Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1897 — Page 1 Advertisements Column 5 [ADVERTISEMENT]

A Disastrous Fire. Last Tuesday morning, about 7 o’clock, Reusselaer was visited by the most disastrous firt that has ever occurred in the hist ry of the city. Tne fire started iu the basement of Long’s drugstore. Peter Brenner, a clerk, occupied an upper room and was awakened by the smoke. Partly dressed he rushed dowu stairs and gave the alniiu.— Loss of A. F. Long, stock and fixtures, 95,000, insurance 93,000. Tne adjoining building, belong inf to E. L. Hollingsworth, occupied by Porter k Yeoman, and others, was next to succumb to the tlsmes. Estimated damage stock of Porter & Yeoman, 91,000. H. L. Brown, dentist, implements, stock aud fixtures, 9500- uo insurance. E. L Hollingsworth, on building, lobs 94,000; insurance. *2,000. On buildiugsouth of McCoy <fe Co’s bank, loss 91,500; insurance, 91,000. Other loses are R. P; Phillips, W. J. Miller, Mrs. Willis J lines, Ferguson «fc Wil„ son, A. McCoy, roof of bank building, F ltz, Spitler & Kurrie.

FOREIGN TUAI)E. The Journal attributes oar leige export* to tee meat inspection bill aud to the feat that there are short wheat orops abroaa. Kodoabt, there are many oaaae* contributing to oar great export trade, bat when the matter is considered from t. e piotectionist point of view the aversge citizen oanaot help being a little puzzled. At the present time a new tariff is in prooess of eonstrnetioa, the purpose of which 'is to increase exports by its reciprocity proyiplone, and to cheok imports by its igher duties. The greatest ambition of the protectionist is to have large exports ai d small imports, in order that we may have what is called a favor hie balance of trade, Therefoie, the assumption of the makers of the new tariff mast be that it is needed to accomplish these purposes. The oritio'sin made upon the pres< nt “free trade" tariff is that it does not sufficiently protect our industries—that is, that it allows the importation of too many foreign pro-'u ta 80, when it turns out that under this despised tariff our imports! are small and our experts and trade d.l >nos are large, it is not to be wondered at that proteotlonist speakers and papers turn to short foreign orops and m at inspection bills a explanations for the strange condition of things. nut there seem to be some features about our foreign trade durmg tbe year 1890 whiob do not consist with any koown high tariff theory. For . xumple, the favorable trade balance for the eleven months of the lest oalendar year was $206,004,052. This is the large t balanoe in twenty five years, and there is one month vet to hear from. There are only two y ars in the last twenty-five ih which the exports exceed tbe exporte for the eleven months or I 89«, and if the figures for Deoember hold up, it ie probable that this year will see all reoords b aten. And this under a “fie trade tariff To bo sure, one muT claim that this phenomenal result is wholly due t- the meet inspection law and to short orops abroad. We can not aooept this view But granting that is sound, how are we to explain the ebr nkege in imports? The imports for the eleven months of last year wo e only $622,690,362, as against $770,248,9*4 $076,312,941 and SBOI 689,847 for the years 1893, 1894 and 1895 re speotiveLr. Even with tbe December returns in, there will still be e deolirn in imports Stranger yetis the faotth...there has been a large fnlliug off in the importation of commodities whioh aie on tho free 1 st—larger than in the esse of dutiable commodities. The t tal imports for the ye»r will b# less than for many high 1 turiff years, Es> imating the returns for Deoember at $60,000,000, whioh is at least a fair estim te, the imports for 1896 will be less i han those for 1882, 1883,1887. 1888, 1889,1890, 1891,1892, all lisosl yours and! for the cnlendar years 1893 and 1895. It will, therefore, be observed that tbe Wilson tariff has not resulted in “flooding* us wtk foreign good*. Our balanoe ie due not merely to large exports, wbioh may bo accounted for on the meat Inspection and short orop theorv, but also to small imports, whioh oan be aooounted for in no snoh way. We fi d that there has bean an increase of sbon* $6,000,000 in the export of beef prod icte, and a .decree,-a of about tho lame amount of baoon, as compared with 1895. The exports of fresb pork have fallen off, while the exports of hams have increusedjby about $4,000,000. Th re has been an increase in the export of animals ’t over $9,009,000 and in breadstuff* nt almost $50,090,000. In unmanufactnre < cotton, exports ha ve inoreesed $34,000,000 and in cotton cloth they have increased over $5,000,000. We exported bicycles ano parts thereof to the umount of $3,408,612, as against $202.9 9 for the corresponding eleven months of 1895. rhero has been an inoreaseof over $7,000,000 in the exports of machinery, end of over $'•2,000,000 in iron and steel, not inolndii K ore; of almost $2,000,000 in timber andnnmannfaotnred;wood, and of almost #5,000,000 in total wood and manufactures thereof Our exports of raw wool have risen from $634 090 to $927,372, and of wool manufactures from $685,896 to $876,124 Thus it will buseen the 1 ; other causes than moat inspection and short foreign orops have been at work More start ing yot, on the protective theory, ie that we imported only 133,555,. 365 pounds of raw wool valued at $lB,340,500. as against 224,384,502 pounds last ye»r valued at $30,739,059 These flgu.er are enough to show that under a “free trade" tariff we have large exports, small imports snd a heavily favorable balanoe of t.ade And wo submit that this revelatiou is somewhat disturbing to those gentlemen who are patriotically devoting themselyes to the ta-k|of s iving us from a floodof foreign wares It proves for one thing that there is suoh a thing as a for eign market, which it will pay us to culti vate Every sensible man knows that our home market is far 100 narrow for the splendid genius and energy of the Arner ioan people When our manufacturers find th -t they have produced fur in excess of the home demand at a piofitablejpd e. there are only two things for them to do—eithei to f rm a trust and limit production so a to keep np prices, or else to seek an outlet abroad Every interference with trade tends to dr ve them to ths first alter In all this w# think may be found reas Ous by our ltepublican friends for not going to extravagant lengths in the ccn stiuction of the new tariff our relations with other nations aie every day growing more intimate, «ud it is well that this honld be so Bush olose relations mean prosperity for both ourse ve* ..nd foreign conntr'es Our people are outgrowing the