Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1895 — DISHONESTY OF DEMOCRACY. [ARTICLE]

DISHONESTY OF DEMOCRACY.

Trying to Cheat Members of Their j Party in Louisiana. In no instance lias the dishonesty of the present administration been more barefaced than in its dealings with our sugar producers. When 'the McKinley tariff vras passed In 1890 the Louisiana ■crop of that year was 180,000 tons. Under the protection then offered by Congress the sugar output of that one State almost doubled, increasing to 350,000 tons for the 1894 crop, which was cultivated, grown and harvested on the faith that the laWs of Congress would be executed, and that the honesty of the American Government would not bo impeached. It is the same ~ In the ense of t>»r beet-sugar product, which reached only 3,000 tons in 1890 and 30,000 tons in 1894, the phenomenal advance being made solely through the Governrfient's promise of protection.

The hardship experienced, more particularly by the Individual planters and manufacturers of Louisiana, has at length forced upon them the belief that the political party to which they have hitherto belonged is as dishonest as it is incompetent. First of all, the leaders of that party in Congress endeavored to repudiate the payment of the just claims of the sugar growers and producers. It was due chiefly, however, to their political opponents that •Congress insisted upon appropriating the sum of $5,000,000 wherewith to partially meet their demands. More than half a year has elapsed Since that money was appropriated. It has not yet been paid, and obstacle after obstacle has been presented by the Democratic officials to prevent its payment. Every delay and subterfuge that could suggest itself has been practiced so as to defraud the sugar producers, who have overcome every opposition and successfully met every argument used against them. For a year past statesmen, financiers, lawyers and Treasury experts have discussed the payment of this just claim, and all have failed in successfully opposing it. Finally, the Democratic officials in Washington were compelled to formulate regulations for its settlement. All details for payment were arranged and the date was announced, Sept. 1, when the monej r should be handed over.

Thus the hopes of the sugar producers were once more buoyed up. It seemed that the payment of the bounty was Inevitable; that there was no escape from it. But the confiding people of Louisiana did not know the depth of Democratic official degradation. An entirely new obstacle was suddenly set before them, and It now looks as if the grandest period of prosperity that was ever enjoyed by Louisiana will terminate with the impoverishment of her people and a check to her progress that cannot be overcome within a decade. Scores of the sugar plant•ers of that State have already been wrecked and ruined; other had tided ■over their troubles by obtaining advances and extensions of credit, owing lo the promise made by Congress that the bounty should be paid them. But now one official sets himself up to overrule the action of Congress, and those sugar producers who were being helped temporarily by hanks and capitalists must, many of them, succumb to the ruin and wreckage tiiat had previously overwhelmed their neighbors and friends. Not only Is It the sugar producers of Louisiana who are Injured, but every other Industry In the State is directly affected by the prosperity of the sugar people. The treacli•ery of the free-trade party and of the free-trade officials, step by step, through--out this entire transaction with Louisl-

ana will, and can, never be sufficiently exposed. The Battle oFTSDO. Despite all Democratic efforts to befog the issue, the political battle of IS9G will be in the cause of protection. Complicated questions of currency that cannot be settled by a campaign, but rightly belong to a conference of expert financiers, capable of separating the false from the true, cannot displaco the great policy of protection to American industries. This a serf ion is purely dispassionate and logical. Since 1892, the time of the present administration’s rise to power, disaster has involved the entire country, throttling enterprise and stagnating prosperous business ventures on every hand. A healthy treasury has become an empty one, and the national debt, has been Increased by millions of dollars. Not only this financial distress, but every day adds an appalling quota to a monstrous treasury deficiency. Government receipts lag far behind Government expenditures, and revenues have decreased to an alarming extent. Common sense tells the people that the tariff policy of the dominant administration is at the root of all these commercial and industrial woes. Under protection everythingflourished exceedingly; under moderate free trade everything has depreciated.—Dailjt Saratogian.

What the Vote Meant. It was to bring back prosperity that the Republican party marched to the polls last fall and voted all but thirteen Northern Democrats out of the House of Representatives. It was to condemn the paralyzing of American industries and the pauperizing of American labor that W. L. Wilson, .the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, was voted out of Congress in West Virginia, and a solid Republican delegation sent to 9 the House from that State in place of a solid Democratic delegation. It was a condemnation of Democracy, and an assurance to business and industry that the people gave Republicans control in the House by majorities in the delegations of thirty-two out of fortyfour States, so that if by chance the next Presidential election should be thrown into the House a Republican President would be sure to be elected. It is only eight short mouths ago that the people did all this, and yet the Democrats are trying to make them forget their own work and claiming the credit for that which is the direct result of what the people*d4d in condemnation of Democracy. The American people are quick to forgive and forget, but it is too much of a tax upon credulity to believe that they will forget why they turned down the Democratic party in the elections of last year.—J. L. K„ in the Dayton Daily Journal.

Thc Creation of Cheapness. That which creates a demand for cheap goods creates a demand for wool substitutes; and the present tariff law and the depression which grew out of the pernicious nnd unwise legislation of the Democratic administration have so reduced the earnings of the people as to largely Increase the consumption of iow-grade goods. This Is one of the Inevitable results of the Democratic policy of restricting the domestic market for the domestic manufacturer and and Increasing and broadening it for the foreign manufacturer. Our people depend for their wages upon making goods here, and that which tends to curtail their market tends to curtail their earning capacity, and consequently restricts their means of purchasing. It Is because of this that we not only see activity among domestic shoddy manufacturers, Increased im-

portations of all descriptions of wool substitutes, but increased importations of goods made from low stock.—Textile Manufacturers’ Journal. « Fooling the Farmer. It was as a sop to the farmers that the duty on burlaps and on grain sacks made from burlaps was repealed?* and it was ns a sop to the planters that the duty on cotton ties was repealed. Neither the farmer nor the planter has been benefited to the extent of a cent by these specious provisions of the Wilson act. But the government has lost $2,000,000 a year or thereabout. Cotton ties, in common with all other products of iron and steel, are advancing in price, and burlaps, despite the tariff reduction of 2 per cent, are stationary, with a rising tendency. .But the .fanners and planters will be “taxed”—how fond the free-traders used to be of that word, and how carefully they now eschew ifemse—to make up the deficiency in revenue caused by the repeal of the burlap duty. The revenue derived from imports of burlaps stood thus in 1894, the last yeSr of application of the McKinley law: On bags for grain made of burlaps $517,519 On burlaps of flax, jute or, hemp, under sixty inches.... 1,352,757 On burlaps of flax, jute or hemp, over sixty.inches/.... 108,543 $1,979,119 As we have said, the farmer still pays the McKinley act rates, though the government loses the McKinley revenue? This Is how it works.—Chicago Inter Ocean.

What the Tin Trade Needs. The trend of affairs in Wales will probably afford a partial relief to the strained condition in the American tin plate trade, but the greatest relief that can be expected will hardly place the industry here on a proper footing. Thera is a grght difference between the inducements needed to keep in the business a manufacturer who has his trade built up, and his works running on the most economical basis, and the margin of profit to be secured to a beginner who must build up his trade and spend money in experiments necessary to get the works down to Economical and efficient operation. For this purpose an increase in the protective tariff is absolutely necessary. A return to the McKinley duty is not now needed. For the first Introduction of the industry into the United States profits had to be assured to pay for costly experiments which have been made, and need not be rnado again, but * protective duty of 1% cents Is really needed to put t-lie industry on a fair plane, and it Is hoped that proper steps will bo taken to do justice to the tin plate industry as soon as the party favoring protective duties again comes into full power.—Tin and Terne.

A Blow at Hia Wages. Whatever diminishes the demand for labor of an American workingman is essentially a blow at his wages. The Important thing for the wage earner Is that his labor shall be in active demand. That policy or system which results In largely Increasing our imports must also result In a corresponding decrease in the sale of competing American products. This is a simple statement that has been amply demonstrated within our own experience.—Mall and Express. Zerah Cblburn, when a child, liad the most wonderful memory for figures ever known. He performed operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on sums involving from eleven to twenty places of figures without setting one down on paper. Being once asked to raise 8 to the sixteenth power, he almost instantly responded, "The answer Is 281,474,976,710,666.” j*