Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1904 — POLITICAL COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL COMMENT.

No Dark Pall. Little to their advantage will be gained by prophets of evil—those who predict the bursting of the prosperity bubble unless the Tariff is forthwith tinkered, and equally those who declare that there is no real prosperity, but that, because of the Tariff, impending ruin overshadows our happy land like a dark pall—from the foreign trade showing for the month of January and for the seven months ending with January. Oh the contrary, the facts aud figures show a healthy increase in our sales to other countries of the products of American skill and industry. Exports of manufacturers In January and in the seven months ending with January show a larger total than ever before in the same portions of the year. For the month of January they amounted to $38,213,352, while the highest January record on any former occasion waS that of 1900, when they were _535.58(>,910. Fof the seven months ending with January they amount to $230,214,936. and the highest record for that seven months’ period in any preceding year was that ending with January, 1801, when the total for January Is 2% nililion dollars in excess of any preceding January, and for the seven months ending

With January la about 11 millions more than in any preceding seven months ending with January. These figures are shown by- an analysis of the January exports just prepared by the Department of Commerce and Labor through its Bureau of Statistics. This increase of 20 million dollars in export* of manufactures in the seven months ending with January as compared with the corresponding seven months of last year is distributed among most of the leading classes of manufactures exported. By far »he largest Increase occurs In manufactured copper, of which the exports in the seven months ending with January, 1904, are reported at $31,552,677, against $22,514,843 for th.- corresponding months last year, arpl $19,€38,328 for the corresponding jer’od of the year preceding. Refined mineral oil Is next in the list of manufactured articles showing an increase in export values, being for the seven months ending with January. 1904, $42,629,461, against $35,324067 in the corresponding months of last year, and $10,664,900 in the corresponding pe riod of the preceding year. Iron and steel stand next in the list of manufactured articles showing an increase in exports. The total value of iron and steel exported in the seven months ending with January, 1904, is $59,125,780, against $55,997,942 in the corresponding months ending with January. 1903, apd $57,310,127 in the corresponding months of the preceding year. For January alone the exports of iron and steel are $8,171,738. against $7,437,298 in January, 1903, making the Increase for the single month $734,440 and for the seven months altout three millions. Agricultural implements also show an increase in exports, amounting to a little over two million dollars for the seven months ending with January, 1904. as compared with the corresponding months of hist year and about four million dollars incr a-e as compared with the seven months ending with January. 19G2. The table which shows the value of domestic manufactures exported from the United States in the month of January and the seven months ending with January, from 1894 to 1904: Month of Jan- ending with nary. January. Year. Dollars. Dollars 1894 14,313.285 111.005.688 1895 14.101.738 104,606,341 1896 ~.18.732.547 120.802,682 1897 . t 20.621.179 153,884,494 1898 22.998,808 IJtIJMI.O49 1809 25.806,870 182.336.503 1900 35.586,940 234301.141

1901 ~.32,004.035 239.564,004 1902 34,412,992 220,146,540 1903 31,759,489 230,235,264 1904 38,213,352 250,214,930 These great increases in exports of American manufactures are very far from supporting the contention that aa a means of expanding our foreign trade Tariff ripping Is the need of the hour. Precisely the contrary is true. Our foreign trade is developing into grand proportions under the Tariff as it is.—American Economist. Stands or Falls as a Whole. Republicans ought to know that the Protective Tariff must stand or fall as a system. Those who talk and vote for reciprocity in competitive products are voting to bring on a quarrel as to what products shall be protected and preserved and what products shall be deliberately sacrificed. Would it not be better for all concerned —would it not be especially better for the farmer —to stick to Protection with the hope that the manufacturer may learn a little better sense a little later on?—Des Moines Capital. Free-Trade on the Instalment Plan. Reciprocity Is Free Trude on the installment plan, and Free Trade is financial ruin. That is tue sum and

substance of the whole thing, and no matter how much this “reciprocity” Is varnished over by professional Word painters, nor how well the wool Is combed down over the eyes of the unsophisticated, it will never be anything else. It is amusing to see Republicans, who would hold up their hands in holy horror if they heard Free Trade mentioned, give their Indorsement of this policy, which is nothing but the decoy used by Free Traders to lure the unthinking to their camp. If any proof were needed in support of this statement it would be sufficient to point out the fact that every Democrat is shouting for reciprocity.—Minneota (Minn.) Mascot •

A Suggestion. The Detroit Tribune claims to bav® burned much midnight oil In the process of evolving the following brief platform for the Democratic party in the campaign of 1004; “Whereas, We have hunted from Kalamazoo to Jericho for Issues distinctive from those of the Republican party and failed to find any on which all the Democrats can unite except the Tariff, which is a chestnut; therefore “1. Resolved, That we are against the Republican party on general principles. “2. Damn the Republican party.” Whether or not the party will be satisfied with the preamble and first plank, there is no doubt that the second plank expresses the sentiment of all Democrats.

Equally Discredited. Free silver and Free Trade stand equally discredited—the former by ,t proper discussion of the subject, the latter by the breakdown of those who had pledged themselves to put it Into practice. A new deliverance on Loth of these important questions Is undoubtedly necessary; and as the Bryan people are to be corrected on the one band ami the Cleveland people on the other, why should either side bo shamefaced about confessing to the other the error of the past? Peccavl is the word for both.—Washington Star.