The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-08-16
CHEAP GOODS.
No Truth in the Doctrine That High Tarif
Benefits the Workman.

The adjective cheap is used in tw,
senses. First, to denote the cost of tn,
thing to the purchaser. Second, to de
scribe the goods as of low grade o.
quality. In the first sense, it may apply
10 any commodity, as house, or q
horse, or even to gold itself. In the sec.
ond meaning, it is used in derogation o:
the goods, and carries with it something
of the odium implied in the phrase
''cheap and nasty"
The spendthrift party, who deride the
word frugality, take advantage of this
double meaning to play upon the good
faith OF their followers and bewildel
them with their fallacies. They excite
their fears that the country will be
''hooded with the cheap goods of Eu-
rope"
1t is gradually penetrating the average
mind of American voters that the robber
tariff does raise the prices of things he
has to buy, and that possibly the cost of
suit of good clothes would be reduced
from twenty-five to fifteen dollars if the
exorbitant tariff should be abated. He
learns from the Globe and other sensible
papers that articles of common use
would be cheaper under a lower rate of
duty. Then come the Ben -Levites and
sumo that the word is used in the second
sense, and that the same suit of clothes
by being sold at lower price has there
fore become of poorer quality and less
desirable and respectable. But the
quality has not changed. The cloth has
the same durability, the same beauty
and finish as before, 1t will shed the
rain or keep out the winter cold as well.
1t fits the form as fairly and is as comely
as when it cost twenty-five dollars.
Then, why is it no longer honorable to
buy it, and why should a man be
ashamed to wear il? Because, saws Mr..
Harrison, you will thereby reduce the
wages of the workmen that made it.
Then let tine good Ben-Levite who be-
heves that, hand the extra ten dollars to
the clothier who sells him the suit. and
request him to hand it to the jobber, and
him to hand it to the wholesaler. and
him to pass it on to the manufacturer.
who is to give it to his operatives as ex-
ira pay. Should he hesitate to trust it
to go through SO many hands before
reaching the object of his sympathy
when he gives definite sum for def
mite purpose. how would he feel about il
were the share of the workmen an in
definite amount left to the discretion of
the Intermediates?
But, is that not Just what the Ben
Levite urges us to do-pay an extra
price into the hands of the retailer in
order that, througl a dozen hands, it
may reach the workmen a thousand
miles away?
And does not Mr.. Harrison know that
under the present tariff-which is high
enough to make all workmen rich if
there were any truth in the doctrine
that protection benefits the wage worker
the sewing women of New York and
Chicago are forced down step by step by
the manufacturers of clothing, until
from the last step of starvation wages
they plunge into the gulf of shame and
deathr Has he not read Helen Camp
bells Prisoners of Poverty" and
learned that the wages of suit-makers
can not go lower than they now are,
under protective duty ON clothing of
over 6O per cent?
No, that ten dollars saved on the suit
will not be taken from the wage-earners,
but it will be taken from the profits of
the monopolists who have formed the
corners, trusts. and combines, and
pooled their gainings for the sake of
con trolling the markets. Let no man
fear, then, to buy and wear cheap cloth
ing, as he will be neither less honorable
nor honest, and will rob only those who
have so long robbed him of their unjust
gains.
The farmers of America are asked to
believe that the more taxes they pay the
better they are off. This is the literal
meaning of the platform and argument
of the untaxed- and high-taxed-
blanket party. Its practical application
should be understood by every farmer
who has been paying prices gauged up
to the war-tariff standard for all the
articles he consumes, and
receiving eighty or ninety cents a bushel
for his wheat. The presentation of the
high-tariff platform of the republicans
to the farmers with demand that they
shall give it the Endorsement of their
votes is an insult to their intelligence
Globe