Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1896 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

HISTORY OF M’KINLEYISM. At every protectionist gathering and In eveij- protectionist organ assertions are constantly being made about the effects of both the McKinley and Wilson tariff laws in which facts are either wholly disregarded or are so manipulated as to mislead all who may be. Induced to place the least faith in them. For instance, nothing could be more audaciously false than the general assumption by protectionist writers and ■peakers that the people of the United States were never so prosperous as durtag the years when McKlnleyism was in full operation. This statement has been repeated over and over agali?, even on the floor of Congress, despite the fact that every person who has arrived at the age of discretion knows that it is not true. It Is worth while to take a retrospective glance at some of the events which occurred during the closing year of the Harrison administration—that being the time usually selected by the spellbinders as affording the best examples of the happy contentment with which the McKinley method of making people rich by taxing them inspired its beneficiaries. This much vaunted system of producing peace and plenty had then been in full swing for two years. If a tariff verging on the prohibitory could have brought about beneficial results the year 1892 should tatve been a year of Incomparable prosperity. The actual facts, however, show quite the contrary. In 1892 the surplus which was In the treasury when President Cleveland vacated his office in 1889 had entirely disappeared, while the*national revenue from 1889 to 1892 had fallen short of the expenditure by nearly the same amount; and it was only by seizing the trust fund of 154,000,000 which had been deposited by the national banks to secure the redemption of their notes that Secretary Foster was enabled to avoid an issue of bonds. The Importation of the raw materials necessary to the successful conduct of the business of manufacturing had become difficult and expensive, and in some cases impossible. Wages had been steadily going down till, in the latter half of 1892, the discontent of labor had become so fierce that in many places it amounted to insurrection. In June of that year the Iron League discharged 1,500 men because they were Knights of Labor, and the Homestead steel works closed, throwing 3,000 men out of work. In July an attempt was made to land Pinkerton men at Homestead; several of them were killed, and, on the 10th, the national guard of Pennsylvania was called out. On the 11th there was a battle between union and non-union miners at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and a number of men were killed. Martial law was declared, and on the 16th President Harrison, by proclamation, called on all persons In Insurrection In Idaho to disperse. On the 18th warrants were issued for the Homestead leaders changed with the murder of Pinkerton guards. On the 22d the Iron-workers at Duquesne struck, and on the 30th troops were summoned to that point. Aug. 1 the building trades in New York went on strike, and all buildings In that city stopped; but lack of funds and the vast number of Idle men ready to take their places compellel many of the nfeh to return to work, and the strike failed. On the 13th the miners In Eastern Tennessee rebelled against the competition of convict labor, and liberated the convicts in order to get rid of them. On the 14th the switchmen on the Lehigh Valley Railroad struck, and during the next two days troops were hurried into Buffalo. On the 17th the strike extended to the West Shore and New York Central switchmen, and more troops were called out. On the 19th and 20th one thousand Tennessee miners attacked the militia at Coal Creek and defeated them. On the 23d the switchmen on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and also' on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railroad struck; these strikes falleQ. During the remaining days of August all the employes of Carnegie & Co. and of Schomburger, Speer & Co., of Pittsburg, struck; these strikes also failed. During September the grand jury returned true bills for murder against 167 Homestead strikers, and the Coeur d’Alene miners were tried for conspiracy, and four were convicted. On October 12 the yardmen of the Big Four Railway struck; and on the 27th another hundred armed deputies were sent to Homestead. On Nov. 5 a general strike against a reduction of wages was ordered by the Amalgamated Council of New Orleans; It failed on the 11th. On the 17th and 18th 1,500 men abandoned the strike at Homestead and applied for reinstatement; they were taken back bn signing an agreement not to join any labor organization. The molith closed with the strike of the electric wire men and the failure of /the Stone City (Ill.) Bank for half a million of dollars. The most significant event of November,' however, was the election on the Bth, when the public discontent was expressed by the casting of 1,500,000 votes for absolutely new parties and principles. During December the telegraph operators on the Rock Island Railway system struck, and 5,000 men were discharged from the Chicago packing houses, owing to dull business. There were heavy shipments o£ gold, and a fall in the price of industrial stocks in the New York market. Here is a very incomplete Account, much curtailed for want of space, Of the condition of the business of the country during the crowning year of McKlnleyism. But 1892 was not the only year of trouble and disaster. The evil effects of Republican policies, financial and economic, were felt both before and after that year. The culmination came in the panic of 1893; and it was not until confidence had been restored and industry relieved by the abrogation or reduction of the duties on raw materials, that business began to resume its normal condition of prosperity. Practical people would do well to remember that like causes produce like results, everywhere and

always, and that McKlnleylsm did in the past it will certainly do In. the future if they shall suffer themselves to be deluded by the lies and sophistries of its advocates.;—Philadelphia Record. “Prosperity” for Farmers. The census reports show that in the twenty years from 1870 to 1800 the value of the farm lands in the great, wealthy and thickly populated Slato of New York fell froip $1,272,875,766 to $068,127,280, a decline of more than $300,000,000. Between 1880 and 1800 the total number of farms decreased from 241,058 to 226,223, a reduction of 14,835. No further testimony is needed to show that the farmers whose lands have thus decreased in value and those who were forced to give up their farms could not have been prosperous during the period referred to. All fair-minded men will agree that falling values and fewer farms are sigua of a depressed farming industry. The significance of these facts appears when it is remembered that from 1870 to 1890 the country had a high protective tariff, which taxed everything the farmers used, and. discouraged foreign trade. All the time that farm values were shrinking the blessed tariff was getting in its best work. How do the American farmers like the results? The McKinley boomers are howling that the restoration of the high taxation policy will bring prosperity. Before accepting these delusive promises would It not be well for sensible men to ask: “If twenty years of protection brought only depression to stjch a great farming State as New York what reason Is there to believe that more protection would have a different effect? Trlfliaa with the TruthThe American Economist, organ of the Protective Tariff League, weeps briny tears over the alleged decline of the Syracuse, N. Y., salt industry under the Wilson tariff. Claiming that there has been a falling off In production since 1892, owing to the abolition of tho salt duty, the Economist says: "Yet the cost to the consumer has not been reduced.” Of course If the price of salt has iiot been reduced there would be no reason for complaint on the part of the American salt producers. But it so happens that there are trade journals which make It a business to collect aud publish statistics of prices from year to year. In Its last annual review of the prices of the principal articles of consumption Bradstreet’s quotes the record of the price of salt per sack as follows: In 1891, $1.05; 1802, $1; 1893, $1; 1894, 80 cents; 1895, 80 cents. These figures show that the prices of salt are now 20 per cent lower than under the McKinley law. Yet the Economist brazenly asserts that the cost to the consumer has not been reduced. This Is a fair sample of protectionist truthfulness. Following a Blamed Poor Mother. A Nebraska farmer who had lost a calf went In search of. tl*e runaway and found It with some, stray steers. He tried to drive It home. but the foolish calf ran after one of tho steers and went galloping over the prairie. Tired, hot and dusty, the farmed stopped and shook,, his fist at the calf, shouting: “Keep on, then, darn you, you’ll soon find what kind of a blamed■> mother you’ve took up with.” The foolish farmers and workingmen who are running after McKinley* may not listen to reason about the desert into which the hlgh-tarlff prophet is leading them. But if they keep on they will mighty soon find what kind of a blamed mother they are following. ' Strip Off Their Shirts. Senator Gorman yesterday proposed two perfectly sound and adequate measures for the relief of the treasury, but the Senate would have neither of them. Senator Sherman declared that he would “take the shirt off the people rather than violate our national credit.” And yet he would agree to neither revenue taxes on tea and coffee nor to treasury certificates unless the Dingley buncombe higher-tariff bill were first accepted. After all propositions to Increase the revenue had been rejected our wonderful Senate proceeded to pass a $10,768,000 fortification bill in the face of a treasury deficit of $30,000,000. —New York World. Live and Let Live Illustrated. A Bhode Island woolen manufacturer has raised the wages of his employes from 10 to 15 per cent. He made a cutdown about two years ago In order to keep his employes at work and his mill In constant operation. But now that business Is again booming this true disciple of live and let live has rewarded those who stood by him at a sacrifice by sending checks to them covering the sum lost by tjie cutdown during the dull period. This sort of voluntary profit-sharing and loss-shar-ing between mill employers and their “hands” If made universal would soon leave socialism with nothing practical to contend for.—Boston Globe. Nothing Good Endorsed. The Senate has defeated the proposed beer tax, of course. It merely meant needed revenue from a proper source. There was no politics in it It protected nobody. It gave nobody any advantage over his competitors In business for which he might be willing to pay In the shape of campalgn-fnnd subscriptions. It was just a sensible, straightforward revenue- tax, and so It had to be defeated—New York World. The Heritage of Successful Men. The ruthless politician who poaches upon the preserves of favorite sons and publicly humiliates them in their own States Invariably leaves a crop of heart burnings behind which may ripen into a harvest of regrets for him latar on.— Kansas City Times. The Farmers Lose by a High Tariff. Our farmers lose doubly by a protective tariff, because they have to, pay exorbitant prices for clothes and tools, and they are cut off from the markets of the world.—Kansas City Times.