Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1897 — PROTECTION UPHELD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PROTECTION UPHELD.

PROSPERITY HAS REIGNED DUR- * ING HIGH TARIFF PERIODS. '■ decrease of American Home Market | Under Wilson L»w-Corn ConsumpI tlon Fell Away Over a Billion I Bushe s. Treaenry Bureau Fl cures. Special Washington correspondence: What few statesmen and politicians have been compelled to stay over the summer In Washington are discussing among themselves what the Democrats will have for an Issue In the next Presidential campaign. Protection has gained such ground among members of their own party that they dare not make that a further issue as against the Republicans, while the bottom has absolutely dropped out of their free sil ver poposition by reason of the developments of the past few months. The fact that they are finding it necessary to seek for a new issue is shown by the recent utterances of various members of their party favoring postal savings banks, single taxes, the initiative and referendum, and other issues of .that sort as a possible basis for the tnext year’s declaration. The latest ■thing, perhaps, which is being discussed as a possible basis for Democratic oratory in 1900 is the initiative and referendum. The initiative means that laws may originate with the people. {Upon the request of a certain per cent, of voters, the State and municipal legislatures must pass any bill that the petitioners ask for. Referendum means that these laws must be submitted to the popular vote and indorsed before .they shall be operative. By this method every question would be submitted to the popular vote, and legislatures would be simply figure heads, and the •community would be in a constant stew and uproar over every question. In this connection the latest statements of Governor Boles, of lowa, are interesting. He was for free silver last year, but he now insists that free coinage at 16 to 1 is folly in view of .recent developments, and that a plan for the warehousing of silver and the issuance of certificates based on its market value is the only method by which it can be utilized as a basis for currency. With Mexican dollars only worth 40 cents, as compared with .American money, which is upon a gold ibasls, the Mexican workingman canmot be having an easy time. The report

-made from the Trade and Labor Assembly of Chicago last fall shows that '.workingmen got but about one-half as <much per day in Mexico in the silver coin of the country as the workingmen of the United States got in our curirency upon the gold basis. When it is (remembered that the dollar in which .'these people are paid is now worth only 40 cents, compared with our own (100-cent dollar, their condition can be (Imagined. This condition of the workingmen of Mexico is being made use of (by those arguing in favor of a gold ’standard. Another thing which is calculated to dataage the cause of silver in Ohio and elsewhere Is a table just Issued by the ißureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, the highest authority on matters of this kind, showing that Ohio OCX wool, which, in August, 1896, Was -worth 17 cents per pound, was, on —July 30,1897, worth 22 cents per pound, ■while silver, which, in August, 1896, was worth 69 cents per fine ounce, was on July 31, 1897, worth 58V 2 cents per fine ounce. This condition of prices does not, of course, coincide with the oft-repeated silverite statement of last year as to farm products and silver. In view-of the prediction of the return of tho American home market to the producers of the country, a glance at some of the crop statistics of the Treasury Department during the period of prosperity up to the enactment of the (Wilson law and the subsequent era of depression under that law will be profittable. In 1891 the wheat produced in jthe United States amounted to 611.000,000 bushels. At the close of 1890 the •consumption of wheat was 6.09 bushels per capita. In 1894 it had decreased 3.41 per capita, showing a loss of 2.6 S •bushels per capita in 1894 as compared with 1890. The population of the Unified States in 1894, as shown ‘by the school census, was 68,275,000, making a loss by under-consumption of wheat in •1894 as compared with IS9O of a little wer 182,000,000' bushels. Of the corn crop in 1890 the consumption of the (United States was 32.09 bushels per capita. In 1894 it was only 22.76, or a loss of 9.33 bushels per capita, making a total loss of over 637,000,000 bushels of corn in 1894 as compared with 1890. 'Again, in 1896, the last year of the Wilson law, the consumption of corn in (this country was reduced to 14.73 per capita, and the total loss to the country In under consumption was 1,229,286,000 .bushels of corn. The increase of exportation of manufactures under the Wilson Tariff law, about which the free traders were jubilant, is a fact, but is riot altogether instructive unless it is considered in the light of some other facts. The increase Jes Importation of foreign manufactures •daring the time in which our exportation of home manufactures Increased .■was three or four times as much as the growth in exports. Naturally with our . awn markets filled with foreign manufactures at low prices, our manufactur’ers were either compelled to seek a hnarket abroad or close their establishonents. The effect of legislation cannot be determined by the study of a single year or a term of years. Those wh<r /want to examine this subject closely jeanget a better view of it by noting the . Jknports and exports of the United states du: ’ng the past half century. In ; past twenty-five years, which has OHa * season of constant protective fbwlff with the exception of the three

years Just ended, the excess of exports over imports amounted to about $2,500,000,000, while in the preceding quarter of a century, which was one of low tariff excepting the war period, the excess of imports over exports was sl,400,000,000. These figures which cover two twenty-five year periods, one of which was Characterized by low tariff and the other by protective tariff, are convincing as to the effect of protection upon our foreign commerce. A. B. CARSON. Woql—Protection and Free Trade. Imports of woolen manufactures: Fiscal vear. Value. 1891,.....541,060,080 1892 35,565,879 1893 38,048,515 1894 19,439,372 Protection average, $33,528,461. 1895 $38,539,890 1896 53,494,400 1897 49,162,992 Free trade average, $47,065,527. The average annual Increase in our imports of manufactured woolen goods, during the Democratic po'licy of FreeTrade In wool, was $13,537,066. Considering the shoddy character of the foreign goods imported, and the idleness of our people, since 1894, it is safe to say that the excessive Imports for the three years, aggregating $40,500,000, have displaced the product of fully $100,000,000 worth of woolen products from American looms that would have been made here if the American policy of Protection had been maintained without interruption. The loss to workers in American woolen mills alone has been fully $70,000,000.

The New Sign.

Seek New Novelties. The Democratic bargain counter being in a seriously depleted and unattractive condition at the present moment, the leaders of that party are now searching for new novelties. Free silver and free trade have lost their attractiveness despite the advertising which they have been given, the experiments by the public in that line having nauseated them with that class of cheap goods. It is probable that the next assortment of wares which these gentlemen will offer will be Henry George’s single tax, a denunciation of “government by injunction,” a proposition to adopt the initiative and the referendum system by which the people of the country may be kept in a constant uproar by- having an opportunity to initiate legislation or to pass upon measures enacted before these measures can come actually into operation. No More British Tin Plate. Before the tin plate industry was established in the United States by the McKinley Tariff, there were quite a number of Americans in Liverpool who acted as agents for American importers of Welsh tin plate, Liverpool being the chief port of export. Since we have been making our own tin plate, all of these agents have returned home with the exception of one who is expected back this month to take charge of a tin plate factory in Pennsylvania. This will practically conclude the American trade in foreign tin plate and practically complete the acquisition of the American market by the American tin plate Industry which was established under the McKinley Protective Tariff of 1890. A Good Month’s Gain. Business is improving; prosperity is at hand. Study the following totals of bank clearings for the United States for the month of July in each year since 1894, as given by “Bradstreets:” Total United States bank clearings: July. Amount. 1894 83,504,793,438 1895 4,550,335,150 1896 4,350,791,715 Democratic average ....$4,135,306,768 1897 (Republican year)...... 4,786,004,357 Republican business gain in one month $650,697,589 They Are Well Off. The fifteen countries from which hints of dissatisfaction with our Tariff have come have sold us in the past decade $4,843,943,528 worth of goods, and bought from us only $3,059,220,782 worth, a balance In thlr favor of sl,784,722,841. It is scarcely probable under these circumstances that they are going to take any steps Which will embarrass or complicate commercial relations so advantageous to them.—Clinton (Iowa) Herald. London’s Bijr Business. There was a large volume of business transacted in London last May, the total of that city’s bank clearings aggregating $2,958,277,219. This was $640,000,000 greater than New York’s clearings In the same month, and greater by $140,000,000 than the April business in London. Depreciated Dollar*. Workingmen in the United States may congratulate themselves that they rejected last year the proposition to

place the American dollar upon the same basis as the Mexican dollar. The working people of Mexico now find their dollar worth but 40 cents and yet are not receiving any increased number of them as their wages, while the prices of articles which they are compelled to buy with them have advanced as ured by depreciated dollars in which they are paid. Boies’-New Plan. The warehouse-certificate statement, which was popular - with the Populists two or three years ago as applied to farm products only, is now - proposed by ex-Gov. Boies of low - a as tire only method by w - hich silver can safely be made a basis for currency. He suggests that, in view of the continued fall of silver, the Democratic party abandon the free coinage proposition and propose the purchase by the Government of silver bullion at its market value, issuing certificates therefor redeemable in silver bullion at its market value, whatever it may be at any time. “More Money,’’ The followers of Mr. Bryan last fq.ll made their rallying cry “More money.” They did not get Mr. Bryan into the but they and all the rest of the people “are getting more money,” and that speedily. The only way to get money is by work. By the passage of the Dingley bill the home market has been restored to American manufacturers. The wheels of industry are already beginning to turn, and a wider opportunity to labor is being offered to the American people. There will be plenty of work in the near future, and plenty of work means plenty of money.

Prairie States Prosperous. Statistician Mulhall in a recent article shows that the prairie States upon which the silverltes relied last year to carry their free silver proposition are not only the most prosperous sections of the United States, but most prosperous In the world, and that their grain production is at least as great as that of France, Germany and Austria collectively, and their general food production five .times as great per each person as in the most advanced sections of Europe. Political Notes. The second largest nugget of gold ever found in California is just reported from Trinity County. It is worth $42,000, and Klondike is invited to produce its biggest nugget for comparison. lowa Populists also have placed a distinct State ticket in the field, and their platform, like that of the Ohio Populists, ignores the Chicago platform.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Mexico is letting interested friends in this country do the boasting about her prosperity and admirable financial system. She is kept on the keen hustle trying to pay her debts in 100-cent dollars while collecting her dues in 40-cent dollars. It is quite a trick.—Detroit Free Press. Better times began as soon as the Republican party got in power. Better government will be secured for this city when the Republican party controls it. There is abundance of Democratic testimony to show that nothing could be w - orse than we have had under Democratic rule.—Louisville Commercial. The nation is now listening intently for Mf.'Bryan’s voice from the.wilds of the Yellowstone Park to inform it how it is that wheat can go up while silver is going dow - n. The advance of 50 per cent, in the value of wheat and the fall of 25 per cent, in the value of silver in the past year does not quite justify the assertions as to the relations of wheat and silver which -were being urged upon the farmers of the country at this time last year. With American tin plate not only supplying the markets of our own country, but actually making a bid for the markets of the w - orld, the Democratic assertions of six years ago’that protection could not industry successful in the United States are anything but pleasant reading to the men who made them.