The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-15
AN EASTERN CAPITALIST
Consigns the Eagle and Plumb to Shame
and Infamy.

OF course the tariff Is a tax. Take nails for In
stance: The duty key OF nails is $2l0 The sell
! ing price In this country is Sl.h. Subtract $2lG
! sumer.-LmpOrta Republican.
In this case the tariff is prohibitive; but
I viii the esteemed tell us why il Is necessary
/ or eXpedient 10 continue in force meas
ure that is imperative or that practically
/ accomplishes nothings If the amount of
/ the duty were added to the selling price of
4 the article. there would be some show of
necessity for the protection it would thus
afford; but as il is now, competition multi
1ies the protective benefits and, in effect, IS
/ worse than absolute free trade.
MEDICINE LODGE, October 70 1890.
EDITOR MURDOCK:-What in the world
has got into you, to publish such edito-
rails as is attached TO this letter? Are
! you losing your senses: Did you ever
! have any. anyway. on this tariff ques-
ton: Why don't you repudiate the Re-
publicans and hoist the Democratic flag,
and done with it? Could a Democratic
sheet propose a moro radical free trade
measure than this editorial indicates?
The Republican party ought to yoke you
and Plumb together, and send you up
Salt river! l don't see what Use they
renegades as you both are. Then, you
think a tariff that has encouraged home
production until it has reduced the price
of nails from $3.50 a keg, to S1.90, and
thus driven foreign high priced nails out
of the market, lis imperative" and ''ac-
composites nothing" do you? WhaC has
become f your brains! You say: LAS
il is now. competition nullifies the pro-
-
than absolute free trade Could the New
York World, Boston Herald, or any
subsidized free trade sheet announce such
bitter free trade logic. Don't you know
that it is home production that reduced
the price of nails in this country from
$40 to $1.9O a keg, and that home COM
petition can only be secured by a tariff
that is protective. Take the duty off
of nails and English and German facto-
ries who hire their wOrkmen at half the
wages our manufacturers do, would
drive our people out of the business by
selling their goods at cost or less until
our factories are closed, and then put
the price up to So. 30 or $40 a keg. You
may not be aware of it, but you and
Senator Plumb are doing more injury to
Kansas now, than any two men in the
Democratic ranks, and if you continue,
the Republicans will drop you both in
the near future.
have always been an admirer and
friend of the EAGLE. but its course on
the tariff question is damnable.
We had enough of your tariff
reform twaddle during Cleveland's
administration and the discussion of the
Morrison and Mills bills; and now the
Mckinley bill has rid the country of the
evils growing out of them, and conf
dence is restored, prices rising and pros
perty returning everywhere throughout
the land, why in the name of Heaven
don't you let things alone and let the
people see what Harrison and Mckinley
will do for them: Either shut up or get
out, and that ID quick. too.
Most cordially yours,
L. L. MILLER.
p. 5. Please reread the Sluss inter
view editorial again as published in the
EAGLE Of July /, 1890. II you don't stop
your free trade tOmfoolery l will drop
into your Office some day and pull all the
hair out of your head. L. r. VI.
SO far as our Kansas readers are con-
Cerned a sufficient answer 10 the above
would be TO say that Mr. Miller who
writes from Medicine Lodge is a capitalist,
whose home is on Twenty-third street in
the heart of the great city of New York.
He is a nice man, personally, and in
way believes in Kansas. where he holds
great possessions, but yet, and neverthe-
less, he Is of that section and belongs 10
that pampered belt, lying between the
4 81
whose rich manufacturers and mer-
chants believe that the people of the
west are their legitimate meat, and that
we are only permitted TO exist that we
may contribute to their purses and COM
fort.
No, Mr.. Miller. the EAGLE is not a free
trade Journal But. we do not advo-
cate that kind of protection which
robs the west in the interest
Of the east; that pauperizes the western
producer and consumer for the benefit
of the rich eastern manufacturer and his (
banker: that gives the mortgagor ali that /
the mortgage has and still leaves the !
latter IN debt 10 the former We believe
IN protection" not ''dispoilation" under
the name Of protection. in which fight |
we are Tor the wealth-producing west as /
against the Notwithstanding east. |
While we concede that protection has I
reduced the price OF rails and nails il 4
has not CommenSuratelv increased the |
price of corn and meat. The trouble I
with Mr.. Miller's theory Is that his east
ern man Is protected at the expense Of a /
thousand western men who are Just a, 4
good and just as deserving As the pet Of !