Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1891 — TO THE VICTORS BELONG THE SPOILS. [ARTICLE]

TO THE VICTORS BELONG THE SPOILS.

1 AS'non the Economist pronounced the Free-Trade victory of last .November unseal amity most of all iTor llm workingman, our decision ■T. ' -rrw:~ —— ; ' -■•. /' •' .0 ; ; was not the outcome of angry disappointment, but the result of j convincing evidence and cool reas- ! on. JYe have already quotediSie Eightst commercial authority in England, the London Economist, t< > show Shat its opinion exactly coincided with ours. To-day we call the attention of our readers to an extract, from a source hardly less authoritative, "showing that' practical manufacturers in Great Britain Ixelieve with the American Economist that the recent FreeTrade victory has nipped in the bud many now onlerpi'ises which, IF the now Tariff bill had been sustained m the polls, would have sprung up to give employment to thousamls of idle workmen and to .dispense millions of dollars and invaluable blessings among all classes. AVe never did, and could not if we would, draw a darker a picture of the baleful infiuence.of the Fn ■ e-Trade victory upon American lal>or and industry than is delixieated in the words' from the lips of an Englishman which wve ipiote Ind Ow. They ought to be ■'sufficient to iorever 'cure Tl American workingmen of any desire to vote with the enemies of Protecion. The Iron and Steel Trades Journal of London (December 13) says: - Air. J. H. Rogers of the South Wales Tin Plate AVorks, at*Llanelly, and the Gvvmbwrla AVorks, Swansea, arrived home from his American trip late on Thursday night last week, and at once intimated to the employes of the South Wales Works 011 urday, at noon, he would tell them the result of his observation on the other side. The tin plate manufacturers who have recently visited America seem to have been singularly reticent ab to the opinion they have formed of the ultimate effect of the McKinley bill on the AVelsh tin plate trade. Mr. Rogers has brought home good news for the YVelsli tin plate workmen, and he took the very earliest opportunity of “breaking it” to his men. Mr. Rogers first alluded to the fact that the long dreaded tariff bill had become law, but hardly had the blow been struck by the ultra-Protectionists of America when, at the elections following, it rebounded, and the McKinley party were defeated at the polls, foreshadowing a reversal of the tactics of the party now in office at no very distant date. This turn of events, Mr. Rogers says, has frightened the manufacturers on the other side of the Atlantic from proceeding to carry out there extensive schemes of tin plate making. Some of these schemes included the erection of works containing 20, 30 and even 40 mills, but so far as he under- - stood? - these-sebemes- were- givenup as soon as it was seeu that the people were- not in favor of Ther McKinley bill. Mr. Rogers said he had very little doubt that if the election had not resulted in such an overwhelming Democratic majority, they would soon be sending very few tin plates from their country to America. When the results of the elections were made known here, it was well understood that the new majority would be powerless to alter the policy of the country, for a long time to come; but the elections had an immediate influence on ting conduct- of those who were ready to rush into the tin plate trade. Mt: Royers speaks plainly wften he says that but for those election results there iron Id soon be very fete tin plate* sent from Wales to A merica. If A merican iron and steel manufacturers had the assurance of continuance of this I prodigious Protective Tariff, they were ready to put down any number of mills, forthwith ; but their hopes wcre' slmttered by the elections, and they hesitate to build works dependent for their profits on so unstable a foundation as the McKinley bill. We can easily understand how men like TEose who gathered at the “Reform” Club’s jubilation last week can find reason to rejoice in the news that new American enterprises'have been subjected to ante-natal fodticide. They are neither workingmen themselves nor employers of workingmen. Impractical professors, ambitious politicians aud unbalanced theorists, with hardly a representative

from the industrial among them, they are as far removed from interest or sympathy with wage learners, for whose welfare they affect so much concern, as is tin- North Pole from the Torrid Zdne. They are interested only in buying as cheaply as possible, and feel deeply injured when compelled to buy the products of welL the pauper-produced goods of Europe. But how an American can rejoice in a victory which deprives diis fellow-workers of employment, reduces the demand for his own millions from the channels of industry, is a puzzle which surpasses our understanding. American j Economist.