Eureka weekly sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1887-1902, 1889-11-30
soar LOWER TARIFF srHAws.

SOME LOWER TARIFF sTBAws.
When the Psn-American delegates
were in New England a Lowell mill
owners Republican, by the way-told
them that the need Of the time is free
raw wool.
That was only q straw, but il showed
which way the wind is blowing. and
therefore attracted attention. Some Of
the manufacturers in Connecticut-also
high tariff men in the past-have re-
Gently made the same remark or its
equivalent.
A second straw.
Senator Frye, who regards the theory
Of protection as an addendum to the
four Gospels, and who would go insane
il he were accused Of being a free trader,
intimates that if the Southern republics
will only allow a few OF our goods to
enter their ports free of duty we will
return the favor in kind. That is to
say, he is a cast iron high tariff man dur
ing & political campaign, and cries,
This rock shall fly from its firm base
as soon as l." but like poor Rip Van
Wrinkle he won't count this time " and
tumbles of that base as easily as he
would roll off a log.
Still another straw.
And now Mr.. T. V. Powderly, a Dem.
ocrat and the great leader Of the Knights
Of Labor, comes to the front with his
serious and very sensible second thought.
He will allow us to say that he has been
something Of a fanatic as a high tariff
man. He has suffered from the delu-
sion that protection was intended to
protect, and that the more the country
had of it the better off the working
classes would be. He has had the dust
in his eyes for years, and flattered him
self that big wages would logically re-
suit from a protective policy rigidly en-
forced. His eyes are now clear; he has
taken a second view Of the subject, has
seen all the trickery and humbug under
the plausible protective theory, and has
talked very plainly to the people of At
lanta, Ca.
Powderly says that the wage earners
are not protected, but that the
facturer is; that the rich man gets
richer under that policy, while the poor
man is constantly getting poorer. Well,
it has taken Mr.. Powderly a long time
to get there, but we congratulate him on
his arrival.
Protection is the doctrine Of the aris-
t~ocrats, and they support it in self-de.
Tense. The Republican party gets its
campaign funds largely from trusts,
syndicates and ~monopolies which are
bred and kept alive by protection.
The nobility of Europe spurn the no
ton that they and the middle classes are
made out of the same kind of clay.
They are special creations, while the
multitude are made by wholesale and
dumped on the earth by the million. So
the men who are making fortunes by
protection have a theory that govern
ment and laws should look after their
interests and let the workingmen shift
for themselves.
What is the consequence? Let the
Knights OF Labor answer the question.
II is just this: That the employer like
Mr.. Carnegie is willing to give a fair
wage when he can take a thousand a day
out Of his concern, but when he feels
poor and can only extract five hundred
a day from his business he deducts ten
per cent from the wages of his working
men.
Who is protectedl Well, Mr.. Carne-
gle and the likes of him " are protect.
ed with a vengeance. Everything is on
their side, the administration, the Re
publican party and Congress; but on the
side Of a poor man, whati Starvation
and all he can stand Of it. His only re-
source is a strike. In his desperation al
manifest injustice he d~isregards law and
order, gets up a riot, is arrested and sent
to prison.
This is all the protection he gets, and
il is about time for the Knights Of La
Dor to borrow Powderly's spectacles and
see this thing just as it is.-New
| Vork Harald