Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-08-09

perous,u and that the masses are taxed
| hy this policy for the advantage of q
class. It is notorious that protected
/ manufacturers themselves admit the
/ truth of all this when they are talking
/ not for publication and il is equally
notorious that the hope OF Republican
success in the pending campaign Is
based upon the theory that the manu-
| facturers can frighten and force their
employees into voting more fiat" To
the employers. The yellof Free trade!"
and the threat of loss OF employment
are the weapons upon which most re-
lance is placed.
| But there is another class of the
| American people who are left out of
| the account i'm these calculatiOns-the
| farmers. The census of 1880 showed
that the enti number of manufacture
ing establishments in the United States
was but 253, ,S52; and it is remarkable
fact that, although the population had
increased during the previous decade
nearly one-third, the number of manu-
featuring establishments had increased
only l,704, owing to the tendency to-
wards the concentration of such indus
tries in the hands OF few men. who
make large fortunes every year, On
the other hand, the number of per-
sons engaged in agriculture was 7,670,-
493. In many states more than half
/ the whole number engaged in all oc-
cupations were emplyed in farming,
1.-THE percentage being 81 per cent. in
Minnesota, So per cent. in Indiana, 81
per cent. in Iowa, and 60 per cent. in
Nebraska.
The farmers have been doing good
deal Of thinking the past few months.
President Cleveland made his message
last December SO short that the coun-
try papers could print it, and their SUBJ
scrihers could thus read the whole fit.
It seems to have affected great many
of them as it did the Republican farm
er in Marion County, Ind, who Gays:
II have read very carefully the mes
sage of Mr.. Cleveland that my Repuh-
lican friends are making such an 'ado'
about, and cannot for the life of me
find anything wrong about it," and the
Ill.,, who says: 81 read Cieveland,s
message last winter; it struck me fav-
orabIy; I've been thinking 1t over ever
SINCE"
| For years past these farmers have
been seeking reduction In the tariff
upon the necessaries oflife. They want
the tax upon lumber removed, o tax
of which Mr.. Blaine once said in Con-
gress, when protesting against the very
idea Of such a levy: "As to the article
of lumber, again remind the House
! that there has never been q tax upon
this article. The gentleman from Ohio
may talk of this question as he pleases;
but say that wherever the Western
frontiersman undertakes to make for
himself a home, to till the soil, to carry
on the business of life, he needs lumber
for his cabin, he needs lumber for his
| fence, he needs lumber for his wagon
1 or cart, he ne ds lumber for his plough,
he needs lumber for almost every pur-
pose in his daily lfe." The farmers
want the tax upon salt removed, agree
ing with the view once expressed by
Senator Hale of Maine in Congress,
when he said: 81 believe there is no
one question about which the reflection
decided as 1t is in declaring that there
should be no tax upon this article Of
salt. I believe this article should 90
upon the free list; that the monopoly
which has obtained heretofore for the
Onondoga Salt Works-as great and
complete as any monopoly ever grant.
ed by the Tudors in Eneland's most
despotic times-ought to cease.n
At the came time these farmers ac-
cept the doctrine, which the Republi.
can used TO teach so strongly, the hurt
| full luxuries like whIskey are the things
which ought to be most heavily taxed.
They agree with the Senator Edmunds
| of twenty years ago. who then said
that "the principle of taxation has been
and always must be that luxuries OF
this description ought to bear the high
est possible rate of taxation." They
are of the same mind with the Senator
Hawley of six years ago, who then
said: ''Whiskey and tobacco are the
Legitimate plunder of the tax-collector,
the legitimate plunder. of the exchequer
in every government of the world.
They all get large part OF their rev.
measurably and insufferably foolish If
we abolish those taxes"
What does the Republican party In
1883 offer this class of voters? "Rath-
err" it says, "than the surrender of any
part of our protective system"-in 9TH
er words, ther than the surrender of
the unjust tax upon lumber or salt
1--WE favor the entire repeal of internal
taxes" in other words, the freeing Of
whiskey from tax and the reduction of
its price to the cheap rates which ruled
farmers were going to swallow such
doctrine as this on the ground that
any thing else meant "free trade,n was
to set them down for pack Of fools.
| The managers who thus ..insulted their
intelligence" are finding out that they
made a mistake. The brief interviews
with dozens of Republican farmers in
| Indiana and Illinois, which the Even-
ing Post has published during the past
week, furnish evidence of revolt
among the agricultural population
which will give the Republican man.
ayers in more that one Western State,
commonly rated as surely Republican,
enough to keep them busy during the
| campaign.-N. Y. Post.