Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1890 — Page 3

POVERTY PAYS THE TAX

INEVITABLE EFFECTS OF THE M’K.INLEY BILL.

Heaviest Duties Laid on Cheapest Goods i —A Prohibitory Tax oa Some Lines—All 1 Classes or Goods Will Be Higher—Chi- j cagj Jobbers Interviewed. [From the Chicago News, Ind.] It is the opinion of most of the Chicago wholesale men that the AlcKinley bill , •win not seriously reduce the volume of their basiuess, •ut all agree that the ; higher tariff will make all classes of good- dearer for the consumer. Espe- \ ciftLy is this true of woolen and linen! fabrics, cutlery, and tin goods. Other lines will feel the effects of the bill in a ! less decree. But as the chief items of domestic expense are concerned with these heavily taxed goods the evil results of the b»ll are expected to be sufficient j to create no little distress in the humbler j class of consumers. That the bill will j pass seems to be conceded, ' More than ! that, it is anticipated that the bill will be put into effect at the earliest possible date to shut out large importations that may be attempted before the bill becomes a law. MR. WALKER’S OPINION OF THE BILL. “The effect of the bill will be to make • enormously rich a few already rich manufacturers,” said James H. Walker, the wholesale dry goods dealer. “While, doubtless, no discrimination against the poor man was intended, he will most feel the bad effects of the bill. It offers a larger protection to the manufacturers who make articles in imitation of foreign importations and these articles are consumed by the poor people. In every instance the cheaper grade of goods is compelled to pay a higher tariff and in the end the consumer pays it. Wo will sell as many goods as before, but we’ll get more for them. The bill raises the tariff on cheap pearl buttons, none of which are made in this country, from 23 per cent, to 304 per cent. Isn’t that robbery? Some manufacturer probably thinks he wants to make these buttons and the bill provides for him. Then there is the case of the linen tariff, familiar to the public in recent discussions. One rich manufacturer only makes linen goods in this country and he only makes $1,000,01)0 worth a year. He hasn’t increased his plant sinco he began the . business. We import $20,000,00J worth of linens and pay $7,000,000 in duties. The McKinley bill makes the duty $12,000,000 a year and makes it operative for fifteen years—slßo,ooo,o6o taxes to protect one man. Is anybody legislating to double your salary? I ihimr not, yet that is the effect of this bill for the linen manufacturer. THE PEOPLE WILL WIPE T IE WEON G AWAY. “No great wrong is ever righted until the burden becomes so oppressive that the people arise and wipe it away. It looks like Providence was driving these men to desperate measures to overwhelm them. Every Congressman who voted for this bill ought to be relegated to obscurity, especially the Western men, who know they do not represent their constituents. What shall we think of a man like Butterwortli, who makes a speech pointing out the evils of the hill and then votes for it. The talk about protecting labor is a fallacy. Free labor is the best paid, and protected labor will not secure any increase of wages commensurate with the cost of the articles the laboring man consumes. Here is the instance of ‘cut’ hose. The imported article is much superior to the American manufacture, which has a heavy seam injurious to the feet of those who wesr hose. The McKinley bill will keep the imported article out of the country, and the laboring classes will have to wear the American goods.” TIN-PLATE AND CUTLERY RATES. Charles D. Seeberger, of A. F. Seeberger & Co., has made a study of the effects of the bill on hardware. “The worst effects of the bill,” said Mr. Seeberger, “will be felt by the consumers of tin goods, qutlery, and guns. The tariff on some classes of these goods is in effect prohibitory. Tin roofing will be increased 15 per cent, in cost. The bill will not make the wages of miners higher because pig tin is free of duty. Tin-plate can’t be made satisfactorily in this country, but the imported article is to be kept out by the rate of duty. It will increase the cost of tin goods and render still less profitable the already unprofitable trade of the tin dealers. The cost of the tin can is already too large a portion of the cost of can products, and this b.ll will make it larger. “Only the cheaper grades of pocket cutlery are' imported, and the McKinley bill prohibits the importation of these goods. Nobody is benefited except a few American manufacturers. Knives that cost now $36 a gross will co-t under the new bill S4B a gross. Five patterns of knives made in this country alone can be manufactured here for $42.98 a gross. These knives, made at Sheffield, England, would cost $46.52, and landed in New York, duty paid, $64.30. The bill may cause some decrease in our sales, but we do not anticipate any serious falling off in our business The people must have our goods, and they will have to pay more for them. ” SENATOR EARWELL’S PARTNER TALKS. Mr. J. K. Harmon is a member of the firm of J. V. Farwell & Co., of which Charles B. Farwell, one of the Illinois Senators, is a member. Mr. Harmon has made a study of the bill. “The McKinley bill will raise the prices of all our goods,” said Mr. Harmon. “It will raise the prices of woolens and linens more than cottons, but will make everything dearer. This bill lays more specific duties than any other tpudff measure, and specific duties always increase the prices on lower grades of goods. The poorer people who buy them will feel the tariff more than the wealthier class.” “Will the laboring people get enough more in wages to compensate for these increased prices?” “We can’t tell what the result of passing the bill will be until we have tried it, but I think the laboring 1 people will not be benefited as much as the manufacturers . The poor will have to buy a poorer grade of goods than they have been baying and pay just as much for them. The rich will haye to pay more for what they buy, but proportionately less than the poor, for the tariff will not be ns high on the better grade as the lower class goods. I think nearly as many goods will be sold as now are. Tho people have got to be olothed. In some instances, of course,

the poorer people may wear their clothing longer and do with less, but these people are not numerous. ”

HOW WE ARE TAXED.

[From the Chicago Herald.] No tinned plate is at present produced in this country, although block tin, the primary necessity for its prodnetion, is admitted free of duty. It is an article that is prodneed almost exclusively in Wales, where there are ninety-five works, embracing about four hundred mills, devoted to its production. Tinnedpl&te, as now made under the late improved methods*consists of the very best quality Bessemer and Siemens Martin steel, the sheets being cold rolled, pickled and annealed and rolled to twenty-nine and thirty wire gauge, cut to exact size, coated with block tin, polished and packed in oak boxes and delivered free on board the steamer at English shipping ports, and for this article the matter at present prices receives less than three cents per pound, boxes included. The same quality of steel sheets, without the cutting to size, coating with tin, packing or boxing, or delivering free on steamer, costs to-day from our American manufacturers, after their more than forty years’ experience, four cents per pound or more. In other words, with inexhanstible stores of every component of tinned plate, with unrivaled facilities for its manufacture, and consuming far more than all the rest of the world combined, we are forced to import all the tin plate used, because our proteoted manufacturers of iron and steel combine together and charge a cent more per pound for the steel sheets (making 95 per cent, of the bulk) than the finished tinned plate costs in New York duty free. Now they propose to have the Government raise the duty on foreign-made tinned plates, so ns first to control the market themselves and then be subsidized $14,000,000 a year for supplying the demand.

As the tariff now stands, a dairyman pays 8 cents more for each “15-quart pail,” 4 cents more for each “10-quart pan,” and 45 cents more for each “40-quart can” than if there were no tariff, and the price of other nrticles is, of course, in proportion; while if the McKinley bill should become a law he would have to pay 17 cents more for each pail, 9 cents more for each pan and $1 more for each can than if he were not “protected.” On these items each farmer can figure out for himself how much he is directlv taxed on the average on the amount of tinware ho uses annually in his dairy or for other uses in his. house or on hi< farm. The amount will be more than he at first thinks, since purchases of these articles are frequent; nnd without carefully adding them up for some definite period, such as a year, or taking a complete inventory outside of the house aB well as in it, few will realize how much tin plate they consume. The tariff on tin thus consumed generally by the dairy farmer is, however, not the only oppressive burden levied upon him by the tinned plate tariff. The nrticles named are repeatedly used, and the cost of their wear cannot easily be traced to its exact effect upon the pi ice of any one product. But with other articles this can be done. Take the instance of tinned pails used for packing butter for transport and for sate in twenty-five-pound and other packages. They are so much lighter, cheaper, and more convenient than the wooden firkins, tubs, and pails formerly used that they are an absolute necessity, and, whether or not their weight is included iu that of the butter paid for, it is certain that the dairy farmer does not get more for his butter on account of the extra cost to him on each package caused by the tariff. Calculating as before, this extra cost is found to be 6 cents on a twenty-five-pound package. That is to says, the dairy farmer’s butter would net him on the average 0.25 cents, or 1 per cent, more per pound if tinned plate were free.

Adolph Oehme, an intelligent farmer at Brainard, Neb , has figured up how much tariff taxes have cost him in a year. He has done more or less trad ng at the village stores, and, of course, has paid protection prices for everything he had to buy. The following is his account for the twelve months: 4 Amount tariff on same, 780 pounds sugar $ 18. t> 10 gallons molasses 4 j 22 pounds woolen goods 9 to Dry goods (cost SB9) 33.72 10 pounds chocolate, etc 20 5 pounds mustard [so 42 pounds rice 95 8,001 feet lumber leioo Machinery (cost $57) 22.80 Salt, 460 pounds 55 1 barrel lime 31 2 boxes soap £2O Medicine (cost $10) 2.50 Binding twine (cost $8) 3.20 Saddleries, etc. (cost S6B) 20.52 Boots and shoes (cost $28.50) 8,55 Total tariff on purchases $142.02 In this way Mr. Oeh mo figures out that the tariff compels him to pay each year $142.02 more for goods which ne requires than they would cost were the tariff removed. This he culls his “ihdireot” tax, and by comparing it with the direct tax which he pays his county, city and Slate he finds this to be the case: Tariff tax—indirect $142.02 City, county, and State—direct 76.82 ... i.,,; . Difference $55.20 And thus Mr. Oehme figures that he is paying indirectly a tax which is almoßt twice as large as his direct lax. and his tax is filched from him little by little in the shape of living expenses that make it hard lo make both ends meet. Were all the farmers as smart as Mr. Oehme, there would be a speedy end of the protection system. An importer who has been figuring on crockery ware and the new tiritf shows that McKinley asks the American workman to pay $21,600,000 for $8,000,000 worth of crockery. Mr. Butterworth says it will take $50,000,000 or more to put the wet-nursed tin-plate industry on its feet, and that the copper barons have declared sixty millions of dividends on an investment of a million and a quaiter.' Naturally this is an age of millionaires, but the people who deal in seven-figure fortunes must be further “encouraged." “Give me free ore.” said the President of the Pennsylvania Steel Company a short time since, “and I’ll sell pig iron in Liverpool and send steel rails to London. What American industries most want is free opportunity, and not legislative protection nor restriction.” Thin positive assertion by the Presi-

dent of one of the largest and most successful steel plants in the United States, if not in the world, is mnch more convincing than are the opinions of hightariff theorists who are protectionists for party politics only.

To show how badlv some of the proposed beneficiaries of the McKinley bill need protection, read this extract from the last report of William Whitman, President of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, to the stockholders of the Arlington Mills. It is da. ed March 29, 1889. “I have been your Treasurer for a consecutive peiiod of twdntr years. During this period the average earnings have been 21) 8-10 per centum upon the capital. * * * The earniugs last year were nearly three and a hdf times those of the year previous, and there is every indication that the current year will be the most profitable one in the company’s history. "

Decline of Farming.

The farming interest is the great foundation interest of our country, and though it is that on which we most depend,” and which of all others ought to have “protection," it ip that which is being gradually taxed to death by our “tariff,” not for the sake of raising the necessary expense of the government, but to put money into the pockets of engaged in other interests and to roll up immense sums in the national treasury which are but a temptation to politicians and which lead to a thousand needless, if not injurious, expenditures. Durihg the ten years from 1850 to 1860 the increase of value of onr farms was $3,373,000,000. or over 10 per cent, yearly; while for the twenty years from 1860 to 1880 it was only $3,374,000,000, or about per cent, yearly. In New England, farming, as a bnsiuees, is well nigh a thing of the past; and even in Pennsylvania—Lancaster County, whioh used to beicalled the “Garden of the State"— farming does not pay, and farms are selling for less than half what they did thirty years ago. Illinois was formerly one of the profitable farming States; but only last month, when at the aunual meeting of the Swedish Lutheran Church, at Rockfo d, a resolution was proposed thanking God for the general prosperity of the last year, it was defeated by the farmer delegates, who denied that there had been any prosperity to the farming interests of the State. Prosperity there is in the couniry—prosperity to manufacturers, and mining, and railroads, and capitalists, but the crease of wealth is at the expense of the farming interests, which, under our tariffs, are taxed 40, 50 and 60 per cent, on the very articles needful for their families, or for conducting the business of farming, while many of the large moneyed interests of the land are taxed only some 10 or 12 per cent., thus widening the space between labor and capital, making the rich richer, and the poor poorer, Rnd so gradually undermining the very foundation of our permanent prosperity as a nation. If the farmers do not wake up to these facts and make themselves felt by their votes—if they do not sustain that*party, whichever it may be, that will modify these tariff exactions, and equalize the taxes that are now so burdensome to themselves, they will suffer for their indifference to their own interests and can hardly expect the sympathy of those who would gladly rejoice in their prosperity. —Detroit Free Prees.

Enormously Enhanced Duties on Cutlery.

Here is a protest from the St. Louis dealers iu cutlery which shows how the price of various necessaries in that line are to go up under the influence of the McKinley tariff: On pocket-knives, 100 per cent, ad valorem, instead of 50 per cent., as now. On razors, 75 per cenl. ad valorem, instead of 50 per cent, as now. On c irving and cooks’ knives. 70 per cent, ad valoreni, instead of 35 per cent, as now. On table cutlery, 50 per cent, ad valorem, instead of 35 per cent, as now. On butcher-knives, 55 per cent, ad valorem, instead of 35 per ceni. as now. On scissors and shears, 45 per cent, ad valorem, instead of 35 per cent, as now. The heaviest burden in each case is put on the cheapest goods. On pocket-knives the duty runs as high as 132 per cent. On razors the duty runs as high as 100 per cent. On carving-knives the duty rums as high as 99 per cent. On table cutlery the duty runs as high as 70 per cent. On butcher-knives the duty runs as high as 65 per cent. These rates, say the dealers, are in nearly all cases prohibitory, and would, if enacted, shut out grades and patterns not made in this conutry, and WLich are largely bought by work ng people. They further say that “there is no good res son for the udvance, nnd it is evidently made with the intention of benefiting a comparatively small clas9 of the manufacturers, to the disadvantage of the toiling masses.” As a matter of fact, the entire bill seems to have been shaped upon that policy. It is purely a class measure, apd if made law will itself make the cost of living higher in the United States than in any other country on the face of the earth, although there is no other half so rich in natural wealth or in the variety of the necessaries of life.

The Greatest Curse.

The greatest curse that has ever afflicted this land, slavery not excepted, has been the “protective sys em." But for that, instead of having onr industries confined to c.ties, driven by machinery attended by serfs, end owned by purseproud monopol.stß, we should have had small industries scattered all over the land, with machinery nsed as an adjunct to hand labor and not its dominant power. —Ypsilanti Sentinel. A correspondent of the Engineering and Building Record thinks that rats gnaw lead water pipe to sharpen their teeth, and not for the purpose of making a hole through which to pass, or to get water. Hereafter plumbers may consider these rodents as valuable assistants, and possibly charge for their time. India ink is made from burnt camphor. The Chinese are the only manufacturers of this ink, and they will not reveal the secret of its manufacture

AFFAIRS IN INDIANA.

INTERESTING ITEMS GATHERED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

What Our Neighbors Are Doing—Matters of General ami Local Interest—Marrlages ami Deaths—Accidents and Crimes —Personal Pointers. Killed to .Save Himself. The Governor h«s pardoned John Nixon, a life man in the Northern Penitentiary, from Boone County, who has served ten years, on the recommendation of the presiding jndge at the trial, the prosecutor, and the jury. The latter stated in itß recommendation that in the jury-room when the members agreed upon a verdict, it was also agreed to recommend his pardon after he had Berved seven years. Nixon was sent up for killing a man named Mulligan, who enticed him to a secluded spot and attempted to murder him, and in defending himself Nixon plunged a knife into Mulligan’s body. At the trial the Court told him if he would plead guilty he would give him ten years, but Nixon refused, saving he had committed the deed only to save bis own life, and when the jury returned a verdict with a life sentence Judge Terhune set it aside and ordered a new trial, over which Judge Sait presided, and which resulted in a similar veidict with the result as above related. During his imprisonment Nixon lost his right arm in the machinery of the institution, and now starts life anew at a disadvantage. Ground to Death. Albert G. Hoffman, switchman in tho yards of the Chicago and Atlantic Railroad at Huntington, was killed by cars. He was employed at night, and went to the coal dock to run down two cars that had been unloaded there. The track was very much inclined leading from the dock, and it requires that the brakes be set very tight. When tho cors started down the track Hoffman ran from the rear end to tho front of tho head car to set the brake, but in doing so stubbed his toe and fell from the car to the middle of the track beneath. The cur was running lapidly, and no sooner did he strike the track than a brake beam of the car struck his right legnearthe hip, fracturing the bones and bruising it otherwise. That threw him over, and the flange of a wheel struck the lower part of his back, tearing the flesh all off clear to his backbone, exposing it to sight. It wnsa sickening looking wound, nnd ho lived but n short time. Minor Stale Item*. A six-foot vein of coal wns struck at Scottsburg, at a depth of 300 feet, while boring for gas. —The grip is paying a second visit among the residents of Mill Creek Township, Putnam County. —Colored people of Henry County held an indignation meeting over the acquittal of Lake on the charge of murdering Eli Ladd. —Prof. John C. Barrett, engaged durthe past year in post-graduate work at Earlham, has been elected principal of the Munoio High school. —James Strawbridge was drowned in a pond south of Logansport while bathing. He was taken with cramps and went to the bottom before assistance arrived.

The engine of a special train going from Seymour to Jeffersonville, on the J., M. & 1., struck a cow at Austin and was derailed. None of the cars left the track, and nobody was hurt. —While swimming in the Wabasb, near the western city limits of Wabasb, Maurice, the eleven-year-old son of Conrad Bagnn, was drowned. The body was recovered three rods from where it sank. —A farmer living near Coatesville bad nine valuable sheep killed by dogs one night recently, and on the following night the herd of another was attacked, but it was saved by timely action. —ln digging a well at Springport, at a depth of thirty-seven feet a strong vein of water was struck, flowing eight nnd one-half feet above the surface of the ground. The water is clear as crystal and cold as ice. —The following, except the name, is a verbatim copy of a note sent by a very prominent citizen recently to a certain physician of Crawford County: “Doc, John Jones is very bad and if you think it worth while I believe be will die.” —Two women, Doan Nichols and Mrs. Shetterly, were arrested nt Muncie on the charge of abducting Meda Waters, aged 17, to Indianapolis for immoral purposes. Miss Waters’ father brought her back, bat filled with remorse, the young girl took strychnine and died. Mr. Waters is determined to pnnish the women. —The community living aronnd Sim Coy’s Road House, east of Indianapolis, objecting to Sunday base-ball, are preparing to file twenty-five cases against Coy in the Criminal Court, on information, for failure to take out a city retail liquor license under the law which gives the city jurisdiction over liquor establishments within two miles of its corporate limits. At the same time information will be lodged against the street car company, of which Mr. Shaffer, President of the Y. M. C. A., is the controlling force, in an equal number of cases, for alleged overloading of cars in conveying passengers to and fro between the city and Coy’s Park.

—Willis Cook, of Jeffersonville, vu fatally crushed beneath a falling grindstone.

—Miss Agnes Hasfader, a handsome young lady of Colnmbus, alarmed her friends by taking a dose of morphino with 6nicid»l intent. She has been keeping company with a yonng man named Bebrm&n, to whom she was engaged to be married. From some cause the lover has grown lukewarm in his love-making, nnd tho girl grew very despondent and attempted to end her sufferings with poison. Prompt action by two or three physicians saved her life.' The girl bears a good reputation. —The leading farmers of Allen,Noble, Whitley, Elkhart* Kosciusko, Lagrange, nnd Hentington counties were in session iu Fort Wayne, to orgnnize a new Farmers’ Alliance. They were addressed by Newton V. Ashley of lowa, National Organizer, on the near relation and common interests of the agricultural classes and the Knights of Labor. A constitution and by-laws were adopted, together with a number of resolutions expressive of the sentiment of the meeting on public issues. Officers were also elected: J. C. Lawrence, of Whitley County, Secretary; nnd W. A. Kelsey, of Allen County, Secretnryjand Thomas L. McKee, of Allen County, Treasurer. The meeting was an enthusiastic one. —A sad case of drowning occurred near Franklin, iu which n young man lost his life while Bavingthat of a boy. On the farm of William Smith is a large fish pond, in which n boy by the name of Gaylor was bathing. While in deep water he wns seized with cramps,and was apparently in a drowning condition, when his cries brought to his assistance a son of Mr. Smith, a yonng man of about twenty-two years of age, who immediately jumped into the pond and succeeded in bringing Gaylor to tha bank, where he was assisted out by others attracted to the scene. Smith, either from cramps or exhaustion, fell bnck into deep water and sank from sight. In risking his lifo for another he had lost his own. —Miss Lulu O’Keofo, of the College of Liberal Arts, Greencnstle, had a remarkable experience with a needle, which she ran in her foot nine years ago. The young lady had endured no little pain in walking, the point of the needle having lodged against the periosteum, near the sole of the foot; but she could not summon courage enough to have it removed until tho other day, ‘ when the operation was performed by Dr. G. C. Smythe in less time than it takes to tell it. Tho needle was threefourths of an inch in length. It having lodged, against the bone, was prevented from working its way through and out of the foot. The patient, when she recovered from the effects of the chloroform, was rejoiced beyond expression, nor did she experience the slightest pain. —Elizabeth Coward, of Marti* County, and Kate Young, of Vigo, both serving terms in the Female Reformatory for grand larceny, mado a daring escape form the institution the other morning, and are still at large. They worked in the laundry department, and secured two sheets each, which they wrapped about their persons, and thus concealed themselves from the Superintendent. They also secured a couple of case knives, and with these sawed out two of the iron bars that form apart of the grating nt the windows. They then let themselves down with the sheets, and succeeded in scaling the wall which surrounds the prison. They are armed with the knives, and it is not believed that they can be retaken without a struggle. - The case of Hosea against the White Caps has ended. April 11, 1890, David Hosea was taken out of his bouse in Burr Township. Daviess County, by eight masked men and flogged with hickory switches. April 7, John McGath was arrested for attempting to buy the vote of David Hosea, jr., and on tho night of April 10, William (Seals’ barn was burned. Now, when the White Caps took Mr. Hosea from his bed, they charged him with burning the bam and also threatened to whip the old man because his son had McGrath arrested. In the face of these facts Mr. Hosea believed William Seals, John McGrath, Patrick McGrath, Samuel Brewer, and Charles Gough to be his persecutors aud accordingly tiled an affidavit against them. At the trial, held recently, each defendant proved an alibi, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. —The establishment of Swift & Co., Chicago, of a local depot in Fort Wayne, for the sale of Chicago dressed meatr* has well nigh ruined the business of local butchering establishments and made the raising of beef cattle by farmers profitless. Nearly all beef now supplied to retailers is sold by Swift & Co. As an offset to this monopoly, a movement is now on foot and will be carried out to form a stock company among the locgl batchers for the establishment of stock yards at a point east of the city, at which all kinds of live meat will have a ready market at current prices and where they will be slaughtered by the newest and most approved methods and sold to local dealers as dressed meats without thergoßt of railroad transportation and with the advantage of home inspection and the freshness that will come by the saving of extra handling and long railroad transportation. The names of the incorporators of this enterprise will soon be made public.