The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-06-13
PROTECTION PRICES.
Free Trads Observation-Disclosures Corrected
to EserS Bodt,s Satisfaction.

W. d0oAhS bHO Vutl W tuC COSb VI al dE III
Gle and then exclaiming; Working
men, you are paying 100 per cent in
taxes on your blankets" when every
intelligent mechanic knows very we'll
that blankets, quality for quality, are
lust as cheap in the United States as
they are in free-trade England. And
so it is with clothing, with cotton goods,
with furniture, and. indeed, with every
article of general consumption used by
the masses of the people OF the United
States. Yet day after day the Herald is
stunning a fiye-fnger exercise of this
kind on its free trade organ. The Press.
in common with every intelligent and
practical citizen of the United States,
rejoices in Mckinley prices" or at any
rate in the tendency of prices under a
protective tariff law, and looks forward
to a still further decrease when Ameri-
can enterprise and American ingenuity
by still higher rates Of duty manufact-
ure here at home commodities which we
are now obliged to import from abroad,
and produce products in our own fields
which are now raised by cheap foreign
labor and sent over here to depress
prices and discourage the agricultural
producers of America Thus the Press
is prepared to meet the free trade cry Of
Mckinley. prices" just as it met in
1888 the nonotonous shriekings of the
Bowery parrot that 'the tariff is tax"
The mere the farmers of the country
and the wage-workers of the country
study the Mckinley prices the better
for the Mckinley tariff bill. Let the
farmer turn back decade. He will
find that in 1880 he paid S315 for self
binder which he can buy to-day for $3.50;
that his corn planter and check rover
cost him $50 in 1889. while it is only $40
now. His steel beam walking pillow in
1850 cost him sos, while he can pur-
chase it now for sI4. His riding Guilt
vator in 1850 cost S45, now he can buy
it for SIS. In 1850 his walking Guilt
vator cost him SIS; he can now buy it
for $50. A moving machine in 1850 cost
him SIS; now it costs him only $50. A
Strowbridge seeder in 1880 could not be
purchased for less than S35; now he can
buy it for Sl3. Wood pumps in 1850
cost SIS; now they are only Sc. A farm
wagon in 1850 could not be bought for
less than SIS; now it can be purchased
for $50 In 1850 two-seated spring
wagon could not be bought for less than
Sl60; now It can be purchased for S75
Buggies and carriages are reduced in
cost about one-half from their price in
1880. The same is true with respect to
harrows and corn shelters 1t will thus
be seen that on the principal imple-
ments in common use by the farmer the
reduction in cost since 1880 runs from 33
to go per cent. f.. #.... ......
Nor have we got done with the farmer
yet ...H
The Press is tired, yes, literally tired,
of this senseless cry about the increased
cost of the Implements which farmers
use. Ex-President Cleveland. who for
the moment is posing as probably the
cheapest demagogue in the United
States, in a letter to the secretary of
Oak Grove Lodge, No. %, Farmers AL
lance. of Steubenville, O.. endeavors.
in a somewhat bungling way. to score a
point OF this kind, and yet the ex-Presi-
dent knows, or ought to know, that the
tariff has cheapened within the past de-
cade, to say nothing of what it has done
If we thought proper TO go back for
twenty or twenty-five years, every arti-
cle-whe ther of food, of raiment, of i'm
plements, or of articles which enter
into the building of the farmers
houses, his barns or his fenceS-which
he uses in any way whatever in the cul-
tivation of the land, in the harvesting
of his products or in the sending of
those products to the markets. The
-. r.. -. lk.n l
cents per pound costs him now cents.
His fence staples, costing at that
time 10 cents he can now buy for 5
cents. His plain wire in 1880 cost him
6I% cents per pound, now he can buy it
for So cents per pound. The price of
his wash-boiler in 1880 was s.. %; now
he can buy it for S1.75. IN 1850 his
horse shoes per key cost SIS; now he can
buy them at $3.50 per keg. The steel
out of which his plows were made in
1880 cost 1871 cents per pound; now he
can buy it for So cents per pound. The
cook-stove on which the free-traders
claim he pays a tax of 80 per cent cost
him in 1880 S35; to-day he can buy it for
S24. The cost of his wiudow-glass has
been reduced - per cent. in the same
period, and is now one-third of what it
was twenty years ago. The cost of
iron, which enters into so many articles
of general consumption from the mag
nificent development of the American
iron industries, has been reduced from
to cents per pound
The American pitch-fork which in
1850 cost 75 cents can now he had for so
cents. and so nearly every other agri-
cultural implement used by the Amer
lean farmer is cheaper in this country
than in any country in the world. In
deed, there is hardly civilized country
on the globe to-day that does not pur-
chase our agricultural Implements in I,
preference TO those made in their coun-
tries, because they are better and
cheaper. OF what avail is the cry OF
taxed tinware in face of the fact
that such things as milk pans, which
ten years ago cost s. 25 per dozen, can |
now be bought for 81 per dozen; tin |
cups that in 1850 cost 10 cents apiece are /
now sold at cents apiece; covered pals |
ten years ago costing 20 cents apiece are |
now pCrchaSable at 10 cents; pie plates \
in 1880 30 cents per dozen, are now 10 4
be had for So cents, and all pocket and |
table cutlery is, reduced one-half from |
its cost in 1880? Is not the trace-chain |
argument. which actually cropped out |
in the speeches of Democratic free |
traders last week, little stale in face |
OF the fact that chains in 1880 which |
were % cents are to-day selling at 70?
Cistern pumps that in 1850 cost s.. IS can
now be had for 81 25 The incessant |
cry ahOnt tayad lumbar is host dispoead 1