Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1890 — WHY EVERYTHING GOES UP. [ARTICLE]

WHY EVERYTHING GOES UP.

[lnterview with Senator Carlisle.] Correspondent—A newspaper cited yesterday an instance where a shopkeeper put up the price of an article on the ground of the passage of the tariff bill, and it was discovered, on examination of the law, that the duty had been reduced instead of increased. Mr. Carlisle—There isj nothing very strange in that, because, in the first place, it is the natural disposition of every man in trade to take advantage of the general rise in the price of commodities, and in the next place he is compelled to do so to a certain extent because the prices of a great many things which he is compelled to buy and to use for himself and family will be actually increased by the new tariff law; and he must also increase if he can the prices of the articles he has to sell in order to compensate himself for his additional expenditures. In other words, what I mean to say is that when you increase the prices of the commodities which the people are compelled to have, the almost inevitable effect is to raise to some extent the prices of all other articles.— All the products of labor except such as we produce in greater quantities than we need for domestic consumption, as is the case with agricultural products generally, will thus rise in price, but the wages of laborers and the compensation of persons with fixed salaries will not rise. They are always the last to feel the effect of a general increase of prices. No tariff can possibly affect the wages of labor in this country, because wages always depend on the law of supply and demand, and no artificial arrangement can affect them beneficially. All the effect that such arrangement can have is to increase the cost of the thing which the laborer has to buy with his wages—which is precisely the same thing to him as if his wages were actually reduced.

For the candidate for whom you desire to vote you will stamp the little square on the left and in line with his name.