Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-10-24
FRIDAY MORNING, OCT. "a, 1890
Election for Con-
gresham, Tuesday,
Nov. 18th. Only Ten
Days from today.

Almost every country nleICIalit dHu oNo'S
dealer in the class of articles mentioned, IS
receiving, with their bills, statement that
this and that article has gone up because OF
the Mckinley tariff bill when not one OF the
articles sent out is made abroad, and some OF
them are on the free list. 1t is disreputable
and dIshonorable trick of the importers and
their Democratic tools throughout the coun-
try to create a prejudice against the Wlsest
economic measure ever enacted by Congress
In this locality the deception and falsehood
is rung into the ears of the farmer, presum-
ing that the farmers have not sense enough to
see through the flimsy device. There is not a
thing that the farmer uses that is not cheaper
than it was under Democratic revenue only
tariff. There is not thing that he has to sell
that does not bring higher price; and the
average farmer was never in more prosper
gu, condition, everything considered. Yet
the Democratic papers appeal to the fears OF
farmers as though they were parcel OF igno-
rant children or idiots, incapable OF thinking
for Themselves Valley Varglnaon.
The above from our esteemed Republican
contemporary is valuable contribution to
the campaign Of education, for it gives
pretty fair idea of the sort of arguments
that the advocates of the Mckinley tax
bill are using to excuse the increase Of
prices that have followed it. 1t assumes
with all seriousness that merchant will send
out circular charging the jobbing mer-
chants, who buy from him, advanced prices
Oh account of the Mckinley bill, when he
has hundreds of competitors ready to ex-
pose his fraud. if it were one, and ready to
offer to sell goods at the old prices. And with
as much seriousness it assumes that farmer
who pays $3.50 now to go to Richmond
against 81 under democratic revenue
only tariff" thirty years ago, does not know
the change is due to the substitution of the
railway fol- the stage coach; that the farmer
does not know that the steel rails he travels
over that once cost $40 ton are now sold
at $50, because of the Bessemer invention :;
that the farmer who can get bricks nova
days at third of what he used to pay for
them thirty years ago, does not know that
the cheapness is due to the steam machine
that turns them out at 1000 an hour, hay
ing taken the place of the old horse that
twenty years ago YEARLY trod around the
clay pit, and which machine was invented ard
built in the United States; and that the farm
erdoes not know that his farm implements
are cheaper than thirty years ago because
of the use of machinery whereby hundreds
are made in week where adozen were once
turned out The farmer is not asking
about prices being cheaper now than they
were thirty years ago; he understands that.
What he is asking IS vhy prices are high
er aolc than they rere thirty days ago ?
That is his question-why a Republican
Congress should assemble in Washington
and by a single act raise prices on him all
over this country, whether he tills his farm
in Virginia OF Maine OF Texas? And for
whose benefit is it done ?
If the farmer knows that 1.-THE e is not
a thing that he has to sell that does not
bring Il higher price, than it did under "a
Democratic for revenue only tariff then
that farmer would like to have some evidence
from our cotemporary on which to found
that knowledge. James G. Blaine, now
Secretary of State, and who says OF the
Mckinley bill that cit does not open Il
market for another bushel Of American
wheat nor another barrel Of American
pork, speaks very highly of that period
In his Twenty years in the American
Congress- he says that after the tariff of
1916 ''the business of the country was in a
fiourishing condition." and continued so
f1ourishing THAT in 1856 protective tariff
was not even limited at and therefore it
was not surprising that in 1857 the duties
were placed lower than they had been since
1872" Now let the farmer OF Augusta
who is getting from 95c to $l.00 for his
wheat look at the price Wheat brought
under those lower duties,a s they are quoted
by the Doylestown Democrat Of Doyles-
town, Pa, a town situated in the same
Valley Of which this Valley of Virginia is
an extension
Wheat per bushel
1oot ....................Sl.6 81