Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1896 — CRIPPLES INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

CRIPPLES INDUSTRY.

The Democratic Tariff Is Fatal to Business. The fact that a dozen American woolen factories have recently been forced; to suspend operations, while a much larger number are only able to run on half time, is a significant corrimentary on the workings of the Wilson law. The reason for this partial paralysis of one of the most important of our domestic industries is evident to every man who - reads the statistics showing the importations of foreign woolens, which the Commercial Advertiser published &■ short time ago. These figures showed that, while we ini ported* - only $16,809,372 ofiv-oolen fabrics in 1894, our imports of* these goods leaped up to $57,404,863 iMR 1895. This tremeiMlous flood of manufaetured products—&■ large’ proportion of which are of the cheapest and most undesirable sort —has glutted the American market, forced - many fine manufacturing plants itito’Wasteful idleness, and robbed an arniV- of American wageearners of pay and eniploymen*-. No matter how you look at it, the democratic tariff is an utter failure. It affords neither sufficient protection nor sufficient revenue. It necessitates continued borrowing to pay the expenses of government, drains the treasury of gold to pay for European products that should be made at home, and cripples American industries in a hundred, ways. General and permanent prosperity is impossible until this abominable measure is either repealed or revised from top to bottom.—N. Y. Commerical Advertiser.