Ligonier Banner., Volume 29, Number 25, Ligonier, Noble County, 27 September 1894 — Page 3

THE OLD MILL MYSTERY | -~ By Arthur W. Marchmont, B. A. ‘kuthor of ‘‘Miser Hoadley’s Secret,” *‘Madeline Power,” *“By Whose Hand,” w ¢*lsa,” &c., &c. ~ [Copyright, 1892, by the Author.] CHAPTER XXII—CONTINUED. She resolved to see Savanpah without a moment’s delay, and for this purpose went to the latter's cottage. She svas at the mill, and Mary went and waited where she knew Savannah would pass. The latter was in an irritable and angry mood. “You look mighty doleful there, Mary,” began Savannah. ‘“One would thinl yoi'd been out begzing and had kad a precious bad day.” o “Well, tizecy would be right as to the latter thought.” answered the girl. “It, has been a bad day for me. I am in grievous trouble, Savannah.” “All about a man, teo, who just plays fast and loose with you, eh? Give hiim up, lass, give him up.” _ Mary’'s cheek crimsoned with anger at the sneer, but she lkept her temper under control and made no answer. “*Oh, but we can flare up scarlet, to be sure, when anybody gives us a bit of good advice which we don’t want to take,” said Savannah cgoin, with a forced, boisterous laugh. **Ah, he's a bad 'un. Mary: o regular bad ’un,” and she laughed again. _ Mary walked on by the other’s side without” retorting, thougn her heart burned within her till she almost felt 8s if she could have struck Savannah. *“lt's poor work jesting when one is in sore straits,” she said. quietly. Savannah’s reply to this was another laugh. ‘ , “Where's the good of fretting and worrying, I should like to know? All the tears in the world can't stop the making of a good hemp rope. DBah, T’ve no patience with your sickly sentimental weep, weep, weep. Take the world as 4t goes, say I, and leave it when the time comes; but don’t go about fretting and fooling and erying.” When they reached the door of Savannah’s cottage she turned and faced her companion. , “Don’t come in if you can’t look a bit more cheerful. I've no mind tonight ta be worried with a lot of crying.” . “Iwyant to speak to you.” said Mary, seriofsly: and followed the girl into the dottage. *“lf you had one whom you loved lying (’xiujgerously ill, you would not feel bright and joyous,” said Mary. ’ “Why not?” said the other. ‘“What is it to me if others die? WWhat care I? WWhat would they care if I were dying? Not the rush of a 2 shuttle. Why should I care for them? Do you think the thought of dying frichtens me? Psh! none but fools are frightened to die—or to see others die either. I'm not. 1 like to see death.” She turned her eves on the girl as she spoke. and they shone with a hard ecruel light. Then she gave a sneering laugh as she added: ““But there, what's the use talking like that? You haven’'t come liere to speak about death, I suppose?” ) Savannah’s manner startled Mary and discomfited her.

*“No, no,” she answered, somewhat hastily. “I came to speak about Tom and about the cruel things they say of him.” ) *“Well. and what of him?"” asked Savannah, smiling grimly as she added: “It's over quick yet to put him and death in the same sentence.” “Don’t, Savannah,” ecried Mary, shrinking from the words as if the other had struck her. “Ah, I thought that wouldn’'t suit you,” she said, the smile on her handsome face growing less hard. “But what is it?” and she fixed a keen, inquiring look on Mary’s face. - “I want you to tell me exactly when and where you left Tom on Iriday night,” said Mary, thinking it best to go straight to the point. ‘ “Who says I was with him at all? And how c¢ome you, of all others, to ask me for information?” v “Tom has told me all that passed,” said Mary. “Oh, Tom has told you all that passed,” replied the other, mockingly. “And if Tom has told you, what do you want to come to me for, eh? Don’t you think your bonny lover has told you the truth? Is that it? I don’t suppose he has, for that matter. All men lie,” she added, laughing insultingly. : “Will you tell me what I ask?” said Mary, after a pause in which she had fought down her temper. “Yes, if you want to spy on him. But you won't draw me into any lies. I wasn’t with him at all,” said Savannah, steadily, as she looked Mary straight in the eyes. . . ; “What?” exclaimed Mary,iexcitedly. “Do you dare to deny it?” ¢ “Deny. it—deny what?” " returned Savaunah, hotly and angrily. “I have told you the truth. lam no liar like—lJike—a man. I say I never saw Tom Roylance on Friday night; and I will swear to that on my oath.” She spoke so solemnly and’earnestly that Mary turned cold with despair as she thought of all that the words meant to her lover.

CHAPTER XXIIL GIIBEON PRAWLE SURPRISES MARY. A very little reflection warned Mary that she had made a mistake, perhaps a serious gne, in showing so much concern at Savannah’s statement, and she made a great effort at self-recovery. “That surprised you, eh?” said Savannah. ‘“Has he been making up some yarn or other about me?” : o¢“If I am surprised,” answered Mary, quietly, “it is because those who say they saw you two together should all malke such a mistake.” - “Who are they?” asked Savannah, hotly. ‘“Who are the liars that are not afraid to slander a girl and try to take her character away? Some of thosé cowardly strikers, I suppose!” ‘‘No matter who they are, at present,” replied Mary; “you will have an opportunity of facing them yet, and denying what they say.” “You are right. It is no mgtter. ‘Theyare a pack of liars. I tell youl didn’t see Tom Roylance the whole of Friday evening.” i *“Then you will have to explain a very awkward ecircumstance,” replied Mary; ‘‘and just say how a handkerchief which Tom gave you was found in the mill on Friday night.” “Oh! was a handkerchief found in the mill? A handikerchici which Tom gave me? It woulkin't be a very wonderful thing, surely, if I were to drop a handkerchief in the place where I spend all the work Lours of my life. I

see no awkward cireumstance there. Dut why awkward, because I did not see Tom on that night? I don’t understand you.”

“Because if you deny you were with him, you will have to account for your time on that night.” “Bah! Mary,” said Savannah, with a contemptuous wave of her hand. {‘You are silly—and blind as well as silly. Tom has given me no handkerchief for me to lose in the mill. He has been fooling you; and having heard what I suppose is part of the case against him, he tries to shield himself behind me. His gift of handkerchief is just as real as his story about.being with me—and that is no more than nonsense. Give up, and have done with him, lass—have done with him.” .

*‘Silence, Savannah!” cried Mary, excitedly and indignantly. ‘I wonder you.are not ashamed to try and malign a man who can’t defend himself. You are not content to say what you know to be untrue, but you must dare to add to your falseness by cowardly insinua‘tion. Tor shame!” '

Savannah laughed loudly at this, and affected to be vastly amused; but she grew angry with sudden change. - “\What do you mean? You dare to come here to me, presuming on your pale face and sickly weakness, and beard me and tell me I.am false. Look nearer home, my girl. Go and ask that fine jailbird lover of yours for an account of all his silly maunderings and doddering foolery with me. Get him to tell you the truth, instead of the lies he has been spinning out to cover his worse deeds, and then it’ll be time to come and talk to me about falseness.”

She spole with fierce and rising- vehemence, her own words fanning the flame of her passion. _ “It’s no lie,” answered Mary, quite as ‘hotly, her cheeks flaming and her eyes glowing with the last insinuations of the other. “You know that Tom has told nothing but the truth. You were with him on Friday evening till nearly eleven o’clock. You know it; and now, for some wiecked purpose of your own, you are trying to deny it. But those who saw you together will tell the truth.”

“No one did see us,” answered Savannah, passionately, falling in her reckless temper into the unintentional trap wnich lay in Mary's words. “There was not a soul about—""-

“There!” cried Mary, ‘‘what did I say? There! you admit it. You were together. That shows it.” “1 don’'t admit it; I don’t admit.anything,” said Savannah, blushing furiously in her confusion at having been caught in a contradiction. “I say it's ‘a lie. I say—" )

Then her manner changed instantanecusly, and in place of the furious passion which had excited and moved her, she grew calm and quiet, save her eyes, which shone ominously as she lovoked at Mary. ' *‘Go ‘away!”’ she cried, raising her hand and pointing to the door. “Go away while you are safe. I won’t answer for myself if you stop here another minute. Go!” ‘

“I will go. I am content. I have your admission, and that is what I wanted,” said Mary, as a parting shot. “Go,” was the reply, spoken in a harsh, repelling, hard voice. ‘“And remember I have made no admission. I was not with that—murderer on Friday night, and that I swear. Now, go.” Mary went out from the interview gloomy enough and full of anger. What she had heard confirmed her opinion of Tom’s innocence, but at the same time showed her how great would be the difficulty of proving it. True or false, such evidence as Savannah would give would make it almost impossible for Tom to account for his time on the Friday night, and she quite understood the immense importance of this. Out of the interview with Savannah came only one thought. She must in some way endeavor to find some evidence to corroborate the truth of Tom'’s account of his time and to prove the falseness of Savannah’s denial. There was but one way to do that. She must find some one who had seen the two together on the Friday evening. Some days passed, during which Mary made many. fruitless inquiries with this object. On the Sunday evening, when she was walking slowly through the village street, thinking over the problem, she met Gibeon: Prawle. : He came again and spoke to her. ‘““You're looking ill, Mary,” he said, and his voice had a ring of sympathy. ‘“lt's not more than I feel,” she said. She heard so few sympathetic voices now that his greeting was almost welcome. ) “You're worrying,” he continued. “I'm sorry. Are things looking any blacker?” » ' “Why should they look blackat all?” said Mary, guardedly. - : “Why, indeed?” he echoed. ‘I know no reason. I know nothing but what people say—about that, at any rate.” . “What do they say?” asked the girl. “Chief thing as I've heard is that Tom was seen getting into the mill that night; but I don’t believe it. Stands to reason that if anybody had been near enough to see him getting in in such a way they’d have raised some kind of row at the time. DBeside, what would Tom want to get creeping in that way when he’d every right to go in by the mill gates.” Gibeon had evidently not heard of Tom’s dismissal, thought Mary. ‘“Phat’s never been Tom’s way, neither. I don’t like him, and that’s straight; but I'll never deny that when he means a thing he owns up toit straight and square, and devil take the consequences.” “What else do they say. Gibeon?”

““Oh! some say he was seen to leave the mill; that he was noticed rushing through the village to his cottage; ‘that he was doing all sorts of ridiculous things on the way—you know how “people’s tongues run at such a time, but there’s naught but wind in it all; for I've questioned everybody about the place whose name has been men‘tioned as having seen anything, and can’t find a soul that saw him anywhere or any time the whole blessed evening. except the man who believes he caught him at the mill. According to that it looks as if he’d jumped out of the clouds at that minute and jumped back again as soon as he'd finished.” Mary felt somewhat relieved at this news, despite her previous distrust of him.

“Did anyone see Savannah about that night?” she asked. : ““What?” cried the man in a tone that startled the girl. ‘“What makes you aslk that?” i “‘Only curiosity—curiosity as to what she was doing that night,” ; **No, I don't think anyone saw her. Oh, I think I see your meaning,” he exciaimed, as if an idea had occurred

suddenly to him. “You think Savan nah and Tom were together. Is thatit?* ‘“Yes, I thought so, perhaps,” said Mary, rather feebly. “I suppose it’s no use asking you to trust me, is it, Mary?” he asked quickly reading her feeling in the manner of her answer. ‘“You don’t think, I suppose, do you, that I should go straight to do a good turn to a man to whom only a week or two back I wanted to do a thundering bad one?” . “Why do you take such an interest in this matter?”’ asked the girl, looking sharply and perhaps suspiciously into his face. X

- “Decause you saved my life in that plucky way. I{’s the- truth, I swear it is, though I see you don’t believe it.” He said thisa little doggedly. “You don’t feel inclined to trust me, I suppose, do you?” . He asked the question in a half wistful, half shamefaced manner. “What is there to trust?” said the girl, indifferently. ~“I don’t know, of course,” he answered. ‘‘But there seems to be something about Savavnnah, for one thing, judging by what you said just now. W.ould you like me to make an inquiry or two about her? She was away over that week end, I know. Do you want to find put where she went? I dare say I could manage that. I wish yould let me lend you & hand. I am quite as certain as you can be that Tom has had no hand in it.” :

This declaration did more than anything else could have done to win the girl over. It was the only confident expression of faith in her lover’s innocence that she had heard from anvone.

“Can I trust you, Gibeon?” she asked. “You can, Mary. I'll do my best to help you. I promise you that fair and square.” , . Mary thought for a moment, and then half-impulsively gave her hand. “I believe you mean straight by me,” she said. -“‘I will trust you. Here’s proof of it. Tom says that he was with Savannah that night; and she deniesit. That must be proved, or otherwise we may never be able to prove what we believe—that he is innocent. You da belicve it, Gibeon, don’'t you?”

‘“°Tisn’t so much that I believe it, my - lass,” he said, slowly and with great emphasis. “I know it. I know he’s innocent; and, what’s more, I mean to prove it. You know what happened in the barn that night. I was all against the infernal plot that was laid against him. Well, I believe there’s another now, quite as devilish and much more cunning. And if you’ll trust me, we’ll just turn the penny t'other side up, and make it heads to our side. Now tell me the rest about Savannah.” ‘ » She told him what Tom had said, and he asked a question or two. With that he left her, and Mary was full of perplexity at what he had said. ( ’ CHAPTLER XXIV. GIBEON PRAWLE SUSPECTED. The more closely Mary,thought over Gibeon Prawle's meaning in saying that he knew Tom was innocent, the more puzzled was she. ’ If hé spoke the truth it was clear that there were but two ways in which he could know. lither he was with Tom, or had seen him sufficiently often during thatnight to know that he could not have gone to the mill, or he knew who had committed the crime. This began to talke hold of her thoughts, and she asked herself whether his knowledge could possibly mean that he himself had had some connection with it. She wasveryloth to entertain that suspic¢ion of him, as his manner to her, and especially his ready and strong assertion of Tom’s innocence, had softened her dislike and lessened her distrust of him. But the problem remained: Why should he take such an interest in the matter? There had never been love lost between him and Tom Roylance. Was it that he wished to turn away from himself all thought of suspicion by showing a great zeal in getting Tom acquitted? - Two days passed without a sigp of him: So far as she could tell ‘he was not even in the village; and thus the trust and the hopes which, despite her first judgment, she had placed upon him and his help, waned as the day came round for the adjourned hearing of the charge against Tom. - On the eve of the day Reuben Gorringe came to her at the cottage, and Mary’s heart sank within her, knowing that he had come for an answer to his question. : ; ‘“To-morrow is the hearing, Mary,” he said, after he had been in the cottage a few minutes, “and I have been asked to give my evidence.” . ““Well?” she said, interrogatively. ““What am I to say?” he asked again. “What do you wish to say?”’ “Nay, lass, that rests with you, not with me.” @

. “I do not see how it rests with me,” said Mary. o ‘lt cannot be necessary for me to ga all over the same ground as last time was here. I told you then how it was. I have not bothered you since; for I knew how you might be puzzled-and worried, and 1 didn’t want to hurry you. But the time has come how when we must decide.” ; ‘“But I cannot decide yet,” said Mary. “I cannot make up my mind.- I cannot see that one who is innocent can run any risk of being punished for what he did not do. The law is just.” ‘““‘Aye, my lass, that’s it. The law is just,” said Gorringe in a deep, strong voice. ' “Then it will not find him guilty of what he did not do,” she added. ‘‘Oh! dear, Ido not know what to say. If he can prove his innocence, you do not want this promise. Why not wait and see?” she pleaded. ’ : “How can we wait and age? Eithea he did or did not do this. The evidence which I have all points to the fagt that he did. If that evidence #a kept back, what proof have I of his innocenae, supposing the law finds him innocent? None; none. That is the poiut. Could I trust ‘you to a man whom I feared might be a-—might have done what he is said to have done? Could I love you if I did such a thing?”" : ‘“But.something might yet happen to let him prove kis innocence, despite what you think such strong evideree against him.” . : “Might,” echoed the man.” ‘“Might! You have had a week to look for this. Have you found asingle shred orscrap of evidence that will make that proof?” “I have his denial. - That is enough for me,” she answered, confihently. ' [TO BE CONTINUED.] This Dilemma Is Called Love. © “I'm afraid I should be awfully < happy if I didn’t marry Charley!” - “*Marry him, then.” ‘ ; ““Then 1 know I should be uahafpy.*

SAVINGS OF THE FREE LIST.

Many Miilions of .Dollars Saved to the People of the Coantry.

The additions to the free list in the new tariff will save the people of this country many millions of dollars. It will save them directly more than $ll,000,000, the.amount of tax paid in 1893 on the principal articles now added to the list. It will save them the much larger sum that the protected manufacturers and producers were enabled by the tariff to charge for the domestic articles. o

The duty on some of the articles now placed on the free list was prohibitory. For example, the duty on petroleum shut out all foreign competition. The tax on binding twine was so large that it gave to the cordage trust the monopeoly of the business and enabled it to fix its own price. It is evident, therefore, that the tax must have cost the farmers more than the $249.79 which was the whole amount collected by the government on binding twine in 1893. Gee The duty on hoop and band iron manufactured wholly or partially into ties was also nearly prohibitory. In 1893 the government received only $12,211 from this tax, and this was paid by the farmers who grow cotton. It was not all that these farmers paid, however, for the tax of 40 per cent. permitted the ironmasters of Pennsylvania to increase their prices to the point at which importation was too expensive to be profitable. Under the new law the cotton planters will be relieved of the tax on’the iron ties for their bales.

‘The wheat-growers will be benefited still more. Besides binding-twine, burlaps and bags for grain are made free. The tax paid on these articles amounted in 1893 to the very large sum of $2,025,331. The farmer did not pay all of this, but he paid a good deal of it, and he will find that the removal of the tax will make his crops of grain more valuable to him.

Another article which is mnecessary to the farmer is salt. In 1893 the tax collected c?n salt amounted to $302,000. For many years the fish-packers of New England have had their salt free of duty, but the farmers have paid the tax on the salt used by them for curing pork and feeding their cattle. Now both stand on an equal footing under the revenue law of the country.

Among other benefits of the new tariff law is the reduction in duties on hats, fla.nhels,' shawls and blankets: These necessaries of life were enormously taxed under the McKinley act. Cheap foreign flannels, bats, shawls and blankets were practically prohibited, the tax on them being heavier, according to their value, than the tax on the more expensive articles of the same classes. ; In 1893 the tax on flannels valued at 30 cents a pound was 85 per cent. Only §52 worth of these cheap goods was imported. Ilannels worth on the average 32 cents a pound paid a tax at the rate of lU3}5 per cent. 'l'he value of the imports of these flannels in that year was $561. The tax on flannelsat 45 cents was 103%4 per cent. Klannels worth 95 cents a pound paid a tax of 965 per cent. and- the imports were worth $75,323. o 5

The cheapest blankets, worth 28, 34 and 48 cents a pound, paid taxes at the rates of 88%, 100 and 104 per cent. respectively. . Blankets worth 95 cents paid a tax rate of 81 per cent. ] The cheapest shawls imported,worth 35 cents a pound, were taxed at 15013 per ce%t.; the dearest, worth $1.14, paid 887, per cent. The tax on the cheapest hats was 86, 106%¢ and 1044 per cent. Of the cheapest only $5.85 worth' was imported in 1893, and on these a tax of $4.58 was paid. The dearest hats paid a tax of 87Y4 per cent. This inequality of taxation was due to the specific duty on the pound. The McKinley tax on these articles was mixed, part specific and part ad valorem. For example, the tax on the cheapest shawls imported was 381 g cents a pound and 40 per cent. on the value. The tax on the high-priced shawls was 44 cents a pound and 50 per cent. The very cheapest shawls were absolutely prohibited by the MeKinley act. The tax on shawls worth 35 cents a pound was heavier in proportion to their value than the tax on shawls worth $1.14 a pound. The new law, which goes into effect January 1, 1895, as. to woolen goods, corrects this inequality. 'The duty on these articles is based entirelyv on their value. Under the new law hats, shawls, flannels and blankets that cost the most will pay the highest rates of duty. The cheapest will be taxed at 25 per cent., the next at 30 per cent. and the dearest at 35 per cent. and 40 per cent. o Under the old law a cheap shawl bought in Germany for 50 cents would have cost $1.25 with the duties added. Under ihe-new Jaw it will cost 671 cents, or a little more than one-half.— N: Y. World.

REVIVAL OF INDUSTRY. Business Booming Since the Reduction of : Protection Prices. s The marks of a business and industrial revival are on every hand. The omens are everywhere. The idle manufactories are reopening; dealers are preparing to take their output; the banks are extending their lines of discount. i The freight traffic of the railroads—the infallible indicator of industry and | trade—shows a decided increase. This growth of business is actual, not relai tive merely, as compared with the depression produced by the strike. 'The increase is a normal development of 'activity, owing to improved commercial conditions. It is based on reinewed confidence, a general revival “and the incoming of better times. The weakest point in the general business situation is the continued ;low price of wheat, which has been regarded so long as the chief American staple’ product for export, next to cotton. The wheat crop now being harvested is fully up to the average, and ‘big crops are reported from all the wheat countries. Wheat now has to be produced in the United States in competition with countries which employ cheap coolie labor in tillage. A new era of high prices for wheat is impossible unless the coolie wheat erop shall fail for a series of years. ‘But other agricultural products bring good prices—not extremely high, but prices that yield a fair profit over the cost of production. Agricultural prosperity in this country must be maintained through diversified erops. Farmers cannot rely upon one ‘staple, = Stock raising, dairy farming and variety in field crops must be the policy of the agricultural population. By having something to sell at all

seasons at all the different markets the farmer will always get fair returns, and he may in sorie years get almost rich onsone of his crops which is a failure elsewhere. :

The full volume andt ¢weep of the commercial and industrialrevival have but just begun. The reports from the commercial agencies and from the clearing houses, which are printed in the daily papers each Saturday mcrning, indiCatf\bh‘e extent and directivu of the increase from week to week. The last reports, August 25, were encouraging. 'Those of September 1 show greater progress. Kach favorable report stimulates trade in all directions, causing still better reports in the future. ;

The political and partisan special calamity rumors in the Tepublican press, relating to the eftfect of the new tariff on production and trade, are colored and false, and are contradicted by the dispatches in adjoining columns of the same papers. There is not going to be any cut in wages necessitated by the tariff. If wages are reduced in any locality or branch of production it is in mere wantonness and on false pretexts. Wages wére not increased when the MeKinley tariff went into effect, and there is no good cause for diminishing wages on the expiration of the McKinley tariff. Witn booming trade, the advance wave of which is here, with the busy wheels of industry again in motion, with the transportation lines pressed to their greatest capacity in carrying the products of the country to market, with the hoarded funds of the banks placed in the ‘channels of trade, the gloom of the last McKinley year wiil vanish; the material and moral effects -of the strike will disappear; the light of prosperity will be reflected from every point. of the horizon, and a new epoch of growth, of progress, of thrift and increase will open on the country. —Chicago Herald. o A BOGUS APPARITION. Some Plain Facts Concerning the Sugar Business. The bugaboo which has been held up before the public that the repeal of the iniquitous McKinley law would be, followed by an enormous advance in the price of sugar has proved a myth, There has been no advance in the price of sugar, and there will be no change in the value of that commodity except such as the natural law of supply and demand may create. The free breakfast table is freer than ever, for the reason that the excessive tax on china, spoons, cutlery, earthenware and glassware has been reduced to a revenue basis, with incidental proteetion. The bogie man is a bogus apparition. He has neither spurs nor carbine. He is harmless. * . “T'here has been no advance in the price of sugar, even to the extent of a nickel on a million pounds, since the new tariff law went into effect,” says. the head of a large mercantile company of this city. ‘‘Theretailers have made the trifling advance during the canning and fruit preserving season this year that they made last year and made every year. It is the logical consequence of an extraordinary demand. But the tariff legislation had nothing to do with it, direct or remote. There has been no increase to wholesale purchasers, whether the demand is for Knglish, Scoteh, Gérman or domestic product. The delay in iegislation and the protracted session of congress - impaired business,” he .added. *but, the new congress has not increased the price of sugar.” These are the plain facts in the case. It is for these reasons that the sugar trust and its agents, the republican senators, fought so vigorously for the perpetuation of the DMcKinley law. The refiners are restrained by the antitrust feature of the new law from advancing the price of the product of their works, and are obliged to pay the tax which the new law provides from the bonus the McKinley law afforded them. It is an expensive change to them, but not such a one as will cripple the industry. The American sugar refiners can compete with and conquer the world. Tae difference is that now they have to be content with the fair profits of a legitimate business. The people will no longer be plundered for their benefit. : ‘lt having thus been shown that there has been no advance in the price of sugar, it is easy to ascertain the exact advantage of the new sugar schedule to the people. Under the McKinley law a bounty of two cents a pound was paid to sugar producers. That bounty amounted in the aggregate to $12,000,000 last year. The sugar refiners got a differential protection of one-half a cent a pound, which amounted last year to $20,000,000. Of this sum not a dollar went into the treasury, though the people paid it in the shape of taxes on their sugar. This-tax on the food of the people is released absolutely. On the other hand, the new tax will produce to the treasury $45,000,000 annually, and, as there is no advance in the price of sugar, this is a clear gaiq.‘ Adding the three sums together and. the total is $77,000,000, which is the actual gain to the people from the change in the tax law in the matter of sugar.—Kansas City Times. : -

COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. ——McKinley ‘will ba sure to bow and smile every time the grand stand howls over the Maine election returns. —Washington Post. s 2 ——Boiled down, the republican campaign war cry seems to we, no further tinkering of the tariff. excepting by ourselves.—Boston Her#ld. ——llt seems to the avetage man that there is much less tallk of McKinley than there used to be. And there will be less and less.—lndianspolis News. ——McKinley has preved that protection breeds perfidy =nd dishonor, He can next submit argfiment on the proposition that under fr¢e trade there could be no purchased tariff schedules. —st. Louis Republic. o - ——The trusts have plotted their own destruction. Their amazing audacity in throttling the senate to secure their greedy aims “filled the people at first with indignation and alarm. These feelings have been succeeded by a determination to clear out and destroy, root and branch, the whole pro tectionist system.—Baltimore Sun. ——One of the conspienous bencfits of the new tariff bill is gving to be to male all-wool clothing cheaper. Some varieties of clothing are cheap enough already, but it has generally been made so by introducing shoddy and other substitutes for woolinto its manufacture. Under the free-wool tariff wve ought to be able to get all-wool cloths almost as cheap as we now get ‘an inferior article.—Boston Herald,

PRICES FOR EXPORT.

The Leading Commercial Newspaper of This Country Exposes the Monstrous Fraud of Special Dliscounts for Ilxport—- . Astonishing Revelations—ls It a Crime to Be an American? -

The Journal of Commerce and Com“mercial Bulletin of New York is publishing a series of articles on ‘‘Export and Home Prices.” * Although this question has been agitated for several years, but few yet realize the extent to which foreigners are favored by our protected -manufacturers. To most people it is incomprehensible that our manufacturers, enjoying the benefits ‘of our protective tariff laws, should think of selling cheaper to foreigners than to Americans. Yet there is no lack of evidence as to the enormity of this fraud perpetrated upon our hardworking, law-abiding people. = Nobody engaged in the export trade will deny that many articles are 'sold cheaper.to. foreigners: and some exporters will tell ‘you, confidentially, that nearly every manufactured article is sold cheaper for export. One big exporter in New York, who has been many years in the business, offers to bet a good hat that a manufactured article cannot be named that is not sold at a lower price for export than in the home market. . ° It is not so strange that this should be the case. It was the eyidént intention of protectionists that the foreigner should be a preferred customer for our manufactured products. Else .why should drawback duties be paid to our manufacturers when they export products containing raw materials on which import duties have been paid? The Standard Oil Co. can sell oils cheaper to foreigners because the United States pays it over $1.000.000, a year in drawback ‘duties: on the tin used.in the cans in which goods are exported. Why shouid Uncle Sam be so partial to foreigmers? There are but two explanations, and, be ‘it said to Mr. McKinley’s credit, they are both entirely consistent with modern pro- - tectionist theories. If the foreigner pays our tariff taxes, of course he should be favored, if there is any favoritism, as -to prices. MeKinley himself would readily concede that if we paid our own tariff taxes we should be the first to enjoy the special favors conferred by the protected manufacturers. Then, again, cheap goods are abhorrent to protectionists. President Harrison told us that a cheap coat makes a cheap man. McKinley says: ‘‘Cheap! I never liked the word. Cheap and ‘nasty’ go together.. Cheap merchandise means cheap men and cheap men mean a cheap country!” Our manufacturers may dump cheap goods at the door of the economic foreigner, but they should not ask any self» respecting American to degrade himself by purchasing the same goods at the same prices paid by foreigners. Henry Cabot Lodze settled this point forever when he said. in 1890: *‘The ery for cheapness is un-American.” . But, to return to-the article in question. The Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin prints the figures of an actual bill of sale of a typewriter sent to Mollendo, Peru. This machine was sold for ®78.42, although the re~orter who visited the typewriter headarters, in New York. could not pur--iase a similar one for less than $102.50 although he was prepared to pay cash: It is stated on good authority that the cost to manufacture these typewriters is but $lB to §2O. : = The reporter mentions another case “‘even more glaring than in the case of typewriters.” Hewas told the following by a commission merchant on the swvest side: My wife recently puarchased a sewing machine for $5O. It was a good: machine, and we did not complain of the price; but shortly after a friend of our’s who livés in San Domingo came to visit us, and seeing my wife’'s machine ¢oncluded to get one like it. I went to the salesrooms with him and was surprised to find that he could purchase a machine similar to my wife’s for §522.50. The seller would not deliver the machine to us, but had it boxed, addressed and shipped on board the steamer. This, I understood, was done to prevent Americans from coming to the store, buying machines at the ex-. port discount, on the explanation that they were foreigners, and then keeping the machines for use in this country. - The reporteradds that: ‘At one time it was quite a common practice to purchase machines, box them and take them to the dock of a steamer about to sail for some foreign country, and then send a dray around to unload and carry the machines back 'to the ecity just before sailing. In this way the export price could be obtained and the machines be used in this country. Itis understood, however, that at present manufacturers and sellers have made arrangements to effectually put a stop to this practice.” ' e Dozens of other articles are mentioned and the prices stated at which each is sold in our own and: in foreign markets. Saws, shovels. cultivators, and nearly all kinds of tools and implements are sold at from 15 to 50 per cent. less to foreigners. A cheap typewriter fold for $l5 in Nesv York is ex; ported to South America at $5. Safes are exported at about half what they can be had for in our own markets. One sold here for $3O can be had on board an outgoing foreign steamer at: $ll. A one-column article in the Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bul--letin was devoted to the export prices of coal. Pennsylvania coal sold for: export to the West Indies and Mexico for $1.90 per ton, is sold in New York at the monopoly price of $3. . - - It makes one feel ‘‘as if it were a crime to be an American,” as one of the victims of this monstrous fraud expressed himself to the reporter. If even one-tenth of the 66,000,000 vietims of protection could have personal experience with the ‘‘special’discounts for export” McKinley’s hopes would not only vanish immediately, but a war on trusts would be begun that would soon annihilate the worst offenders in the pernicious Dbusiness. The putting of agricultural implements and machinery on the free list and the reductions of many duties in the new tariff bill will undoubtedly stop entirely, or greatly lessen, the evils of the system; but much remains. to be done. All duties that foster momnopolies must be entirely abolished. , . ¢« ByroN W, Horr. SAVINGS, DEBTS AND WEALTH. Census Figures That Speak in Thunderous . Tones—The Blessings of Protection. The American Economist, the organ of the Protective;r&r;iifgfi@' zue, always credit any indof prospeity o protection and any kind of adversity to free trade. On August 24 it said: ““During thirty three years of protection—lB6o to 1893—the agfl#w e from $4.75 to $26.08 for every mam, BRI S i o U g I T R G R R S A SIS SRS oo R

woman and child in the-country. Is not this individual gain of $21.88 in savings a ‘satisfactory proof that protec-‘-tion';is a good thing for the country?”’ ~~ Undoubtedly the per capita amount of savings deposited in savings banks ‘has greatly increased since 1860. But .in 1860 it was not customary. as it _is now, for laborers and farmers to de_posit savings in savings banks. Stockings,, bureau drawers and old clocks ‘then performed, in part, the functions -of savings banks. The actwal savings of the people either then or now cannot be disclosed by statistics. A large -proportion of thé present savings is simply deposited in banks until the time of payment of principal or inter‘est of mortgages on homes or farms ‘'has become due. All of the deposits in savings banks would nof now pay onethird of eur mortgage indebtedness on lots and acres. This in 1889 amounted. “to $96 per capita. The mortzage indebtedness incurred in 1889 was 146.53 per cent. greater than that incurred in 11880. It is probable that in 1860 the’ deposits in savings banks would more than have paid our then mortgage indebtedness. e - “The statisties of savings and deposits seem to show that while some have “been growing richer many have been growing poorer under ‘protection.” “The truth 6f this statement is shown in-a startling way' by the statistics of ‘wealth in- 1860 and 1880. There has been practically no change in_the per capita wealth since 1860. It was then about %993, (corrécteéd estimate) against $1,039 in 1890. But'what about the division of wealth? Are the actual pro‘ducers enjoying. more of their product now than in 18602 Before slavery was abolished the south was rapidly,gaining in-wealth, but were the slaves any, ‘better off? ' Is the modern industrial worker improving his finarcial condition? : : According to statisties in 1860, 90 per cent. of our population owned about ‘9O per cent. of our wealth. In 1890, 9 per cent. of our population owned 84! ‘per'cent. of our wealth. In 1860 only about 5 per dent. were practically paupers, while in 1890 over 50 per cent.’ .are living from hand to mouth or depend entirely upon charity. The American Economist should 'put these, facts before its readers and then try to tell them of the Dblessings of protection. Let it also tell them that during the ‘‘free trade” period, from 1850 to 1860, both the total and the per capita wealth were more than double, and see what conclusion its readers will draw.

S A LONG WAY OFEL r"l‘The Amgrican People Will Not Soon Re= " 4 turn to McKinleyism. . : The speeeh of Gov. McKinley and all republican talle of the same nature cannot possibly do any good and may do the country serious harm. a - If the American people ever go back to MeKinleyism it will not be until after the year 1897. And their action on the tariff at that time will be decided by the facts of experience, and not by the froth of declamation. - If the placing of wool.flax and hemp, lumber, salt and copper.on the free list works as well for the advantage of manufacturing and the relief of the people as the untaxing of hides, silk and other-articles heretofore has done, there will be no party crazy enough to propose retaxing them in 1896. ; . If the lowering of dutiesin the woolen and other schedules operates equally well, as there is every indication that it will, the threat to restore the _outrazeously high McKinley duties on ¢iaing and other necessaries of the people will hardly be a popular one two years hence. i ; . With the conditions thus fixed “for ‘the next three years, and the change in duties, whether up or down, to be decided by the facts of experience during this time, what good 'purposz can be subserved by threshing over the old theoretical straw and continuing a futile and possibly “disturbing agitation? The country needs and is entitled to arest. And the prophets and promoters of calamity will gain nothing in the long run by their present desperate adventure for party capital.—N. Y. World. E - .. A New Era of Prosperity. Mr. Chauncey M. Depew is one of the most prominent republicans in the country. As the president of the New York Central Railroad Co., he is in intimate touch with business affairs. What he says cannot be i 't down as political ‘vaporing. In h.s late Ham‘burg interview he declares that ‘‘the settlement of the tariff question is the beginning of a new era of prosperity!” that ‘“‘confidence is restored, and that ‘means everything to us;” that ‘‘the industrial energy of the 70,000,000 people in the country, not yet fully developed, isresistless when credit and stability are assured; the consuming and .purchasing powers of the homogeneous population make prosperity for every busis ness regardless of foreign demands.”— Philadelphiv Record. - : : i Returning Prosperity. Every day has been a day of advancement in businessrevival sinee the coun-. try finally shook off McKinleyism. The’ manufacturing. and merchandising interests will soon be moving forward at a pace to furnish employment for all who are willing to work. Past delay and doubt will only adad to the momentum in the volume of recuperative energy. The verdiet of November will be a sober and reassuring announcement that the country rvests satisfied and content "to move forward on the lines laid down by the democratic party as partially formulated in the fiscal measures adopted by congress.—Philadelphia Record.) - SR S id e i Rees WOOk gZ'ee wool was to destroy the Amerian sheep, and yet the price of wool is already stiffening, the woolen mills are getting ready for a largely increased business, and here is the Wool and Cotton Reporter asserting that our manufacturers are going to make as cheap and good goods as can be made anywhere else in the world. If this thing’ keeps up, even the Qyio Wool Growers’ association will be so busy with its own affairs that it will have no time to continue running the gov‘ernment of the United States of America.—Louisville Covrier-Journal. _The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (dem.) says that if the Louisiana ‘sugarbounty grabbers” who have left the democratic party are honest, ‘‘they must demand bounties for the raisers of potatoes, wheat, cotton, pork, beef, ete., and hounties to eke out the profits of every industry or ¢ M?%‘ st not prosper to the entire Slataavian O those who are engaged init” - = . sl oTR R e e ee A RR R e e quit whining and join the rest of the e JMpeRTRRL e