Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1892 — SHORT TARIFF SERMON. [ARTICLE]

SHORT TARIFF SERMON.

PRICES . having the wherewithal l. Duy, the price of what we buy concerns us most, While the primary object of a Pro: *iiy Tariff is not t■-> lower the cost ot manufactured goods, yet statistics show that stick is the invariable result. The price <>, a lino of goods upon which a Protective duty is levied may at first be slightly advanced, but competition soon brings it down lower than before. On the other hand, Protection gives to the farmer good prices for his products. The manufacturer who realizes a fair profit on his goods; the laborer who gets such wages that he can live well and save more than he could earn abroad; the merchant, the clerK, the professional man—in short, every one—vis will, ing to pay such prices for. his needs as will insure to his fellow man a good return for his labor. Things may be too cheap. There is a reasonable level, and when that is reached prices can go no lower and the nation or itspeopie be prosperous. - Pricesj’n the United States of the necessaries of life are about the same as in Free- Trade England, while we have twice as much with which to buy them. Present prices of manufactures are lower that in any period of low Tariffs: in fact, lower than ever before in our history. To go much lower would mean ruin to the manufacturer, idleness to the mechanic and less "consumption for agricultural products and consequent impoverishment to the whole people. We conclude with the folk wing quotation from President Harrison’s “Barely if ever before in the history of the country has there been a time when the proceeds of one day’s labor or the product of one farmed acre would purchase so large an amount of those things that enter ipto the living of the masses of the people.”

Captain John K. Gowdy, chairman of the Republican State Central C< mmiftee, performed a magnanimous act in declining to be'Jt candidate for. election as delegate to the Minneapolis convention, even after the convention had practically agreed to a proposition that he should be chosen, He has shown himself to be a shrewd, caprble, honorable and successful party commander, and the party in Indiana w as never better organized than it has been under his clear-

headed direction,. By politely declining an honor that had been reserved for him, the affable chairman made the work of the convention less arduous and made for himself an additional host of admiring friends. If every Republican in ludiana should cultivate the same unselfish political spirit that has always been charactertistic of “Captain Jack” Gowdy, there would be not the slightest danger of the State going Democratic next November nor heneeforth forever.—Lafayette Courier.