Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1902 — POLITICAL COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL COMMENT.

•‘PrQKresslYc.”.RiumMU:a»*, The Chicago Tribune began Its freetrade work a few days ago by advocating free wheat from Canada to help the Minneapolis mills. Now the Tribune has gone a step further and advocates free beef cattle from Mexico and Canada. Says the Tribune: “The cattle-raising industry needs no bounty encouragement. So long as the cattle raisers of the country and the butchers, wholesale and retail, were able to supply meat at a fair price the duties whose repeal the biitchers ask for were unobjectionable. As soon as prices reached a point where meat became a luxury the duties became unnecessary for protective purposes. If they have any effect ft is to add slightly to the cost of meat.” The farmers of lowa would discover the difference so soon as the present duties were removed. Cattle can be grown in Mexico and Canada cheaper than In the United States on account of cheap lands and cheaper labor. The Mexicans and Canadians are not entitled to the splendid American market without paying for it In lieu of the taxes they would pay if they were growing cattle in the United States. Forgetting that train loads of Mexican cattle reached the Chicago market under the Wilson law, the Tribune says:'

“The cattle raisers of the country are not threatened with any competition which will be destructive of their profits, nor Is there any possibility of the foreign or domestic supply becoming so great In the next few years that the market price of meat will not be a sufficient Inducement to men to engage in the raising of live stock.” The Tribune argues that the consumer is better entitled to low prices than the producer to a protected price as’follows: “Vastly more people are affected favorably by the low price of meat than by Its high price, and consequently the repeal of the duties on cattle and meat will meet with more support than opposition.” With the Tribune It seems to be only a question of securing a low price to the consumer. That is a cardinal doctrine with the free-trader. The “progressive Republicans” have now demanded: Free wheat from Canada into the United States. Free beef cattle from Mexico and Canada. Free iron and steel from all the world. Free hides from South and Central America. Free wool from South and Central America. And the list is growing. What Is a protectionist to do in times like these? Republicans bad better get out-their facts and figures before joining In any free-trade cry.—Des Moines Capital.

Export Prices. Volume XIII. of the report of the Industrial Commission tabulates 416 replies received by the Commission bearing on the question of foreign and domestic prices. The report says: “The great majority of the answers Indicated that prices are no Ipwer abroad than they are for domestic consumers, and a considerable number Indicate that foreign prices are higher.” A few, however, state that they sell a portion of their goods abroad lower than at home, and the reasons are as follows: “Cash -payments and large purchases in the foreign trade, whereas the domestic trade Is based on credits and small purchases. “The drawback or rebate of the tariff on imported raw material <}f goods manufactured for export “To overcome the tariff of other countries. “To secure new markets. “To hold a market against new competitors. “To clear out surplus stock or to prevent a shut-down and increased cost of production, by keeping mills running and men employed. "To get rid of samples and out-of-date goods. “Because tbe expense of selling and advertising Is less abroad than at home.”

These arc the reasons attributed by manufacturers of all countries for sometimes selling a part of tbelr stock at a lower price abroad than at home. It cau&s no injury to the domestic consumer and gives added employment nnd wages to laborers, besides keeping the home market firm and stable and preventing ruinous competition in cutting prices. There Is another reason why some American manufacturers sometimes sell a portion of their goods at a lower price abroad, and perhaps tbe chief reason. Most of our machinery or articles produced by machinery are covered by patents which are exclusively controlled and operated In this country. For example, take' agricultural Implements. It can be shown that where such articles are sold more cheaply abroad than at borne It is because of patents. If not covered by foreign patents it is obviously the policy to sell In foreign countries at a price that will discourage production in those countries. And yet of the manufacturers of agricultural Implements reporting to the Industrial Commission, all, with only one exception, stated that prices to fo*r-

lower than those for domestic pur-i chasers. Not one per cent of our out-* put is sold at a lower price abroad, 1 and only for some special reason connected with that particular consign- 1 ment The Maine Election. That Maine would go Republican last Monday was as certain as that the sun would rise on the morning of that day, bat that it would go as strongly Re-' publican as It did was not expected* even by the most sanguine prophets.' It Is a State where pluralities have fluctuated widely in off yean. That the Republicans should have piled tip' a plurality, exceeded only once In the last twenty years, shows that they are; not dissatisfied with tbe policies of the administration, and that the party in the State Is united. What is true of Maine It is safe to say will be true of every other Republican State. The result has a national significance. The keynote of the campaign in , Maine was stated in a general way in' a speech delivered in the Senate last June by Senator Gallinger of—" New) Hampshire: “Our friends on the other side are looking for an issue. They need nob worry; the issue is looking for them. Prosoperity is the issue and all other! questions are secondary.” Prosperity was the issue In Maine.; Southern Ooougressmen, orators from l New York, even Bryan himself, labored? with the people of Maine to divert* their attention from this issue and filled the State with lamentations over Impending calamities, but it was all liv vain. All that President Roosevelt had* to do was to make a plain statement of the administration’s policy on this and other questions. The Issue found the Democrats in spite of all their efforts to evade and elude it and it will* find them everywhere. The Democratic party never succeeds) in time of prosperity because nothing* conduces so much to personal satisfaction with existing conditions as pros-! perity. When the country Is prosperous people have no desire t 6 make a change in any of tbe conditions which) has secured that prosperity. Least of all is It a time for political resentments or personal malignity. The prosperity of one class involves tbe prosperity of other classes, so interdependent are we. It is not astonishdng, therefore, that the majority of the people of Maine* should have voted for prosperity. It. would he remarkable if some did not 1 vote far It who have become tired of! voting against it. So long, at least as 1 this Issue remains, the prophets of ca-j lamity will shriek in rain. Tho policies of the Republican party have ffivenj to this country a measure of prosperity, which has placed it industrially and l commercially at the head of all nations. ~ It is not conceivable that its people knowingly will do anything wantonly to retard its wonderful progress.—^Chicago Tribune.

What Ftood in the War. Secretary Shaw remarks that the tariff does not help the food trust toi maintain its monopoly. The food trusts is greatly obliged to Secretary Shaw,; of course, but even Secretary Shawl cannot alter facts. If the tariff doesn’t; help the food trust, why did the food' trust forbid the Republican Congress! to remove the duties on foreign meats and cattle?—New York Journal, Yellow Free Trade. It was not the food trust which stood In the way of the removal of duties; on foreign meats and cattle. If that had been the only obstacle, a bill repealing these duties would have been, passed at tbe last session of Congress without hesitation or hitch. It was tbs American farmer that stood In the way. He is the one that would be hurt by free trade In meat and cattle. The b«ef trust would not mind it at allin such an event the trust would doprecisely what It Is now doing—buy and slaughter all the meat and cattle) that come in from Mexico, Canada and| South without any rednetioni In the price of meat to the consumer.* Secretary Shaw made that point perfectly plain. There Is another and ai better way to throttle the food trust.* Tariff smashing would be a foolish a nil a worthless remedy.—American Economist. President Roosevelt. But then Theodore Roosevelt Is noted for luck and pluck.—Omaha Bee. The President always speaks his mind, nnd that is what we like about hlui.—Springfield (Mass.) Union. It takes more than a fiery, untamed trolley car to scare Theodore Roosevelt.—Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph. There were no political boundaries to the profound feeling of thanksgiving that President Roosevelt escaped.—St Louis Post-Dispatch. President Roosevelt's speeches are doing more to further the fight against the trusts than all the convention resolutions that ever were written.—Baltimore American. Tbe whole country congratulates President Roosevelt on hla narrow escape from death. It was a close call, but he fortunately escaped with slight injury —Nashville American. The announcement of the President’s escape from death or disabling Injury will be received by the American peo» pie with thanksgiving and rejoicing.-* Philadelphia Ledger.