Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1894 — LONG STEP AHEAD. [ARTICLE]

LONG STEP AHEAD.

FEATURES OF THE NEW TARIFF SCHEDULE With A* Valorem Doties, Free Wool, Free Lusker, Lower Kates, aw* the Income Tax. There Is U*ht Ahead for A*rtoo>taht sad Merchant. Tariff Reform Osina While it is too book to estimate all tjd the pi oapective gains of Uriff reform. it is not too soen to declare that the gains will, be gteater, rather than larS, than in the Senate bill which is bow in conference. What, then, are e ime of the distinct gains certain to follow the passage of the Wilson bill? 1. One of the greatest gains comes from the greater-use of ad valorem instead of sjecific-duties. It is not easy for those who have not given special at ent on to the subject to realize the great difference between toese two methods of collecting taae*. Specific duties ejlleot as much taxes from the cheap go;<ds of the poor as from toe costly goods of the rich. A tax of 91 a yard may double the cost of an inferior suitof clothing, while it adds but onetenth to the cost of a first-class suit If the first>class suit wears three times aa long as au inferior suit, the poor man wno wears the in'erior suit will pay three times as much taxes as the rich man wno wears the first-class suit. The injustice of specific duties is so great, that it would make them Intolerame if they were applied to direct taxes, where their effects would be seen by all. Thus, a tax of SSO a piece on dwelling houses, which would bear lightly ui an the palaces of our millionaires, would make rebels and anarchists out of our millions of day laborers who .live in houses tuat cost from SSO to SSOO each. It is not, however, because specific duties discriminate in favor of the rich that they-are the rule in the McKinley .bill. It is because they afford more certain and increasingly greater protection. Speaific duties take no account of the natural decline in prices ■of goods. As prices fall the rate of protection increases. A duty of SSO per ton when steel rails are selling for $lO J, gives only 50 per cent protection. The same duty gives a protection of 200 per cent, when the price has declined to $25. The tendency of “these duties to give increasing protection is demonstrated by the McKinley bill. In 1891 the average rate on dutiable imports was 46.28. In 1892 It had increased to 48.71, and In 1893, to 49.58. The tariff of 1883 behaved in the same way, though it contained fewer specific duties. With ad valorem duties the rate of protection is practically stationary. Under the ad valorem Walker bill the rate varied only about 1 per ■cent, during the seven years from 1848 to 11:51. 2. Free wool and greatly reduced duties on woolens will be a boon to the 99 out of every 100 persons who have to consider prices when making purchases. Nor Is it at all probable that free wool will injure the wool grower or the woolen manufacturer. It is quite certain to benefit the textile workers of this country by giving them steadier employment. Free wool will give new life to the woolen industry just as free hides, In 1873, gave new life to the leather dressing and leather -consuming industries. Under protection the price of wool has declined until under the McKinley bill we have reached a free trade basis and are selling our wools in Europe. The farme •, therefore,even if he be a wool grower, has nothing to fear from free wool. If he is not a wool grower he most certainly will lose nothing and will save perhaps 25 per cent, in what he pays for woolen goods. Our exports of woolen goods, which have already begun under taxed raw materials, may be expected toincrease manifold with free materials. The Wool and Cotton Reporter of July 5 tells us that during the first week in June and the last week in May we exported to Great Britain carpets valued at £2,610 (sl3,r 000). This is at the rate of over $303,000 a year. It says that our export trade in carpets has become firmly established and that one firm “of late has alone shipped more carpets to Great Britain than the English and Scotch manufacturers combined have sent to the United States.” With free wool the demand for carpet weavers will surely increase. 3. Free lumber will protect the home industry of building homos. While the benefits will bo but slight in many parts of the United States, in some parts they will be considerable. All kinds of sawed, planed or grooved boards, as well as shingles, laths, pickets, shooks, staves, etc., have been made free. The value of the dutiable imports of the wood schedule was over $13,000,010 in 1893. Under the proposed bill it will be less than $2,500,000. The saving of duties will benefit all, except the holders of timber lands, who are usually rich speculators often with dishonestly ae mired titles. If free lumber causes their land to decrease slightly in value it will still be worth, in many instances, several times what they paid for it. 4. Reduced duties on all manufactures and raw materials except sugar, will lower prices and stimulate industry. While these duties have not been reduced as much as was expected they will still be light as compared with the heavy McKinley duties. 5. The adoption of a tax on incomes will do much to equalize the burdens of taxation. This tax will never rest upon the poor, who pay 75 per cent, of our tariff and internal revenue tax. It has come to stay until supplanted by some better direct tax.—Byron W. Holt. Democratic Fortifications. The great battle of 1896 will, unless the Democrats are inconceivably stupid, be fought with the advantage strongly on their side. The passage of a tariff hill even far below the hopes and expectations of thorough-going reformers will be accepted by the people as a settlement of the question for the pre ent It will at least put the Republicans in the attitude of agitators and disturbers of business should they assail it. A campaign tor the increase of taxes and the unsettlement of industrial conditions, so - soon after a long period of uncertainty and depression, cannot he a popular one. The people will bo tired of the question. Capital and labor will unite in demanding a period of repose and of activity. In the nature of things the stagna- ' tion of business cannot continue much longer. Already there are signs that the passage of the tariff hill and the confirming of the fact that our currency is to suffer no serious disturbance will mark the beginning of a sure if slow revival of industry and trade. The party in power in 1896 will gain a 3 much from the prosperity of the country as it is now losing from its adversity.—New York World. Three Unprotected Industries. The only three articles largely produced in this country, and also largely imported into this country, upon which protective duties are not levied, are gold, siher and human beings. A proposition to put a duty on silver has me re than once been made in an informal way, and the Senate has voted

iowm propositions te levy an import duty of 950 and of $25 ca immigrants. But we have already excluded the Chinese, and immigrants of all sorts whoeome under contract, and Senator Chandler says that legislation still further restricting immigration is to be looked for before the end of this Oongress.—Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin. John Shermnn on Monopolies. The Republican Senator for Ohio, John Sherman, knows a monopoly whea i he sees It—sometimes. Sometimes he does not That depends on the political situation as John Sherman views it Last Thurday he introduced a re solution directing the Committee on Interstate Commerce to inquire into the advisability of regulating by law the use of sleeping and parlor cars. In an interview wh.ch was printed in the Herald he explains that be is after the Pullman monopoly with blood in his eve,and this little resolution as a spiked club in his red right hand. Among other things he says: “I regard the PuL man Company and sugar trust as the most outrageous monopo.ies of the day. They make enormous profits and give their patrons little or nothing in return in proportion." When the Ohio Senator couples the Pullman Ci mpan v with the sugar trust and proclaims them to be the two “most outrageous monopolies of the day” he invites particular attention to the sometimes peculiarity of his eyesight when monopolies are within the range of vision. Four years a«® and a little more he introduced and pushed to its passage aa anti-trust bill. With this club he was going to pound the life out of a great number iof monopoly combinations, among which he named, and with characteristic vehemence denounced, the sugar trust. A few months later, .as a member of the conference committee on the McKinley bill, he insisted on giving that same outrageous monopoly 6c cents per 100 pounds on refined sugar instead of the •iO cents voted by the McKinley House. He finally yielded o far as to make it 50 oents, with an additional 10 cents on sugar from bounty paying countries, meaning German sugar, which was practically ithe only kind competing with the trust product. What was an outrageous monopoly in June ceased to be an outrageous monopoly in the October following, in the view of John Sfierman. In September he secured for the trust a duty w-hioh, according to President Havemeyer, gave it an enormous profit of between $30,000,000 and $35,000,000 in three years. John Sherman saw no ■outrageous monopoly and no enormous profits in this in September, 1890, although he had denounced the trust as an outrageous monopjly four months before. Why? Well, John Sherman is a thrifty man, politically and otherwise. He can see a monopoly when he thinks it expedient to look that way; he can • see none when he thinks it expedient to look in some other direction. Just mow he sees aa outrageous monopoly in the Pullman Company. He thanks inexpedient to look that way. Why? Because some thousands of workmen are waging war on that company. An election is approaching and these men have votes, if he makes ligislative war on the Pullman Company and gets the credit of it, so much the better for John Sherman, and incidentally for his party. That is the Sherman style of statesmanship. When he thinks it will pay to see a monopoly Sherman sees it with tooth eyes; when he thinks it will not pay Sherman does not see it with either eye. He thinks he knows when to face monopoly, and when to turn his back with his hands behind.—Chicago Herald.

Their Only Hope. The people are clear-sighted and intelligent. They understand that Democracy cannot properly be held accountable for the imperfections or even the treachery of some of its trusted agents. They know that for present hard times the blame properly rests upon the unwise and unpatriotic Republican legislation which brought about this condition of things. They know that all that has been done or attempted for the relief of the country is the work of Democracy. If they think the results too small, they see clearly that they have h en made so only by betrayal of the Democratic purpose In the upper house of Congress, where the majority is so narrow that the surrender of even a few men to the trusts renders it impossible to enact such reforms as the Democratic party in the popular house seeks, or such as must f-urely come as a result of prolonged Democratic ascendency. The Democratic party is the party of the people. However imperfect an instrument it may now and then be, it is absolutely the only Instrument of reform there is. In its triumph, iu its lasting control of affairs alone is there hope of the accomplishment of that release of the people from injustice and oppression for which so overwhelming a majority voted in 1892. The vitality of Democracy lies not in leadership, and not in organization, but in its steadfast adherence to the cause of the people in opposition to the schemes of conspirators against, the popular welfare.—New York World. The Rich Man’s Tax. Under the methods pursued by tho protectionists in tho levying of customs duties the burden' of the poor man has been greater than that of the well-to-do, because the heaviest duties have teen laid on the article of more common and universal consumption. An incomo tax brings the rich man in and compels him to pay his share or something near it. Is there any injustice in that? Or is it any answer to the demand that he shall be required to pay his share that he will probably evade as much of it as he can? If that were an answer there would be the same argument against the imposition of any tax whatever, for it is notorious that under the best system which the wisdom of man has yet .been able to device there is a vast deal of evasion. —Detroit Free Press. Still Kicking Th m*elves. Concerning the future of the Republican party the Cincinnati Tribune (Rep.) says: “Is not the sentiment ot the people of the United States growing m re and more favorable to lower dut es? We think it is, and we know that opinion is held by many Republicans of national reputation. The people of this country expect the Republican party to reform the tariff and to make the duties as low as possible. Had the party done this after the election of 1888 the ground would have been out from beneath the feet of the Democrats and thev would have had no campaign ammunition for the election of 1892.” Will Line Up in 1896. Despondent Democrats should bear in mind that the party is simply revolting against the men who are betraying it. Democrats are neither going to jump from the Gorman frying pan to the McKinley fire, nor are they going over Into the Republican party. The Democracy in 1896 will line up in solid phalanx with grim determination to crush out tho traitors within its own ranks.—Oakland County Post