Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1892 — The Tariff and the Pensioners. [ARTICLE]

The Tariff and the Pensioners.

An old soldier from South Bend, in explaining his reason for leaving the Republican party to vote for Cleveland and Stevenson, said: “I am getting sl2 a month of pension money. I know I will get this pension no matter who is elected president, but I want to see the time come when my sl2 will go further in buying food and clothing than under the present system of high tariff. They may tell me that the tariff is not a tax, but I know that with my pension money I can buy more sugar,, now that the tariff has been taken off, than before. “But we old soldiers need something . else beside cheap sugar. As we grow i old we require woolen clothes to keep us warm. Such an exhortant tax has been placed on woolen clothing by the McKinley bill for the benefit of the manufacturers that we wear ‘ ‘shoddy. ” With free wool the price of clothing would go down as the price of sugar went down when it was placed on the free list. The same money that now buys “shoddy” would then purchase all Wool clothing. Free wool would in reality have the same effect upon the soldier who draws sl2 per month now, as an increase of his pension to sls. I have talked this matter to a number of old comrades and they agree with me that the high protective tariff is injurious to the penskmera."