Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1899 — IS “UP AGAINST IT.” [ARTICLE]

IS “UP AGAINST IT.”

BRYAN'S WAY TO THE WHITE HOUSE IS BARRED. Beatridina the Demo-Pop Donkey. “Free Silver and Free Trade,” Mio Path la Obstructed by the Solid Wall of Substantial Prosperity. One of the most impressive among the many showings of prosperity with which the American people are nowadays so frequently regaled after two full years of restored protection, is that madein the news columns of the New Yofck Sun of July 29. With its characteristic enterprise and sagacity the Sun, always keenly alive to matters of genuine public interest, has gathered from correspondents in various business centers some very significant facts as to the abnormal activity which prevails among the railroads of the United States. No one needs to be told that when the great inland transportation systems are rushed with business and straining to Increase their facilities to meet an Increased demand, everybody etoe must be extremely busy. Railroad business is a sure index of general business. From Chicago the report is that every railroad entering the city to-day needs more cars than It has or can get to meet the demands of shippers. This condition to not due to any great and sudden increase in any particular traffic, but Is due to the steady growth of all kinds of traffic. From all indications the year 1899 will eclipse all former years in the volume of business done by the railroads. Last year was one of prosperity for the railroads, the increase in traffic as compared with that of several years previous being considered almost phenomenal; but there is almost as great an Increase in

earnings so far this year over those of the corresponding period of last year as was the case of 1898 over 1897. All the railroads which build their own freight* cars have kept full forces at work In the shops, but they could not turn out cars fast enough to supply the demand, and orders were placed with car manufacturing companies which will keep most of them busy for the remainder of the year, If not longer. Here Is a curiously suggestive fact stated by an official of <fhe of the big Western railways: More pianos were shipped over our road from Chicago to the West and Southwest in the last three months than the entire number in the years from 1893 to 1897. This is good proof of the prosperity of the farmer, for a piano is a luxury in which he does not indulge as soon as he gets a few hundred dollars ahead. Our traffic in farming machinery was never so large as it has been this year and our crop reports made it certain that the investments in machinery were well made. When the farmers buy pianos they are “on Easy street.” No doubt of that, Another railroad manager said: “If we could borrow or hire from 5,000 to 10,000 box cars we could find immediate use for all of them.” At Detroit an official declared that in twenty years his road has “never seen a condition like the present. Ordinarily at this time of the year we are not burdened with a surplus of business and rather have difficulty in finding a place to store our empty freight cars than to employ all our energies to find cars enough to carry the business offered to us. We are certainly behind on a visible supply of cars requisite to carry the freight which we can get without any solicitation.” Baltimore reports a scarcityj»f cars with which to remove the tremendous business, present and prospective. At Buffalo the freight traffic is far in excess of the supply of cars. Thousands of extra cars could be used, but they are not to be found. At Philadelphia a trunk line official testifies to a great Increase on all the lines of his road. Speaking of the lines east of Pittsburg, he said: I am convinced that the present prosperity is lasting for the reason that the increase bf business is not confined to a particular locality. It is general. For

to 75 per cent, some 100 per amt, and one as high as 216 per cent. While, as these reports show, our business to much in excess of that of last year, we have not experienced any great difficulty in getting cars to handle the freight thus far, but there will be a scarcity of cars in the later part of September or October. How serious it will be I have no means of telling at thia timq. As a matter of fact we have very largely increased our equipment this year, and, of course, that has aided us in handling the increased business, but in some kinds of cars there has already been a scarcity. It is now but twenty-nine months since William McKinley took his seat as President of the United States; only a few days more than two years since the Dingley tariff was enacted. Contrast, if you can, present conditions with those which existed twenty-nine months after the inauguration of Grover Cleveland in 1893 and twenty-four months after the enactment of the alldestroying Wilson-Gorman tariff law. Ten billions of dollars would not suffice to measure the increase in individual, corporate and national wealth which has taken place since the restoration of protection as the American policy. Probably twenty billions would' fall below the mark. Verily, it to true. In the euphemistic phraseology of the cartoon which appears on this page that William Jennings Bryan, bestriding the Free Silver and Free-Trade ass of his party, finds his progress to the White House barred by a solid wall of prosperity and is “Up Against the Real Thing Now.”— American Economist Why Trust Them? The Republican party gave the country a protective tariff. Now watch the ever-increasing exports: In 1895, 1807,000,000; in 1896, |882,000,000; tn 1897, >1,000,000,000; In 1898, >1,281,000,000; and when the present fiscal year is completed on the 30th of June Inst look out for a larger figure even

than the last one. And yet Democratic free-traders predicted they wouldn’t have It any other way—that Republican protection would destroy our foreign commerce by killing off our exports. What prophets!—and why should the country further trust them? —Mansfield (Ohio) News. In Bryan’s State. A dispatch from Omaha says: The industrial situation through this ' part of the Missouri valley is indicative of the general prosperity that appears to prevail throughout the entire West. Or- j dinarily July witnesses very little busl- ' ness in the commercial world among Missouri river jobbers, but this month is an 1 exception. Wholesalers generally have ' scarcely had time to invoice their stocks ; and ascertain the extent of business for i the first six months of the year. This is the situation in Mr. Bryan's own State, and in the other States near by. It makes an effective contrast to the situation which existed in that region during the years when the policy of free trade, so vigorously sup- 1 ported by Mr. Bryan, both in and out of Congress, was in i force and the Wilson law was exerting its blighting influence upon the industries of the country. It is.) pretty safe to say that the business men of Nebraska and of other Missouri River Valley States will not have any use for Mr. Bryan or for any other free-trader in 1900. What He Would Like. What Mr. Havemeyer would like to see Is the free admission of raw sugar and a good-sized duty levied upon refined sugar, thus giving his refineries absolute control of the American market After crushing the domestic production, Mr. Havemeyer and hit associates would certainly have a good thing. The great Injustice of the present schedule lies in tfce fact that it enables the Southern cane-growers and the Western beet sugar factories to make a profit which really ought to go into the pockets of the sugar trust Mr. Havemeyer Is a sadly abused man, and the best way to do him exact justice will be to carry his free-trade ideas a step further and admit refined sugar free.—Seattle (Wash.) Poet-lateUl-geneet. The Dreaded Receil. When you smash the tariff you smash lh '° g *• i