Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1903 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

The Tara of the Tide. In these days of retrenchment and sagging exports, which are the natural results of a high protective tariff, our manufacturers have been looking for markets abroad that were not walled |h by a protective tariff against them. The British colonies In South Africa peemed the best field for exploiting and quite a nice business was springing up fn that direction. The Department of Commerce, which now Includes the bureaus of statistics, was quick to call attention to our increased trade with South Africa, and the protectionist organs pointed to It as an example of foreign trade that had not been reduced by our own protection wall. But alas! those wicked Britishers, who are free traders at home, where they cannot raise enough necessities to supply themselves, when transplanted to a new country with infant Industries, which they are trying to build up, have determined on protection. The Department of Commerce now Informs us that all British territory In South Africa lias put In operation a preferential tariff system in favor of Great Britain of 25 per cent. This will soon wipe out the trade that our exporters have built up, with so much expense and cnre. The business thus lost with South Africa amounted to $83,000,000, or about one-fourth of what the same territory bought from England, and the amount was Increased with surprising rapidity. In 1898 our trade there amounted to only one-tenth of the British, which shows the great increase since that date. Our trade with Canada Is being cut off In exactly the same manner and •11 the European governments are also raising their tariff walls higher and higher against us. The principal sufferers by this system of protection adopted by other countries, will be the American workingman and farmer. Both will be cut off from markets for the surplus they produce over and above what the people of the United States can consume. The workingmen will suffer by the decreased demand for what they manufacture and the farmers by the decreased markets for their surplus. As the demand decreases, prices for goods or produce fall and wages decline, which Is the Immediate result that may be looked for In this country. In fact, the process has already begun and some of the greater manufacturers—the trusts—have already notified their workmen that the reduction must be made. The steel trust has posted notices that on Jan. I a new agreemnt with its employes will be necessary. The Dover, N. J., Index of Oct. 2, says: “Some of the employes of the mines In this section have received notice that their wages will be cut 15 cents per day, and It Is said that the same rule Is to prevail in all of the mines In the country In the course of a few days. This Is occasioned by the big ‘slump’ In steel and a consequent reduction In the price of pig Iron." That Is from a local newspaper published in the iron mine region and the information therefore comes at first hand.

A Chicago special correspondent of the New York Evening Post of Sept 30 says: “The railroads and machine shops are not using as many men as recently, the night shifts having In a number of instances been dispensed with, owing to a falling off In business.” Thus we have the natural result of protection brought home to us, by the efforts of other countries to preserve their markets for their own goods. As the foreign demand for our surplus productions decrease, we must reduce our output. To reduce means men out of work and lower wages. During the height of the trust boom that has now run Its course wages have been increasing; they will now begin to fall, and only the best skilled workmen will find steady employment. The protectionists would have us believe that the Dingley bill, if untouched, will continue prosperity, but the facts show that It has bred trusts and monopolies; raised the price of living far beyond the increase of wages; forced foreign countries to Increase their tariff wall against American products and produced a panic iu the stock market which seems destined to extend to all branches of trade. That the tariff has been the mother of trusts was a sworn statement of one of the great trust magnates, and that tbe trusts have been selling their products cheeper to foreigners than to our own people has been proven. Yet with all this evidence of the harm Jhat the protective tariff has done and is doing, riie Republican leaders have determined not to reduce or reform it, and are already engaged In packing tbe committees of tbe coming Congress so that the subject cannot even be considered.

fihaw to the Keecue. Secretary Shaw for political reason* , wants to stave off a panic as long as possible, and at the Maryland and Washington bankers’ meeting at Old Point Comfort be declared that “the time has come when either more government bonds must be Issued as a basis for bank circulation or some Other system must be adopted.” This sup art Of what Secretary Bbaw said ,* was published In the Washington Post

Sept 20, and shows that the administration intends to use its influence for the asset currency plan, for It is impossible to believe that even the present administration would Issue more bonds Just to aid Wall street In the panic that seems Imminent When Secretary Shaw says there Is no danger of a money panic, but at the same time advises the bankers that the conditions are so desperate that either more bonds must be issued or some other system of Issuing currency must be adopted, the wise man can read between the lines and see there are troublous times ahead. The break may come soon or It may be postponed for a time, but speculation that has run riot for some years is certainly exhausted, and much business and many people are drawing In their horns preparing for a rainy day. Opening the treasury strong boxes to the banks and overriding the law that governs the government deposits and bank reserves will only stay the tide a while; the evil Is too deep-rooted to be cured by a few millions, more or leas, that the treasury has to loan the banks. The very fact of the desperate measures that the Republican administration Is taking will cause more deposits to be withdrawn than the dollars the treasury holds that are available to be used to help the banks. The chief trouble Is the lack of confidence, and that barometer of the financial world—Wall street—is already experiencing a thorough house-cleaning of the watered stocks that it has been the main effort of Secretary Shaw to bolster up. The effect of this will soon be apparent In the country, the depression depending on the soundness with which ths local banks have managed their business.

41sni of Revolt. The Republican platform adopted by the State convention of that party In Massachusetts shows that the “stand patters” have possession of the machinery of that party In every State tliat lias held a convention this year. When they declare that “tariff schedules should be revised from time to time,” but blandly add that this Is not the time, but “whenever industrial conditions” call for It “tbe work will he undertaken by the Republican party.” ThAt Is equivalent to saying, so far as the Massachusetts Republicans are concerned, that all tariff revision Is Indefinitely postponed. The manufacturers who want free raw materials, the people who are paying high trust prices and the family of limited Income who finds the coftt of living enormously Increased, are all told they must bear these tils or worse may come to them. Those New England Republican Congressmen who have sworn Independence by voting with the Democrats on several propositions to reduce the tariff and suppress trust extortion, find themselves outside of the demands of their party and virtually told they had better behave themselves or the fate of all traitors will will be theirs. There are signs that the revolt against this trust domination is spreading In Massachusetts and the voters want tariff reform now and not In the Indefinite future.

Tbe Democrats are making „ their campaign on the tariff issue and the prospects of large gains, If not the election of their candidates for Governor, are dally becoming more Apparent The great mass of New England voters are intelligent, and when their material welfare Is at stake their devotion to party will not hold them. The protected trusts are reported to have provided a large campaign fund to overcome this revoJt against their friends, the Republican leaders, for they feel that if Massachusetts should show signs of being sick of their extortions, the danger of tbe revolt spreading everywhere would Indeed bn great

Political Potpourri. The people and not the trusts should rule. “Stand pat,’’ says Mark Hanna, while the trusts grow fatter. “I do not know of a trust in the United States.”—Mark Hanna Hold your nosea! They’re going to investigate another department at Washington. “Wait until after the presidential election”—the trusts don’t want the tariff reformed yet. “We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home.”—Democratic platform, 1000. The net profits of the protected steel trust last year were $138,000,000, or $5 per family. Every good American points with pride to this trust “We favor the election of United States senators by direct vote of the people and direct legislation wherever practicable.”—Democratic platform, 1900. “Oh, yea, we will reform the tariff; not this year, some other year,” say President Roosevelt and the other “stand patters,” with a sly wink at the trac ts. “Words are good when backed by deeds, and only so.”—President Roosevelt Why not prosecute the coal, steel and otter illegal and robber trusts, then?