The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-08-09
WHAT rs sHODDY.
BY James Fleming.

What is free trade? What amount Of tax
alton constitutes protection?' The tax on
all dutiable goods entering the United
States is $47 10 for every hundred dollars
worth. The Mills bill as 1t passed the
house of representatives reduces the tax to
an average of $42.49. At this small reduc-
tion of not quite FIVE dollars on the hundred
our greedy ~monopolists are bowling free
trade and ruin. How long would farmers
submit ID, q r,cal tax Of S. on the 500, and
here we have q tax Of over eight times that
amount. What they want is not a protec-
tive tariff, but a tax SO high that We will
have to buy all we wan. from the trusts at
outrageous prices. China has had a pro-
hibitory tax for centuries, and the Chinese
live on rice, with rats and dogs occasionally
as o luxury. We raise 265, 600, 900 pounds
qfwool annually in the United States, and
It requires GOO, 000, 600 pounds to clothe our
people every year. The republican party
have got a duty now SO high, that it keeps
out nearly al the fuer grades Of wool, SO
that even cheap carpetwools have been made
into s'oths with shoddy. What is shoddy?
1t is old rags picked up in the street, made
into cloth with o little wool; becomes rags
again, and is again made into cloth, one
manufacturer stating, that he recognized the
Same piece coming back 10 him for the fifth
time to be again made into cloth. We admit
"a 1000, 900 worth Of wooden goods into this
country annually, upon which we pay an
average duty of 90 cents on every dollars
worth imported. If re would le. this fine
wool come into this country, untaxed, all
our manufacturers would 60 to work to
make that wool into cloth. 1t would require
more than one hundred thousand laborers in
the industry in this country. Wages would
50 up, giving the farmer more consumers for
his produce, and better and cheaper cloth
ing. The republicans want to put higher
duty on wool. That means more shoddy and
higher prices for our clothing. God in his
Infinite mercy and goodness to mankind, has
made sat for us. The ocean is filed with
it,, and away down in the earth is salt. The
republicans got gold Of it and put it into q
syndicate or trust, and put o tax on it, to
prevent the Canadians from running the
farmer with cheap salt. Chicago and St.
Paul have been kicking against the exac-
tions'of the %co-laborers; what Do they care?
they run the Grand Old Party of humbug-
gerry who tell us that high taxes are making
us rich, and that We are making money by
>paying $1,75 for a shirt that can be bousht
in England for one dollar. Our binding
twine costs us from 13 to Is cents per pound
and but for tariff and the trust, we could
have got it for 8 or 9 cents per pound. AT
our alliance picnic Mr.. Crosse stated that
when he went to purchase plows for the
alliance, that by combination the price Of
plows was raised FIVE dollars. The sugar
trust has advanced the price of sugar l2e
per pound, and Spreckles, the sugar king,
makes two million dollars by the operation.
The cotton farmers of the south complain
that the cotton trust has raised the price
of cotton basging required for the cotton
crop, and that they will be robbed at leastof
81 ,25O,O00 by the operation. The Knights
Of Labor ore fighting q cornerin coffee. How
long. how long is that to last. Farmers,
read the Dakota Ruralist; no farmer should
he w;thont IN. the editor is q noble republi-