Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — REFORM MUST FOLLOW. [ARTICLE]

REFORM MUST FOLLOW.

FARMERS DEMAND INSTANT AND ADEQUATE RELIEF. Artisan* Not Misled by protectionists’ Clamor—Glove Makers ot Gloversville Discuss the Tariff—They Relate the Silly Talk of the High Taxers. Reform the Tariff. The abnormally low prices of grain and the ebbing markets for cotton, while the prices of all manufactured goods are kept at high-water mark by a class tariff, make a condition of things that cannot last forever. The agricultural interests of the United States and the interests immediately dependent upon and identified with them are strong enough to overthrow any system that opposes them, and sooner or later they will do it. Whether the remedy shall come on lines of conservatism and broad wisdom, or with the energy of blind Samson, depends largely on the Democratic majorities in the two houses of the F ifty-third Congress. If the Democratic party uses the power intrusted to it to wipe out class distinction in the tariff taxes, to knock off unearned profits from manufactured goods and enhance the prices of farm products by opening the markets of the world to the West and South to buy and sell in, the whole country will be prosperous and the Democratic lease in AVashington will be a lodk one.

If this is not done, if the tariff is not radically reformed in the interest of the consumer and of wider markets for the products of American farms, the only thing certain is that the work of reform will be turned over to rougher hands. The election returns of iB9O and 1892 say this much as plain as print. Enormous as their yield already is, the farm lands of the United States are not half developed. The men who till them are shut out by their environments from recourse to the devices by which, in many other industries, the output is kept down and prices up. They follow a natural law in sowing and reaping all they can, and their only way of salvation lies in finding purchasers for all that they produce. That is an ideal which may never be attained, but the nearest approach to it can be made only by giving everybody a chance to buy what they have to sell; in other words, by throwing down the Chinese wall of protection and allowing people who have anything that we want to send it here and take our farm products—our chief exports—in exchange for it. This was the principle of the Walker or free trade tariff, under which the United States throve as they never throve before or since, and a speedy return to that principle is the only way to solve economic and political problems that are becoming graver than some wise men in Washington believe. The emotional era of American politics is closed. The era at hand is of dollars and cents, and the problem it has to solve is to keep mercenaries and parasites from consuming the substance of unfavored producers by juggling with the treasury and the taxing power of the United States. This problem will be solved. It is for Democratic members of the Fifty-first Congress to decide in the next few months whether it is the Democratic party that shall furnish the solution. If the Democratic party is to do it at all, it must before the close of the first regular session of the Fifty>third Congress, enact into law the reforms that the people voted on on the Bth of November lastIt is not a day too soon for members to begin to think about these things. St. Louis Republic.

Glove Manufacturers Not Scared. Since the Reform Club has made public its proposed tariff bill, with duties of 25 per cent, on the great bulk of imported dutiable ‘ articles, the protectionists have been predicting direful things if such a bill should become law. The New York Press sets up a calamity howl about the proposed 25 per cent, duty on gloves. It says: “This would be a death blow to one of the most prosperous industries of this State. In Fulton County alone fully 3,000 persons depend for a livelihood, either entirely or in part, in glove making. The 25 per cent, tariff would drive the industry out of existence. “The labor cost of glove making is something like 150 per cent, more in this country than in Europe. The ‘reformers’ propose to meet this by a 25 per cent, duty, or one-sixth of the difference between the foreign and American wage rates. Under this schedule the foreign manufacturers would take complete possession of the American markets and close every glove-making establishment in the country.” As this is a sample of the thousands of howls started by the out-of-power Republicans, it may be well to analyze it to see what truth, if any, it contains. We will let the manufacturers have the floor. Lucien Littauer, the largest manufacturer of gloves in Fulton County and in the United States, said in 1888: “We can do just as well, pay our employes just as high wages, and conduct just as prosperous a business under a 40 per cent. (Mills bill) as under aSO per cent, tariff. All this is demonstrable if a man will sit down and think it out for himself.” Mr. D. B. Judson, of Fulton County, the oldest and greatest manufacturer, and, until within a few years, the largest manufacturer of gloves in this country, said in 1888: “Under a 40 per cent, tariff we shall still have an advantage over foreign manufacturers of from 60 to 75 cents per dozen. That is to say, we will continue to pay about double the wages paid in England, and turn out gloves and mittens at from 00 to 75 cents a dozen cheaper than the English manufacturers. As a matter of fact, the taiiff does not affect the manufacture of heavy gloves—the gloves for the million, I mean.” Another manufacturer, also of Glovers villc, Fulton County, and one of the five largest there, said in 1891: “There is no real foreign competition on more than ten per cent, of the goods sold here. Fully two-thirds of the heavy goods made in the United States are of a class of goods neither produced nor consumed anywhere else in the world. Gloves to protect the hands of common laborers are un-

known outside ot this country. More than ninety per cent, of the ladies’ gloves imported are of a class of goods not made here, nor will they be in your or mv time." There seems to be a slight difference of opinion between the Press and these manufacturers. What the Press may have meant, and what it should have said, was that wages are 150 per cent, higher here than in Europe. But wages differ from labor cost as much as steam differs from a steam engine. A highly effective modern steam engine, under high pressure, produces greater effects and uses less steam than an old style ineffective engine, under low pressure. Highly skilled labor, with high wages, produces greater results, than unskilled labor and low wages. Hence the highly skilled labor is cheaper. This is evident from the fact that the high-wage. labor of England has for generations been more than able to compete with the lo w-wage labor of the rest of Europe and of Asia. England's manufactured products sell in all parts of the world. But it so happens, in the case of gloves, that nearly half of the $16,000,000 worth annually consumed, and fully two-thirds of those made here, are men’s heavy gloves, neither made nor worn in any other country. That this part of the industry would not be driven out of existence by a 25 per cent, or by any other duty is clear from what Mr. Judson and many others say. Heavy gloves are, in spite of high wages, like boots and shoes, actually made cheaper in this than in any other country. But then this is the year for the Press and other good Republican papers to close up factories, extinguish industries, and lower wages, and if they sometimes become overzealous and make leaky statements, we should remember that calamity howling is at present their only occupation, as future calamity is their only salvation, and not criticise them too severely. The country must go to the dogs under free trade or the protectionists are lost.—Byron W. Holt.

Reform the TarifL If Democrats do not soon give the farmers relief, another party will do so. The abnormally low prices of grain and the ebbing markets for cotton while the prices of all manufactured goods arc kept at high-water mark by a class tariff make a Condition of things that cannot last forever. ' The agricultural interests of the United States and the interests immediately dependent upon and identified with them are strong enough to overthrow any system that oppresses them, and sooner or later they will do it. Whether the remedy shall come on lines of conservatism and broad wisdom, or with thfe energy of blind Samson, depends largely on the Democratic majorities in the two houses of the Fifty-third Congress. If the Democratic party uses the power intrusted to it to wipe out class distinction in the tariff taxes, to knock off unearned profits from manufactured goods and enhance the prices of farm products by opening the markets of the world to the West and South to buy and sell in, the whole country will be prosperous and the Democratic lease in Washington will be a long one.

ls this is not done; if the tariff is not radically reformed in the interest of the consumer and of wider markets for the products of American farms, the only thing certain is that the work of reform will be turned over to rougher hands. The election returns of 1890 and 1892 say this much as plain as print. Enormous as their yield already is, the farm lands of the United States are not yet half developed. The men who till them are shut out by their environment from recourse to the devices by which, in many other industries, the output is kept down and prices up. They follow a natural law in sowing and reaping all they can, and their only way of salvation lies in finding purchases for all that they produce. That is an ideal which may never be attained, but the nearest approach to it can be made only by giving everybody a chance to buy what they have to sell; in other words, by throwing down the Chinese wall of protection and allowing people who have anything that we want to send it here and take our farm products—our chief exports—in exchange for it. This was the principle of the Walker or Free Trade tariff, under which the United States throve as they never throve before or since, and a speedy return to that principle is the only way to solve economic and political problems that are becoming graver than some wise men in Washington believe. The emotional era of American politics is closed. The era at hand is of dollars and cents, and the problem it has to solve is to keep mercenaries and parasites from consuming the substance of unfavored producers by juggling with the Treasury and the taxing power of the United States. This problem will be solved. It is for Democratic members of the Fiftythird Congress to decide in the next few months whether it is the Democratic paity that shall furnish the solution. If the Democratic party is to do it at all, it must before the close of the first regular session of the Fifty-third Congress enact into law the reforms that the people voted on the Bth of November last. It is not a day too soon for members to begin to think about these things.

The San Francisco Examiner (Dem.) would like to see an extra session of Congress called before September. “McKinleyism,” it says, “is not entitled to one day’s grace from the Democracy. It is a thing of small moment to the people who shall be Minister to England or Nicaraugua, who Collector of Customs at this port or that, or who Postmaster in New York, San Francisco, rr Squashopolis, but it is a thing of vital moment to the people that they should l.e compelled to pay thieving McKinley prices for the necessaries and comforts of life, and that the business of the nation should be confused by uncertainty as to the. future.” What you leave at your death let it be without controversy, else the lawyers will be your heirs.—F. Osborn. The United States produce 610,000 tons of butter and cheese.