Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1902 — A PARTISAN ALMANAC [ARTICLE]

A PARTISAN ALMANAC

CURIOUS OUTGIVING OF THE AMERICAN COBDENITES. It Treats of Eclipses, but Fails to Record the Terrible Eclipse Which the Tariff Reformers Brought On the Country from 1803 to 1807. A copy, of the Free-Ttade Almapac for 1902/ has been received by the American Economist, bearing the imprint, “Issued by the American FreeTrade League, GO2-3 Tremont Building, Boston, U. S. A. Price, five cents.” Cheap enough, one would say at first thought and yet dear enough would be the second thought when one considers /the cause in propagation of which the Almanac is put, forth. For example, we find: “Its object shall be to free our trade, our industries and our people from all tariff taxes except those imposed for revenue only. “Its method shall be to enlist conscience, intelligence and patriotism against the system called protection, which at the dictation of organized wealth taxes the whole American people for the benefit of a few.” Five cents is a good deal of money to pay for that sort of thing! But there is a liberal discount for cash and large quantities. If you should happen to want 100, you may have them at 2 cents apiece. At that price no family need suffer for lack of the FreeTrade Almanac. These are protection times, it must be remembered, and nearly everybody nowadays can scrape 2 cents together. It was not so, however, in free-trade times of recent memory. In those days there were vast numbers of people who had lost their jobs and didn’t have 2 cents to buy bread, much less a Free-Trade Almanac. Commercially the outlook for

this publication Is better than it would have been four to eight years ago. Whether the enterprise will win Its share of the general prosperity which its promoters had no hand in bringing about is another question. Be that as it may, the Free-Trade Almanac is before the people, and Its publishers are prepared to push It. They tell us that they have come up from small beginnings and that they are now In flourishing shape. Tbe organization first saw the light in 1884 and was christened the Massachusetts Tariff Reform league. In 1888 it burst the bonds of Statehood and became the New England Tariff Reform League. Next it broke the shackles of Tariff Reform and in 1894 blazoned forth as the New England Free-Trade League. Last November it had grown so bold as to defy all local limitations, and it now calls Itself the American Free-Trade League. Under this title it may claim a practically unlimited Jurisdiction in the Western hemisphere. It may hope for an Esquimau member from Cape Columbia in the Far North, and we are quite certain it would not reject a cash contribution from Terra del Fuego. There is room for the organization to grow—anywhere outside of the United States. According to the Almanac: “The membership of the League now numbers over a thousand, representing forty States and Canada, and including a number of manufacturers, many business and professional men, and over thirty college professors and teachers of economics. President Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard; Dr. William G. Sumner, of Yale, and many others. A more Intelligent, patriotic body of men cannot be found. No sordid greed of gain brings them together, but the desire and hope of serving their country and redeeming her from the errors and oppressions of “protection," and setting her upon tbe true path of Justice, sound economics, and world-wide commercial supremacy. Besides tbe annual dues, many of them zealously and generously aid the cause by voice, pen and money. Last year $5,650 was thus contributed, 24 articles written by members and others without pay, and 240,000 pamphlets sent broadcast over the country.” As an almanac pure and simple we tannot conscientiously Indorse the pubIcatlon. It cantalna, to be sure, some neteorologlcal matter of Interest, but t leaves out much Information that should have place in a work of this tbaracter. For example, we are told ihat “There will be five eclipses la 1902, three of ths sun and two of the moon.

four of which will be invisible >n tbo United States.” ’ But not a word about the terrible eclipse of 1893-97, when the sun of prosperity was for nearly four years invisible behind a heavy bank of tariff reform clouds, and only emerged when the skies were cleared by the advent of McKinley and protection. Strange omission! Important as the publication may be considered by virtue of the pleas in behalf of Industrial and commercial devastation by a score or less of gifted contributors, it cannot be commended as an all around economic almanac. It may have its uses, but not, we repeat, as an almanac.—American Economist. • To Kill the Beet Industry. Petitions are being circulated in thq Eastern States asking Congress td abolish the duty on raw sugar. The petition is sent out ostensibly by the National Pure Food Association, which has its headquarters in New York. It; is also being circulated by agents of the United States Export Association. The same men are officers of both these associations, F. B. Thurber being President. Under the thin disguise of these two associations, this movement is known to be in the interest of the American Sugar Company, which has recently increased its stock to the extent of fifteen million dollars for the purpose of purchasing Cuban sugar plantations in the expectation that free sugar will be possible. With the duty on raw; sugar abolished the Havemeyer com-t pany would have no difficulty in ruining its most active competitors, the American beet sugar factories, and. that done, the HAvemeyers would have control of the markets of this country. With the beet sugar industries—which are increasing rapidly—out of existence, the Havemeyer company could charge whatever it saw fit for sugar, and the pipe dream it is now putting forth of a saving of millions

to consumers would vanish Into thin' air and the profits would go to its stockholders.—Helena (Mont.) Record. • Would Stimulate Hostility. ' Reciprocity is being urged as a means of staving off or allaying European tariff hostility to the United States, yet it is more calculated to. stimulate it. Whatever concessions we make to one nation we must make to its competltors, or else we shall have all sorts of trouble. The matter of tariff would thus be transferred from Congress to the State Department, and constant tinkering would be the result. If we are going to make changes in our tariff rates it would be far better to make them direct and have them apply to all countries, than to begin frittering away the protection of our industries piecemeal. with constant disturbance of trade because of the uncertainties of he future. The interests that are behind this movement for extending the markets for some of our products at the expense of others are powerful and apparently have with them a strong following in the Senate, but it takes a two-thirds vote to ratify a treaty and here is where they may fall.—San Jose (Cal.) Mercury. The Cloven Hoff. It is reported from Havana that letters have been received from H. O. Havemeyer which urge tbe Cuban planters, tbe Havana merchants of influence and the local press to demand absolute free trade with the United States for sugar. The anxiety of the magnate in tbe matter is said to ba due to the fact that the sugar trust has acquired the entire Cuban sugar crop on speculation and that Its exportation will take place when tbe duties on the staple have been removed. - Chicago Chronicle. Nelfher should it be forgotten that the Sugar Trust has $15,000,000 set aside for Investment In Cuban sugar property, which would be vastly benefited by tbe removal of the duties on Cuban sugar.—Tbe Beet Sugar Gazette. Reverse of Free-Trade. McKinley's own words. In his Buffalo speech. . defined reciprocity as “sensible trade arrangements which will not Interrupt our home production." This Is the reverse of freetrade.—Benton (III.) Republican. In the Meantime. Uncle Sam Is throwing foreign manufacturers into hysterics with bls trade extension movements, and In the meantime every American workingman who wants work can gel It.— Cleveland Leadax. • ... . v i • ' v* :• ’..ix