Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1894 — BETTER TIMES NOW. [ARTICLE]

BETTER TIMES NOW.

BUSINESS REVIVING THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. view* of Btulneas Collected by » Great Paper Express the General Feeling that Industrial Activity WIU Now QuickenBeneficial Changes In the Tariff. • Dawn Is Breaking. The New York Herald is, perhaps, the most important of all independent newspapers in this country. It is interesting to read what this non-par- ' tisan paper has to say of the new tariff bill and of the clique of Senators who blocked the pa sage of the Wilson bill and tried to prevent all tariff legislation. The Herald says: The views of business men and others in various parts of the country which will be found in our news columns may be taken as voicing the general feeling that the dawn of tetter times has come. There is every reason to believe that business will now begin to revive, finances improve, markets become more active and industrial activity quicken. That the outlook will

be hailed by the people, and especially by workingmen, goes without saying,. In addition to this, the law itself which has been enacted will afford the country no little relief from tne burdens and blighting effects of McKinley protection. It does not embody the tariff revision which the people had a right to expect, and which they commanded in thundering tones at the polls in 1892. It does not embody the revision which the Democratic party was pledged to give, and for which its patriotic leaders struggled so gallantly. But, disappointing and unsatisfactory as it is, the new bill is a marked improvement on the McKinley law, and, moreover, its enactment puts an end to an agitation which was inflicting untold losses unon the country and pushing it the verge of panic. For failure to carry the moderate, judicious revision which the country needed and the people commanded, the Democratic party cannot, in our opinion, justly be held responsible. The representatives of that party in the House not only passed such a bill and sent it to the Senate, thereby fulfilling the pledges of the party and their duty to the people, but they' stood out for it nobly as long as there was any hope of saving it, and yielded only when they were forced to choose between the Senate bill and no legislation. For 4.. the obstruction of revision through six long months, with its consequent business stagnation and destitution among the working classes; for the defeat of such a law as the people wanted and the country needed; for the failure of the democratic party to carry out its pledges to the full, the responsibility must fall upon the petty ring of Democratic Senators headed by Mr. Arthur P. Gorman. Had the Senate contained a larger Democratic majority these men could have been stripped of their power for mischief as recreants to their party and public enemies, and an honest tariff bill passed months ago in spite of their deviltry. But, unfortunately, the Democratic majority in the Senate was so narrow that the Gor-mar-Brice cabal had it in their power to “hold up" the entire American people as well as both branches of Congress, and as everybody knows they did not scruple to ute that power with merciless disregard cf consequences, either to their party or to the country.

Many Beneficial Changes. While the new tariff bill is not ideal, it still has many good parts. Inorder of importance we mention: 1. Free wools and greatly reduced duties on woolen goods. In 1893 we paid $8,000,0)0 duty on $18,000,0u0 worth of imported wools. In the same year we paid $36,5)0.000 duty on $37,000,000 worth of goods imported. We probably paid ten times this amount to our home manufacturers because of the duties which permitted increased prices. As the new bill cuts duties on woolens in the middle the saving to the American people by this reduction will be about $2p0,000,0C0, or sls per family. Two years from now the product of our woolen mills will be greater than ever and work will be steadier and wages higher in these mills than ever before. Workingmen and school children will ba better clothed, and life will be happier and brighter to all because of cheaper and better woolen goods than have been worn by the present generation. Nor will the wool grower suffer. Prices of wool have declined steadily and rapidly under MeKinleyism,until they have now reached a free trade basis and we are exporting wools to England. In fact, prices have advanced about 10 per cent, during the past two weeks. 2. Duties have been reduced about 40 per cent, in the iron schedule. While many of these reductions are more nominal than real, they yet com-

i pel the trusts to lower prices and to decrease the difference between the prices of their goods for export and j lor home consumption. About 57.000,000 will be saved by the reduction of the duty on tin plates alone. Probably $100,000,000 will be saved by the reductions in the metal schedule. The duty on iron ore has been reduced from 75 to 40 cents per ton. If the Senate should pass the bill making iron ore free, the benefits will te still greater. 3. All kihds of wood and lumber are made free, and the duty on furniture is reduced 25 per cent. The people are the gainers by several millions of dollars by this change. 4. Plows, harrows, harvesters, drills, mowers, horserakes,cultivators, threshing machines and cotton gins are made free. These are some oi the articles that our manufacturers have teen selling cheaper to foreigners than to Americans. This shameful business i will now be stopped and our own farm- L ers will be treated as well as their foreign competitors. 5. Salt, binding twine, bagging for cotton, Chinese matting, burlaps and cotton ties are some .of the other important articles placed on the free list The duties on burlaps and grain bags made of burlaps amounted In 18UB-. to over $2,500,000. 6. Duties have teen reduced in all of the schedules except that of sugar,

and it is not yet certain that the reductions in this schedule will not exceed those in any other schedule. 7. The income tax has come and come to stay, until superseded by a better direct tax. The plutocrats, who have shirked all other taxes, and who will shirk this one to the full extent of their elastic consciences, have tried in vain to prevent the introduction of this tax. They have been unable to stem the tide of public sentiment on this question. All future tariff changes will be reductions. Let them come swift and fast. A Difference in Surranden. The “ghoulish glee” of the Republicans over the House surrender to the Senate bandits is almost frantic. Their gibes were invited; their joy is natural. . But will they intermit their each innation long enough to consider some contrasts with the Republican surrender in 1890? The first difference is this: The Republican surrender was made in advance, eagerly and without a fight. In return for campaign contributions and other favors the protected interests were permitted to write their own schedules, the trusts to name their own bounties. The member of the Manufacturers’ Club of Philadelphia who said, “We paid for this bill and are entitled to make it to suit ourselves,” revealed exactly the process under which the McKinley law was framed. The sugar trust got its raw material free and a rate on refined sugar which has enabled i| to make $30,000,000 in the past three years. The second difference is this: The Democratic surrender is deplored and was long resisted by the great body of the party. It was rendered necessary by the corruption of a mere handful, not by the complaisance of the many. The Republican surrender, however, was general and willing. There was not virtue enough in the party in Congress even to make a show of resistance. Mr. Blaine had to smash his hat in the committee-room to secure any modification of the schemes of the grabbers. As Hamlet said to the skull of another jester, so say we to Tom Reed of this contrast: “Where be your gibes now?”

The Tariff Hill. Defective as the measure is, it is still better than no bill. —Buffalo Enquirer. The Senate bill is not a bad bill. It is not as good as it might have been made. But as compared with the McKinley law, it is commendable in every particular. —Kansas City Times. IT is much to be preferred to the McKinley bill, and is a long step toward the practical reform of the tariff which the country has demanded and which the Democratic party has pledged itself to bring about. —Atlanta Constitution. While the senatorial compromises undeniably have marred an ideal, they yet have passed a practical measure of tariff reform more liberal in its reductions than any revision that was ever placed upon the statute books. —Boston Globe. The Senate bill is objectionable in many particulars, but in no particular is it so objectionable as the law it supersedes. It was better to take what could be had than to go back to the country empty-handed.—Philadelphia Record. It is undoutbedly true that the Senate bill, in spite of the subserviency to monopoly which *it carries on its face, is a distinct improvement on the McKinley act and a considerable step in the direction of tariff reform.—Detroit Free Pre’*.