Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1888 — FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. [ARTICLE]

FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE.

Mr. Cnrtia S*lf-Conclemned, N. V. Tribune. Mr. Curtis ought to realize how his fine oration at Gettysburg condemns his conduct. He knows, it appears, however, how vital and how terrible is the danger that respect and love for free institutions may be undermined by that “systematic,fraud or violation or suppression of votes” winch elected the candidate supported by Mr. Curtis in 1884, and upon which that candidate, still supported by Mr. Curtis, now entirely relics lor success this year; It is not possible for the orator to plead ignorance. He knows that Mr. Cleveland’s supporters count upon the electoral votes of every Southern State, and mean to carry part of them by the crimes which he condemns. He knows that the selection of Mr. Barnum, as manager of Mr. Cleveland’s campaign, means deliberate resort to crime and corruption in order to secure the votes of the Southern States. He cannot pretend that ahy hope of Mr. Cleveland’s election, animates him any longer for he has sadly confessed that the wholesale disregard for the law; has brought it into contempt, and that the President himself, finding his party opposed to reform, has not resisted the party. But one exeure is left for supporting the candidate of those who suppress votes and stuff ballot-boxes and forgiet returns. Mr. Curtis is willing to aid these infamous crimes solely for the purpose of promoting free trade. It is not for others, but for Mr. Curtis himself guided by his own conscience,to determine whether he has any right to seek an economic change which he desires at such cost. To others it seems that a thoroughly loyal citizen of a free country ought to* declare that he would have no part in obtaining a fraudulent and crime-stained victory for a change of tariff, however much that change may seem to him desirable. Genuine loyalty might say, “no honest decision of the people, in favor of a great change of National policy, can be reached so long as the votes of* several great States are turned by crimes against free suffrage. No decision that is not honest, no decision that is not regarded by the people as honest, can command respect or prove lasting. Better defeat to-dav, even for the cause of free trade, than triumph by fraud and crime, which will inevitably brand the cause itself with the infamy of the fraud and crimes perpetrated for its sake.” Rightly Mr. Curtis says this is not a local question. Rightly he declares that Pennsylvania and New York must have a deep and intense interest in the freedom and integrity of the suffrage in other States, when crime threatens to make laws for the whole Union. Eloquently he urges that public opinion in other States must make itself felt in the States where crime and suppression of free suffrage exist. But in no other way can public opinion elsewhere make itself felt effectively except by defeating the party and the candidate supported by fraud and crime. Mr. Curtis, instead of doing what he ean to make Democratic criminals feel the disapproval of decent citizens, proposes to help the party of crime, to aid the party which relies upon Higgins and Thomas, Gorman and Barnum, for its success, and to re-elect the President who succeeded four years ago by crimes against free suffrage. His practice and his eloquent professions —what a contrast! . Ah, Mr. Curtis, your voice rises to a tone ol manhood worthy of your better self only when you condemn the systemactic practices of the party you support. In helping that party Mr. Curtis buries all that is noblest and worthiest in his own history and in his manhood. He tears up and tramples upon his own best and worthiest addresses, and even his Gettysburg oration is trodden into the mire by the feet of the orator who supports Grover Cleveland, the candidate of organized fraud. Tarlff KedUces Cost. Wnn p a, Kaanedg. But the question is often scornfully asked, “If a tariff reduces the prices of commodities why do our home manufacturers always favor a tariff? Do they not favor protection oh the theory that it enables them to sell for higher prices?” Not at all. Manufacturers learn all about the effect of the. tariff quite as quickly as any other class of people. They know that a tariff.will, in the end, result in cheapening their products; but they know, too, that what they lose by lower prices they make up, and more than make up, by increased sales when foreign importations are' retarded or shut out, and they have a steady and reliable demand for their goods. They have learned that low prices increases consumption and bring many customers. The furnace oWner has learned that lie can sell more iron when it is cheap, and that he can make more by selling 100,000 tons of iron at a profit of $1 per ton lhan he can by selling 25,000 tons at a profit of $3 per ton. It is not so much a big price the American manufacturer wants as a steady and reliable market,in which he can sell for a small profit, and this the tariff gives him. At any rate our manufacturers have learned from experience that they can buy commodities for less under a protective than under’a free trade policy; and if the home manufacturer and the consumer are both benefitted by the tariff who can be damaged by it but the foreign manufacturer?

What the Tariff Ha* Done, Hon. P. S. Kennedy. In spite of strikes and an occasional glut in the markets our manufacturing industries have made very rapid advancement in the last twenty years. We are now the foremost maunfacturing nation of the earth, and through the help of Protection we intend to remain such. In 1880 we produced and sold $850,000,000 more of manufactures than England herself, a nation which only a few vears ago affected a contempt for our competition. We not only excel Great Britain in the amount of manufactures but many of our goods are now sent to the very'doors of the English manufacturers and sold in competition with manufactures there. In 1885 we sent abroad and sold over $117,000,000 worth of manufactures, 27 per cent, of which, or ow fSt.fiOOyOOO- worth,-. were sold in England and Ireland. These facts are sadlv out of harmony with Mr. Carlisle’s statement that on account of -theJtariff we are not able to compete with British nf the world. If we can go into the cities of that country and sell $31,000,000

worth of good in one year it certainly shows that we are not only able to compete with her in some branches of manufactures in the general markets of the world but in her own home markets. It is a well-known fact that our manufacturers of edge tools find a market for many of their products in all the principal cities of England, and that our foreign sales of manufactures are, year by year, rapidly increasing.

Increase Under Protection. Hon.,P. 8. Kennedy, The increase in Indiana corn from 1850 to 1800 was, in round numbers, two hundred and forty-six million bushels, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was more than nine*hundred and nine-ty-three million bushels. The increase in the number of bushels of wheat from 1850 to 1860 Was seventytwo million, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was nearly one hundred and seventy-two million bushels. The increase in the number of pounds of wool from 1850 to 1860 was nearly eighty million, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was more than fifty-five million pounds. The increase in hay from 1850 to 1860 was a little more than five million tons, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was nearly eight million tons. The increase in the number of horses from 1850 to 1860 was less than two million, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was more than three million. The increase in the number of milch cows from 1850 to 1860 was a little over two million, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was something over three million five hundred thousand. The increase in the number of cattle from 1850 to 1860 was five million, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was nearly nine million. The increase in the number of sheep from 1850 to 1860 was three million, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was nearly seven million. The increase in the number of hogs from 1850 to 1860 was three million, whereas theincrease from 1870 to 1880 was over twenty-two million. The increase in the number of pounds of butter from 1850 to 1860 was one hundred and forty-three million, whereas the increase from 1870 to 1880 was more than two hundred and sixty three millions ■.. . . ■ - .■

The R publican Patty and Temperance. By a I’iohibitionist. On the 20th of last December a meeting of leading Republicans from every part of the State was held at Indianapolis, when it was again declared to be the unalterable purpose of the Republican party to oppose the traffic and to favor the passage of laws permitting the people to prohibit the traffic. Such is the attitude of the Republican party in this campaign. Temperance men should study the record well, and then determine whether it is wise to break away from a party that has done so much for the cause of temperance and stands pledged to do still more. It is not necassary in t his connection to argue whether total prohibition could be made effective or not, even if we had a law to that effect. If I you are honestly in favor of prohibition, lean you get it sooner by a third party movement, or by*sustaining the party that has always stood the friend of your cause, although differing as to the methods to be pursued? There are thousands of Republicans who are not prohibitionists. They are just as honest in their convictions as you are in yours. They are willing to lend their aid in throwing around the traffic all the restraints possible short of actual prohibition. Is it not better to unite with them and scotch the serpent if you can not kill it! The time will come when prohibition will be obtained, but it will be through the help of the Republican party. It certainly will not come through the Democrats. They are joined to the traffic bv bands which can not be broken. With the Republicans in power the people have" a solemn pledge and one that will not be broken, that a law shall be enacted giving the people in the several localities the right to pass upon the traffic and forbid it, if they see fit, or hamper it in other ways. This may fall Short of what some desire, but is it not better to take that and then labor for the other than to get nothing? Is not that the part of wisdom? Is it not how you would act in other matters? If your calculations were that it would require ten cords of wood to keep your family warm during the winter, would you refuse to buy any because you were not able to get the whole ten cords at once? Would you not rather buy what you could, and use it as long as it would last, and do your utmost to get the rest? Act in this matter in -the same enlightened spirit^ What the Republican Party Has Done; Hon. Charles L. Holstein. It saved and regenerated the nation. It restored its supremacy and sovereignty iiver every inch of our vast national domain. It lifted our flag from the dust, where treason had trampled it, and taised it high in the heavens, where it floats proudly to-day with no star lost from its azure field, the sign and the symbol of the greatest “and freest nation on earth. In the hot flame and white heat of war it melted the chains and shackles of 4,000,000 of slaves, and made free men of them —every one! In the rich, red blood of its soldiery with sword and bayonet, it wrote in the Constitution of the United States the amendments which made our government for the the first time free in fact as 4Kell as in name—a government wherein, in truth, all men are equal and every man is free. In the direst emergency that ever came upon a people, it bravely faced national bankruptcy, brought upon us by Democratic malfeasance and misfeasance, and with a courage born of and «iistained by the loftiest patriotism, when hope itself seemed dead, it “smote the rock of the national resources and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. It touched the dead corpse of our pnhlic credit and it sprung upon its feet.”' -3 In the place of a miscellaneous and worthless currency, in the place of shinplasters and wildcat banks." it gave the country a financial system, the best ever vet devised by the wit of man, whereby onr paper money, for the first time in oul BiStory, is as ennent, uniform -anil universal as our language, and passes from Maine to Texas and from the

Atlantic to the Pacific without discount or question. It resumed specie payments and put even- paper dollar, every promise and obligation of the government, on par with gold. It originated and passed our Homestead laws, under whose beneficent provisions more than 1)00,000 freemen have already entered and settled, and now occupy and own upwards of 70,000,000 acres of the public lands, upon which there are to-day, living in their own homes, 3,000,000 of happy people.— Ever mindful and grateful to those who had borne the battle, , and their widows and orphans, it established a pension system, under which it paid out 11,000.000,000 in pensions, while at the same time it has provided magnificent homes for disabled soldiers at a cost of many millions more. By wise legislation it revived our proetrate industries, and has multiplied them an hundred fold. It championed labor and has opened new and innumerable avenues for its employment, and by precept and example, without ceasing, it has preached and taught its gospel according to the true faith, which believes the laborer is worthy of his hire. Under the administration of the Republican party our country has grown great—great in population, great in wealth, great in manufacturing, mining and agricultural industries; great in education and intelligence, and great in all good and great things. Its record is its highest eulogy. It was the boast of Caesar Augustus that he found Rome brick and left it marble. The Republican party found the Government weak arid falling like a house built upon the sand; it left it strong and enduring like a house built upon a rock. It found the nation in ruins, and left it restored, reconstructed and rebuilt on the true foundations of liberty, fraternity and equality, not for an age, but for all time—the model republic of the world.

How Farmers Have Been Helped toy Protection. Boston Journal. In an interesting letter published in the New York Herald in 1882, respecting the stock-raising of the country, the author introduced for comparison the following prices of farm produce and stock as found in a paper published in the interior of the State of New York in 1816 and the prices of the same at the present time: ~ Products. j 18 L6i 1882 Wheat was then from. . 25cto4;e (1 41 C0rn..;. 4., tOc Oats 15< 60c Eirgs', per dozen 5e 15c Barley, per bushel.. 2 t 800 Butter, per pound 5c to 12c 40c Obee e, per pound 3c to 6c 13c Cows, per head sl6 to S2O S2O to 3 00 Cattle, pert oke 125 to $45 JHO to |2f 0 Hay, per ton $3 10 *5 810 to S2O Straw, per ton 82 to $4 8 to sl6 Carriage bo'ses,ner span 8150 to S2OO 1500 tosl2oo cheep, per bead * 5c to 75< 81.50 10 250 Farm labor per month... $3 to ;8 sl2 to 825 Formerly, and, indeed, nearly to the date that American manufactures assumed an importance, the farmer was obliged to exchange his produce for store goods at very high prices, cash being almost out of the question. The follow* ing prices in 1816 and 1882 for a few manufactured goods and other merchandise purchased by the farmer indicate the great change in favor of the agricultural classes and other consumers during the interval. Articles. 1816. 1881 Cost of steel per pound < 17c 10c Sivw plate, per pound...- 40c 26c Nails, per potted ,».... 12%c 4c Broadcloth, per yard 816 84 Wool blankets, per pair *lO to 82c ?! to *lO Cotton cloth,per yard.... 30c to 50c 4c to 12c Calico,per yard 25c to 75e 4ctol6c Salt, per bushel...— That is to say, the average increase in the price of farm produce during the last sixty-six years has been from 300 to 400 per cent., while the average decrease of the price of manufactured goods during the same period has been from 20 to 90 per cent. All of which is due .to the introduction of diversified industries engaged in manufactures and fostered by a Protective tariff.