Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1894 — THE CAMPAIGN. [ARTICLE]

THE CAMPAIGN.

Tlctory Is in the Air-Democratic Demoralization. Demafjofjy, Cant and Hypocrisy ... Indianapolis Journal. There is just oce class of people who will be delighted with Senator Voorhees’ speech opening the tariff debate, and they are his followers in Indiana .who assume that the great mass of people are so ignorant that •they can always be more easily led by being fooled than taught by the lessons of experience. Mr. Voorhees has not changed. Without the application which insures accurate information, Senator Voorhees has introduced his tariff bill with one of bis old demagogic harangues —harangues which, by arraying his followers in Indiana against capital, manufactures and industrial progress, have cost the State millions. Of course. Mr. Voorhees makes no argument except epithet. He never did. He can not. Therefore, he resorts to appeal, to prejudice to rant. Mr. Voorhees poses as the 'Champion of the people, and yet the leading papers of his own party in bis own State, like the Sentinel, charge him with being responsible for the extension of the bonded period for spirits, which it stigmatized as a “worse concession to one of the worst trusts in the country” than the concession to the sugar trust. It is not the purpose of the Journal to enter into an extended criticism of a speech made up of demagogy, cant and hypocrisy. There is, however, one clause to which attention is called. It reads as follows: “Sir, I challenge the attention of the Senate and the country to the great commanding fact that, by the provisions of this bill, the seeming paradox of a reduction of taxes and at the same time an increase of revenues will be reconciled when it becomes a law." There has been no seeming paradox to reconcile here. A duty, Say, of 50 per cent, on glass would keep out all the foreign made except a few special qualities or an overplus which is better to be sold at cost to be brought to America than kept in warehouses at home. Under that protective duty, laid specifically, assume that $500,000 worth of special binds are imported and upon it duty of $250,000 collected. Under a tariff for that freer trade which Mr. Voorhees declares is a step toward universal freo trade, let us assume that the duty is reduced to 25 per cent, ad valorem. The cheaper labor of Belgium and France enables the

•glass manufacturers in those countries to produce the article enough •cheaper to pay the 25 per cent, duty and be able to undersell the American producer. Instead of $500,000 worth of glass, $5,000,000 worth are imported. The 25 per cent, duty would yield a revenue of $1,250,000 instead of $250,000 under the higher protective duty. The first is for protection and revenue, the second and lower duty is for revenue only. There is no paradox about that, reconciled or angry. But here is the point which Mr. Voorhees ignores: By his lower duty the vaiue of glass made in Europe for American consumption is increased $4,500,000 a year. What does this mean? Simply that $4,500.000 worth of glass made by American workmen at full wages has been transferred to Belgium and France to be made bv low wage ■workmen. What will result? Either that the men who made the $4,500,000 worth of glass under the protective tariff here must become idle under the revenue tariff or consent to have their wages reduced to the level of glass workers in Belgium. One of the other of these alternatives must be taken if the Voorhees policy is adopted. Fortunately, the mass of intelligent wage earners have now come to understand this truth, and while they may have listened to Mr. Voorhees two and four years ago with something of credence itbey now understand his demagogy and are so disgusted and angry that they are impatient for election day to come in order that they may denounce it.

The'Versatile Voorhoes. Indianopolls News. Voorhees’ speech, Monday, is an Illustration of what the News said of him that when it comes to talk he raves against monopoly, but when it comes to action he is its humble servant. His first sentence, yesterday, was about the “great abuses in ■Government embedded in powerful interests of priviliged classes cremated, fostered, encouraged and protected by the laws." “These things,” lie immediately proceeds to say, “can not easily be overturned,” and so, with much more of that kind of talk, as, for example, of “the robberies -committed in protected markets, the ufctold and incalculable millions of blackmail levied by American manufacturers for their own pockets on the cnfored customers," he goes on to sustain every bit of this “blackmail" that has been asked by these interests of the Senate. The soouer the Democrats of Indiana awaken to the fact that Mr. Voorhees is the tool of concentrated capital and monopoly; that ho has for the plain men of fadiana word, words, but for special interests votes and influence, the better it will be for Indiana. Voorbees is a humbug, is dangerous as all ill-balanced, Ignorant men are in places of power. A Wise Statement. Ondtumpolls Journal. Representative Conn, of the Thirteenth district, has had enongh; or,

rather, he fears that he can not b« re-elected, and, therefore, he announces that he will keep his promise made when nominated in 1892 not to be a candidate for re-election. Captain Conn is fortunate to hava made such a promise, since to hava not made it would have put him in a position where he could be compelled to be a candidate this year. Even now, the desperation of the Democratic leaders in the Thirteenth may be such that may compel Representative Conn to present an attested copy of his promise not to again be a candidate, as there is no prospect that another can be obtained who will be so liberal in fur* nishing the sinews of war as thd gallant Captain is alleged to havd been. Besides, it has not been a fortunate season for the Thirteenth district statesman. As a manufacturer employment and the liberal wages he was than paying them. He has not been able to do either. He seems not to -have appreciated the destructive capacity of a Democratic President and Congress when let loose upon the industries of the coun- > try. Since Captain Conn re membered his promise his newspaper has changed its tone. For months it had declared that the Democratic Representative who failed to support the Democratic measure known as the Wilson bill would be false to his party. Since announcing that his promise will hot permit him to be a candidate fpr reelection the Conn organ has faced about in a leading article and deplored the enactment of the Wilson bill. There are other such men in the Democratic party at the present time. In office and in their capacity as statesmen they are for free trade and the Wilson bill, but out of office and manufacturers or business men they at least demand the protection of their own industries. Captain Conn does well to refuse to be a candidate in 1894, to spefid his money to be defeated. If he has not had enough of Congress he knows that he has all there is for him. His successor from the Thirteenth district will sit on the Republican side of the next House, and Captain Conn’s refusal to be a candidate is a tacit admission of such an expectation.