Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1895 — TALK OF NEW TARIFF [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TALK OF NEW TARIFF

REPUBLICAN MAJORITY WILL REVISION.** To Make Some Sort of a Change In the Tariff Is Not So Much a Political Issue as a Financial Necessity— Revision \Vil!Come. New Bill Needqd. As the time draws nearer to the date of the assembling of Con grey it becomes more evident that the Republi--can majority in the House will resolutely undertake the work of the revising the tariff, no matter what course may be taljen by the Senate or by the President./ The country needs a revenue equal to Its expenditures, and the Republicans of the House will devise a bill for providing one, leading it to the Populists and Democrats in the Senate or the Democratic President to assume the responsibility of rejecting It if they .-dare. t—: : •

To make some sort of revision In the tariff at the earliest opportunity is in fact not so much a political isstie as a financial necessity. Since Cleveland entered upon his second term the debt of the nation has been increased by more than $106,000,000. Since the Wilson tariff was put Into force there has been a deficit in the national revenues every month except one. This condition of affairs cannot of course be permitted to continue. It is imperative that some remedy for the ill effects of Democratic bungling should be adopted as speedily as possible, and fortunately for the country there is a Republican majority in the House to undertake the work. . In devising a measure for supplying a greater revenue the Republican branch of Congress will, of course, be true to the protective principle, and the wool industry will be accorded the protection of which the repeal of the McKinley tariff deprived it. It is notable that in the present revival of industry the improvement in different trad&s has .been ijLpmpQrtlan la .tM__amo.unl.af. protection which the Wilson tariff left .them. Wool was placed on the free list and the wool grower is to-day as badlyoff almost as during the worst period of the depression. A restoration of the duty on wool Is, therefore, one of the things the Republicans may be expected to offer in the way of tariff revision. •W-ill Lie- Pooulist Senators, who claim to represent the farmers of the West, reject it? Will Cleveland, who, in the White House, represents the Democratic party, dare to do it? So long as the deficit In the revenue continues, the public debt increases and foreign goods are imported to the injury of-American sol Long will the tariff confront the country as the supreme issue in national affairs. No party can evade an issue that threatens the government with bankruptcy. The Republican party certainly will not evade it. Senator Sherman is reported to have declared in a recent interview: “I have bo hesitation in saying that tariff legislation will be one of the "first things undertaken by the incoming Congress. It is absolutely imperative.” This view is shared by other leaders ofthe party and by the people. Tariff revision will come.

There is reason to believe the Democrats will attempt to make up the deficit by proposing a bill increasing the internal revenues. The free traders of course prefer to tax home goods rather than foreign imports. The Senate may possibly be made to sustain such a measure by a combination of Democrats and jPopulists. If so there will be a conflict between the two branches of Congress, and the issue will be made up for 1896. The free traders may mock at this as a return to McKinleyism if they "choose. The people know it is true Republicanism and only another name for stalwart Americanism.

Those “ Increases” in Wages. The wage earners in the woolen mills do not altogether relish those “increases in wages” that the free traders nave been telling us about. They find tnat, though wages have been restored somewhat, there is by no means regular employment for the hands. Here is a case in poin. at the Granite Mills, Pascoag, R. I.: In 1892 these mills were running full time and with full wages, employing about 280 hands in the manufacture of woolen goods. This was continued until July 22, 1893, when the entire mills were shut down, remaining closed until Sept 11, when they started again on three-quarter time. From Sept. 23 to Get. 21 the Granitg mills worked twothirds time; from Oct. 21 to Dee. 2 they worked half time; from Dec. 2 to Jan. 13 they worked two-thirds time; from Jan. 13 to Jail. 31 they worked full time; then they again shut down until Feb. 19, 1894. From th!s date until March 10 the mills ran tworthirds time at the same rate of pay as the mills <vere receiving in 1892. The schedule of wages was restored to that of 1892, but, as the hands were not working full hours, their earnings were consequently smaller and this point the free trade papers never refer to. The McKinley rate of wages lasted only nineteen days, and on March 12, 1894, the schedule was reduced from 10 to 15 per cent, with full working, hours till April 24. Then the mills were stopped for ttfo weeks until May 8, when they started up aga!n on full time at wages from 10 to 15 per cent less than In 1892. On July 1 wages were restored from 8 to 10 per cent in most cases, though some bands were not advanced at all. Home Market the Beat. *'fhe markets of the it'Orld,” about which so much was said in the last political campaign, seem to be very well supplied without reference to what we

hare to sell, and the manipulations of the party In power have not been such as to give much encouragement to those who believe all the people on the footstool are compelled to patronize ns whether or not their disposition lies in that direction. Our farmers havg nearly ha- a billion bushels of wheat to sell. If we have prosperity at home the surplus will be inconsiderable. If our own people cannot afford to eat it, then we mnst sell It at any price offered or store It up and take chances on the future.—Kansas City Journal. The Ups and Downs of Labor.

Less Work and Less Wages. _ The point to be made, the point which the shrewder Republican journals have made, is not that times are not better than they were, but that they are nol nearly so good as they were before the* election of Cleveland and the Wilsoii Congress. That is the standard by which the influence of politics on present business conditions is to be judged, and it is one which commends itself to thinking men. Applying that test and where does the Democracy come out? More mills are In operation now than a year and a half ago, but not so many are working as in 1890-91-92. There have been advances in wages, but wages are still below the figures of that time. Fewer hands are, despite the increases, still employed. Is not that enough to condemn., the party in. power? It. is only necessary to tell the truth ! concerning the changes of the last two 1 and one-half years in order to establish all that Republicans contend for. Tin* facts are known to the people, and it only weakens the legitimate and forcible arguments which are at Republican hands to exaggerate the situation.— Philadelphia Inquirer. Free Trad-, Ont of Work.

Woolen Mill Prospects. The Wilson law does not afford sufficient protection to the domestic woolen manufacturer. This fact was apparent during the fall season, and it has been made indisputable the present spring season. When the importer can obtain fully 05 per centum of the orders placed on worsted goods by manufacturing clothiers it is indisputable that something is radically wrong with the tariff laws—thdt the domestic manufacturer does not receive the needed protection. It little matters whether he is defrauded of it by an absurd system of duties which permits of gross frauds, or whether the prescribed duty is insufficient in itself, the fact remains that so far as protection goes the existing law does not provide it—Textile Manufacturers’ Journal. A Hard Nut Crack.