Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-10-22
THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR
MEMBER OF CONGRESS.

THE IMPORTANCE Or OOh
MEMBER OF CONGRESS. i
When Ex-Secretary Stuart took the OPP
portunity last week Of saying word to
the people Of Augusta about the impor-
lance of having Democratic member OF
Congress, he did good work. II is Of the
first and last Importance to the farmers OF
Augusta that they should have q man Ill
Congress with very certain opinions and
very certain affiliations The platforn ut
the Democratic party means more mohey LII
the pocket Of every farmer in the land
The tariff question is not so complicated
that an elementary statement OF 1t may
not be clear and concise. The proposition
OF the Republican party to the people out
side OF the cities is simply this; that If
there are twenty thousand farmers in
county, and on the land OF one Of them i,
discovered iron, then the whole twenty
thousand shall stop buying everything
made of iron, abroad, and buy it from this
one man at any price ne may fix The
one man gets rich and tie twenty thous-
and continue to sweat behind their plows
To tile workingm, Of the cities the SAME
party makes the same proposition in an
other form. 1t chOkes off competition
with The capitalist and let's it in in foods
against the workingman. A capitalist
starts an iron furnace, and the Republic
can theory at once bars off any COMPETE
tion with his iron by putting protective
tariff Of $2s revenue duty on any IRON inns
ported from abroad. This much for the
capitalist. But in the matter of labor it
does nothing. A laborer at any trade
can land here ''free of duty" and compete
at once with the American laborer; the
"pauper labor'' of Europe is not only put
on the same footing with the labor Of the
free American. but Is brought to his door
to compete with him. The Republican
high protective tariff protects the rich,
but gives the poor man every competitor
facts for both the man behind the pillow
aud the man at the anvil to consider. Let
US help him in considering them. Take a
few instances. The duty on calico and
other cottons is over fifty per cent, and
the result is that every yard Of it that a
poor man buys costs him ten cents when
it should only cost him five. The duty on
salt, which every man has at his table, j.
over fifty per cent; on q spool OF cotton
over seventy five per cent; on lead pen
oiJ ON 40 al r11n
five per cent; on steel rails ono hundred
and four per cent-and so on up to twenty
seven necessaries of our daily life the duty
runs from fifty to one hundred per cent.
There is no protection for farmer; his
industry islands alone" as the d0etrin-
aires say, for by hard work he has made it
stand alone. There is no protection for
the muscle Of the nottingham, on the con:
trary the government invites the muscle
of every other nation to come in duty free
and compete with him. The laborer pays
double for his blankets, and the profit goes
to the man who owns the mill, and yet the
workingman is cajoled with the idea that
he shares in the benefit of this high pro-
tective tariff. A pair Of the best foreign
blankets landed at New York are worth
just SO, freight and all included. The
workingman wants them but when he gets
them he has to pay S., because of the duty
| the government puts on them. And even
then the government does not get the 81.
| The tariff drives all foreign blankets out
but leaves the price there, and the people
pay the % difference not to the govern
ment for its support but to the American
manufacturer for his profit. .'''- ="
Is this profit divided with the laborsIs
employed? Let us see how that is mar
aged. Take iron for instance. When the
market is too full, to keep the prices up to
the required standard the great iron naan-
ufacturers combine and pay some Of their
number to close their works and reduce
the production. thus discharging hundreds
of workmen and leaving them without
employment in order that the pockets OF
the owners may be filled. ii 1Q a. as ~
The whole system of protective tariff Is
an unhealthy oppression. Its lack of health
is shown from the fact that whenever a
financial stress comes the protected inter
ests are the first to go under. Look at
iron in 1878. at silk, at every industry on
which there was protective tariff.
The plea that this protective tariff Is a
temporary measure only intended to build
up our manufacturers is out Of date
Nearly one hundred years ago that was the
excuse. In 1889 Pennsylvania congress
men said the iron and steel works Of that
State were nearly on safe footing and
only asked "a little enco uragement' for a
short time. They then only asked for "A
per cent. duty on iron, but now, nearly one
hundred years later they are still petition
ers and have raised their demand from "a
per cent. to one hundred per cent. '
The question is simple one that the
American people have to answer. 1t is
whether few people shall be rich at the
expense of all, or whether the field shall
be thrown open to every man. rich and poor
And many farmer behind his pillow and
workingman in his shop is waiting to have
this question answered. ul =tAN e
THE STRONG TICKET. f's
1t has been the honest feeling among
many Democratic Readjusters in Augusta
that when the time came they would vote
the Hancock ticket that was strongest and
which could carry the State. The time
has come. The faithful allies" have sud-
denly determined to vote solidly for Gar
field and Cen Mahc.na WIN ypaa snnnoaad