Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1888 — The Trusts and the Workingmen [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Trusts and the Workingmen

The Government has dispatched tour United States war . hips to Hayti. It is now positively asserted that Mr. Harrison has leidered the portfolio of the State Department to Mr. Blaine. A mysterious cattle-buyer is going through Tipton and Cliaton counties buying stock and paying for it with bills raised from §2O to §SO. The work is so neatly done that even bank officers say they are hard to detect. The other day in the Senate, in the course of his remarks in opposition to the Senate tariff billS.nator Plumb, (republican) of Kansas, said: “I call attention to the fact that there has been a veiy close corporation formed consisting of all the manufacturers, as I understand, some six or eight in number, in the United States, whereby the price of these articles has been made i.ot only uniform, but has been largely enhanced. *

* * * One of he contractors for the Texas statehouse told me that when the question of purchasing the b 'ama for that building was under consideration his superintendent applied to all the manufacturers of steel beams in the United States for prices and received from each one of them a reply naming the same price: and it was found impossible to get up any oompetition or in any way to break the price, so they were constrained to go abroad to save this very large sum of money, which they did. I have no doubt the price of these beams is much larger than it ought to be? and that if there is no other my of breaking up this combination it ought to be reached by a’ sensible reduction of the duty.

“xliese manufacturers were not willing to enlarge their production and thereby meet the entire American demand, but preferred to manufacture a limited supply at enormously increased profits, and that, I think, is a feature of the iron manufacture in this country to a veiy considerable extent. — That is to say, those who manufacture these articles, beams, do not care to supply the entire American market, but prefer to supply only that portion of it which they can supply at an enormous profit, and they have allowed without cause the foreign manufacturers to bring into this country a very large supply of manufactures of iron and steel, underselling the American manufacturers unnecessarily. “1 was told by a thoroughly responsible gentleman some six or seven years ago, who was the agsnt of a manufacturer in Sheffield, that he imported into Chicago, and shipped from Chicago to Pittsburgh, and sold at Pittsburgh Ju competition with the Pittsburgh manufacturers, picks, mattocks, crowbars, and ether implements that go to make up what is called a railroad-kit, on which the lowest duty then, I think, was 45 per cent, ad valorem, and the Pittsburgh manufacturers did e nough about the American market at large to enter int( competition for it, but allowed all these articles to be manufactured outside and brought into this country; because they could manufacture somethi ig else and make an enor-

mons profit by reason of the pro-* I tection afforded by the tariff. “While, of course, it is desira ble that all articles of this kind should be manufactured in this country, so * which we have the mcst ample natural facilities, there Ought to be a corresponding obligation on the part of those who are protected by th-* tariff that they shall supply this market, nd that they shall not limit themselves in their efforts to supply this market to those things for which th t y can get the ..ignesfprices. * * * If this result can not be reached in any other I am in favor of daing it by reducing the duty.”

• San Bernardi o Courier: The coal barons in Pennsylvania are doing jus as every intelligent man knew they would do after the election. Tariff reform is impossiblfor at least four more years, and the coal trust is monareh of all it surveys Its managers want to increase their already enormous profits, and the way they go about it is to diminish the output of their mines and increase the cost of the fuel Good God! How blind are the workingmen who work for the party of plutocracy, how blind the consumers of the country! Here are the • oal monopolists of Pennsylvania, the moment tariff reform was defeated, shutting down their mines and throwing hundreds of miners out of employment. Yet, they we”e loud in their assertions, before the elec ion, that the triumph of Harrison and a high protective policy would ensuresthese men steady employment and good wages right along! Had the principle of tariff reform prevailed, these plutocratic blood-suckers could not have maintained their infamous monopoly. They wo’d have been forced to keep their mines open and the market well supplied at reasonable rates, to ward off outside competition.— Now, they are able to lessen prod miion and to run up prices, thus securing double profits. And, their starving, shivering employes! What do you think of it, workingmea of Republican proclivities? Are you utterly blind, to support with your votes a policy so revolting in its cruelty and rapacity; a po icy of which your brothers in the East are the vi tuns? In California, the tooth of monopoly has not yot penetrated so deep jnto your fie h, but’b? assured your day is coming, is already, indeed, in its morning You see the Pacific Mail Company rending its order to Glasgow torthe building of t great steamship, simply because, the Glasgow builders have raw material so cheap that they can construct much cheaper than can the ban Francisco bu Iders. The tax upon iron and every other sort of material is so outrageously hoavy—so prohibitive, one may say — that Arne dean builders have no competition. With the tariff reduced, as the Examiner demonstrates, the ship would be built in San Francisco and the ( moneX wo’d go into home circulation, benefitting at once the home workingmen and generJ business Yet, in California, there were workiagmen who voted for a high tariff. Surely, surely, they will not, with the fearful object lessons they are now getting, persist in such a folly. The tariff must be reduced, if the masses of the poorer people are not to be reduced to paupers.— Even the middle classes, so called, will be heavy sufferers, while the only class to be benefitted is the plutocracy, and their tools, the seryil' and selfish professional politicians, who, as in ancient Rome, will be the clientage of the plutocratic patricians—a mongrel type of patrician, too, is th American trust upstart. Listen to the wail of your Eastern brethren, then workingmen, who let partisan prejudice influence you to vote against their interest and yours.— How true was the remark of one of your clas«, as er the elation, when he said ththe Republicans, or trust managers and politicians, “bad spent four months before the election in kissing the workingmen, and that to make up for the uncongeniality of the work, they would spend the next four years in kicking them.” It is estimated by the New York Herald that the sugar trust is robbing th© American people of near-

ly sixty millions of dollars annually. Havemyer. the -ire at refiner, ond o e of the organizers of the trust, testified before the senate committee thst there is made in this country annually about 3,000,000.000 pounds of refined sugar’ alone. Anedvanceof two cents a pound means, therefore, an extra sixty millions i year taken from the consumers of the country. — The advance already made by the trust is almost 2 cents, and the trust has hardly got its hand in yet. The proceedings that are pending in New York against this g.g intic combination will be followed with great interest by the public. The arguments of counsel will be heard on the 27th, rnd a decision in the case will probably be obtained early in the year.

Monticello’Herald: The Rensselaer Democrat, Horace E. James’s papar has suspended, and the material of tue office is awaiting tb? claims of creditors. Bro. McEwen told the Democrats of Jasper not to put aw faith in that venture and now they begin to respect his sagacitv. The sturdy Democracy of Jasper county —those who are firm a d honest in their convictions, and who seek success through the merits of their cause- took no stock in the “venture.” Besides they recognized no proprietary interest on the part of any one in the Democratic organization. Furthermore, the result of the “venture” is notice served by the rank and file, that tbe few should not presume to die' ate to the man? —that a sense of justice and right pervades the masses. The Signal: Speaking of the fact that the Coats-Clark spool thread combination and other goods of American manufacture arc sold in Canada and other foreign countries at one-third to onehalf less than they are in this country the People asks: “Why dun’t he (the manufacturer) fsell to us as cheap as to other people?” Simply because he don’t have to. In Canada, England and other countries he has to come in competition with the manufacturers of the world, and he has to sell his goods at what they are worth in the world’s market, and this he can do and still make a profit r he wouldn’t do it. But the tariff excludes competition from this country, and fr the Canada price h n adds the 58 per cent, tariff when he sells in thi s country He doesn’t In.ve to, Mr. People; he doesn’t have to. And the people have voted that this shall continuejfor four years more.

kcccr ling to + he latest newspaper directo’iAs the total issue of daily newspapers in tbe United States for the year 1888 was 1,481,844,000. Of this number The Ind'ana State Sentinel printed 1,724,400 copies—a larger number than any weekly paper in this section of the country. During 1889 it will probably reach a much larger figure, and in order to show a just appreciation of the s ( pport given The Sentinel, - the Editor has offered a prize of SSO to tne person who sends to The Sentinel office, before January 1, 1889, the best “guess” on President Harrison’s cabinet. Each guess must be accompanied by the sum of one dollar for which The Sunday Sentinel will be mailed (postage prepaid) to any address, for the t ±rm of six months; or The Indiana State Sentinel (weekly) will be mailed (postage prepaid) to any address for the term of one year. Here is a splendid opportunity for Agents. An energetic solicitor can make from $2.50 t» 5.00 par day if he works hard. No better inducement could be offered than the prize of SSO which it is proposed! to the person making the best guess ou President-elect Harrisou’s cabinet. Agents can largely inefease their subscription lists before the holidays if they would only go to work. The cost of Christmas presents can be paid out of their earnings during the next three weeks. Union Christmas Entertainment at Opera House, December 26th, 1888. The surest evidence of the efficiency of Mr. and Mrs. Brawn as instructors in Art is the continual increase in the number of pupils.

The best Sewing Machine in th e aarket is the Eldredge. Call at he residence of Mrs. J. W. Me□wen. Agent, Rensselaer, Ini