy, iu Dnkotn, with twenty-nine Indian children, who will be educated in the Institute. There are seventeen girls in the company, several of whom were taken direct from the wigwams and oanuot speak or understand English. All are Sioux, but one is a son of Liitle Chief, who is at the head of the northern Cheyennes. The Indian work at White’s Institute is attracting wide attention. Ten girls have just been returned to their western homes, having completed their education. The Government pays $125 a year toward the education of old pupils and SIOB for new ones. The deficit is made up by the National Society of Friends. —A special inquiry elicited the following showing of the condition of crops: The crops in Southern Indiana are even worse than anticipated two or three weeks ago. The oorn crop will not be more than onehalf, while late potatoes, with few exceptions, may be set down os an entire failure. The river bottoms of Posey show fair corn, but further up the river this crop is seriously damaged. Knox, Daviess, and Martin coauties are the worst sufferers by the recent drought. It is thought that Martin Coanty will not raise enough corn to feed the teams that were used tending the crop, and many farmers are selling their stock at a great sacrifice. —The Indiana M. E. Conference, at the September session, will take preliminary steps toward the purchase of a large traot of land near West Baden Springs,on which will be established the annual camp-meet-ing of the Methodist congregations of Southern Indiana. A number of cottages, hotel, and tabernacle for worship will be built, and tbe grounds laid off in the highest art of the landscape gardener. —At the De Pauw gas wells, abandoned in Harrison County, the gas pressure is so great that salt water is thrown out a distance of fifty foot high. It was the intention of the De Pauws to put up saltworks there this fall, but the will contest will prevent this until the matter is determined. It is estimated that salt water that could be converted into forty tons of salt per week goes to waste at these works. —A case has been decided by a Montgomery County Justioe of the Peace that has attracted considerable notice. The trustee desired to send a man and family back to Fayette County for that county to keep, as that is where they came from. They refused to go, and the trustee resorted to the law to compel them to go. The justice decided they must go back to the county where they belong. —Samuel Eppard, a wealthy pioneer of Madison County and owner of the old Kill, bnck saw-mills, fell from a bridge near his residence and killed himßelf. Mr. Eppard was standing on the bridge talking to Mr. Heagy, a neighbor, when he suddenly said: “I’m not feeling well,” fell from the bridge, striking the ground twelve feet below, and was picked up dead. —At a meeting of the directors of the Clark Coanty Agricultural Association it was decided, on account of the extreme drought and scarcity of water on the fair grounds, that they would be compelled to postpone the fair until the first week in September, 1888, at which time they will have ample water facilities on their grounds. —The new Conrt-honse that has been building in Mancie for over two years, is completed and the contractors, Messrs. Charles Pearce & Co., have handed it over to the Commissioners. It presents a splendid appearance and is one of the very best court-houses in the State. The contractors have been faithful in every particular. —Mr. John Melease, a wealthy farmer, living near Yorktown, lay down on a railroad track and went to sleep. A westbound passenger struck him, leaving him in a state so mangled that his friends did not recognize him. He was dead when found, aud some papers in his pocket identified the remains, and they were sent home. —Ferdinand McNutt, aged 20 years, was killed on the Lake Shore pile-driver, a few miles east of Elkhart, recently. He went up to take the block from under the hammer, the latter fell prematurely, and, striking the block, caused it to strike McNutt, who fell a distance of twenty feet, alighting on his head. He lived about an hour. —Reeny Allenbass, a young unmarried man, residing with his parents in Hanover Township, and employed in a saw-mill at Tryset, in Jefferson County, was prying on a log with a crow-bar, when he clipped, and fell backward on 0 circular saw, which cat him nearly in two, causing his instant death. —The body of Mathias Rapp was exhumed at Kossuth, and a second inquest shows that his death was the result of violence.