Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1894 — WHERE BLAME RESTS. [ARTICLE]

WHERE BLAME RESTS.

REPUBLICAN LAWS CAUSED THE HARD TIMES. The Harrison Administration Squandered the Cleveland Snrplns and Jacrgled Ac* counts to Conceal the Empty Treasury— The New Tariff Has Brought Prosperity. What Harrison Knows. Ex-President Harrison recently delivered a speech in Mr. Wilson’s district in which he said: “If you have felt the effects of the depression, if you think more of these effects and prefer not to lead the country through the slough of despondency, show it by defeating Wilson.” McKinley and Sherman also declared that the hard times, which began a year and a half ago, wore due to Democratic misrule and “fear of free trade.” Never before did “statesmen" so misrepresent facts, debase themselves and insult the intelligence of an enlightened nation. Harrison knows only too well' what a difficult task he had to keep his empty treasury from collapsing before it was turned over to Cleveland. He knows, as do all the others, that his Secretary of the Treasury had to transler accounts and to juggle the books to conceal from the public, if possible, the exhausted surplus of 4S100,00j;(»0 which Cleveland turned over to Harrison in 1889. He knew that the Sherman silver coinage act of 1890 was rapidly draining the country of gold and that it must result in a panic. He knows, as does Sherman, who voted to abolish his own silver legislation, that the panic was precipitate! bv the fear of capitalists that gold would go to a premium and that if we continued to coin 8-,,000,000 of silver a month we would soon drop to a silver basis. He knows that lariff relorm was too far away to have had any material effect in starting the depression. He may not know the causo of the periodical panics tnat affect not only this country but the whole world, about every ten years, but he does know, or ought to know, that the fear of “free trace” was not, at anv time, one of the principal causes of the piolonged depression.

He knows that his secretary intended and prepared to issue bonds to replenish the treasury. Incertainty as to what duties would ba levied* undoubtedly aggravated and perhaps prolonged the depression. Reed has too much common sense to declare that a tariff bill that brought prosperity with it caused a panic a year before it was born. He said, in his New York speech of Oct. 13: “Nobody can charge this (depression) fairly to the terms of the tariff which now exi-ts, any more than tffey can to the tariff which used to exist. What caused this disaster everybody knows who has any business sense. It was the utter uncertainty, the appalliug doubt as to what would happen to us.” Reed is much too rough on the Democrats, but is not so demagogical as McKinley and Harrison. How little Senator Allison believes of this talk is evident from the fact that he has recently adopted the tariff for revenue plank of the Democratic platform. Perhaps the responsibility lor hard times has never been more cleariv fixed than by Thos. G. Sherman, in his speech in Paterson, N. J., early in 1893. He said: What laws are In force? Republican laws. Who, when the panic begat], held ninetenths of the offices through which those laws are administered? Republicans. Who hold most of the offices to-day? Republicans. Who passed the tariff now in existence? Republicans. Who passed all the tariff laws that have Ibeen In existence for the la3t thirty years? Republicans. Is there more or less protection to American Industries In force to-day than there was In the first year of Harrison’s administration, when, we are told, everything was so prosperous? More by about one-third to one-half. What have the Republicans been telling us, for the last thirty years, was the cause of American prosperity? The Morrill tariff. Is there more or less protection given by the tariff to-day than was given by the great and wonderful Morrill tariff? More by 100 per cent, all around; more on wooleu goods by 200 per cent ; more on iron and steel by 80 per cent.; more on silk by 60 per cent ; more on flax manufactures by 'OO per cent. To which, after quoting, Congress, man McKeighan added: “Everything stands to-day just as Harrison and McKinley left it, with every American industry protected and everybody in this country guarantee! tremendous prosperity as the result of taxing each ether. Yet, here we are. ”

P, osperitv that withers as soon as tariff reduction is suggested cannot bs very substant al. Yet that is what McKinley would have us believe his protecti' n prosperity dii, although it was rooted in thirt/ years ot protection soil. All sensible and unpre udiced persons know that riotous speculation, fostered by continued hi.h protection, which ga.e sp. cial’privileges to corporations and trusts, had made the country ripe for a panic They know that the countries that suffered most when the panic came were the highly protected countries of Australia, the United States, and Francs. - Used Recommends Rest. Ex-Speaker Reed's significant failure in his campaign speeches to indor, e the demand of the McKinleyites for a restoration of the high tarift, has prepared the public for his interview at Ann Arbor recently, m w'hich he declared that “it would not necessarily follow that the return Of the Republican party to power in IHSJrf would mean the re-enactment of the McKinley law.” and that he did not think the party would make that an issue, as conditions had changed materially in the last few years, and there was room for many modifications. Mr. Reed went a stepfurther, and admitted that the rates in the Me ts inley law were marked up higher than he exppeted when he appointed the Committee on Ways and Means. In taking this position the ex-Speaker only anticipates the mass of his party.' It is clear enough to any careful observer that there never was any popular demand for so extreme a measure as' McKinley framed, and that no party could now do a more unpopular thing than to pledge itself to a restoration of a policy which the people rejected so emphatically in 189U*and again in 189:'. McKinley, of course, tries desperately hard to hold on to the old issue, for it is all he has to offer as a candidate for the next Presidential nomination of hit party, but he w 11 find hiibself more and more lonesome all the while. — Kew York Post. A Htmineffg View. The statement of President Roberts of the Pennsylvania Railroad that the country has entered upon an era of renewed prosperity can safely be accepted as an offset to the calamity campaign orators that we are hearing from nowadays. Pre ident Roberts is at the ;he*d of the greatest railway corpora-

tion in the world, and views the situation from a business rather than from a political, standpoint. Like other men of his class, he is not oversanguine, and does not look for a boom but he sees every reason to expect a wholesome return of the couniry to full prosperity and activity in all department?. He speaks with authority. —Boston Herald. Tariff Umbrella Smashed. Ex-President Harri-oa let the cat out of the bag the other day when he said to the workingmen at Brazil. Inch: “You were told that it would be a good thing to imash this tariff umbrella under which you and your employer had been walking together and sharing the benefits of its protection. You were told that you were getting too much of the drip, but you found when you had smashed toe umbrella that in the very nature of things he had an accumulation and had provided himself with a rubbsr coat, while you were in your shirt sleeves. ” That is only a part of the truth. Protection has provided castles and steam yachts as well as rubber coats for many employers, while it has left the employes penniless and hungry. Thirty years of protection began with all prosperous ani wealth well distributed. It ends with panic and de-

pression and with 5 000 millionaires and 0,030,003 tramps and paupers. In 1? 60 nine-tenths of the people owned nine-tenths of the wealth: in 1890 » per cent, of the people owned 84 per cent, of the wealth. That protection umbrella has been a great thing for those under it, but the workingmen have, as ex-President Harrison says, been getting only the drip. The smashing of the lariff umbrella has revealed a horrible state of affairs under it. The laborer< of this country have grown poor holding that umbreila over their employers. !\ow, that it is being smashed, all will fare alike again. American Goods Abroad. An incident happened on the Sixth Avenue Elevated Road yesterday morning which well illustrates one of the peculiarities of the system of selling goods cheaper for export than for home use. A prominent railroad man was in conversation with another gentleman, and near them sat an exporter of various kinds of merchandise. The raihoad man was showing his friend a bsautiful pocket knife which he had purchased in London. “There.” he remarked, “I wonder why our manufacturers here cannot make such fine knives as th's. What do you suppose I paid for it ” “I don't know what such a knife would cost in London,” an-wered his friend: “but I know that here in New York that knife could not be bought for less than $3.” “I paid just five shillings and sixpence, or $1.37 in our money.” “Will you let me see the knife?” asked the exporter at this juncture. , Taking it he opened the blade and found it was stamped with the firm name of a well-known American manufacturer of cutlery, at which discovery the owner of the knife was naturally surprised and not a little chagrined, for, strange to say, he had not noticed the name of the manufacturer cn the knife before, and his imputation that American manufacturers could not make as fine knives as those made in England had lean rudely disproved. The railroad man said he believed in protecting home industries. “Yes,” an wared the exporter, “and I see you believe in patronizing them.” —Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin.

Prosper ou«« Pottery Milln. The East Liverpool (Ohio) Crisis, an organ of the pottery trade—one of the many industries which were going to be ruined by tariff reform—gives this complacent picture of the ruin thus far wi ought:. “The pottery trade in the West is now booming more than it has done at any time during the past three years. Mot a man in the city need be idle who wants to work. Workmen for odd jobs were never ;o hard to find here. "Not one but half a dozen works in this city are now running over time, and the talk of a shut-down prevalent a few weeks since, has been silenced. The Chelsea, at New Cumb:rland, is experiencing the biggest boom in it 3 history and is running out nine kilns of ware per week, which breaks the record for that plant.” And this is the state of affairs in a great typical industr .• in Governor McKinley s State. But has the Governor heard of it? No; the Governor has not heard of it. He is too far from home—only bad news travels far—and too busy spell-binding the rustlers on the front’er at the rate of twenty-two speeches a day.—Philadelphia Record. Repnbllcan Cn*qodneß<. The Republicans are to be congratulated upon securing a congenial lot of recruits down in Louisiana. The rich cane planters propose not only to transfer thei ■ allegiance to the Republican party but to wreak vengeance upon men who are not Democrats for herring and sugar only. The Louisiana Planter recently published a communication urging the people of Louisiana to boycott Harter’s iron tonic and wild cherry bitters on the ground that they are made by Michael D. Harter, the well-known Democratic Congressman from Ohio, “a violent, persistent and bitter enemy of sugar. ” The writer of the communication also urges the people of the Pelican State not to buy' rail* rolled in the mills of Represents-

tive Tom L. Johnson, another distinguished Ohio Democrat, or drink whisky made in the State of Kentucky, because the people of that State keep Mr. Blackburn in t>*e Senate. Those Louisiana planters have suddenly blossomed out into first-class Republicans in point both of intelligence and cussedness.—Chicago Herald. Richt Kind of Momentum* The bill which passed, however, with all its defects and censurable features, contains, even by the admission of its severest critics, a most solid instailn ent of tariff reform,and will do much toward lightening taxation and securing freer plav and larger markets for American Industries. But its chief value and importance, atter all, lies in the fact that it marks a change in our tariff legislation and starts us well on the way toward genuine revenue taxes. Every law and every system has its momentum. Protection, left to itself, eventually culminates in prohibition, while ihe momentum of eienan inmerfectly framed revenue tariff is steadily toward the goal of commercial freedom.—Hon. Wm. L. Wilson, in North American Review. Connecticut's In-lustr!e* Booming. A general revival of business is reported from Hartford, Conn. Almost

all the works have largely increased their forces during the past few months, and have dropped the short time sch dule which prevailed for nearly a year. A similar revival of manufacturing busine s in Meriden, Bridgeport, and other manufacturing cities in Connecticut is reported. Fashions in Sticks and Canes. “There are but few articles 3old in the We.-t End that are not subject to the fluctuations of fashion: and, although you might not suspect it, even the walking-stick trade is affected largely by the variations of its unwritten laws, ’’declared a provider of those popular appendages and aids to progression .to the writer, as ttaev chatted at the door of his shop. “Time gone by we did a rare line in malacca canes with silver tops or ivory handles: but now these are voted ‘oldfashioned,’ and plain sticks of nazel, cherry, ash, acacia, or vine, sometimes mounted, lut oftenor quite unadorned, are ‘all the go.’ “To many men one walking-stick Is sufficient, nut, luckily for us, there are others who delight in having a selection to choose from. Indeed, I have customers who use several in a single day. • For informal morning strolls ‘ whanghees,’ bamboos, or sticks of ordinary wood, hooked at the top so as to be conveniently carried over the arm, are popular; while for an afternoon sauntering. when ladie are likely to be encountered, more elegant specimens of our art are put into requisition. “Many gentlemen who travel in foreign lands make a practico of cutting likely stems that they may chance upon, and bring to us to mold and trim into shape, and there are not a few regular collectors of walkiijg-sticke. “Highly artistic specimens of native carving as are many of the specimens brought in this manner together, they are often valued at quite prodigious sums and when an historic association attaches to the article, of course the price goes still higher.”

Beyond His. Expectations. When the first edition of Thomson's “Seasons” came out the poet sent a copy, handsomely hound, to Sir Gilbert Elliott, of Minto afterward lord justice clerk, who had shown him great kindnrss. Sir Gilbert showed the book, which was really a credit to the publisher, to his old gardener, who was a relation of Thomson's. The old man took it in his hands, turning it over and over, and gazing at it in evident admiration. Sir Gilbert asked: “Well, Davi i, what do you think of James Thomson now? There’s a hook that will make him famous all the wor d over, and immortalize his name.” lavid, looking first at Sir Gilbert and then at the book, replied proudly: “In truth, sir, it is a grand book! I did na’ think the lad had ingenuity enow to ha’ done sic a neat piece of handicraft as that. ” And without a glance inside the handsome covers, the gardener handed the book ljack to his employer, repeating his surprise that his noor poetical relative should have attained to such praiseworthy work. Behanzin to Become a Catholic. Eehanzin, the ex-King of Dahomey, is about to emt race the Roman Catholic faith. When M. Carnot was assassinated the ex-King ordered a mass for the repcse of his soul. He was greatly affected^by the murder of the late President, and he has been in a low state of health ever since. Th * 15 g" Document. “The fact that a dollar under the Wilson bill will buy of t,e necessaries of life about as much as $1.1(1 or $1.25 would buy under the McKinley bill is a campaign document by itself,” observes the Bbston Herald tlnd.). In regard to the mammoth remains of Canada and Alaska, Dr. G. M. Dawson notes that in the northwestern part of the continent they are abundant in, if not confined to, the limits of a great unglaciated area there, comprising nearly all Alaska and part of the adcent Yukon district of Canada. No mastodon bones have been reported lrom this region.