Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1891 — CURRENT COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENT.

Th* Era of Good Times. la-’lsrtpolis Journal. Reports from all the parts of the country? and particularly from the venters of distribution in the great West, leave noroom to doubt that trade is very rapidly improving throughout". From every city touching the agricultural portion of the country come report of the largest trade on record. In the East general manufacturers are all employed making goods to exchange for the money which the abundant crops of the country are furnishing the farmer. The railroads have more business than j they can now attend to, and the abundance of wheat and meat in the great 'West is crowding to market, and to such a market as no country’ ever before had. because it is all Europe, where every nation is food-short. and America has the sole’ supply. There can be no cause for doubt—-The—country is ona ca-h basis Labor was never so fullj’ employed, ami wages, •as a whole, were never better. This means that the great mass of people in the country earning wages are in a condition to buy the products of industry, which always means a full trade. As for the farmer, there has never been a year when his products have brought so much money, measured by what it will purchase in the products of other people. Never were the farmers in a condition to do so - large a- caslt- busduess— The. conditiou of the mass of retail dealers throughout the country is said to be much more satisfactory than a year ago. Then the certainty of the passage of the McKinley law 7 was made a pretext to raise the cry of an advance in prices, and. believing this, many merchants purchased larger stocks than they otherwise would, and larger than they could dispose of without loss. of all manufactured goods are as low as they can be, and that the people were never in acondition to purchase and pay for more. Consequently, there is genuine confidence in the circles of retail trade. The cost of living will be higher this year than two years ago, but it will be due to the advance in the prices of food products so necessary to relieve the agricultural depression. Thus far, purely speculative ventures have not been so inviting as to absorb much of the money of the country, consequently money is left to legitimate business, and, with the gold flowing from Europe, no fear of anything like a stringency is expressed later on, when more cash will be needed to market the- crops. These conclusions are such as one must be led to make after consulting business men at home, and . reading the reports of the most reliable business and trade journals.

Democrats Approve Convict Labor. Chicago Inter Ocean. The Republican party will be under perpetual obligation to Major Jones of St. Louis for services..rem, dered during the campaign of IS9I by means of his estimable paper, the Republic. It is but a few days ago that the Major affirmed that wheat, when taken out of granary and put into a bushel measure, is.’"the unit of value.” For which, on behalf of the Republican party, the Inter Ocean thanked the Major very much indeed, for Major Jones' "unit of value” is exchangeable for much more gold, silver, dry goods, sugar, rum or tobacco now that Major McKinley's tariff bill is law than it was be- , fore that glorious consummation. And now that the 1 nter Ocean has thanked , Major Jones for having proven the Republican party to be the friend of the American "farmer, it proceeds to thank him for proving that the Democratic party is the friend, supporter, enforcer and the champion of the infamy of contract convict labor. It is well known that the evils of the contract system of convict labor have become so great in Tennessee as to make riot, almost of the-dig-nity of revolution, imminent. , The free miners are reported to have provided themselves with gatling guns and to be in readiness to besiege the convict camps. It is equally well known that the Democratic Legislature of Tennessee is responsible for this evil condition, in that Lt refused to repeal the law which makes the worst form of convict labor possible. But Major Jones thus exposes the full measure of the corrupt ion of the Democratic'-majority in the General Assembly of that State: "Confessing that the law under which convicts are peddled oulj to take the place of citizens of the State in the employment of corporations is unjust and vicious, an incompetent Legislature has simply confessed its own cowardice and adjourned. There is some reason to Believe that this was partly due to unfriendliness to Gov. Buchanan himself —to the desire of the corporations not only to retain the law as it stands, but to put him in a position where, no matter what- he does, he .will be exposed to attack. For this same body, failing, to do anything whatever to lessen the evils of convict peddling, passed an act purporting to authorize him to use the militia bayonet in, support of the system against the citizens of the State in any conflict which may arise with the convict corporations. These are grave charges for the 1 editor es the chief Democratic newspaper of the West to prefer against the Democracy of the South. Not only did the Tennessee Democrats refuse to repeal the labor law, but they ordered the Governor to enforce it by the militia of

the State. By what motives were they impelled to this scandalous cruelty? Partly, says Major Jones, by unfriendliness to Gov. Buchanan. But why were they unfriendly to him? Because. says’ Major Jones in another paragraph, Gov. Buchanan was elected to office by the farmers of Tennessee. We thank the Major for his candor. So this is the measure of Southern Democratic friendship for the farmer! So long as the farmers will abstain from electing candidates of their own choosing they are all right, but when they reject the candidates of the oligarchic ring then a debased, bribed, cowardly and cruel Democratic majority in the State Legislature will compel the farmer s Governor to do cruel things in order that lie may be made so unpopular as to prevent his re-election. Again we thank the Major for his unveiling of the true inwardness of the Democracy of thesSouth. = The Tin-Plate Tai. Indianapolis Journal. _____ The public has been told, and will continue to be told, with all the emphasis of reiteration, that the additional duty of 1.2 cent a pound imposed upon tin-plate will be paid by the consumer. As nearly all of it was produced abroad at the time the tin-plate provision of the tariff act went into effect, such an assumption was a fair one. But, at best, the increase is so small that it could not affect the price 1 of goods to the re toiler. But it appears that, while the duty on a box of tin-plate is more than double what it was a year ago, the difference in price averages only 19 cen ts a box. The Cleveland Leader copies the prices of tin-plates, May 8, before the higher duty was imposed, and Sept. 8, from the pricecurrent of a heavy New York irnporting housq, which were as follows. Mayß. Sept. 8. j. c. i: xrircrim Melyn grade. $6.25 $7.75 $6.50 SB.OO Colland grade 6.15 7.60 6.35 7.85 (■range grade.7....."5181 6785 6.00 7.06 Alloway grade 5.75 6.75 5.85 6.99 The increase of duty on a box of plates is $1.30, while, as before stated, the increase in the price, as it appears above, averages 19 cents a box. That is, while the duty has been increased $1.30 per box the price has been increased only- 19 cents. Thus there is sl.ll to account for. Who pays that $1.11? Who but the British manufacturer? Be is the very person who is compelled to pay a toll of sl.ll per box for the privilege of selling his tin plates in this country. So long as the citizen of the United States can compel the foreigner to pay sl.ll into the United States treasury while he pays 19 cents, he will regard it as an excellent method of raising revenue. This year 6,000,000 boxes of tin plate will come from Europe, upon which the foreign manufacturer will pay into the United States treasury not less than $6,660,000 as duties, while the dealers and manufacturers in this country will pay $1,140,000. When it comes to the price of a tin pan, cup, or even of that cause of free trade pathos, the workingman’s dinner pail, there will be no change in a market where there is competition. Two or three years from now so much plate will be made in this country that the price will be made by home producers regardless of the foreign price, just as it is with the price of wire nails and h undreds of staple articles.

The Failure of Falsehood. Chicago Inter Ocean. The difference between the campaigns of 1890 and 1891 in Ohio; chiefly, is this, that in 1890 Denio-" cratic falsehood helped the free trade cause, while in 1891 it is doing it injury. This is due to Republican preparation for prompt refutation of Democratic untruths. In 1890 the Republicans were wholly unprepared to resist the torrents of lies that flowed from Democratic The wildest stories of “higher prices on account of the tariff” were put in circulation and very frequently illustrated by object lessons. This was the ease with the tin plate falsehood, which not , pnly was circulated by word of mouth and through tie columns of the press but was exemplified by hired tramps who attended the county fairs and made noisy speeches concerning their stock of tin ware, which they freely admitted was 40 per cent, higher than last year; that the advance was all account of the McKinley bill, which has made everything “You had better buy now,” said they, “for in a month it will be still higher. It's bound to go up, on account of the new tariff, you know. 1 Thus these hired rogues befooled the-people: This kind of thing won in 1890, but it will not win in 1891. No recoil of a falsehood ever has been more swift or more damaging to its projectors than that of the Ohio Democrats concerning the manufacture of tin-plate at Piqua. The Republican statement was that Major McKinley had dipped American steel into baths of Aipgrican tin and lead, and thus had made samples of American tin-plate in the works of a Piqud company. To this Governor Campbell and the Cincinnati Enquircr rashly and falsely replied that the steel sheets were imported, the tin imported, and the lead imported, and that the so-called process of American tin-plate making was but dipping one foreign metal into other foreign metals: and they were’ foolish enough to add that there is no machinery in the United States capable of rolling steel plates thin enough for the manufacture of tin-plate. The Enquirer’s Piqua correspondent, a saloon keeper, exceeded the others in folly ana falsehood by stating that

no tin was used by Major McKinley in his Piqua experiment, but that he dipped a steel into a bath of hot lead and. coated it with that metal. The denial was swift and specifier The name of the mill in which the steel was rolled, the ’ mines whence the tin and lead were derived, the capacity of the metal bath, all details of the experiment were Stated under oath by the foreman of the works in which McKinley made his first effort upon American ti n plate. To make the case stronger, the foreman is a Democrat. . This of itself is but a trivial affair, but it will cost the Democrats many votes- in Onio. The malice of the falsehood is too apparent; its intent is to strangle a State industry in its infancy. It-is not pretended that the Piqua mills we re as yet producing tin plate in commercial quantities, but that they woregettingready to do so. and had so far advanced their preparation as to make it in small quantities. In proof of which quantity., and enough was mafic by the regular hands in the mill to furnish tin badges to some 5.000 people. To discredit this new industry is Democratic policy. It will not work. American-made -roofing tin plate is now on the market and is pronounced cheaper and better than English made, American tin plate for domestic utensils is made in small quantities, and soon will be made in The Democratic falsehood this year is the Democratic lolly. The Mills Stiver Duplicity. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. It becomes evident from the Mills speeches in Ohio that the Democratic leaders will make a desperate attempt to keep the silver issue out of the national canvass of 1892. The Texan statesman, it is understood, . was in 6Qns.ultatioJi.wdth.many.of.the. Eastern magnates of his party be-! fore taking the stump in aid of Gov. Campbell, and an agreement to ignore silver altogether, or to latep it in the background, was undoubtedly reached. That an attempt of this sort would be made has been apparent all along. The shrewder heads , of the Democracy, west as well as east of the Alleghenies, clearly see that a free coinage plank in’their Presidential platform next year would make their canvass hopeless from the start, but the Western potentates have failed to impress this truth on their followers to keep the subject out of the State Conventions. Mr. Mills has for several months past counseled the policy of silence on this question in the national campaign, and now that he has been brought-in contact with the Cleveland men of the Middle States and New England his purpose in this direction has been strengthened. r It is the old confidence game which the Democrats played on the people in regard to the tariff for a dozen years or over which is to be attempt- i ed next year on the silver question. In 1872 they tried to . elect protectionist Greeley to the Presidency on ~a~platfdfm which remitted the question of protection and free trade ‘ ‘to ; the people in their congressional districts.’’ thus hoping to secure enough free trade Congressmen to pass an anti-tariff bill over his veto. Their programme now is the same. They seek to keep die silver question from open discussion in the canvass of 1892 and,, to gain enough votes in Congress to push a free coinage I measure to enactment, even if their candidate be, like Mr. Cleveland, an opponent of such a policy. They will endeavor to lull the people into a false hope of securitv from silver so as to make this legislati on the more easy of accomplishment. It is a programme of duplicity and cowardice ' which is to be attempted, and under auspices which the Democratic chieftains imagine will command success. In this assumption they are grievously in error. The free coinage question cannot be kept out of the ; canvass. Among the Southern and Western Democratic masses the sentiment in favor of free coinage is powerful enough to override all considerations of expediency and safety, to baffle the dodgers and conspirators, and to the question squarely before the people as a leading issue in the canvass of 1892. | The school teachers are now studying the effect of the tobacco smoking habit upon their scholars, as the pro- j fessors of several colleges have been studing its effect upon their students. The subject was brought up i for discus*n in the Convention of the New Jersey State Teachers’ As-1 sociation at Asbury Park, when a dessertation was given on the ‘ Evil. Effects of Tobacco on the Young.” j and many speeches were niade there. upon. It appears that the cigarette habit is not widely prevalent among the schoolboys of New Jersey; and we are not surprised to learn that it t was unanimously condemned by the teachers at the Convention as highly injurious to those of the boys who indulge in it. It irritates their nervous system, impairs their lung pow- ■ er, is bad for their digestion.is bane-, ful to their brain, and gives an offensive taint to their breath. The teachers of New Jersey will therefore 1 strive to bring about its total suppression.