Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1903 — POLITICAL COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL COMMENT.

Carrying "heat to Market. The London Statist contains a leading editorial article on Mr. Chamberlain’s colonial policy of discriminating duties, from which we take the .following extract: “JVc have seen that between 1860 and 1902 the cost of carrying wheat so» export from Chicago to New York wtfs. reduced by over 80 per cent—roughly, from a little over 23d. per bushel to a little under 4%d. per bushel. In other words, during the period referred to the cost of carriage by" railway over a. distance of about a thousand miles was reduced Is. 6%d. per bushel. West of Chicago the reductions were certainly not less’. Hence it will be seen that during the past forty years the reduction in the cost of lancb carriage has been extraordinary. Furthermore, we have seen that the cost of carriage from New* York to this country was reduced 2’id. per bushel—that is to say, from 3 15-10 d. to 1 7-16 d. per bushel. Altogether, therefore, tire cost of brarying wheat from Chicago to this country has been reduced during the past forty years from about ®7d. per bushel to about 6d., or about 21d. Is there any reason to suppose that tlie extreme limit of reduction lias lieen reached? We fall to see any.” In this great reduction in the cost of transporting the Western farmer's wheat to New York and Liverpool American steel rail makers have borne

a prominent and indispensable part. In 1806 we had not commenced the manufacture of steel rails and ourentire supply was obtained from Great Britain, who charged us £ls 10s., or $75.43, per ton, on board ship. This sum did not include the cost of carriage across the Atlantic or the duty. (See Fossick’s History of the British Iron Trade.) • In 1871 we began the policy of adequately protesting our steel rail Industry, with the result that we were soon producing steel rails as good as those of Great Britain at a much lower price than her rail makers had been charging us. This price was afterward steadily reduced, so that millions of tons-of American steel rails have been supplied to American railroads at less than $25 per ton, or lews than onethird the British price of 1866. To-day the price Is S2B, which is exactly the amount of the duty of 1871 on foreign steel rails. But for the great reduction in the price"of steel rails to American railroads during the period referred to by the Statist it would never have been l>osslble'for Western farmers to secure the low rates of transportation for their wheat that they have long enjoyed. Nor could we ever have built up our magnificent steel rail industry without the help of an adequately protective duty oq foreign steel rails. We commend these indisputable facts to the consideration of our lowa friends, who have been Invited by Governor Cummins to assist him to place steel rails in the free list. It may also be worth while to consider the : further fact that all Western wheat growers are protected jagalnw the competition of the wheat growers of Manitoba nnd other Brltjsh North American provinces by a duty of 25 cents a bushel on wheat nnd a duty of 25 per cent on th; foreign value of wheat flour.—iron and Steel Bulletin. Nebraska Ffnh la Pat. The Hepnbllcans of Nebraska, nt their convention, adopted the following clean cut nnd unequivocal resolutions: ‘•We congratulate the State that we have made it manifest that there la no permanent place In American politics fdr the political leader who bases his claims for popular support upon the failures or disappointments of 1 the ]>eo pie. “We congratulate ourselves that'the people of the State are enjoying good prices, good wageaitgood markets and good go ’ernment, and all the manifold

blessings of general prosperity that we forettold would follow the election of our late superb and grand American patriot. President William McKinley, and whose magnificent policy is j*ow being carried into full and complete execution in a masterly way by the strong will and clear judgment of President Theodore Roosevelt. "We congratulate not onlja ourselves, but the people at Ihrge, that the administration of our national affairs and our negotiations %’i>h foreign nations are being conducted by a courageous Republican'President, whom the America n z people., now desire to honor with a second term as the chief magistrate of the greatest and grandest nation of the earth —Theodore Roosevelt. '""'--,,, “We adhere to the American protective policy of the Republican party, which has increased the. revenues and not impeded trade; w’hich has opened the doors of mills and factories to millions of American skilled mechanics, and is returning to them the higher wages which are the just recompense of their toil.” The Republicans of Nebraska are not ashamed of the Dingley law, nor are they afraid to come out frankly in indorsement of it. The enthusiasm which they display over the industrial policy of their party is wholly justifiable, and will be objected to by nobody who is really at heart a protectionist. Nebraska Republicans are to be congratulat-

ed upon their platform.—Manchester (Iowa) Press. Work and Waxes for Men. Here are (wo items from Michigan newspapers that tend to show what might occur elsewhere In the United States If the sugar beet Industry shall Im? allowed to go forward under the protection guaranteed by the Dingley tariff and is not stifled by “reciprocity” concessions in favor of foreigners; otherwise, items of this class are likely to be more plentiful in Cuban than in Michigan newspapers: /‘There are no boys in the beet fields this season,” said Factory Inspector Sam Lee. “Their places have all been taken by men. The proprietors tell me that their employment last season was an expensive experiment, for though the wages paid were small, the number of small plants destroyed by careless “youths more than made up the amount saved. In some Instances a boy has been known to do $lO worth of damages in a single day.” And so it comes that grown men are doing the work and many small boys nrq hunkering In vain for a smell of the country, the hay fields, and the creeks. —Detroit Free Press. Over $30,000 has been drawn from the bank at Chesaning already this season for wages for beet weeders.— Saginaw Courier Herald. Hani pet-e<|. Tlie New York Journal of Commerce le of the opinion that cur woolen manufacturers are greatly hampered by the tariff on wool. They were not thus hampered during the free wool period, 1894-97, a period of stagnation, loss aud bankruptcy. If occasionally n woolen manufacturer Indulges himtelf In a dream of free trade In wool he Is sure to wake up when he recalls what happened 1 ; to him ns the result of the Wllson*G;rn:an atrocity, and, particularly, what wouftl happen to Jilin when the removal of the tariff on wool should be —ns It certainly would be—accofnpauled by a very material reduc (ion of the tariff on woolens.