Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1891 — Bogus McKinley Prices. [ARTICLE]

Bogus McKinley Prices.

The American Economist, which Is published in Now York by the Protective Tariff League for the purpose, mainly, of supplying high tariff arguments to protection organs all over the land, has just concocted such an “argument” from the price of cotton flannels. It finds that the prices of these goods are now from one-fourth to one-half a cont a yard lower than they were six months before the McKinley tariff went into effect, and It straightway proceeds to write an article on “McKinley Prices for Cotton Flannels. ” But the Economist omits to state one very essential fact. It does not toll its readers that the manufacturers have been g ttiug their cotton this spring and summer between three and four cents below the prices paid last year at the corresponding time. Taking tho twenty-five different grades of unbleached cotton flannels used by tho Economist for comparison, we find that tho aggregate reduction in prico has been just about 3 per cent The price of cotton, however, has ranged 25 or 30 per cent, lower than at like dates last year. With so great a reduction In tho raw material, surely It is not too much to expect a slight reduction on the manufactured goods. As things stand, the manufacturers ought to bo making a great deal more money now than a year ago, notwithstanding tho trifling reduction in tho prico of their goods. The above is a very fair sample of the way the" protectionists manufacture “arguments” and find “McKinley prices” where none exist. By omitting to mention the determining factor tfiey can prove anything or deny anything, just as an ostrich can hide its head behind a very small stone and dony that tho sun is beaming above the desert

Txie Temescal tin mine is running three shifts a day, with block-tin on the free list. The general manager is reported as saying that tho McKinley law does not help the mine at ail, but puts thousands of dollars into tho pockets of the iron men; that he wants no tariff to sell his tin, and that it is only a coincidence that the Temescal mine and the McKinley act wore started at about the same time. It is gratifying to see that somebody with business sense is connoted with the enterprise. Everybody of Intelligence knows that the tariff has nothing to do with tho development of tin mines, and the attempt in some quarters to make the Temescal works a tail to the McKinley kite has had a tendency to injure the standing of the company in the money market by making it appear a political instead of a business enterprise.

Willetts & Gbay, in discussing the price of sugar, say: “The average of daily quotations from Jan. 1 to April 1 was 5.645 cents per pound for 96 degrees centrifugals and 6.301 cents per pound for granulated. The average dally prices from April 1 to July 1 was 3.381 cents per pound net for 96 degrees centrifugals and 4.215 cents per pound net for granulated.” And the American Economist adds: “Here was a fall of 2.234 cents a pound on the first-men-tioned grade and of 2.086 cents on the other, both directly caused by the McKinley law. Consumers will no doubt appreciate these, the real McKinley prices. ” There is nothing like mailing a man hanker for more as to give him only a taste of a good thing. Toe State of New Jersey with the markets of two of the foremost cities of the country on her borders, and, therefore, ideally situated in accordance with the “home market” theory, has no less than 313 deserted and abandoned farms. Wili the high tariff jugglers please explain to the farmers how soon farming is to be made prosperous under the system which enables trusts and monopolies to pocket the farmers’ profits?