Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-08-03
TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND TitL-
KERS, AND WHEAT AT IS
CENTS 4 BUSHEL.

TWO HUNDRED IHOUOANDO o. III
KERS, AND WHEAT ATS
CENTS A BUSHEL.
The tariff under which the country is
working to-day, is high tariff; it is, with
the fewest notifications, a War tariff. 1t
has been in operation for over twenty
years. Who has it benefited in that time?
This is fair question. A tax of any
kind should be matter of necessity and
for the benefit of the people who pay it.
Twenty years is long enough to find out
whether a certain rate of taxation is ben
eficial. Who has this tax benefited in that
time
Is it the workingman of this country?
The third annual report of the U. 5.
Commissioner of Labor shows that in
%, 1886 establishments in this country there
were, during the six years ending in 1885,
labor strikes. Of these 1882 were order
ed by labor organizations. During the
same six years there were 2,182 labor
lockouts, of which 1883 were ordered by
combinations of managers. Of the strikes,
"a per cent. and of the lockouts 80 per
cent. were in the States of Massachusetts,
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Hi
nois, for whose manufactures chiefly this
tariff was made. at this day-two years
later than this report, there are labor
strikes, involving zoe, 900 men out of work
on question of reduction of wages.
Do not these figures show that if the
war tariff was formed to protect American
labor and give the American laborer
employment. good wages and comfort, it
is failure? If these facts do not show it
then nothing can. And if these facts do
show it, how much longer is the working
man of America to look to this tariff for
help? How much longer is he to listen to
the false appeals to his fears that any 9TH
or tariff will put him at the mercy of the
s'pauper labor" of Europe. The Republi
can party asks of him to still cling to this
tariff with all its strikes and lockouts,
with all its hardship Of being out of en-
ployment. Will he do it? 1t would be
strange if he did. The Democratic party
presents him another and lower tariff to
try. It tells him, what he already knows,
that the High tariff while giving him dear
or clothes, and hats and shoes, has not
given him better wages with which to pay
for them. Will he accept the offer? 1t
would be strange if he did not
Has it improved the condition of the
farmer
1t has been said by the Republican party
that it's High tariff gives the farmer a
home market with high prices and ready
sale, and that under its working the far
mer soon becomes the Independent owner
of his land. Has it done it? Twenty
years ought to be long enough time to
show.
Let us see what it has done in twenty
years with the fat and fertile lands of the
West. Let us give it it's best chance, and
passing by the ''worn out' lands Of the
East. as they are wrongfully called, take
it on it's best ground where the great crops
of the Union are made. The records of ten
Western States show that on January 1st,
1888, in ten of the chief agricultural States
in the Union, the mortgages on farms
aggregated over Twelve Hundred Million
dollars with a yearly interest of s90,0OO,-
900. Here they are:
Ohio ...... %. 1855, ooo, 900
Indiana. ......................... 175, 1000, 600
Illinois ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 100000, 900
Michigan................ 1875, oOO 900
Wisconsin ......................... 100, ooO, 600
Minnesota .........................". 100000
.............................. 100, 900, 900
Nebraska.................. 25,oOO,OO
Kansas. ............................. $4,000, 900
Missouri. ........... .......... loo, 1000, 600