Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1907 — Political Comment [ARTICLE]

Political Comment

The Call of the Indnatrlea, From factory, mine and harvest field comes fllfr call for additional workers. At Gary, Ind., the largest steel mills in the world have been opened. They belong to the United States Steel Corporation, which produces about half of the American steel output. Gary is the town which the steel trust has been building. Many millions of dollars have been expended in getting iron and steel works established at that point, and many t more millions are to be invested there in the next year. The United States produces 40 per cent of the world’s iron and 42 per cent of its steel. And yet it can not entirely meet the home demand. Iron and steel furnished a considerable part of the $740,000,000 of manufactures which were exported in 1907, but they also figure In the imports with some prominence Notwithstanding the expansion in the number and the capacity of the Iron and steel works of the country, they are unable to supply all the orders which are pouring in, und thus thoaforeigu furnaces and mills are being drawn upon by American consumers. Cripple Creek has sent out a call for miners, but it is unable to get as many as it wants. The reason why It can not get as many as 1t would like to employ is that Nevada and the rest of the gold fields in the United States are sending out their demands for additionar workers. In the coal and iron mines of the East and the Central West there Is a shortage of workers, and there has been for many months. A like story comes from the copper, lead and zinc regions. In most of the important minerals the United States has a loltg lead over any other country. It stands second in gold production, having only the Transvaal abend of it, hut it is first not only in iron and steel, but in coal, copper and other minerals. For the calendar year 1907 our aggregate mineral product will be over 52.000.000.000. or more than double that of 1899. We furnish much more than half of all the world’s copper, and also more than half of its petroleum, another industry which is calling out for more workers. As the demand for all the minerals is Increasing, the production of 190 S is expected to pass far beyond 1907’s record. The old days when the Unite* States was third oifourth in the list in coal, iron and steel production are not far behind us in years, but the extent of our lead to-day makes it hard for us to realize this.

The earlier reports of crop failures are shown by the later returns to be baseless. Not only will we have a full average yield of the cereals, but cotton will be above the mean of the past five or six years. The appeals which the harvest fields are sending out for additional workers show that the grand aggregate of all the crops will not be much below the record figures of 1906. The United States produces a fifth of the world’s wheat and three-fourths of the world’s corn. The aggregate value of its products of the soil in 1906, which was nearly $7,000,000,000, was far ahead of that of any other two countries in the world. From present indications the 1906 figures will be closely approached in 1907, and may be equaled. With the farms, the factories and the mines bidding against each other for workers, the condition of the wage earner Is especially happy. Although the immigration was 1,000,000 in 1905, 1,100,000 in 1906 and nearly 1,300,000 In 1907, the West and the South are calling loudly for more “help.” While the average employer would prefer American workers to all sorts of newly landed aliens, the latter can find employment In the Mississippi Valley and throughout the South, at good wages. Immigration bureaus from many of the States west of the Alleghanies and below the Potomac and the Ohio are offering inducements for the immigrants to come In their direction, but the labor shortage still persists. This condition shows the folly of the predictions that business Is on the decline. The railroads are hauling more goods than they did a year ago, which means not only that the people are buying more, but that the mills and the mines are producing more. If this Is adversity, the country wants all of It that it can get.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Ten Year* of Dlnaley Tariff. We have Just passed the tenth anniversary of the enactment of the Dingley tariff law. And what a change there is In conditions! Ten years Is not a long period In the world’s history. The memories of most of us can easily span it Ten years ago our foreign trade was less than $2,000,000,000, now It Is more than $3,000,000,000 a year. Then the government revenues were Insufficient to cover the expenditures, while now, with the expenditures greatly Increased, we have a substantial surplus. At that time business, was depressed and Industry languished, while now there is prosperity on every side. Ten years ago freight cars were going to decay on the sidings with no call for their use, and now, with vastly Increased equipment. It Is the freight that Is tied np because there are not cars enough. Tbe ten years under the Dingley tariff have been such years of activity and growth as neither this country nor the world has ever known. —Grand Rapids Herald. Tbe world’s gold production la 1905 fcas been figured at $370,280,200.

BECOME A DUMPING GROUND.

What Would Follow a Rcffuetion of the Tariff. If our tariff is reduced, as fs seriously proposed, the United States will become the common dumping ground of the German and the British trusts, in competition - with each other. The American people can then have the pleasure of buying steel at a very low price, probably less than the cost of production. They will also have, concurrently* the pleasure of finding other employment for many thousands of workmen, as American steel plants shut down in the face of such a competition. Free traders in this country are relying in their forthcoming assault upon die tariff 1 on the prejudice they may. be able to arouse "by reason of the faet that a small percentage —a very small percentage; almost infinitesimal ns compared with the whole —is sold abroad cheaper than at lfome. But that is the settled policy of manufacturers in .European countries, and especially is it the policy of free trade England. If we should lower any of our protective duties below the point of ade-quate-protection European manufacturers would go after this market—the richest aud the greatest in the world—ls they had to give their goods away. And their people at home would applaud them for doing it, expecting to reap their reward* later on. Meantime, w ith A merican industries crippled^ millions of our laborers would be without employment aud hence ‘unable to sustain the tremendous buying power that the country now possesses and which is the foundation of our unexampled prosperity. We went all through this experience only a few years ago, but some of us seem to be itching for another term at i.t. If they keep on fussing we shall get it.—Cedar Rapids Republican.

Shots From Taft’s" Speech. Never was such united opposition to any national measure by the railroads so strong as that against the rate bill. The Elkins bill was supported by the railroads because it eliminated the penitentiary penalty, which the rate bill TestugpL r If tlie rate'bill was harmless, why was It so strongly opposed? The evil of overcapitalization would not Justify federal restraint, but the practice tends to divert money from improvements into the .pockets of dishonest speculators. Interstate roads should not be allowed to issue stock or bonds without a certificate from the Interstate Commerce Commission that the securities are issued for legitimate railroad purposes. “I am opposed to government ownership.” The new law will lead to the settlement of claims without suit, as in many cases of personal There must be something more than union of capital and plant before the law is violated; either coercion to buy from one concern or put a competitor out of business. Secret rebates enabled the Standard and the sugar trust to reap Illegal harvest. “I think the imprisonment of one or two managers of unlawful trusts would have a healthy effect.” State Legislatures have complete control of what shall be done with a man’s property on his death. “I do not favor federal legislation now to reduce swollen fortunes by income or inheritance tax.” - The Wall street slump was not due to the President’s policies. The laws must not punish guilty rich and let the guilty poor escape. Bryan’s theories are based on distrust of the honesty of individuals. The tariff question will be up to Congress at the proper time.

Dr. -Roosevelt’* Prescription. i Wall street should be happy. It has wanted a word from President Roosevelt during one of its paroxysms over the juggllngs of high finance and has received a prescription written out In plain English which every one can understand.- Here it is right from the doctor’s eagerly awaited address at Provincetown: “Once for all, let me say that as far as I am concerned, and for the eighteen months of my administration that remain, there will be no change In the policy we have steadily pursued, noi let-up in the effort to secure the honest observance of the law, for I regnrd this contest as one to determine who shall rule this government —the people through their governmental agents, or a few ruthless and determined men whose wealth makes them particularly formidable because they hre behind the breastworks <?f corporate organization.” Individual patients have found the medicine a trifle bitter, but now that It is put beyond all manner of doubt that there Is to be no change In treatment there should be an end to peevish and futile tricks. The alarmists have played their little game and lost. As for Wall street collectively, It has one big certainty to tie to amid Its many uncertainties. It knows exactly what the government will do nnd may make its plans accordingly. Meantime, business will continue to flourish as It has right along while lamentations filled the alr.-J-Chleago Record-Herald. In a discussion In the House of Par’ liament relative to tbe danger of cordite, Mr. tlaldnne said that be had a walking stick made of this explosive, which he had often carried into the cloakroom of Parliament.