Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1895 — MALICIOUSLY FALSE. [ARTICLE]

MALICIOUSLY FALSE.

REPUBLICAN MISREPRESENTATION OF CLEVELAND. New York Platform Makes a Groundless Charge—Real Enemies of American Industries Are McKinley and Hia Followers. The Real Enemies of Industry. The platform adopted by the New York State Republican Convention makes the silly protectionist charge that President Cleveland is an enemy of American industry. This groundless assertion Is repeated by the New York Press, which claims that it is justified by the President’s tariff message of 1887, and that in a speech delivered in 1892 President Cleveland again declared himself opposed to the manufacturing interests of the country. There is not the slightest excuse for those malicious inventions of the Republicans. The pretense that opposition to granting special favors to monopolies means enmity to industry is too absurd to be believed by even the credulous followers of McKinley. Instead of atacking our industries, President Cleveland has always objected to protection on the ground that high tariffs hamper industry and injure both employer and workingmen. The strongest indictment which lie brought against the McKinley tariff was the undeniable fact that it imposed heavy burdens on the raw materials of many important Industries, thus checking the establishment and growth of factories in which those raw materials might have been converted into finished good:?. Nor did he fail to point out that tile result of trade-resitricting tariffs is to lessen foreign commerce by decreasing the opportunities for our industries to find a market for their surplus products. It was because of his position in favoring the abolition of high taxation on the of industry that the business men of the country joined with the farmers and workers in electing him President by a sweeping majority over tlie protectionist candidate. The real enemies of American industry are William McKinley and his superstitious followers, who want to tie the manufacturers hand and foot with restrictive laws, and to restore a policy which but a short time ago plunged the country into poverty and suffering. Not satisfied with the ruin wrought in 1893 and the first half of 1894, these agitators are clamoring for another opportunity to again wreck the manufacturing Interests of the country. They make no concealment of their intention to check tlie prosperity of the woolen Industry by imposing heavy taxes on wool. They wish to shut out foreign iron ores, which are now so necessary to our Iron and steel manufacturers. They are resolved that our great furniture industry shall no longer have the benefit of free lumber. And so on through the list of industries.

Republicans would do well to stop talking about enmity to Industries. The people know that tlie Democratic po’icy means prosperity, while protection means shackles and burdens for b *rh trade and manufacturing. False charges against tlie tariff reform leader will not blind the public to the acts of the late Republican administration. v vy B. Harrison, Tariff Reformer. “It is plain here," says an Indianapolis dispatch to a Chicago Republican organ, “Mr. Harrison’s friends will refuse to shoulder any responsibility for tiie McKinley tariff, and in the event of his nomination by tbe next Republican convention the campaign will be made on ilie question of tariff reform largely.” Harrison among the tariff reformers! Saul among the prophets! The Indianapolis statesman may refuse to shoulder responsibility for the McKinley tariff, but he cannot shirk responsibility for his own utterances before he was President and during his Presidency. The country has not forgotten the ex-Prosident’s definition of the “ideal condition.” He told the farmer's when he was swinging around the circle, that this was the condition in which they would carry their produce to the factory in the farm wagon and carry home the manufactured product And he professed to be in favor of a tariff which would bring about that condition. Such a tariff would distance even that of Mexico. It would have to be made practically prohibitory and applied not only on every Stale line but every county line, and not only on every county line but every township line. That would be the Ideal tar ff to produce the ideal condition. Perhaps it is the question of tariff reform along these lines upon which the campaign will be made in the event of the nomination of Harrison next year by tlie Republicans. If Mr. Harrison is in favor of any more liberal sort of tariff reform he has never made the fact known since his appearance on the stage of national politics a quarter of a century ago.

A Forced Issue. One or two of our Republican contemporaries seem to And it necessary to remind the party in this State with which they are connected that the main issue is the tariff issue, and that it is undesirable to have the discussion switched off from that track and devoted to a variety of State concerns. We dare say that those who are stumping the State In the Republicau interest find It necessary to discuss those subjects which seem likely to interest their hearers, and that if under such circumstances the tariff is practically given the go-by it i.s because these orators are discovering that, so far as popular interest is concerned, the tariff is distinctly a back number. They may, in a few perfunctory sentences, affirm the need of a restoration of McKinleyism, but having done this, and having noticed the apathetic manner in which such statements are received by the audience, the clever stump orators who have their hands, so to speak, on the pulse of their hearers, find that to continue on this,theme is to run the risk of having themselves voted bores; hence, to the grief of some of our contemporaries, who sleep, eat, drink and live in the atmosphere of protection, they let the subject drop and take up a number of very nmcli more attractive themes.— Boston Herald.

Frank, Indeed. Chairman John R. Tanner has cut loose from Senator Cullom as a Presidential candidate. He says the dele-

gates from Illinois in tbe Republican national convention have for years “frittered away their strength for impossible favorite sons" (meaning CulIom), and that now they should unite with other great States not to secure a presidential candidate, but to “obtain recognition” of the President when elected.' The proposition is Intelliglblo in Us brutal force and audacity. Hereafter the vote of Illinois in Republican conventions is not to be at the disposal of Cnllom nor anybody else as a Presidential candidate, but is to be auctioned off to the best bidder for tbe offices and spoils of .the administration. That is frank, to say the least. Why Wheat Exports Have Been Small Protectionist papers are trying to make capital out of the fact that our exports of wheat have not increased in proportion to the exports of manufactured goods. With the usual Republican dishonesty they claim that the falling off In wheat shipments is due to the Wilson tariff, and that instead of opening up new markets for farm products the Democratic policy has had the contrary effect. It is hardly possible that any farmers can be run back to the support of the protection swindle by such shallow arguments. That the reduction of tariff duties has nothing whatever to do with the assured foreign demand for our wheat, must be evident to every one who knows anything of the conditions under which our surplus wheat goes abroad. These conditions are the size of the crops in other countries and the price in this country as compared with our competitors. Lower duties certainly did not make bigger crops In Europe, or lower prices for wheat in other countries. On the other hand, it is certain that protection does shut our wheat out of foreign markets. First, by the protection tariffs on wheat levied by France, Germany, Spain and other European nations. Another way in which protection injured our wheat growex-s was by depriving foreigners of our markets for their goods. Forced to sell in India, Russia and the Argentine Republic, the manufactured articles sold in this country previous to the adoption of the McKinley tariff, Great Britain and other nations naturally developed a trade in wheat with those countries. The result is that a large quantity of the wheat formerly supplied by the United States now comes from other sources. And this is a sample of how protection helps the farmer.

Canned Goods Industry Prosperous. President Seager of the Western Canned Goods Association reports that the past season has been an unusually active one for the canning business In this country. In quality as well as quantity this year’s pack of corn will be greatly superior to last year’s. Much larger quantities of both peaches and tomatoes have been canned in the East, and the quality is said to be excellent. Similar reports are made as to apples, peaches, beans, peas, cherries, berries and other fruits.

This satisfactory condition of an important industry is largely due to the Democratic reduction of 50 per cent in the tariff on tin plate. The immediate effects of the McKinley tariff have been tbe serious hampeilng of the canning Industry by the great increase in the cost of tin plate. At the same time the high tariff hard times, by decreasing the purchasing power of the people, caused a general falling off in the demand for the canners’ products. With cheaper tin, and with an improved market for their goods, owing to increased employment and higher wages, the business of the canners is booming. If they read Republican papers they will learn that they are being ruined by tariff reform. But protectionist theories are never disturbed by such little things as 1 facts.

Political Campaigns and Woolen Mills For campaign purposes the woolen industry is certainly in a very deplorable condition; but it is otherwise doing fairly well. The Springfield (Mass.) Republican, an excellent authority, says: “Sales of wool at Boston last week reached the unprecedented amount of 11,914,000 pounds. This does not represent the mills to be in a very depressed state. In fact, even the tariff calamity people say the woolen goods market is in a better position than It has been, and the mills are mostly doing well.”—Philadelphia Record. He Doesn’t Want to Hear of It. The shipment of five hundred tons of wash-metal product, which has just been made to England by the Youngstown Steel Company, “is the first consignment of a large order, and in sending the metal to the old country Youngstown’s industries competed against the world.” Youngstown, It may be added, is in the eastern part of Ohio. Unfortunately, it is so far from the State capital that Governor McKinley may never get to hear of this auspicious shipment.

Not Ruined as Promised. The Imports of hides and skins for the eight months ending with August show an increase of $13,000,000, or more than 100 per cent above the imports of the corresponding eight dipnths of 1894. This increase is due In part to the shortage in American hides, but It shows that the business of making shoes is going on with increasing activity under a tariff which McKinley thought would ruin the country.—New York World. w Bteppinjr Out of the Fryine Pan. ”” One of ex-President Harrison’s friends claim that the man who signed the McKinley hill was wholly blameless for any bad political effects resulting from it in 1892. Was Harrison a party manikin or was he President?—Springfield, INlpss., Republican.

Hard for McKinley to Explain. Every factory in Cleveland, Ohio, is working day and night to try to catch up w r ith the orders that they are behind on. This is a little rough on McKinley, and is an argument that it is aard fax, him to answer when he pleads for high protection.—Peoria Herald. , Volumes of Argument. Among the interesting contributions to the discussions of the day the continued volumes given out by the busy Industrial chimneys must not be overlooked.—Philadelphia Times.