Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1890 — No “Cheap and Nasty” Bu tons. [ARTICLE]

No “Cheap and Nasty” Bu tons.

McKinley raised tho duty on pear! buttons several hundred per cent., and already our domestic manufacturers have taken advantage of the situation by forming a combination and putting up the price of agate buttons. Tho Chicago Dry Goods Reporter lias the following to say on the subject: “If t,Jie manufactilrers of agate buttons are not careful they are liable to over-reach themselves in the endeavor to raise prices by their combination. The association has fixed a price of 24 cents for B T 1 X-line agate buttons, although other manufacturers are selling them at 22% cents and making a good profit. The manufacturers evident'y expect that agate buttons will, in a large measure, take the place formerly held by pearls, and therefore there should be a bonanza in the agate button business. Be this-as it may, the people are becoming a littie restive under the continual formation of trusts, and in case the agate button people get too obstreperous some method may be found of placing pearl buttons back under the old 25 per cent, ad valorem duty where they belong. The placing of the 2%-cent per line duty on pearl buttons was nothing less than infamous in the first place, and a very little nonsense on the part of the agate button trust might go a long ways in wiping that sort of legislation out of existence.” The button-makers do not seem to remember Senator Sherman’s famous warning on the last day of the tariff debate; or perhaps they think that a Senator who votes for high duties, and then stands up and warns manufacturers not to take advantage of them, is not to be much feared in any ca3e. Let the McKinley duty be taken off pearl buttons, and this baby button trust is done for. A few more button trusts will make free-traders of all our women.