Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1895 — UNDER A NEW TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

UNDER A NEW TARIFF.

OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE AND BUSINESS REVIVAL. Late Treaanry Returns Serve to Gild , the Commercial Horizon—Wool Salea Under Free Wool—Emancipation of lowa—Bepnblicana Changing Baae. Ontlook la Bright. The treasury returns of our foreign trade for the fiscal year ending with June 30 last gild the commercial horizon with welcome light and will help to silence the few “calamity howlers” that are left. In the last twelve months the exports of domestic merchandise from the United States amounted in value to $793,553,018, and with our exports of foreign merchandise to a total of $507,693.000. For the same period the value of the imports was $731,960,319. From these figures it wit! be seen our exports of domestic merchandise In the last twelve months exceeded our Imports by $61,592,699. Republican journals and politicians have been recently raising a great outcry about the multitudinous imports. We were told that the country was being flooded with foreign goods, and this was attributed to the wicked Wilson tariff, which, it was alleged, had given the foreigner control of our home markets. The official returns prove conclusively that the Wilson tariff has not unduly flooded the country with foreign-made goods. Had our Imports exceeded the exports (as those of England and other prosperous trading countries have uniformly done for a long series of years) It would be easy to show that this excess does not by any means necessarily Indicate a loss to the nation. Few popular delusions have been more absurd than that of the so-called “balance of trade,” which no reputable economist now adheres to as a criterion of commercial prosperity. But even if this old and exploided Bourbon fallacy is to be retained, It lz much too early for Its advocates to seek to turn it against the Wilson tariff. For so far the treasury returns show that after nearly one year of the operation of the lower tariff, with its free wool and other raw materials, the United States still has a “balance of trade” of $75,732,000 in merchandise In its favor.

These statistics are also highly encouraging in other points of view. They show that the lowering of the tariff In August last, while It relieved the country of a large burden of “protectionist” taxation (fejr the benefit of trusts and monopolies), has not injured American manufacturing industries, but, on the contrary, It has stimulated them by inducing a healthy competition and giving our manufacturers free raw materials.—New York Herald. Helping Ita Owners. “This is not a time for strikes for higher wages,” whines the pretended friend of the workingmen, the Philadelphia Manufacturer. Of course not The time for strikes was when McKinleyism was closing throwing thousands of men out of work and making strikes, such as the great Carnegie strike of 1892, useless as a protest against reduced wages. This Is the state of affairs which the Philadelphia high tariff organ wishes to see restored, and In the meantime it tries to prevent the Americas workingmen reaping the full benefit of Democratic good times, by pretending that conditions do not warrant wage advances. But the workers themselves know better. They know that over a million men and women have had their wnges increased from 10 to 15 and 20 per cent since the Wilson tariff was adopted. They know that the period of trade depression which under a high tariff filled the country with Idle men, ready to take the places of striking workmen, has gone with the tariff policy which caused It. They know that it is the wonderful businegs revival caused by the Wilson tariff which has started up factories and mills, thus relieving the labor market of the hosts of unemployed. They know the only time when strikes have any chance of success is Tyben men are in demand, and that if employers are now readily yielding to the requests of their hands for more wages, it is because they know that In case of a strike they could not fill the places of the strikers. These are some of the things which the workers have learned by long experience. And they are not likely to cease striving for the highest possible wages which trade conditions will allow, merely because the avowed organ of the manufacturers warns them against believing that prosperity has returned to the country. Thanks to a Democratic Congress, we are no longer living under McKinleyism, and workingmen now have a chance of getting their share of the results of a liberal trade policy. Unsatisfied Protectionists. When the Democratic Congress put burlaps, a kind of bagging largely used by American farmers and exporters, on the free list, the monopoly organs howled about the flood of cheap foreign burlaps which would pour Into this country. A year’s experience under the new tariff shows that the increased demand for burlaps, owing to the general revival of business, has advanced prices. Now the protection organs are complaining because, as they allege, the foreigner is putting up the price of burlaps, and the New York Press claims that “This is exactly the result which protectionists predicted.” Some people never can be satisfied, and the high tariffites are of that kind. Had the price of burlaps gone down the Press would have abused the Wilson tariff, and wailed iver the ruin of our infant burlap industry by foreign pauper labor products. Now that prices have gone up, that paper blames the placing of burlaps on the free list. No matter what the result may be, the partisan Republican organs’ policy Is: “Abuse the Wilson tariff.” Wants All Tariffs Abolished. “If,” asks the Commercial, “foreigners do not pay any part of tariff duties, why does every nation try to get the lowest possible duties on its products from all other nations?” For the same reason these same foreigners build canals, railroads and steamships. These foreigners know that all obstructions to commerce are Injurious to all commercial nations, whether these obstructions are natural or artificial. Natural

obstructions are removed by railway*,' canals and artificial obstructions should be removed by the repeal of the tariff laws —Louisville (Ky.) Post Emancipation for lowa. The Democratic nominations and platform are received by the Democrats throughout lowa not only with satisfaction, but also with a degree of enthusiasm which gives something like an assurance of victory. lowa Is not altogether lost to the cause of good government and honest politics. The Republican ring that has ruled lowa for thirty years, has combined more elements for misleading, abusing and terrorizing the people than any similar combination that ever held sway in a Western State. It has mingled fanaticism with corruption—has Joined hypocrisy in its platforms with profligacy in the administration to an extent that has not appeared in any other State under the rule of either party since the Union existed.. lowa has been governed for three or decades not by civilized law, by the courts and by the officers of the State and the municipalities. It has been ruled by fanatical public opinion In the various communities of the State. A small majority—perhaps not a majority, but a vigorous and malignant minority—has upheld a reign of proscription, of social and political ostracism, of oppression and tyranny, that has formed a cruel travesty on free government A reign of terror, enforced by false moral reformer*, by systems of espionage and social outlawry, has prevailed In tbe lowa communities until it has become intolerable.

The Democratic platform and candidate* promise emancipation to the people of lowa. The election of the Democratic candidates will abolish the rale of proscription and terrorism. It will clothe the people In liberty. It will give back to every citizen his constitutional rights. It wil! reinstate in their manhood the voters who have been robbed of their rights and Immunities through two generations of fanaticism and of social and political despotism. The Democrats promise to lowa a deliverance. Their victory, or even a great reduction of the Republican majority, would be the dawn of a humane and general Jubilee.—Chicago Chronicle. The Imitation Might Not Imitate. Republican prophets, who a little while ago predicted a “walkover” In the next presidential election With a McKinley, a Reed, a Harrison or some other h|gh tariff champion, have begun to assume a more cautious tone. Mlbgivingß are expressed at the same time by shrewd Republican politicians In regard to the expediency of nominating as a candidate for the presidency any of the men who have been closely identified with the McKinley act and of thus destroying the industrial peace by reviving -the tariff agitation. In this situation It would not be surprising ls-the Republicans should Imitate the example of their whig predecessors, who discarded their high tariff champion, Henry Clay, In 1848, and nominated a fortunate soldier in Gen. Zachary Taylor. —Philadelphia Record. ' Wool Bale* Um|j)jj|i|Free Wool. The tariff reformers argued that free wool would Increase the demand for the home-grown article and advance the price. Wool has recently gone up 2 cents a pound. When the sales of the foreign wool In the Boston market were 440,000 pounds, as under McKinley’s tariff, the sales of American wool were 1,840,000 pounds, but when the foreign sales advanced to 8,884,400 pounds, the sale of our own product reached the great total of 7,477,000 pounds—Rome (N. Y.) Sentinel. Good Prospect of Victory. The enthusiasm and harmony that prevailed In the lowa Democratic convention augur well for the success of the admirable ticket put in nomination. The Republicans have atoned in a measure, it is true, for the blunder they made in monkeying with prohibition, but they, are still so tainted with the popular distrust that in spite of tbelr numerical strength lowa Is good fighting ground for the Democracy.—Detroit Free Press.

Peace in Bight at halt. The Republicans up In Pennsylvania have become so mad that whenap attempt was made to make capital for Mr. Quay by springing his military record several party newspapers declared that a man’s military record cut no figure in politics. When Republican newspapers begin to talk in this fashion it is safe to infer that we have about reached the close of the war.—Washington Post. They Should Specify. The calamity howlers must specify. A general wail will not convince anybody when there are on all sides so many evidences of business improvement The country is getting Into better condition every day and the prospect is brighter than It has been for several years.—Atlanta Journal. “Reduction” the Word in 1804. How different the news this year from last! Now the dispatches tell day by day of notices of increase of wages at manufacturing centers. In 1894 the word was “reduction.” The Wilson tariff bill seems to be receiving magnificent vindication.—Greenville (S. C.) News. Another Inanlt to Gov. McKinley. The notice of an increase of wages posted in oil the cotton mills of Lowell yesterday was not intended as a free trade document, but Ohio Napoleons of Calamity will feel Just as much insulted by it as if it were.—New York World. '' Changing Their Base. Attacks on the Wilson tariff are becoming less frequent in Republican newspapers, and the proposition to make the tariff the main issue next year has not been heard recently, even from Mr. McKinley. Indicates a Successful Campaign. If there is any one thing that indicates a successful Democratic campaign next year it Is the constantly Increasing good times, brought about by Democratic tariff legislation.—Ottumwa, la., Democrat. , I Not the Right Species. In view of Republican disinclination to grant the negroes any privileges other than that of voting, we infer that the g. o. p. elephant is not of th# African species.—Salt Lake Herald.