Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1890 — Page 3

BUT CAN WE COMPETE?

PROTECTIONISTS OVERTHROWING THEIR IDOL. Protectionist Testimony Showing thi Superiority ot American Labor. Its Great -Cheapness, and Its Ability to Compete in -the World's Markets. When the protectionists wish to show ■that we cannot compete with Europe they always talk of its “pauper labor, ” but when they wish to work us up to the highest pitch of “pauner labor” fright, they talk about India, or some other ■equally remote part of the world. The cotton bagging trust has had the “gall” to plead for its high protection in order to defend itself from this most miserable -of all pauper labor, “livingon nothing but jice;” and even the valiant soul of Uncle Jerry Rusk himself is struck with dismay when he reflects that our farmers are competing with the “ryots of India. ” How little we have to fear from such labor, however, is well shown by protectionists themselves. The National Econ■omist, which is the origin of the Ameri•can Protective Tariff League, has re■cently done this very effectively, notwithstanding all its talk about “pauper labor.” It quotes from a book on .famines in India as follows: “Perhaps the most econoniical application of power in the conveyance of goods in the world is that to be seen in the canals of Malabar. There a tree 60 feet long and 2% feet in diameter is hollowed into a canoe; the opening above is not wider than a plank would cover. "This canoe will carry with ease five tons •of grain. It floats on the water like a •duck, requires little depth and little width. A boy sits at the helm steering, aqd a man propels it by walking along the plank with a punting pole against his •chest. This man and boy this boat •containing 12 ordinary cart loads of grain 30 miles in the 24 hours, thus for 6 annas —9d.—doing three days’ work of 12 carts with their pairs of bullocks and of their •drivers. ” The Economist goes on to show that this is “at the rate of 18 cents a day 1n •our money, or say 12 cents for the man and 6 for the boy.” This is further shown to be 1.2 mills for moving one ton •one mile. Now the Economist takes the trouble to prove that we have even cheaper freights in America. It quotes the Marquette Mining Journal to the effect that vessels were recently chartered to carry coal from Buffalo to Superior City at the rate of 30 cents a ton. Then it says : ■“As the distance is a little over 900-miles this is at the rate of one third of a cent per ton a mile, or about one-fourth of the •cost on the Malabar canals. * * * * Yet no seamen in the world receive higher wages than those on our great lakes.” Then the Economist has the boldness ■to apply this to freight rates in America and in England, saying: “The influence -of better machinery is shown in the freight rates paid on railroads in the two •countries. Within the past 25 years our freight rates have been reduced to about •one-fourth of what they then were, but in England there has been no material reduction in freight charges for 30 years, and wages in this country are about twice what they are in England.” In saying this the protectionist., organ gives awayjts whole pauper labor argument; for if highly paid labor on our Tailrdads moves freight at one-half the price in England, why may not high •wages turn out cheap products in manufactures? High wages and cheap freights go together; why may not high wages and cheap products? According to the usual style of arguing among protectionists, if an English and an American railroad were built parallel to each ■other the American road would stand no kind of show, for its wages are twice as high as on the English road; But we •know that it would carry all the freight -and bankrupt its rival, for the simple reason that people prefer to pay half price for freights and for everything •else. Our ability to compete with England in other lines has been officially shown hy the protectionists. Mr. Charles S. Hill, a pronounced protectionist statistician in the State Department at Washington, made an argument before the Tariff Commission of 1883, in which he showed that our manufacturing product in 1882 was 88,000,000,000, made by 5,250,000 hands, and that for the same time the total product of Englapd was -84,000,000,000, made by 5,140,200 Then he added this remarkable conclusion: “Here is the positive proof that American mechanics in the aggregate accomplish exactly double the result of the same number of British mechanics. They are, therefore, very justly paid ■double in wages. ” But they are not “paid double in wages.” Mr. Blaine made that sufficiently plain when he was Secretary of State under Garfield. Here is an extract from a report he made on the cot-ton-goods trade of the world: “The wages of spinners and weavers in Lancashire and in Massachusetts, according to the foregoing statements, were as follows per week: Spinners, English, 87.20 to 88.40 (master spinners running as high as 812); American, 87.07 to 810.30. “Weavers, English, 83.84 to 88.64, subject, at the date on which these rates were given, to a reduction of 10 percent.; American, 84.82 to 88.73. “The average wages of employes in the Massachusetts mills are as follows, according to the official returns: Men 88.30, women 85.62, male.childreu 83.11, female children 83.08. According to Consul Shaw’s report, the average wages of the men employed in the Lancashire mills on the Ist of January, 1880, was about 88 per week, subject to a reduction of 10 per cent.; women from 83.40 to 84.30, subject to a reduction of 10 per cent. “The hours of labor in the Lancashire mills are fifty-six, in the Massachusetts sixty per week. The hours of labor in the mills in the other New England States, where the wages are generally less than in Massachusetts, are usually sixty-six to sixty-nine per week. Undoubtedly the inequalities in the wages ■of English and American operatives are more than equalized by the greater efficiency of the latter ana their longer hours of labor. If this should prove to be a fact in practice, as it seems to me to be proven from official statistics, it would be a very important element in the establishinent of our ability to compete with England for our share of the cotton goods trade of the world. ” How it is that. American labor produces so much more than English labor may be seen from a repefl-t made to the State Department by Consul Schoenhof, who is not a protectionist" He made a careful examination in America and in England as to the producing power of labor and as to wages. He found that In the cotton mills of America one weaver

runs from six to eight looms; In those of England, three to four. The number of yards of cloth turned out by one weaver is, in America, 1,350 yards; in England, 875. The result is that in America the labor cost of making 100 yards of print doth is 40 cents and in England 51 cents. In weaving woolen dress-goods, one weaver in America runs two looms and produces 300 yards oer week; in England, one weaver runs one loom, and produces 105 yards per week.

Similar results can bo shown in the manufacture of steel and steel rails, in the manufacture of hundreds of implements of iron, in nail making, and in many other lines. All of which shows the folly of the cry, “We can’t compete. ” The Economist article, already quoted, closes with a remarkable statement in fact, with a free trade argument of the most sweeping character. It says: “Sir James Kitson, the President of thq Iron and Steel Institute, and the largest manufacturer of locomotives in England—he makes 150 a year—visited the Baldwin Locomotive Work&in Philadelphia, which will try to make 1,000 locomotives this year, and exports more than Sir James makes. There he saw shops struggling with taxed raw material and paying workmen twice what he pays,but full of the best machinery known. If he will take back a ship load of American machinery and a few Americans to show him how to use it he can undersell all England, and in the operation his men will demand a share of the profits, which he can afford to pay them. ” In other words, our protectionist authorityshows the superiority of America over England, shows that England can learn from us, and yet claims that America should be protected from England I Your protectionist cow can verily jump over the moon I

TARIFF LETTERS TO FARMER BROWN. SO. 7. The Tariff as a Corraptiug Force In Our Fblitics. Dear Farmer Brown: If I were asked what is the most dangerous tendency in our political life, I would answer: Unquestionably the use of money in elections. And, if I were further asked what is the one thing above all else which promotes this corruption of the suffrage, I would answeT: Undoubtedly, the protective tariff. It is no doubt true that wealthy corporations like railroads have poured out money freely to corrupt some of our Legislatures. Valuable franchises have often in this way been bought in hard cash. But no temptation to corruption is so strong as protection, for there is never an occasion that so completely welds together the vast and Varied industries of the land to*accomplish a common purpose as an election for President or members of Congress. These protected industries may fight each other with the fury of wild beasts. Prices may be cut to the lowest point to crush out a rival. Combinations may be made by one industry for the purpose of feeding upon another industry. But when the protecting hand of Government threatens to be withdrawn, these warring elements will suspend their strife for a moment, and will bring their gdld to the common coffer to buy an extension of their privileges. When thousands of interests are thus threatened with a suspension of Government aid, is it any wonder that the corruption of the Suffrage should reach an unheard-of extent? As you have always been a Republican, you may not be willing to admit that such corruption really exists, however strong the temptation to practice it; or you may claim, at least, that the Democrats are equally corrupt. However that .may be, it must be admitted that there is no powerful class in the Democratic party who have a large pecuniary interest in a lower tariff. There is scarcely a man in the whole country, it is true, except the manufacturers, but has a direct pecuniary interest in having lower tariff taxes; but the interests of nd one consumer can be very great as compared with the great producing combinations. David A. Wells has estimated that the burden of national taxation, exclusive of that which goes in higher prices to the protected manufacturers, is 86 per capita for our entire population men, women, and children. But the manufacturer who has only a six-dollar interest in protection would contribute very little to save the system. The loss that protection inflicts upon the consumer is paid a little here and a little there, being added to the price of the things he buys. This is a frequent cause among protectionists for praising their system—that the consumer gets robbed without knowing it It is thus true that even if the Democrats were as corrupt as the protectionists, the fact would still remain that they could go but a little way in buying an election. Contributions to the fund of the two parties do not usually come in such small sums as the great mass of consumers can afford to pay. It is the wealthy who subscribe. It is my charge, therefore, that protection is the greatest corrupting power in the United States. The dependence of the Republican party upon the protected classes to carry its elections makes it the agency through which this money power works, and it debases the party by chaining it to the Interests of the protected classes and forcing it to do their bidding. What better proof of this could be found than in the way McKinley’s committee dealt with the proposed tax on hides last spring? First, there was pressure from the West for a tax on hides, and hides were taxed. Then the manufacturers of New England were up in arms, and threatened destruction to the party unless the duty was removed, and hides were again free. Then there was another assault from the West upon the committee; and the tax was once more put on—Gov. Gear, of lowa, announcing that they would “stick to it like a dog to a bone.” Then the manufacturers from New England made their demands more emphatically than ever, and the committee dropped the duty as a dog drops a hot egg. Now, does anybody suppose that the committee changed its mind so many times on the simple question whether the best interests of the nation required a tax on hides?. Or was it not simply an effort to find which party controlled the greater infTuenco and the more votes? When the McKinley bill was being considered by the conference committee of the House and Senate, the correspondent of the New York Tribune wrote to that paper as follows: “Mr. Searles, of the sugar trust, and other well-known operators established themselves' in the Senate wing of the Capitol, and Senator Quay (Chairman of the National Republican Committee) and other friends of tho higher rates kept up constant com-

munication with the conferred on th 4 subject of restoring tlie duties down to No. 13.” It is also well known that even before tho bill was passed collectors were at work in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to raise money to re-elect Major McKinley. In Pittsburgh a rich manufacturer, James B. Oliver, in explaining why his firm would not contribute, said, “Why should we give anything toward McKinley? His bill didn’t do us any good, but has injured us.” thus tacitly accepting the view that national legislation is a thing to be paid for or not, according as it helps or hurts. But you will recall many confessions ot prominent Republicans as to the use of money and where it comes from. You recall tho famous circular sent out two years ago by James P. Foster, President of the National League of Republican Clubs. That circular was marked “confidential” and was sent as an appeal to manufacturers for money; reminding .them that they “are most benefited by our tariff laws." This circular quotes a Republican U. S. Senator as saying: “The campaign which we are about to enter will concern, more than anybody else, the manufacturers of this country.” And again: “I was solicited to contribute to a protective tariff league, and I replied, if the manufacturers of the United States in their associated capacity were an eleemosynary institution that I would vote to give them a pension, but that I did not propose myself to contribute money to advance the interests of men who were getting practically the sole benefit, or at least the most directly important benefits of the tariff laws. ” He refused to leave the manufacturers “to reap the fruitsof the tariff policy without any deduction for political expenses”; but on the contrary “I would put the manufacturers of Pennsylvania under the fire and fry all the fat out of them. ” And when Senator Ingalls wanted “some fellow like Phelps of New Jersey” nominated for Vico President, it was because he “could get contributions from the manufacturers and Wall street." You recall, too, how Chester A. Arthur •boasted that the Republicans carried Indiana in 1880 by using “a great deal of soap. ” You remember that in the Presidential election of 1888 there was what was fittingly called a “manufacturers’ bureau” attached to the Republican National Committee. Postmaster General Wanamaker, who raised 8400,000 among the manufacturers a few days before the election, has explained the origin of this bureau. He says: “I told Quay I would undertake to raise the money if he would allow us to establish a manufacturers’ bureau and have a voice in the disposition of the money. I don’t mean that we insisted on knowing what was done with every dollar of it. I didn’t want to know.” Holy John evidently had his suspicions and wanted to preserve a conscience void of offense, if that were possible, by remaining in voluntary ignorance. And tho raising of this 8400,000 made the man Postmaster General. But this is enough. Protection is fighting its battles with the money which' it collects from its beneficiaries and is using that money to corrupt the voters of this country. How long that is to be > will depend upon the long-suffering of the people in tolerating a system which works so directly and so fatally in that direction. As the people come to understand this more fully they will see that no political party can be trusted to govern this country, which depends upon an immense corruption fund raised from those who are enriched by the laws it has made. That is happily growing more clear to the minds of the people, and when they see it fully they can be trusted to crush this Babylon of abominations called protection. Yours truly, Richard Knox. A Tar’s Fare we IL “San Francisco is exiled; we can get plenty to carry away, but it will not pay to cover half the long journey with a hold full of ballast. California is most unfortunate, it seems to me; the magnificent State has no competition in her products for export, and this new tariff effectually prevents any reasonable exchange. I am saying good-by with a great deal of regret, for, although an Englishman San Francisco is almost home tome from long association.” These words were spoken by a British sea captain who recently sailed out from San Francisco. This is an excellent illustration of the principle that in order to. export our own surplus products we must take the products of other countries in exchange. Ships must have cargoes both ways in order to make foreign trade profitable. The wheat growers of California cannot have the advantage of cheap freights to Liverpool, just to the extent that the new tariff law keeps British products away from San Francisco. The nation that adopts the McKinley plan of trying to sell as much as possible to other nations, and to treat those of its citizens who buy goods abroad as the enemies of the country, has attempted both the impossible and the absurd. The Meaning of It. The litigation over the McKinley tariff act already promises to be endless. Importers in New York are paying duties under protest, believing that the law is null and void by reason of the omifasion of one section from the bill as it passed the House and Senate. Besides this there have already been numerous rulings by the Treasury Department in explanation of the act, and there have been numerous protests from merchants against the duties as collected, which will involve long and expensive cases in court. All this recalls what Horace Greeley once said about the way the courts have to cut up a tariff law. He said: “The longer a tariff continues the more weak spots are found, the more holes are picked in it, until at last, through the influence of successive evasions, constructions, decisions, its very father would not discern its original features in the transformed bantling that has quietly taken its place.” The Union Cotton Milla, of Full River, Mass., has a capital of 8750,000, and during the past year, its net earnings were 8121,000, or more than 16 per cent. Notwithstanding these large earnings the mills have been complaining of overproduction and have been shutting down to make prices go up. Protection causes big appetites The Custom House officers have been capturing more smuggled goods in New York. How does it happen that the smuggler will run the risk of long Imprisonment, if it bo true, us we are so often told, that goods are as cheap here as in Europe? Behold 1 the Island that Is void of sorrow, And for whose shelter men have long mads quest, We have not seen, but it is called To-morrow— The land within whoso borders there is rest.

WITHIN OUR BORDE.

MINOR INDIANA STATE NEWS ITEMS. The Cars Continue Their Dea<Hy Work— The Quail Hunter Likewise Slick Lightning Rod Agouti.—body Washed Ashore Caught in Quicksand — Tried tho Morphine Route -Mau Dogs in MudIson. —Evansville is infested with thieves. —Columbus has three Unlicensed saloons. —Shelbyville wants a new Big Four depot. —More deaths at Frankfort from diphtheria. —Prowlers peep in at Kokomo back Windows. —Harry Moffitt was badly bitten by a dog at Fort Wayne. 1 >■ —Peru's abandoned gas well has developed into a gusher. —John Shares, brakeman, had an arm crushed at Ridgeville. —John Hamlot, a loony, tried to kill himself at Valparaiso. —Wallace Hinton was killed in the Cannellburgcoal mines. —Tho Michigan City Penitentiary is increasing in population, —“Father” Benton, of Huntington, claims to be 109 years old. —Daniel May had a desperate tight with a bulldog at Muncie. —Richmond toughs throw rocks into the Salvation Army’s camp. —E. M. Stone, prominent fanner of Connorsville, was gored by a bull. —Joe Orr, Plymouth, stabbed Tom Ennis, who was trying to rob him. —Mrs. John Smithers swallowed arsenic for quinine and is likely to die. —J. J. King, general store at Frankton, has assigned. Liabilities, 85,000. —A tramp was found in the streets at Richmond, badly bruised about tho head. —A. J. Case, switchman, got caught in a frog at Fort Wayne, both legs cut off. —John Riddle's hand was mangled by tho explosion of a cartridge at Greensboro. —Wm. Bright, who eloped with Gertrude Bricker, at Marion, has been released. —Charles Hcgerfeld, Fort Wayne, had 880 in hie trunk. He hasn’tnow; thieves have it. —George Ames, President of the First National Bank of Michigan City, died of old age. —Hattie Evans, Goshen, stepped on a rusty nail. ’Tis thought it may result in lockjaw. x —Shelby Fay, Lafayette, says his wife is cruel and has left him. He wants tho string ent. —The office safe of J. >l. Fear & Co., Frankfort, was blown open. The thieves, getting 875. —George Phipps, young married man at Byron, has gone insane. Religious excitement. —W’illiam Mansfield and son were dangerously injured in a runaway near Brooksfield. ‘—The corporate exigence of the South Bond National Bank has been extended twenty years. —Robert Martin, liveryman, Muncie, was kicked on the leg by a horse, making him a cripple. —Charles-Wilson, of Delphi, blew his head off with a shot gun. Despondent from sickness. —Mad dogs are thick near Madison. Children are afraid to go to school on account of them. —Elisha Bell got nine years in the pen. from Columbus. He “cracked” a safe and secured 8180. —Mrs. Crouch, Thorntpwn, was milking a cow; it kicked and Mrs. Crouch has a broken leg. —Frederick Yunkman, a varnisher, committed suicide at Madison by drinking carbolic acid. —Minnie Morse, Kokomo, slipped on a banana peel and fell, breaking her right leg above tho knee. —Officers run in Fred Serpos, who robbed “Cos" Wagner’s cigar store last July at South Bend. —Jack O’Neil, Terre Haute, stole a clock. He was run down for taking time by tho forelock. —J. J. Ring, a prominent merchant of Frankton, failed. Liabilities, 85,000; assets about the same. —Edward T. Childe was struck and killed by a train on the Pennsylvania Road near Ptiladelphia. —Fannie Wiley and Doon Nichols, Muncie, have been sent to the State Reformatory for abduction. —The general store of Charles Eusmingcr, at Marlon, was burned. Loss, 82,500; insurance, 81,500. —James Dyke and Joo Masters were quail hunting at Brooklyn. Same old story. Masters may live. —Will Bryant was shot in the side of the head while out hunting with a party of friends near Richmond. —Two doctors worked on Joe Dunfeo’s stomach at Wabash. He tried to go hence on a morphine ticket. —ln a free-for-all fight, at Logansport, John Galloway slashed Charles Gharls oyer the head with a knife. —Henry J. Ritter, who murdered his sister-in-law at New Albany, has been sentenced to prison for life. —John Golden, a man about thirty years of age, whose home is unknown, was sentenced to the penitentiary for two years, at Kokomo for grand larceny. —.John Hamshire’s mule, near Terre Haute, got a stone in his hoof. Hamshire tried to pick it out, and he picked himself out of a mud help ten feet away. —Allen Mauck, English, had a picture gallery in a tent. Lightning during a thunder storm shied down the center pole and came near killing Warren MeMahel and Theodore Starr.

—Thieves at Olive Hill, aror ftfebmond, took, Jack Kempton's marc aort skipped. —James Sheflleberaer, Bioff Creek, put sixteen shot into James A. Fray’s head, when out after quail. —William Hays, Shelbyville, wanted a pair of boots. He saw a pair in a farmer's wagon and put them on. —A fellow walked into Charles Ohlfast’s house, near Valparaiso, and walked out again with 838. He was caught. —John Rogers, a grocer at Greencastle, aged 30 and single, shot himself in the temple. No cause is know. —Wm. Tang was fatally scalded by falling ino a vat ot boiling water at a glue factory near New Albany. A number of students of Notre Dame I niversity were suspended for leaving the grounds without permission. i —Tho Messrs. Oliver are about to erpet a 83<M),000 hot,el in South Bend, which will be the finest in the State. —Pat Haggarty, Marshal of Columbus, attempted to ’paint Edinburg scarlet. He was securejpr housed in the lockup. —Benjamin Fisher went, to Madison from Manville, sold his hogs, got very drunk and died in his debauch, aged 23. —The Citizens’ Gas Cbmpany has struck a well six miles northeast of Tipton with a flow of 10,000,000 feet a day. —By the breaking of a frog a freight train was ditched near New Albany. Conductor and brakeman seriously hurt. —The new springs at Washington, ’tis said, will cure Bright’s disease, scrofulous tints and a bushel of other diseases. —Two blocks of business buildings including twelve business houses were burned at Leavenworth’ Loss 8125,000. —’William Hochstetler was tossed by a wild deer in the private park of J. H. Bass, of Fort Wayne, and badly injured. —George Lake, near Muncie, was divorced from his wife a week ago. Ho has just been hitched to Alice Hear* shey. —Rev. W. T/ Cuppy, of Waveland, while gathering apples fell to the ground a distance of fifteen foot, lighting on his head. —John Langet’s child, tipped over its cradle at Mt. Lebanon, fell into tho fire and was burned to death. —A peculiar disease has broken out among the swine of St. Joseph County. No man nas yet been able to tell Its nature. —William Siinmops, wanted at Rockford, 111., , for the embezzlement of a horse and buggy, was arrested at Muncie. —Bert Lawrence, a boy, has been bound over to court in, the sum of 8200, for stealing a pair of boots at New Market. —Tho Zeigler Manufacturing Company, bff Buffalo, will remove to Marion, and employ 130 men In making patent scaffolds. —George Cusick, eighth husband of the celebrated Mollie Van Buskirk, has been sent to prison for two years from Shelbyville. —James Grantham, in leveling a sand hili in Carroll County, found Indian skeletons, a lot of pottery and imple ments of war. —Peter Wagner, of Marshall, built a fire in his grate, forgetting that ho had concealed 8390 there. His money went up In smoke. —Mrs. William McKenzie, Terro Haute, ran a needle Into her hand, breaking it off.. It’s thought amputation will be necessary. —Wm. Watson testified in court against Elisha Bell, at Crawfordsville, whereupon Bell rose up and threatened to cut his throat. * —Margaret Westcott, T<«rre Haute, says her hubby has gone away jnd left her and was cruel to her. She wants the knot untied. —Dan Drake,colored, Lafayette,showed bls sister-in-law his brotherly lovo for her by knocking her to the floor. He is on the ’squire’s string. —William McCoy, near Richmond, tried to clean sawdust from a circular saw. His right arm was torn in shreds from the elbow to the wrist. —William Simmons, the notorious sneak-thief in jail at Muncie, awaiting the arrival of Illinois and . lowa officers, came near making his escape. —John Tash, Kokomo, thought he was robbed of 8150. He afterward found his roil in the organ where he had hidden it during a somnambulistic stroll, —At Muncie, fire destroyed Loan Franklin’s unoccupied livery barn. A dwelling house, occupied by John Sfaideler, near by, was badly damaged. —Dr. B. Dunn, a former resident of Crawfordsville, and a graduate of the class of 1845, Wabash College, died on Thursday from heart failure, at his home in Macomb, 111. —A Kokomo 9-vcar-old while sliding down a stair balustrade, fell from the second story to the floor below, breaking his arm and cutt.ng several gashes in his body and head. —lt is now discovered that Prof. Slotts, of Mitchel], who “mysteriously” disappeared a short time ago, has eloped with a widow, Mrs. Bettie Sanders. His family is left in poor circumstances. —Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia, was warmly received by the students and faculty of Notre Dame Uhiversity, where he stopped over on his return from the Feehan jubilee at Chicago. —F. L. Ervin, of Hartford Citv, lost a valuable roadster from distemper. The horse was sick but a short time. There are many other serious cases in Blackford County, but thus far only one has resulted fatally. —Leavenworth is appealing for aid for her fire sufferers, whose losses aggregate at least 875,000, and tho insurance, confided to throe persons, is less than 88,000. Winter is approaching and suffering is staring the unfortunates in the face. —Laporte has a new electric tire ale rm

WELCOME TO IRISHMEN.

MR. O’BRIEN AND HIS FRIENDS HEARTILY GREETED. I The Irifth Delegation to Solicit Funds in Aid of Their Distressed Country Reaches New York—Mr. O’Brien Talks of the Purpose of Their Trip to America-Their Flight from Tipperary. ' ' 1 [New York dJspatch.] William O’Brien, John Dilion, Timothy Harrington, and T. D. Sullivan have arrived in New York by the steamer La Champagne. They wore met down tho bay by a large delegation of Irishmen on board the, tugboat John E. Moore, which was chartered by the Irish societies of the city of New York. Mr. O’Brien in response to congratulations upon his escape from the British authorities in lieland said Mr. Dillon and himself had been six days bn-a yacht before they reached France. They were joined at Havre by Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan and Mr. Harrington, who sailed with them. Mr. Sullivan was very enthusiastic at the prospects of home rule for Ireland. Mr. O’Brien said thatbut of the forty by-elections hold in Great Britain since the assembling of the present Parliament fourteen had boon won by the Gl&dstonian or Home Rule party. This was a fair indication, ho said, of tho feeling of tho British people on the home rule question. He believed the Tories would be forced to dissolve Parliament sooner than they anticipated. Tho Government, he said, was not taking proper measures for the relief of the famine-stricken districts in Ireland. " They first denied that a famine existed, and now they admitted that there was deep distress ip the country by proposing measures for their relief. Mr. O’Brien stated that there was absolute unity In the ranks of the Parliamentary party and among the people. The old taunt of Instability of purpose could no longer bo thrown at Ireland. It was unnecessary to say much about his and Mr. Dillon’s reasons for leaving Ireland in the peculiar manner they did. They were well watched by police and spies, and their footsteps were being continually dogged while In the country. When they took » special train at Limerick the police took another special train in order to keep them continually in sight. The Conduct of the police was ludicrous as well as outrageous. Yet they were caught napping. Neither bribes nor threats induced any one to tell the police of their departure, and Balfour’s system of espionage was wasted. “The Government cannot trust its own servants,"continued Mr. O’Brien. “Why, on the day before wo were arrest 'd Mr. Dillon wrote to me informing me what was going to take place, although it was upposod to bo a Castle secret. Balfour may attempt to brant} us as criminals, but would ho try to havd us extradited as such either from France or the United States? “Balfour has stated his Intentions very plainly in a speech in the House of Commons. His object is to strain tho tenants’ defense fund until hp breaks IL Seven thousand persons have been evicted and £60,000 have been spent.” Mr. O’Brien then said that in view of all the circumstances, the condition of the peasantry and the hostility of tho Government to any plan that would better their condition, ho and his colleagues decided to appeal to the American people and state their appeal in person. They had believed that while the appeal on their trial was ponding they would have time to come to this country and return. “Tho essence of Tory policy in Ireland,” ho continued, “is land purchase on tho landlords’ own terms. To effect this the tenants’ combination had to be stamped out. Tho tonants once smashed and disorganized, under terror of coercion, a cabinet of landlords and landlord tribunals could arrange the rest at will. It was with a view to crushing the tenants'combinations that all the prosecutions, batonlngs and police outrages took place, and it was to provertt that that the Irish representatives-camo hero. “The whole strength of coercion for tho last four years had been directed to inflicting vengeance uppn them, and utterly exterminating them by way of warning to the rest of the Irish tenantry. The Irish people, on the other hand, have made those men’s cause their pwn. They have determined at all hazards not to let them fall a prey to the Vengeance’ of the landlords and coercionlsts. The latest and most signal proof of this determination is the caw of New Tippera- - ry, where' the population of a whole town and of two neighboring estates had given up their homesand farmsen masse rather than let their rents bo used by their landlords. “One of our chief objects in America will be to explain the character of the struggles In Ireland and the system of coercion in force there. I believe Americans will bo electrified when they hear the story of Tipperary. For the present the question of a national fighting fund and the question of a charitable fund are wholly separate. Nobody with less than Mr. Balfour’s capacity for heartless jokes could affect to deny or make light of it. “The Irish party are watching the Situation with the utmost solicitude. They have called for a" bill suspending evictions for non-payment of rent oh small holdings in the distressed districts. A measure of this kind combined with a large system of public wishes and a more liberal administration of the poor laws would go far to avert any danger of general famine. The opinion of the Irish party is that any general American fund poured into Ireland at this time would probably have the effect of confirming Mr. Balfour in bls policy of leaving the relief of distress to private initiative and afterwards boasting that the distress was imaginary, while the large sums disbursed with an imperfect knowledge of the circumstances of the country would inevitably find their way into the pockets of the landlords, whom the prospect of American alma would encourage to extort rent from their famished and coercion-wronged tenantry.” William Waldorf Astoi:, notwithstanding his immense property interests in New York, cabled from Europe hi:i refusal to contribute any money to secure the benefits of honest municipal government. Mr. Astor is too much engaged with his novel, for which he is to receive five cents a word, to take any Interest in reform. Stephen Roach, son of the shipbuilder, says his family are ready to sell their plant on the Delaware to an English Sndicate for 83,030,000, the offer of ,000,000 not being satisfactory.