The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-04-04
ANOTHER RIP.
The Buzz Saw Singing Merrily Again.
Another Open Letter to Mr.. PeelIe From
Mr.. Fishback.
INDIANAPOLIS, March 30, 1883.

! INDIANAPOLIS, March 80, 1883.
Hon. Stanton J. Peelle:
Last week I addressed you letter, which
was published in the News, asking why you
voted for the tariff law enacted by the late
Congress, copy of which you had been
kind enough to send me under your frank.
lou do not seem to think the matter worth
your attention. So far as the public know
you have nothing to say by way of justifcs-
ton or apology for your vote. If you knew
what was in the bill when you voted to
make it law, you deliberately obeyed the
demands OF the lobbyists who asked you to
rob the people for the benefit of a small
class of men who amass fortunes by means
of laws passed in their interest. If you
plead ignorance, 1 beg of you, in behalf of
your constituents, who are responsible for
your reelection, TO set apart a small
portion of the vacation for the purpose
of acquiring information which will fit you
in some degree for the duties of legislator.
But you do not plead at all. You stand
mute. To assume that your vote was an
ignorant vote; that you did not willingly
approve of so crude measure, would be to
compliment the goodness of your heart at
the expense OF your intelligence. prefer
to look upon your conduct as having been
directed and controlled by
sHoRTsIGHTED PARTISAN CONSIDERATIONS.
You knew the bill was full of Injustice. but
you gave it your vote for the sake of party
harmony. You foolishly supposed that the
interests of the Republican party would be
subserved by the enactment of such a law.
Such, l hear, is the curb-stone apology you
are making for your vote, and, for lack of
more authoritative statement, must per
force accept it as the best explanation you
can give. Politicians, shortsighted as
they proverbially are, never made a
worse mistake. The Republican party
can not afford TO insult the intelligence of
the country, and when it admits that such
legislation is necessary to its success it con-
fesses that its defeat is essential to the vel
fare of the Nation. Patriotic men have
voted the Republican ticket for twenty-five
years, because upon questions touching the
very existence and honor of the Nation, the
Democrats were always in the wrong. The
questions now before the country are ques-
tions of finance, tariff, collecting and dis
bursting the revenues. Can the Republican
party put itself in the wrong on these CUES.
tons, and carry elections by proving that
Democrats were copperheads in 1862 1 re-
assert what / said to you in my previous
letter, that the tariff law, for which you
voted as party measure, was framed and
| nQoSpd IN tho intoroafo nf a Lola ~
monopolists, and in utter disregard of the
interests of the public.
TAKE THE SALT MONOPOLY, FOR INSTANCE.
The establishments in this country which
produce salt by evaporation by means of
artificial heat employ 4,2S9 persons. The
annual value OF the product is 81 S29 566
The amount of capital invested is So Dos. 74O
The wages paid to employees are 81, 260 O23,
or an average of 1926 IS to each laborer OF
less than one dollar a day, allowing 300
working days in a year. Meanwhile the
capitalists who own these works divids
81 562 507 profits, or 10 per cent, on their
capital. Yet you have imposed tax upon
the salt consumed by so 000, 600 people, 10
protect American labor from competition
with foreign pauper labor. You project
the monopolist by enabling him to make a
profit OF nearly 20 per cent. per annum, and
the mOnopolist protects his laborer by pay
| lIS II III 100 tAaOAA n OOlla1 q OuI vi
this he must pay back the capitalist the tax
, on the salt used in curing the measly pork
which he buys at his employers store to
feed his family. And yet the statesman
, from Michigan BAN boozled you into believ-
ing that the great Republican party would
be ruined unless the salt tax was retained
There was a crying demand that you should
I relieve banks and banking capital from
their taxes
AMOUNTING TO So, o00, 600
! or more, but the carpenters handsaw and
chisel, the schoolboy's slate and slate-pen
} cils the poor sewing woman's needles and
: salt must be taxed. By the way, did you
, notice the statement in yesterdays New:
} that 1.-The schOOl-slate manufacturers have
entered into a combination and advanced
! the price of their goods 20 per CENT? A
very prompt response to the provision in
your tariff law, which protects the makers
J of slate and slate-pencils by a tax of 20 pei
cent. will not annoy you with any more
, Egurss for the present, promising you, il
, the courtesy of these columns is allowed
+ me, to remind you of other provisions of the
law, which as fagrantly disregard the public
welfare as those to which l have called your
; attention.
One word more: 1 think 1 understand
what you mean when you say the interests
of the party demand such laws. Such laws
put money in the pockets of bankers and
manufacturers. Bankers and manufactur
ers will contribute of this money to the
campaign fund, and men like Dorsey will
come to Indiana again as they came in 1886
and disburse 100000 in the Denison House
parlors, to be used in buying votes, hiring
repeaters, bribing election officers to stuff
ballot boxes and falsify election returns.
You know that there are men high in Office
because they connived at such crimes, and
it is no secret that other men honored by
the party are so hOnored mainly because
they aided the escape OF arrested felons who
were hired to come from other States to vio-
late the election laws of Indiana. may be
over sanguine, but l hope to see the day
when honorable leaders of the Republican
party will regard such practices as disrepu-
table and will refuse to hold Office acquired
by such methods. w. p. FIsHBACK.