The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965, August 20, 1896, Image 6
I GOOD TIMES COMING. •'§" * i" ' > feCLI PBRKINS TELUS WHEN THEY * " WILL BE RESTORED. ’ 4(.t;« t _ IfiSplilM th« Effect of Tariff Change* Upon the Treneerr—A Prophet Not Without Honor In file Own Countrj— Bu e Dig at Cleveland. The wisest men of the republican party worked for weeks on their St. Louis platform. It is a political Gibral tar. It Is fortified by right and backed up by experience taught by the disas trous failures of the democrats. The platform is sound on reciprocity, pro tective tariff, pensions, money and the tfonroe doctrine. . What will the democrats do? Why, they will fight against this plat form, for they will fight against sound mbney, reciprocity and protective tar iff. The World has commenced its as sault, ft says that Cleveland got $30, OOd.OOO more revenue his first year than Harrison did during his last year. Of cotirse Cleveland did; but to get this revenue, having a tariff 30 per cent tcwer than Harrison, he had to ship 30 per cent more goods from Europe than Harrison did. When Cleveland ship ped 3p per cent more goods from Eu rope; we manufactured 30 per cent less goods in America. This kept 30 per cent of our labor Idle, dropped wages 30 per cent, and closed down 30 per cent of our mills, and 30 per cent more of ourj$old went to Europe to pay for goo&that went there under Harrison. llrytn Against BmI Sugar* In the house of representatives, on Saturday, January 13, 1894, Hon. Wil liam J. Bryan, of Nebraska*, said: "There is no reason for a bounty on sugar which will not apply to any other agricultural product. If the bounty paid went to the farmer directly, in stead of the manufacturer, he has as much right to ask for a bounty .on wheat, oats, or cattle, as upon sugar, beets, or cane; but so much of the bounty as goes to Nebraska finds Us way, not to the farmers, but to two factories. If the people of Nebraska pay their share of federal taxation, the government collects for the bounty from all the people of Nebraska about $150,000, and pays over to two corpora tions $76,000. It is thus seen that the state of Nebraska pays out twice as much as it receives, and that, while everybody pays, only the two factories receive. I have yet to learn the duty of a representative if 1 am under any obligation to plead for two sugar fac tories because they receive large sums and disregard the rights of more than a million people because they pay in email amounts. If I demand bounties for beet sugar in my state, I cannot op pose bounties and subsidies tor lndus | tries in other states, and thus, to secure a special advantage for two factories In Nebraska, I must subject the people | of that state to a burdensome tax upon everything. “I dissent, too, from the position taken by some, that we are compelled by a moral obligation to allow the bounty to remain for the period named j in the present law. Such a position is wholly untenable. If the Fifty-first congress could pledge the revenues for the government for fifteen years, it could just as well pledge them for fifty or a hundred years, and surely no one will say that one congress can thus give a perpetual bounty and impose obligations on subsequent legislatures. The present law provided when the bounty should terminate, but it could not guarantee its continuance until that time. If congress cannot properly give a bounty directly to the sugar in dustry, neither can it properly impose a tax upon sugar for the avowed pur DRIVE HIM OUT. From a dollar country we become a w-cent country. Then why did Harrison's revenue fall oS the lest year? It was because importers stopped im porting. They said: "We will wait for Cleveland’s low tariff." When Cleveland’s low tariff came, then our mills began to cut wages and stop. Steamships were loaded with foreign 'goods, and Cleveland did get a bigger revenue than Harrison, but It woe at the expense of our home manufacturers. The result was bad times at home and $160,000,000 In gold l^s gone out to pay tor this over-importation, while our own labor bas been idle. Democratic experience backs up republican theory. Still the democrats jump up and shriek^ "Cleveland with free trade shipped more goods his first year than Harrison dttiili last year.” Of' course he did; and the more Cleveland bought In Bngl.yd the poorer we got at home. * Now, to discern the short-sighted ar guments which the free-traders are be ginning to resort to, I will give tho ,W>roscope of the future: s*. The laet year of Cleveland will be hjnat the opposite of the last year of Tlarrieon. A good tariff prevented big ^milbrtations then, but Cleveland's low .dgriff will cause big Importations dur ing the last find of his term. Mer chants will load up with low-priced pauper-made English goods. < »fi#d when McKinley comes In. What <ifcen? to''Why, for the first six months of Mc Kinley Importation will bo email. The .'laerchante will have on hand loads of goods. McKinley will not get jj.the old time revenue. Then the free « Anders will Jump up and say: “We t$ld yon so!” .When will the good times commence 1 They will commence when the Me ^Kinley tariff begins to operate. When people begin to use American goods ,‘Jjwhen our mills start up. When out •^workmen all go to work, and the gold Which has been going to Europe to pay iafrolr cheap labor will be kept at home ~ pay our labor. Then the good old will be back again. When the ►pie sep tlata prophecy—eee our gold —- lag' at 'home, see the balance ol krade In our favor, they will hold or to the protection policy for thirty as they did before. BU PERKINS. poee of protecting the sugar industry. “IT IS AS EASY TO JUSTIFY A BOUNTY AS A PROTECTIVE TAR IFF, AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO JUSTIFY EITHER." "When I was called upon to choose between a tax upon sugar which would raise the price of it to every consumer, and a bounty reduced gradually, i chose the latter. I preferred to let the bounty fall by degrees, and raise the needed revenue in a way that, in stead of taxing the poor man as much ns the rich man on the same number oi pounds of sugar, would make wealth bear its share of the expenses of gov ernment. In other words, I would rather give free sugar to the people and make up the deficit by an income tax.” The Bwl National Policy. If protection, as a broad national policy, la not sound in principle and wholesome in practice, then it ought to be abandoned, provided something bet ter is offered in its place. The real in terest which the people of New Eng land, as well aa the people of other sections, have in thla question la not narrow or sectional merely, but general and national. If any other system will better promote industrial growth, con serve national ends, reward individual effort and the Just aspirations of the people, then it should be adopted, and adopted at once. In the discussion of this question it is assumed, either through ignorance or willful intention, that the revenues secured from our tariff are wholly unnecessary, and in dulged lia largely, if not solely, for the purpose of enriching the manufacturer, forgetting or ignoring the fact that a government oannot be administered without taxation and income, and that it is a part of the citisen’s duty to con tribute each his share for the support of the government which gives protec tion to his property and person, and security to his enterprises and invest ments.—William McKinley. London endorses Protection, Mr. McKinley’s protective policy will, of course, check the efflux of gold, as no doubt it will cause a falling off in the imports of British and European goods, and there will, consequently, be lesa gold required to pay for them.— The Financial Post, London, June 22, 18M. < e •*' V'V 1 -* gf - ■? JUSTICE BIGELOW’S VIEWS. Rmda'i Great Jurist Bays Bras Cola ar* Will Injure Silver Miners. Chief Justice R. R. Bigelow of the supreme court of Nevada had a letter In a recent Issue of the Reno (Ner.) Gazette which states some of the ef fects of 16 to 1 free coinage very clear ly. Here Is a part of his letter: It is not to be denied that the Re publicans of this state are hard hit by the action of the St. Louis convention upon the monetary question. The free coinage of silver Is believed to be so much to the advantage of Nevada as a silver producer, and we have for so many years heard nothing but free coinage ‘‘at 16 to 1” arguments, that we have almost come to the conclusion that no one can think otherwise who is not a scoundrel bought with British gold. But there Is another side to the question that Is believed In sincerely by millions of as pure patriots as any who believe In free coinage of silver. Any man who says that this country can alone double the value of all the silver of the world and bring It and gold to par is either ignorant of the lessons of the past or he willfully shuts his eyes to them. If the free sllver ltes carry the election this fall on their id 10 i piauorm, it win not only par alyze business—It will utterly destroy It. There will be scarcely a bank or business house in the land that will not go down before the storm. It will send gold to almost 100 per cent premium, and, as measured with Sliver, every thing else will go up In value wljli it, but as It will take twice as many dollars as now to buy the same ar ticle It will be of no earthly advantage to any one except to the man who owes debts that he has not promised to pay In gold. His silver dollars will pay such a debt just as during the war greenbacks would pay one, although .worth but 33 cents on the dollar, but they will only buy half as much flour or clothing or groceries as now. But if he owes money to banks or money lenders—and who does not.?— who have all protected/ themselves by gold contracts, he will have to take two of hie silver dollars to buy one In gold, and at the same time, owing to tl^e general stagnation In business, they will be harder to get hold of than gold dollars are now. It will be of no ad vantage to the silver states, because their silver will be Just as hard to get from the ground as now, and a pound of It will buy no more steel or pow der or any of the necessaries of life than now. But the laboring man will be the one who will suffer the most. The Comstock miner will still get $4 per day, the laborer 32 and the clerk 360 to 375 per month, but it will»bo In sil ver, and, as it is now In Mexico, It will only buy for his family or himself one half what It Will to-day. The same will be the case with the crippled veterans, their widows and orphans, who arc now getting pensions. Its effect will be to scale their pensions. Its. effect will be to scale their pensions down one-half. There is not one of the arguments of the sllverites that cannot be complete ly and successfully refuted. Free coin age at 16 to 1 by this country alone cannot poesibly benefit any one, but it can bring fearful distress upon all. A tmton for Farmers. Bryan foi Onlrcraal Fm-Tradk “When Michigan iron ore is placed on the free list, Alabama ore is placed there also; when Pennsylvania coal is placed on the free list, West Virginia coal is placed there also; when the rough lumber of Maine and Wisconsin is placed upon the free list, the rough lumber of North Carolina and Georgia Is placed there also.”—Hon. Wm. J. Bryan in Congress. \ Bryan ^n Fran Raw Material. “When the tax on raw material is not fully compensated for. in the tar on the finished product; In such cast the manufacturer is ixa a worse condi tion than he would be with absolutt free trade.”—Hon, Wm. J. Bryan ix Congress. VICTIMS OF CHEAP MONEY. tUmUy'i Description of Tboao Who goffered bj Clipped Colne. Free coinage at 16 to 1 Is equivalent to clipping from 45 to 50 cents from the present dollar. It would give us a debased dollar of varying value. The world has had experience with clipped coins. Poorly minted coins during Queen Elizabeth’s time made It easy to clip them. Coin clipping was car ried on extensively during the rest of the 16th and during all of the seventeenth century. By 1695, Macau lay tells us, "it could hardly be said that the country possessed, for prac tical purpose*^ any measure of the value of commodities.” Speaking of the effects upon the people at large of this debased coin of uncertain value, this great historian says that "It may well be doubted whether all the misery which had been inflicted on the English -nation in a quarter of a century by bad kings, bad ministers, bad parliaments and bad Judges was equal to the misery caused In a couple of years by bad crowns and bad shillnlgs.” He describes the work ings and effects In the following lan guage: But when the great Instrument of ex change became thoroughly deranged, all trade, all Industry, were smitten as ■ with a palsy. The evil was felt dally and hourly In almost every place and '■ by almost every class, In the dairy and on the thrashing floor, by the anvil and by the loom, on the billows of the ocean and in the depths of the mine. Nothing could be purchased without a dispute. Over every counter there was wrangling from morning to night. The workman and his employer had a quarrel as regularly as the Saturday came round. On a fair day or a mar ket day the clamors, the reproaches, the taunts, the curses, were incessant, and it was well if no booth was over turned and no head broken. No mer chant would contract to deliver goods wltflout making some stipulation about the quality of the coin in which he was to be paid. Even men of business were often bewildered by the confu sion into which all pecuniary transac tions were thrown. The simple and the careless were pillaged without mercy by extortioners, whose demands grew even more rapidly than the money shrank. The price of the necessaries of life, of shoes, of ale, of oatmeal, rose fast. The laborer found that the bit of metal which, when he received It, waa called a shilling would hardly, when he wanted to purchase a pot of beer or a loaf of rye bread, go as far as six pence. Where artisans of more than usual intelligence were collected in great numbers, as in the dockyards at Chatham, they were able to make their complaints heard and to obtain some redress. But the ignorant and helpless peasant was cruelly ground between one class which would give money only by tale and another which would take it only by weight.—“Macaulay’s His tory of England.’’- , Where Oar Trade Interests Are. In declaring for the free coinage of silver independently of all other coun tries the Chicago convention in effect declared for a different and lower money standard than that used by the great commercial nations with which we trade. Trade and commerce follow the lines of least monetary resistance, and out of total merchandise imports and exports last year of $1,539,508,130 only $163,893,827 was from single sil ver standard countries—less than 11 per cent. Even in our South American trade, about which so much has been said, out of a total of $145,693,055 only 6\>er cent, $8,991,853, was with sliver standard countries, while 72 per cent, $105,217, 864, was with single gold standard countries, and $31,483,338 was with bi metallic countries. Practically speaking, all ' bimetallic countries are on a gold basis, ‘their legal tender silver being exchangeable for gold, but the bimetallic trade is email. Let Europe serve as the exam ple. While much less than half of Its population has the single gold stand ard, the following tabl.e shows our trade: _ Single Gold. England ..*546,208,701 Germany.. 173.067,818 Austria .. 8,636,091 Portugal.. 4,682,064 Sweden A Norway. 7,188,928 Denmark.. 3,800,153 Turkey ... 2,139.435 Roumanla. 19,330 Bimetallic. France ...*106,729,646 Nether landa ... 46,194.366 Italy . 37.214,886 Belgium... 35,384,063 Switzerl’d. 15,006,532 Spain . 14,501.195 Greece .... 479.745 All other. 812,316 Total ...6745,717,520 Total ...6256,322,741 Russia, single silver standard. *9,533,244. To classify by standards, the total foreign commerce of the United States will surprise many. Gold. Europe .*745,717,520 S. America. 105.217.SS4 N. America. . West Indies 17,541,622 Asia . Africa . 9,836.424 Oceanlca ... 13,634,096 Bimetallic. *256.322,741 31.483.333 92,630.723 82,882,360 1,269,844 16,926,061 Silver. *9,533,244 8.991.S53 48,851,824 584.742 94,951.421 980.743 Totals ...*891,947.526 *481.515,072 *163,893,827 Unclassified, *2,151,705. Our trade and commerce are not only on "a gold baeiB,” but are on “a single gold standard.” To adopt silver mono metallism, which independent free coinage would surely produce here as It has everywhere else, would be to permit Europe to fix the price of our surplus products on a gold basis, while it could pay us in our own legal ten der silver dollars coined freely out of 53 cents worth of bullion. Is this busl* ness? Silver Question Brought Home. Mr. Retail Salesman! Your salary is, we will say, *15 per week; you pay *4 for board; a suit of clothes costs you $12; underwear 50 cents per garment, and so on. How would you like it if you still got the same $15 and had to pay nearly $$ for board, nearly $24 for & suit, nearly $1 per garment for un Iderwear, and so on? That’s what free silver would mean to you, for some time, at least.—Dry Goods Economist. OFF ITS TROLLEY. V. * . A "BaTtnl” In Trmle. The latest record of trade failures In the United States covers the half year to July 1 last. Bearing In mind that the annual report of the chamber of commerce of New York said that a “revival of trade continued throughout the balance of the year” 1895, after the floating of the national loan in Feb ruary; also bearing in mind the ac knowledgments of the free-trade, daily and commercial papers that the stag nation in business during the closing months of 1895 would give place to a great "revival” in trade with the dawn of 1896, the statistics of trade failures for the first half of this year are more than ordinarily interesting. We give them, as taken from Bradstreet's, for each half-year from 1890 to 1896, in clusive: TRADE FAILURES. First half of Number. Liabilities. 1890 . 6,466 162,867,962 1891 . 6,037 92,370,282 1892 . 6,351 66,535,521 1893 . 6.2J9 170,860,222 1894 . 6,528 82,555,339 1895 . 6,597 79,707,861 1896 . 7,602 105,535,936 A further interesting comparison can be made between the years 1890-92, un der a republican administration, and 1894-96, under the present democratic administration. Thus: TOTAL TRADE FAILURES. First half of— Number. Liabilities. 1894-96-96. 20,727 2267,799,136 1890-91-92. 16,854 211,773,765 Democratic in crease. 3,873 256,025,371 Under this democratic administra tion there have been 3,873 more trade failures, with $56, 025,371 more of lia bilities, than occurred during the cor responding half years of a republican administration. The monthly averages compare as follows: MONTHLY AVERAGE TRADE FAIL URES. First half of— Number. Liabilities. 1894-96-96. 3,454 244,633,189 1890-91-92...- 2,809 35,295,627 Democratic Monthly Inc. 645 29.337,562 It Will be remembered that the plat form of the Democratic party, In 1892, said: “We denounce a policy (protec tion) which fosters no industry so much as it does that of the sheriff." With the subsequent records of trade failures before us it is easy to under stand why this democratic denuncia tion was omitted in the platform of 1896. Railroad Wrmkna The effect of the democratic adminis tration and Its hard times tariff legis lation is shown in the increase of fore closures of railroads. These have been unexpectedly large since 1893, but the record for the first half of 1896 exceeds that of ’95. This year there were twen ty-five lines foreclosed in six months, representing 3,402 miles of road and $349,049,000 of bonds and stocks. Dur ing the first half of 1895 there were twenty roads foreclosed, representing 2,936 miles of road and $100,941,000 of bonds and stocks. This latest demo cratic addition to adversity should leave no doubt in the minds of any raiiroad men that a policy of Amer ican protection means prosperity for railroads. Even President Roberts, of the Pennsylvania road, which has sus pended many contemplated improve ments owing to the hard times, ought by this time to acknowledge the root of the evil that Is affecting bis com pany. Sound Beni* on Small Scat* The smallest paper in the United States is the BernardsviUe, N. C. Times, published every Monday morning. Its pagee are only six by eight inchea, but, small as they are, they contain such sound sense as the following: Give us sound protection, sound Americanism, sound patriotism, and place sound sense at the helm, and the “Old United States” will glide merrily on and continue to be the home of free men, the refuge of liberty and the abiding place of freedom. Bryan for Fraa Iron Ora. "I believe we can make no perma nent progress in the direction of tariff reform until we free from taxation the | raw materials which lie at the founda ; tion of our industries; and I believe in free Iron ore, whether we leave the tariff at 35, 25, or 5 per cent upon car i pete.”—Hon. Wm. J. Bryan in Congress. Hard Times and Free Silver. The Clarksville (Tenn.) Leaf-Chrdh Icle has the following: “There Is not a first-class commercial country on earth now that has free coinage. “There Is not a free silver country on earth that has as much as $5 per cap ita In circulation—all kinds of money. “There Is in circulation in the United States $24 per capita, or $19.50 more per capita than any free silver country on earth. “We have more in circulation to-day than ever before and more per capita than any free silver country on earth. "Our dollar will buy more sugar, coffee, flour, meal, meat, medicine, hardware and clothing than In 1873. “A barrel of corn, a bushel of wheat or 100 pounds of tobacco will buy near ly double as much of the articles that farmers consume as the same kind of corn, wheat or tobacco would buy in 1873. “The wages of the laboring man will buy double as much of the necessaries of life now as in 1873, and his wages .have not been reduced one-fourth as much as the purchasing power of his money has been increased.” All of the above propositions we as sert without the fear of intelligent con tradiction. Then, If It be a fact that no free silver country on earth has as much as $5 per capita; and if it be a fact we have about $24 per capita; and if It be a fact that we have more sli ver in circulation per capita than any free silver country in the world; and if it be a fact that the purchasing power of our dollar is now about double what it was in 1873, and that the products or the farm will purchase more necessa ries of life than in 1873, our free sil ver friends will have to hunt farthef, for the hard times complained of. They/ can’t charge it to a reduced circula tion, or to higher prices.—Galveston News. Power of e Preetdest. As I said before, without any parti san feeling whatever, looking at this as a plain business proposition, I want the government, under all conditions and circumstances, and our president, whoever he may be, to have the power during,every moment of this govern ment’s existence to borrow money by selling bonds whenever for any reason it occurs that there is no money in the treasury. Why deny that power to the government? I know the constitution says congress shall have power to bor row money, but this does not prevent congress from conferring power on the president to sell a 3 per cent five-year bond to realize money to pay the debts of the government when for any rea son the money in the treasury is ex hausted. This is a wholesome- power to prevent national dishonor and na tional bankruptcy, and this is the power for which I contend—Hon. Stephen B. Elkins, U. S. ST. of Wpst Virginia. A Poor Argument for Free Slleen. The free coinage agitator* ask the people to vote for the 16 to 1 scheme, on the ground that the bankers, manu facturers and merchants are all In fa vor of a sound' currency. ‘‘If the bank ing and business interests are opposed to free silver,”' say the cheap dollar ad vocates. “the- farmers and: workers should support It. There must be something good for the poor In this free coinage scheme fast because the rich people do not want It.” <)l all unreasonable and demagogic ■iloas for 50 cent dollars this is the worst. An exactly similar argument would be a demand on the part of the millions who do not own homes or buildings of any kind that all houses should be burned down because it would hurt property owners. There la no doubt but that every man in Amer ica who owns a building would say, if asked, that he is opposed to having hia property destroyed. But that would be no reason why the people who have no homes should favor arson. The attempt to create a prejudice is favor of debt repudiation because busi ness men and bankers believe in hon esty can never succeed with fair mind ed, honorable citizens. They will de cide the silver question on its merits and will not be led astray by appeals to one class to vote for cheap and trashy money merely because it is favored by another class. A Knndrm millions Lost*' The "TarifT for revenue only" of the' free-traders brought $102,275,791 less money into the treasury during the first twenty-two months of its opera tion than the McKinley tariff did dur* ing its first .twenty-two months.