Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1895 — GIVE THEM THE ROPE [ARTICLE]

GIVE THEM THE ROPE

REPUBLICANS CAN HANG THEMSELVES BEFORE ’9B. G. O. P. Followers May Find the Disagreeable Leaaoua of 1800 and 18011 set Before Them Again Next November—Remarkable Confession*. Success Is Not Sure. Republicans cannot be blamed for saying tbat their recent sweeping victories make their success in the next presidential eleotiou certain. Yet even the most elate of them have a haunting recollection that t4ey felt just as certaiu In 1884 and 181)0. The conservative vote which their Blaine and tarifT and force bill debauch alienated has now no doubt returned to them; but there Is time for it to be alienated again before next November. Let them only give Tanner, Foraker, Chandler and McKinley, to say nothing of l’latt. Quay and Sewell, rope enough, aud the hanging of the party will be among the easy possibilities. Senator Sherman already threatens n duty on Wool and a general and speedy tariff upheaval. lie aud too many other leaders are deceived by the idea that the country wants thorn to "do something.” But that Is precisely what the country Is sick and tired of. Doing something is what has undone one party after the other. As the Antinomluu hymn says: “Doing is a deadly thing, doing ends in death.” The voters of the nation are prepared to hall a party which wil| fruukly say that It proposes to legislate as little as possible; tbat It is not going to Insist upon making everybody rich, wise and virtuous by law. All the Republicans have to do Is to stand still aud see their salvation. If they are too eager to help things aloug by going to war with England, or ripping up the tariff, or Inflating the currency again, they may easily And the disagreeable lessons of 1800 and 1802 set them once more.—New York Evening Post

The Cuuac of Hu*ine** Trouble*. Thinking that the people have such poor memories that they can be easily deceived ns to the origin of the recent trade depression, the New York Tribune revives the old story that it was the l’ear of Democratic legislation which In 1803 closed mills aud factories, and brought ruin and bankruptcy. If that pni>er bad been content with Its bold assertion It might have convinced Its partisan readers that It was telling the truth. But when It proceeds to explain the closing down of many factories In 1892. while the Republican administration was still In power, by saying that the branches of industry affected wore those in which it was expected that the tariff duties would be changed, It becomes ridiculous. The people are not so stupid ns the Tribune imagines. They know that Industry of nil kinds is curried on to supply human wants. They know that the total volume of exchanges which we call trade, depends on the ability of each consumer to 11ml'some one who wants the things made by other men, and has something to offer In exchange. They know that business activity depends on the purchasing power of the masses, and not ou high taxes on foreign goods. These are some of the simple truths on which the common people have got a good hold. With these principles in view the cause of business depression can bo readily seen. If the people who are engaged In producing wealth of all kinds are robbed annually of a large share of their product, us w r as the case under the McKinley tariff, it is evident that they cannot buy ns much of the proceeds of other men’s labor as they need. The loss of a portion of the goods they make means that they will be unable to take less of other goods. While each man’s anniinl loss through high turlff robbery may be small, yet the total means an enormous amount, and the result is a generally decreased demand for goods, and the consequent closing of factories.

This is exactly what happened in 181)2 and 1893. The consumers of goods needed just as much of everything as they did a year or two years before. But they had been annually giving so large a share of their products to protected monopolies aud trusts that they were, unable to buy back the things they wanted. Factories therefore found that they had too many goods on hand, and were forced to close down and to discharge their employes. There is no mystery about hard times. Factories cannot run if goods cannot be sold. The people cannot buy goods If their money is taken in high tariff taxes, and in profits of protected trusts. Under natural conditions each man’s purchasing power would exactly equal his’ power to produce goods, and panics and over-production would be impossible. When Democratic principles are fully carried out, the prosperity which has followed their partial application will be perpetual. Fat Fryers and 6all Manufacturers, A calamity organ asserts that the reason ex-Congressman Tom Johnson wants no protection for his steel rails Is that they are “protected by numerous patents.” If this be so, there are other manufacturers of steel rails who have no such protection. Mr. Andrew Carnegie is not crying for more protection, as the present duty on steel rails, small as It is, is in effect prohibitory In its operation. At the ruling prices for steel rails the manufacturers have no need of any protection at all, patents or no patents. But that is not the question. What the manufacturers desire above all is to be let alone, in order that they may extend the markets for their industries at home and abroad. The only yelps for more protection come from the professional tariff agitators and tne politicians who wish to fry more “fat” out of the manufacturers. It Is perfectly safe to predict that not a manufacturer of steel will be found in the lobbies of the next Congress, begging for higher duties.—-Philadelphia Itecord. *'• Ohio’s Busy Mills. Five hundred tons more to England? The bats and owls do not appear to be nesting in the chimneys, for if they try to find one that is not sending out fire and smoke they fail. Neither are the cows browsing around the furnaces, as they told us would surely happen. There is no use denying the facts any

longer. When Youngstown situated hundreds of miles from tha shore, can send their products by rallj underheavy freight rates, to the ocean’ and then across the deep to the Old World. It proves conclusively what tariff reformers have always claimed. The era of trade Is Just begun.—Youngstown (O.) A'lndicator. How Protection Ha* Robbed Farmer*. In spite of the warnings of the Demi ocrats that the protective tariff was steadily crushing the farming Industry of the country, the farmers continued to vote for the party which was plundering them by Indirect taxation. For thirty years previous to 1804 a high tariff policy has been in force, and during all that time the Republicans have been telling the farmers that the “home markets" built up by protection was making them rich. The farmers themselves knew better, but allowed their partisan bias to prevent them overthrowing the system which was responsible for their condition. Finally they revolted, aud in 1802 elected an administration and Congress pledged to establish a tariff for revenue only. With the repeal of the McKinley tariff the eyes of even' the most bigoted protectionists were opened to the truth about the farming industry. It was then no longer necessary to conceal the facts, aud instead of'picturing the prosperity of the farmer, Republican papers began to talk of his poverty. A eousplcuous instance of this ehnugo Is found In the Manufacturer, the organ of the Manufacturers’ Club of Philadelphia, a body which Includes about one thbusand prominent Pennsylvania protectionists. The Manufacturer is an ardent advocate of the most extreme McKlnleytsm, and favors practically the prohibition of foreign goods. Yet in its Issue of Nov. 2 that paper makes the following editorial statement in regard to the American farmers: “The prices of farm stuff have been falling, almost without Interruption, for twenty years. Bui taxes have been advancing and the Indebtedness of the agriculturists has not been decreasing. What Is to be the conclusion of this remarkable movement? Is it not plainly indicated by the fact that between 1880 aud 1800, In this one State of Pennsylvania, the number of men working their own farms decreased by 11,000, while the number of tenant farmers Increased by 0,000? The Americans who cultivate the earth arc becoming hirelings Instead of owners. The laud Is passing from the hands of the men who till It. Prices for farms are now quoted within thirty miles of this city, in localities nearly In touch with fallroads, ns low ns s2o nil acre, and even sls. This does not represent the value of the buildings and other Improvements. The lnnd itself Is given away more cheaply than In the'patents of William Penn, or even the deeds of conveyance to him, signed by the Indian chiefs." This is the deliberate assertion of a protectionist organ. If It had been made by a Democratic paper two'or three years ago, the Republican prefcs would have called It a free trade slander. But coming from one of themselves, how can the Republicans answer It? They cannot say that the state of affairs described by the Manufacturer is due to the Wilson tariff, for the record of increasing tenant fanners Is taken from ten years In which protection was In full operation. And the decline In prices of farm products is stated to have been going on for (he past twenty years. Certainly tariff reform bad nothing to do with what occurred under a high tariff.

Our Prosperous Woolen Trudc. Not only have there been large exportations of wool from .the United States under the new tariff—an unprecedented circumstance—but the exportations of woolen goods have greatly Increased. In 1892 our exports of woolen goods amounted to about S3O7,(XX); In 1895 they reached $070,000. The exports of carpets have risen from $9,000 in 1892 to $101,(XX) in 1895, while those of-flannels have doubled, and those of other woolens have likewise Increased. Statistician Ford declares that the woolen industry of the United States Is now more prosperous than ever before. —Buffalo Courier. The Shelving of McKlnleyUiu. ’The efforts of Mr. Harrison's friends to acquit him of complicity in the McKinley tariff Indicate a realizing sense upon their part of the enormity of that monumental blunder. It Is quite safe to say, In view of the present tendencies of trade, that no party will dare to advocate a return to McKinleyism. The attempt to make the tariff again a campaign issue ‘has signally failed, and the anxiety of the more level-head-ed partisans to drop the subject is simply a recognition of evident truth.— Philadelphia Times. Business Stendily Improving. The McKinley law found the country prosperous and left it prostrate. The present law found the country prostrate and helped it to its feet. To say that full prosperity returned at once would be to talk nonsense, for business, when so grievously wounded, cannot recover In a day. But It Is not too much to say that business has been improving steadily &ver since.—Louisville Cou-rier-Journal.