Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1895 — VICIOUS INFLUENCE. [ARTICLE]

VICIOUS INFLUENCE.

“ PROTECTION" A OONSERVATOR &F CORRUPTION. Blunts the Public Conscience and Makes of Politics a Mercenary Scramble—Mr. Lubin’e Challenge A Study in Wool—The Iron Trade. Ambassador Bayard on Protection. The Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, eX-Sec-retary of State, and now ambassador to Great Britain, delivered an address before the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh on Nov. 7. After an earnest protest against all forms of paternalism and state socialism he said: “In my own country I have witnessed the insatiable growth of that form of state socialism styled protection, which, I believe, has done more to foster class legislation and create inequality of fortune, corrupt public life, banish men ot independent mind and character from public councils, blunt public conscience and place polities upon the low level of a mercenary scramble than any other single cause. Step by step, and largely owing to the confusion of civil strife, it has succeeded iu obtaiuiug control of the sovereign power of taxation, creating the revenue into an engine for selfish and private profit (its allied beneficiaries and combines are called trusts), and gradually the commercial marine of the United States has disappeared, the few vessels lately built being an exception and proving the rule, as they were only built by making a breach in the general tariff and navigation laws.” No clearer statement of the evil effects of protection has ever been given. The loss to the material interests of the country which was due to the high tariff system, was but a secondary result. The most important and far-reaching Injury was the degradation of national statesmanship into a cunning balancing of the claims of privileged interests. The money lost through protection amounts to billions of dollars. But who can calculate the effects on private character of the establishment as a principle of public life of the doctrine that governments may justly take away the property of the people and bestow It on a favored few? Is It any wonder that the business man who In 1888 raised tb«t largest fund for corruption purposes should have been rewarded by President Harrison with a seat in the cabinet? Were not those funds contributed by men who wished to purchase government favors for themselves? By cleverly appealing to the selfishness of the various protected interests the advocates of a high tariff policy succeeded for a long time in holding oflice. If after the experience of the beneficial results of a low tariff on trade and industry the country should again elect a protectionist administration, it would be the strongest evidence of the lack of public conscience caused by the unjust and dishonest protective system.

Combination in the Soft Coal Trade. With the approach of cold weather comes the announcement that practically all the bituminous coal operators of central and western Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia have completed arrangements for the joint control of production and prices. It Is stated that the combination will be able to maintain or Increase prices by preventing the competition which has hitherto existed. When a Democratic House of Representatives put coal on the free list the Republican apologists for protection denied that the effect of the McKinley duty of 75 cents per ton was to increase the cost of soft coal to the consumer. So the Republican Senators, with the aid ot a few protection Democrats, put a duty on coal of 40 cents per ton. Had foreign coal been made duty free Its importation would have been confined to the New England States and the Pacific coast. But its effects would have been felt in practically the whole soft coal markets of the country, since with tlie possibility of cheaper coal from Canada, the domestic operators would not have been able to raise prices through their combination. Owing to the immense deposits coal can be mined more cheaply iu the United States than in any other country. But so long as protection is continued the coal pool will continue to charge high prices and pocket big. profits.! l The Republicans who are agitating for a restoration of the McKinley tariff know that with higher duties the coal trust will be strengthened. Do the American consumers want to pay higher prices for their coal? ‘•Wool Is Higher, and So la Labor.” “Bradstreet’s” of Nov. G has au editorial on the “Improved Woolen Goods Situation,” which reads quite differently from the editorials in Republican organs. It says that within the past week salesmen have been out with samples of heavy weight woolens for next fall’s delivery, and that “if samples continue to take as well for a few weeks as they have during the first, manufacturers will be well employed getting out orders, and wool dealers will have to dispose of a good deal of wool to manufacturers.” It says that slight advances in prices are asked for next year because “goods are costing more to produce. Wool is higher, and so is labor.” It says that “most of the manufacturers, too, have made up their minds that wool is as low as it will be for some time.” It declares that “the markets for carpet wools everywhere are very strong,” and concludes that “taken all in ail, the outlook for wool and woolens is encouraging.” Prices of wool now differ but little from McKinley prices of July, 1894; some grades are lower, some higher. 4 slight advance will put them above what they were when they had the advantage of GO or 70 per cent protection. Such talk as this from the leading commercial journal of the country must be wormwood and gall to the editors of G. O. P. McKinley organs. The Challenge iu x rotuctionists. Mr. David Lubin, of Sacramento, Cal., has had on deposit in a San Francisco bank for nearly a year a check for SI,OOO. This amount is Offered as a contribution to the Protective Tariff League, provided that an impartial committee of five would decide that the present system of tariff protection is Just and equitable to the producers of agricultural staples as long as there

Is a surplus of these exports. So far the League has not attempted to win the thousand dollars. As the Republicans will appeal to the farmeoa next year on a high-tariff platform, It is certainly incumbent on them to accept Mr. Lubln’s challenge and try to prove that protection is just to the farmers. It is an encouraging sign to find that the Democratic campaign of education has had the effect of showing many farmers that they cannot possibly be helped by the protective system. If the McKinleyites fail to prove that a restoration of their high taxation scheme will benefit the farming industry, how can they expect to gain the farmer vote? Their only hope lies in dodging the issue. But they may be assured that their cowardice will be of uo use. In the -words of the West, the farmers are on to the high-tariff dodge. Not just to the farmer? Then no votes for protection. See? What the President Will Do. Certain impudent Protectionist editors and jKditicians have taken upon themselves the liberty of advising President Cleveland that if the Incoming Congress should pass a bill increasing duties, he would be bound to sign it, in view of the Republican successes iu the recent State elections. And with unequalled insolence these petty partisans declare that the President “would not dare” -to veto a bill restoring the McKinley tariff. The Republicans in Congress need not worry about the Democratic President. If they choose to hamper Industry and check the business revival which has been going on since the Wilson tariff became law, by threatening to re-es-tablish McKlnleyisra, they are welcome to go ahead. The sooner they show their hand the quicker will the people realize that they are prosperity destroyers and opposed to the country’s best interests. There heed be no question as to what President Cleveland will do with a protectionist bill. The man who refused to sign the law repealing the McKinley tariff because it retained too much protection, will veto a Republican tariff bill so quickly that the Congress which passed it will hear something drop right hard. No scheme for more protection will become law while Grover Cleveland is President. Wonderfnl Production of Pig Iron. In its latest Issue the Iron Age states that tho current production of pig Iron in the United States “is at the tremendous rate of 11,250,000 tons per annum.” It adds that preparations uow under way “will probably carry the make up to 220,000 tons per week," and that “nearly every furnace manager, in the country has been driving his plant funlously.” This intense activity in the Iron industries does not comport very well with the multiplied and manifold predictions of our calamity-howlers. Prosperity in the iron trade Is usually recognized by commercial men as a precursor of prosperity In the majority of other manufacturing industries. Certainly never before in the history of American industry was the activity of the iron and steel works of the country so great as it is now. The output of American iron and steel mills is now much larger than that of any other and It can be Indefinitely Increased. Is this not a good time for them to enlarge their exporttrade? There may be a slackening of demand for their products at home, but the foreign markets are open to them.—New York Herald.

The Tariff Is a Tax. If the tariff is not a tax, will the Buffalo News kindly tell us why the consumer is obliged to pay more for the taxed article than he would and does were it untaxed.—Niagara Palls Cataract. The Cataract begs the question. lie doesn’t.—Buffalo News. That is sheer nonsense. If the consumer does not pay the tax, why then is there so much attempted smuggling of taxed articles on his part; and why is it that when the tax is taken off the price immediately falls? llow, for instance, does it happen that woolen goods are cheaper now than ever before; how, that the price of natural gas to the consumer in Buffalo, as the Express of that city pointed out, is greater by reason of the import tax than it would be? And what would be the effect in this last case if there was no tax? The News apparently entirely loses sight of the economic fact that the less the cost of putting any ware on the market the cheaper it can be sold. Any addition to the expense, whether arbitrary in the form of a tax, or otherwise, means a raising of the price to the consumer. And if the price be raised to him he must assuredly pay the tax.— Niagara Falls Cataract. Creditable to Democrats,' The total vote in Pennsylvania gives an explanation of the Republican plurality of 175,000. Compared with 1892 the Democratic stay-at-homes number 170,000 this year. The Republican vote, so far from increasing, is 00,000 behind that of 1892. Compared even with last year the Democrats fall behind 118,000 and the Republicans 50,000. Considg the ascendency of Boss Quay in jßmir party, it is much to the discredit of the Republicans of Pennsylvania that they permitted the Democrats so greatly to surpass them in disgust and apathy. Sealed Market*). The calamity howlers of the Boston Home Market Club have doubtless observed that during the operation of the new tariff a Boston shoe firm has been very successful in supplying many people in Germany with “Hessian” boots. But to members of this club a foreign market for American manufactures is not worth considering. W'hat they desire is an exclusive home market, in which there will be neither ex-, ports nor Imports.—Philadelphia Record. Sherman on Free Wool. Senator Sherman tells an interviewer that free wool has cost the country $40,000,000 or $50,000,000. It would be interesting to know how much the free wool which Mr. Sherman has pulled over the country’s eyes in his role of financial wiseacre has taken out of the pockets of the people.—Philadelphia Record. Wiwng principles are as wrong In politics as they are In religion.