Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-07-24
Raw Materials.

Free raw materials" is the latest Dem
ocratic notion. Mr. Hewitt has beer
urging it for some time; Mr.. Morrison
started with it, in forming his ill-fateG
bill; General Butler thinks it will please
Massachusetts. To the Chicago Conven
ton, panic-stricken because it found
that the tariff could not be entirely
lodged, it offered chance of evasion
1t is generally safe to say that when &
demagogue can evade any rugged issue
he will.
but the unhappy fish, escaping from
the frying-pan into the fire, might teach
the Democrats a lesson. The heat of the
frying+pan they realized when General
Hancock was explaining his local issue.
The heat of the fire they will know more
about hereafter.
At first blush, it seems natural thai
manufacturers should want cheap mate
rials. Mr.. Hewltt's hope is that the de-
tenders of the protective system may be
divided, and thus beaten in detail. Some
manufacturers there are at the East, nc
doubt, who would like free wool, an6
free iron ore and iron in pigs, and stee
in ingots. Mr.. Hewitt, judging from TIE
bill he offered. would be personally
pleased to have free wire rods. If the
workingmen can be persuaded to vote
for the interest of their present employ
ers, without regard to the interests oil
other wOrkingmen elsewhere, the com
pact array of defenders of the tariff may
be broken. But does Mr.. Hewitt really
think that the workingmen and The
manufacturers do not understand this
business as we'll as he does? If he will
talk with the miners in Morris and Pas
sale counties, New Jersey, and Bucks
county, Pennsylvania, whose ore he uses
he will learn what they think OF fret
ore. A very brief conversation with any
furnace owner would suggest that there
might be difficulty about free pig iroA
| The Democratic party vii! come in coz
tact with difficulty about free wool, il
Ohio and West Virginia before snow
falls.
If the meditated division of force.
were practicable, Mr.. Hewitt would finC
that he had grasped the hot end of thu
poker. More men are engaged in grow
ing wool than are employed in manufac
turing it. There are $4,000 men at worl
in the iron mines, and $4,000 are smelt
ing iron. The whole number engaged il
all other branches of the iron business i,
less than 10000.
| But the wOrkiDgmen have long age
learned that any step which drives mel
out of employment or forces them t
take lower wages, in one branch of al
industry, quickly and surely affects th'
wages and the demand for labor in othe
branches. He who makes war en one
makes war on all. Nor are they slow t.
resent an attack, as Mr.. Hewitt shoult
have observed when General Hancocl
made few remarks four years ago.
| Years of experience have taught u
that the surest way to get cheap mate
rials in this country is not to depend Oh
foreigners for them. We get cheap WOO
to-day, because people have been induced
to grow vast quantity of it. We ge
cheaper iron ore, since the duty on Span
ish ores was raised, than we ever dit
before. Working people see these thing
if Democratic politicians do not. Th
attempt to ''straddle" the tariff question
will result as did the rash jump to MI
Linceln's steer, which got caught so tha
it could neither hook in front nor kicI
behind" Y. Tribune.