Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1888 — Page 7

TARIFF FACTS.

'Shameful Decline of Our American Shipping and Its Cause. Some High-Tariff Fallacies Punctured by the Cold Facts and Figures. from “Tariff Cnats," by Henry J. Philpott, of Des Moines, la.] I might fill a large volume with statistics to show that we do not owe our high wages, or any of the other good things of this life, to the tariff lobby, but I have condensed a volume of statistics into one very little table, which Prof. Perry, of Williams College, has done me the honor to put into the last edition of his “Political Economy,” which, by the way, is a standard text-book on that subject in American -schools and colleges. By way of preface to this table, which answeis every claim of the tariff trustees, let me explain a little. Every protectionist orator and pamphleteer tells you that this country has tried free trade, and, that it always worked disastrously. Particularly he calls your attention to the bad results of the low-tariff period just before the war. He says all the prosperity of the country has been since then. I concluded to investigate that matter thoroughly. I used only official documents, except “Poor’s Bailroad Manual,” which is the only recognized authority on that subject." I found the rate per cent, of increase from .1850 to 1860, under low tariff, and the average rate for each of the two ten-year .periods since then:

IL Lines of progress. 2,”° ® P ” J; a* «2 ® S ® a 1 ropuiMion;. 35.5 25.2 Wealth 126.6 61.0 Foreign commerce, aggregate. 131.0 45.6 Foreign commerce, per capita. 70.3 15.2 Miles of railroad, aggregate.... 210.0 69.0 Miles of railroad, per capita... 150.0 34.0 in manufactures 90.0 66.0 "Wages in manufactures, aggregate 60.3 58.2 Wages in manufactures, per hand 17.3 9.4 Products of manufactures f-5.0 69.6 Value of farms 103.0 23.6 Value of farm tools and machinery 62.0 27.7 Value of live-stock on farms... 100 0 17.3

One important industry had to be left •out of the above table. Before the war our shipping was second only to agriculture in the sisterhood of our industries. Threefourths of our foreign trade was carried in -our own ships, and even this occupied but ■half of them, the other half being scattered over the whole world, bearing our glorious ensign of liberty everywhere and carrying a trade that was wholly foreign. That industry must be left out of the table because •the last two decades show no increase at all, but a most startling and shameful de--dine. The old excuse was Confederate piracy. But my old neighbor, lowa’s first Republican Governor and second Republican Senator, James W. Grimes, always a persistent foe to protection, when he was -Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, replied to this excuse: Confederate piracy did not destroy our mer- - chant marine. The privateers who have sunk the second commercial navy of the world sit around me in this Senate. The means they have used may be found in that protective policy which deserves to be called a “war measure,” since it has wrought in our shipping such destruction as no enemy has ever inflicted, but ithe worst enemy would desire. Last year, 1887, 14A per cent, of our foreign trade was carried in American vessels. THE FARMER'S MARKET. Let us take, for instance, the “facts” manufactured for the farmer’s consumption. He is told that whatever home market he has he owes to the tariff, and that as a result of the tariff he sells at home what his fathers had to ship across the -ocean. In other words, he now has a rhome market—as if Pennsylvania and Massachusetts were a home market for the Kansas farmer! But even if it were, the Kansas farmer is more dependent on the foreign market than ever, as I shall pro--ceed to show. Our Government, ever -since it was organized, has kept a record •of the amount of wheat, corn, cotton and provisions exported to foreign markets. If the tariff trustees are really keeping •their promise to furnish us a home market for these products the Government reports -ought to show a steady decline of exports and a steady rise of prices. Now, let us ssee what they do show. Our lobby tariff was adopted soon after 1860. Here is a -comparison of all the com and wheat (unground) exported prior to that time, a of seventy-one years, with the two ■whole decades since, and the last year:

_ . _ Corn, Wheat, Period. bushels. bushels. 1789 to 1860—71 years.... 149,905,645 89,771,520 1860 to 1870—10 year5....100,611,081 220,115,995 1870 to 1880—10 year5.... 534?.434 667,435,801 .1887 1 year 40,307,252 101,971,949 We have exported more corn in the last .“four years, more wheat and flour* in the last six years, and more unground wheat m the last year than we did from the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 up to the adoption of our present system of taxation in 1862. We have exported more pounds •of bacon and hams in the last fifteen months than our fathers did from the set■tlement of Jamestown in 1607 to the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861. If ■that is not a startling increase in our dependence on foreign markets for these farm products, I need enlightenment. Watch the tariff mendicant right here and ?see if he doesn’t turn round now and claim ■that it is the foreign market, and not, as he said a minute ago, the home market, that his blessed system of one-sided taxation Jias built up. When he has made that •claim, ask him if he desires also to claim the credit for the fdllowing apparent •decline of export prices, as returned by l the Government: Corn. Wheat. 1850 to IB6o—lo years ...72.8 cents 91.39 1860 to 1870—10 years 81.6 cents 1 36 1870 to 1880—10 years 59.9 cen s 1.21 1887 —1 year 47.9 cents .84 ♦Up to the war 85 per cent, of our wheat exj>ort was in the manufactured state—flour. In 1887 only 36 per cent, of it went abroad in that -form. Our millers, who are certainly manufacturers, thus missed the job of grinding 78,000 - 000 bushels of wheat Quite nn item, is it not? And the millers are taxed on their lumber machinery, mill-stones and bolting-cloths. Half a •dozen manufacturers are injured where one is helped, if, indeed, any are helped, in a broad national sense, by the tariff.

A decline of one-third in the price of both wheat and corn from the average of the ten years before the tariff to the average of last year. How will the farmers like this when they find it out? And how do American prices of these products compare with foreign prices today? If the tariff has “built up” a home market for the farmer, as it has by force of law “ built jp” a home market for the protected claOM, corn and wheat ought to be higher in America than in England, as I have shown by market quotations that protected iron and steel are higher. Let us try the market quotations on corn and wheat for Feb. 14, 1888: Corn. Wheat. Chicago46?s .75?$ Liverpool6s .9734 Liverpool is 25 per cent, higher on wheat and 40 on corn. And this after our people have paid an average of at least $500,000,000 for twenty years for a home market, whose sole purpose could only be to make com and wheat worth as much in Chicago as in Liverpool. The above are Chicago prices. The prices the farmers actually get are much less — say frdm 40 or 50 to 75 or 80 per cent, of Liverpool quotations, according to the location and the bulkiness of the product. Take it all over the regions where the exported surplus is raised, including cotton and all, it is quite within the bounds of reason to say that Liverpool is at least 50 per cent, higher than the original American market where the fanner sells. THE LABORER'S HIRE. That settles the labor question. Cotton, breadstuff's, and provisions are the farmer’s wages—not his day wages, but his piece wages. They are all cheaper here than in England. Work by the piece is therefore cheaper here than in England for half the workers. Such being the case, if their work is higher by the day, the fact must be attributed to something besides the tariff,

Yes, and most of the other half of the people work cheaper by the piece than they do in England. Especially is this true in manufactures. Our manufacturers as a whole class have as great advantages over any other country as the farmers have. I have already called attention to these advantages. The result is that American manufacturers get their work done for less labor expense than those of any country in the world. Here is a little table worked out by our Consul at Tunstall, Mr. J. Scboenhof, showing the daily wages and wages per yard of cotton-mill operators in three countries.

Wages Dally ■ per 100 wages. yards. In Switzerland, and may include Germanys .44 to $ .49 $ .60 In England .65 .55 In Americaß9 to 1.12 .40

So the pauper labor of Europe is not so cheap to the man who buys it and sells its products as American labor is. Mr. J. B. Sargent, of New Haven, the most extensive hardware manufacturer in America, has told me over and over again that the same is true in his business, and, as he believes, in the great majority of American manufactures. This is one method of proof that it is not the workingman who gets the benefit of the tariff. He would be a pauper if he did, but he doesn’t. The tariff pauper is the mill-owner. He owns the goods when they are made. He sells them. He pockets the proceeds. He imports laborers, free of duty. He joins a trust, closes his mill half the year, gets a dividend for lying idle and “limiting production,” and turns his hands into the street to lie idle without a dividend and without wages. Wages are lower in the protected than in the unprotected industries, and the workingmen are more generally foreigners and treated worse. Many of them are to all intents and purposes bought by the ship-load, like slaves, in Europe. Of the 340,854 persons engaged in strikes last year 112,317, or about one-third, were in Pennsylvania, the most highly protected of all the States. There were half as many strikes in Pennsylvania as in all the rest of the country together. In lbßo the trustees placarded every workshop in the country with a comparison of wages in thirteen occupations between different European countries. New York City, and Chicago. This was not a fair comparison, because the United States census of manufactures shows that wages are 24 per cent higher in New York City than in the country as a whole. Without making any allowance for this, and averaging the whole thirteen occupations, we have on the trustees’ own authority: Germany—-per week $ 3.64 England 7.69 New York 12.38 England higher than Germany 111 per cent. • New York higher than England 61 per cent. Nearly double the relative difference between England and Germany as between New York and England, though Germany protects and England admits German goods free of duty. Our census of 1880 shows: WAGES IN WOOLEN MANUFACTURES, Ohio —yearly $ 196 Connecticut 335 Connecticut higher than Ohio 70 per cent. WAGES IN COTTON MANUFACTURES. North Carolina—yearly 9 135 New Jerseyr 255 New Jersey higher than North Carolina 83 per cent. A greater relative difference in both cases that even a red-hot protectionist campaign card claimed between New York City and England. If the latter difference is caused by the tariff what, pray, has created the others? While the trustees were at it they ought to have done a smoother job of wageraising—or deception.

THE PROTECTION OF MONOPOLY.

Some Startling; Statistics Furnished by Senator Colquitt of Georgia. In'a speech before the Senate of the United States last week, Senator Colquitt of Georgia submitted tne following: We should have a table showing in tabulated form all the details and items, the relative consumption of dutiable goods, imported and domestic, the prices abroad and at home, and the difference of cost. The biggest department of the Government might well be devoted to information on the subject of the costliest work of the Government—the protection of monopoly. What if it should cost more than the census, more than the collection of taxes? But it would cost little. The tribute is vastly more important than the taxes. It is levied year by year. An estimate will be worth its cost a hundred fold, as it may save in one year the cost of a hundred. Such an estimate, in considerable detail, for the year 1882, was made by the Hon. William M. Springer and published in the North American Review of June, 1883. Fulfilling the neglected duty of Government, with intelligent and patriotic interest, he employed an expert for some months

in compiling the information embodied in the table hereto appended, which he derived from the reports of the census, the Statistical Bureau, etc., and from the best financial sources, with correspondence and personal interviews. The table shows the tribute paid by class to class. It is a work of great labor and value. The total tribute, according to his estimate, was $556,000,000; the increased price was about 22 pe cent, which is about half the average rate of duty. This does not include waste, enhanced price of neglected natural industries, or other losses occasioned by an unnatural system. Higher estimates are strongly indorsed by various political economists. We have taken the lowest estimate as a basis. Amount of incidental taxes annually imposed on the people of the United states in the increased cost of home products by reason of discriminating duties on imported articles of like character; value of such home products ; wages and number or hands employed, and imports and duties received thereon for the year 1882:

MERCHANDISE IMPORTED DURING g § g 2 g >» g d *”.S 2>S o o fl ® o a i-> o • -m ® ® S ® o a* THE FISCAL YEAB ENDED JUNE A S m ® Ol'S 0% d3 0 -“g c o •“ fl OQ rs- r fl 08 H fl *O Xs ® fl ABTICLEI AFFECTED BY THE TABIFF. 30,1882. •gSg "g’Oj 2 »J ■JJR'Sm’ 8 °|h Shgah§« Duty Average go « S “ ® SS£'n®"2ei; Values. " j Tj ad valorem rate, p r cr. £> ■< H P 3 >-3 Chemical products $21,517,109 $6,718,561 31.32 $117,377,324 28,895 $11,840,704 20 $23,475,464 Earthenware and glassware 13,822,043 6,693,257 48.42 31,632,300 30,674 13,130,403 45 4,234,539 Metals— Iron and steel and all metal manufactures „ 74,427,988 30,358,930 40.79 604,553,460 290,000 12?, 648, 191 20 120,910,692 Wood and wooden wares 8,654.327 1,589,851 18.37 311,928,384 185,426 47,817,199 15 46,789,332 Sugar and molasses 94,540,269 49,210,573 52.05 (See note.) 40 4,846,714 Tobacco 8,216,132 6,00), 961 73.03 118,665, 366 81,809 25,041,237 25 29,666,341 Cotton and cotton goods 34,868,041 13,482,167 38.67 210,950, 383 179,363 45,614,419 20 42,190,076 Hemp, jute and flax goods 33,578,076 9.844,652 29.32 5,518,836 4,329 1,238,149 20 1,103,773 Wool and woolens 47,679,502 29,254,234 61.36 267,182,914 145,341 47,351,623 40 106,873,165 Silk and silk goods 38,535,475 22,632,490 58.73 41,033,015 28,554 9,146,705 50 21,516,522 Books, paper, etc 4,923,620 1,406,787 28.57 65,960,405 25,274 9,895,995 20 13,19.’,081 Sundries 62,410,690 17,272,269 27.68 665,699,693 337,216 129,881,399 2‘J 133,139,938 Total $433,173,335 $194,464,758 $2,440,502,649 1,327,881'5463,603,019 1 $556,938,637

Note—Planters ’ product tor 1880 was : Sugar, 196,759,200 pounds: molasses, 16,573,273 gallons. Number and wages of laborers not stated.

THE TARIFF IN ILLINOIS.

Some Surprising Facts Learned by the Chicago Times Correspondents. [Chicago special.] The Chicago Times recently took measures to sound the farmers of Illinois on the subject of tariff reform. It instructed its correspondents throughout the State to obtain expressions of opinion from leading farmers of both parties in their respective localities and forward them for use in its columns without coloring or bias. The work has been done intelligently and thoroughly, and the results may be accepted as reflecting very accurately the tariff opinion of the farmers of Illinois. The fact which is most clearly brought out is that while the farmers generally go with the party with which they have heretofore affiliated, yet as a body they can not be depended upon to support the existing high tariff through thick and thin. An analysis of the returns shows that fully 60 per cent., or three out of five, of the farmers interviewed ore in favor of a decided modification and reduction, and only about two out of five are radical protectionists, while many of the latter regard the existing tariff as extreme. Of the Democrats more than 90 per cent, favor reform on the lines indicated in the President’s message, or of something much more radical, about half of the reformers favoring either tariff for revenue only or out-and-out free trade excepting as to recognized luxuries, such as spirits, wine, beer, and tobacco. Not 9 per cent, can be classed as Randall Democrats. Perhaps the most surprising thing shown by the returns is the large proportion of Republicans favoring a sweeping revision of the tariff on lines approaching those marked out by the President. About 60 per cent, only are in favor of high protective duties, and many of these regard the present tariff as too high. The number of extremists of the Horace Greeley school is surprisingly small. About 30 per cent, declare themselves in favor of tariff reform, and most of them favor such a revision as the President recommends, or a still nearer approach to a strictly revenue tariff, while a few are as radical free-trad-ers as any of the Democrats. The conclusion of the Times from the returns, taken as a whole, is that if ths farmers of Illinois were to vote on the tariff issue alone, without regard to other questions, or to party affiliations or prejudices, there would be a large majority in favor of a large reduction of the tariff taxes. Still, it appears that many of them are not prepared to say that they care enough for tariff reform to sever their old party relations in order to secure it It is a significant fact, however, and one that politicians would do well to note as indicative of the political drift, that some Republicans say frankly they will vote for a Democrat, if necessary, in order to secure tariff reform, while hardly a single Democrat intimates that he will vote for a Republican to save the tariff it is or make it more extremely protective. The terminal facilities of Chicago are improved by the skatorial mania.

The Last Mexican Bandit.

he felt a strong presentiment that his career was soon to be cut short His melancholy was intensified by a fatal quarrel over a woman named Louisa Garcia, in which he killed a former friend and comrade. The party which attacked Bernal on the morning of his death was small, and might have been easily repulsed. But Bernal’s men were dispirited by the melancholy of their chief. He himself was one of the first to fall, being struck in quick succession by three bullets, all from the pistol of the captain of the little band of recruits, who were eager to win the SIO,OOO offered for Bernal’s capture or death. The first bullet was probably fatal, but the second, which crashed thro igh the outlaw’s brain, did the work of all three. Bernal planned his assaults with great care and skill. His attacks were always delivered in the early morning, as he had found by experience that he encountered less resistance at that hour than at any other. He was occasionally overtaken by fits of remorse, and at such times he would repair to one of the numberless chapels which rear their spires in the heart of the sierra, and remain for hours in prayer before an image. On leaving the oratory he would drop a S2O gold piece into the poor box. His amendment never lasted long. A few days generally brought tidings of some new and daring exploit. Bernal will probably be the last of Mexican bandits. Isolated cases of assault will, no doubt, occur, as they do, even in the United States. But never again will an organized band of desperadoes be allowed to terrorize a whole state. A number of legends have already begun to cluster round the name of Eraclio Bernal, and in future ages his story may. become as famous in traditions of the sierra as that *f Robin Hood in England. His life has a'ready been dramatized and represented with success at one of the theaters in Boston.

A Cigarette Dude.

This is the puny youth who smokes the deadly cigarette which chokes those near him with it’s poisoned fumes and fast and sure his life consumes. With fingers reeking with its stain, with stunted form and weakened brain and pallid face this wretched slave goes gaily to his early grave without will power to release himself from dangers that increase. Poor little fool! He may not know that if to manlroood he would grow he, at his present age, needs all the strength he wastes by vices small to pull him thro’ the evil traps that tempt and ruin growing fhaps and that the worst that him besets is opium loaded cigarettes which paralyze his heart and brain nnd leave him dead or else insane. Youth! be a m an with robust health and ma nhood’s • vigor, power and wealth. D on’t be a shriveled stunted freak w Ith mind and body dwarfed and we ak from smoking cigaret tes com posed of rotten s craps all decorn posed. —H. C. Dodne.

Eating a Rattlesnake.

Like most men who have followed the sea more or less for a living, I have had some queer experiences in eating; but if I live 100 years I will never forget a dish of rattlesnake I had a few years ago. I was in charge of a camp of tourists in South Florida, and one evening one of the party, a Brooklyn broker, who is something of an amateur naturalist, shot a rattlesnake with a rifle, the ball cutting off the reptile’s head as clean as though it had been a knife. Going up to it, he said: “I have heard that people on the plains eat rattlesnakes, and I’ll cook this fellow ‘and find out what he tastes like, if it is the last act of a desperate life.’’ He took the snake to the camp, skinned and cleaned it, and then cut it into slices, which he dredged in a nice batter and then fried to a turn. There were abjut fifteen in the party, and all but one of them partook of the snake. I ate j st enough of it to enable me to say that I had done so, but I 1 i end the meat very palatable and nicer tasting than eel cooked in the same manner. The broker and his son, a young man, made a hearty meal off the unusual food, and no unpleasant results followed. —New York Evening Sun,

FTER the death of Eraclio Bernal, the Mexican newspapers were full of anecdotes of that celebrated bandit It appears that Bernal was a prey to melancholy for some time previous to his death,and that

—Patents have been issued to Indiana nventots as follows: Dempster Beatty, uisignor to Beatty Feltin? Company, Mishawaka, making combined knit and :loth boots; George E. Blaine, Dayton, Ohio, and E. Hill, Cambridge City, assignors to M. Kemper, trustee, Dayton, railway cross-tie and sleeper; Isaac M. Brown, Columbus, railway switch; Charles E. Cleveland and J. Hanson, Fort Wayne, ;eaid Cleveland assignor to said Hanson), side-dresser for saws; Henry A. Gore, assignor of two-thirds to E. W. Walker and H. M. Hutor, Goshen, carpet-sweeper; John F. Mains, Indianapolis, corn and fodder compressor; Lewis A. Neff, Middletown, car-coupling; John E. Both, Coal City, combined ironing-board and washbench; Charles M. Young, Eby, sewingmachine. —George Parker, who was given 100 lashes on his bare back, by the Crawford County White Caps, a few days ago, is reported in a dying condition, as the result of his cruel punishment. It is stated that his back was so horribly gashed from the whipping that the shoulder-blades and backbone were laid bare. Parker is a powerful man, weighing 180 pounds, but be was tied face foremost to a tree, by twenty men,each one of whom gave him five lashes with heavy, elastic hickory switches. Parker is charged with not properly providing for his wife, to whom he has been married about one year. —A fatal accident occurred, recently, at the residence of J. Kuch, Peru. Hit two sons, Fred and Karl, were playing at “Indian scouts,” when Karl, who was snapping a supposed unloaded revolver at his brother, discharged the weapon, the ball striking Fred in the forehead, killing him instantly. The revolver had been unloaded, but Fred, during the evening, had placed a live cartridge therein, from which be received his death a few moments later. The shooting was done in the presence of the horrified parents, who are nearly crazed with grief. Fred was aged 12 and Karl 16.

—The managers of the various base-ball clubs of this State met at Logansport, recently, the object of the meeting being to form a State league. The following named managers were present: O. N. Lumburt and S. Primly, Elkhart; Thomas Miller, Lafayette; C. H. Dailey, Frankfort; D. C, Fisher, Ft. Wayne, and Joseph Henning, Kokomo. A State league was established, embracing the following cities: Elkhart, South Bend, Frankfort, Lafayette, Kokomo, Ft. Wayne, nnd Logansport. —While engaged in excavating for a ditch near Losantville, Milo nnd Rufus Bookout unearthed a huge tusk, a part of the remains of some mammoth animal supposed to have inhabited this country in the early stayes of the world’s history. The specimen measures seven feet in length and twenty-four inches in diameter, and is one of the finest specimens of a species of animal now extinct ever found in the State. It would make a valuable addition to some historical museum. —The health officer at Crawfordsville has written to the State Board of Health to prove that there is “a large-sized epidemic" in that place; that 606 cases of measels have been reported to him. Of this number seventy-eight occurred in February and 528 in March. He thinks there are from 100 to 200 cases unreported, and writes that the disease, although it is abating in the city, is spreading through the country districts. —A freiah train on the Madison branch of the J., M. A I. road ran over and instantly killed Anderson McGannon, an old and highly respected citizen of Vernon. Mr. McGannon had started to attend a public sale a short distance from town; on account of the rain he turned back, and in some way was caught by the train and killed. The accident occurred within two blocks of the home of the deceased. —At Camden the people were startled recently by a heavy report and shock as of an earthquake. It was gas from gas well No. 2. The drill, at a depth of 600 feet, struck an immense deposit of shale gas, and was thrown out of the hole with the velocity of an arrow, crashing through the summit of the seventy-foot derrick and twenty feet above. The crew barely escaped with’their lives.

—John Colgin. of Hartford City, has in his possession four young motherless foxes. They have been adopted and are provided for by a “kitless cat,” who manifests as ipuch maternal solicitude and motherly care for them as though they were her own family. They seem to have accepted the situation in a kindred spirit, and are doing well. —William Carr, a miner, while engaged at work, was seriously injured in No. 2 mine owned by the Brazil Block Coal Company. One of the other miners fired a shot in the coal and the pillar was so thin between the places that it went through with the above result. Carr is about twenty-three years of age, and unmarried. —The statement which recently appeared in an Indianapolis paper, to the effect that Harrison County orders were selling at a discount of 30 cents on the dollar has na foundation; in fact, brokers at Corydon are anxious to get them at 8 per cent, discount, and many persons buy them at 5 per eent.

—A representative of the Chicago Board of Trade, who claims to have made extensive inquiries as to the prospects of tha wheat crop in this State, has written Secretary Heron, of the State Board of Agriculture, stating that the crop in the southern portion of the State is the poorest for five years. —Samuel Angus fatally shot James Saunders in Crawford County, the ending of a feud caused by the operations of White C aps.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.