The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-10-21
CARTER AND PLUMBER.

1t is hard to belieye that any intelli-
gent man will venture to assert that the
discussion Of the Mel inley- Carter legal
lied robbery scheme is the discussion Of
the issue between free trade and protec.
ton. Such g man is living anachron.
ism, fossilized nonentity. If not that
he is worse. He is man utterly devoid
of principle. He is creature who, at
the bidding Of his party, would close his
eyes and swear that black was white.
He is willing, at the same call, to erase
all the intelligence and experience that
nature has given him and present his
mind, a shining blank, for the impress OF
any fustian that the party leaders may
care to put upon it. There are such un-
fortunates. We have them in Montana.
They are the men who, IN the face Of
facts absolutely incontrovertible, have
been insisting for weeks past that there
has been no general rise in prices. When
it had been hammered into them that a
grain OF fact was worth ton Of their ex
parte statements-that laborer could
not enter store without discovering the
falsity of their assertions they declared
upon their honor that prices would soon
settle down again and all would be we'll.
The future, they imagined, might be
suffer ground for them than the hard and
fast present. It would be we'll for them
not to prophesy until they know. Any
prediction Of general advance in prices,
they may declare, is mere assumption.
1t is a mere assumption to assert that
the sun will rise tomorrow. We have
and can have no proof of it until the
event. But the sunrise of tomorrow ia
q good deal more problematical, more
doubtful, than the plumber Of the labor
ing people by Tom Carriers bill. These
are the men who have attempted to
make the workers of this country be-
lieve the republican party their sincerest
friend. Tom Carter has lowered the
wages of every working man in this
state. Tho man who had $3.50 day
before the passage Of Carter's oppressive
measure gets only 1925 now it he has to
pay every day for the necessities Of life
Is cents more than he had to- It is not
much each day; it is not very much in a
week; but even this underestimated
loss swells to fair sum by the end Of a
year.
Tom Carter's bill is not question of
free trade against protection. The issue
is protection versus prohibition. It is
an issue pre-eminently for the working
man. He is the member of the COM
munity on whom it falls with
the direst severity. He is the
man who has it in his power to
sweep from congress Tom Carter and
every man who laid upon his shoulders
the burden OF this grievous tax. 1t is a
question OF labor against capital. It
is q question of the working
mans right to protection. It is
question whether this is to be a
government of the people by the people
for the people. or whether the laboring
men OF this country are to allow them
selves to become the serfs and chattels of
an interruptions party, who will use or
abuse them at the dictstion Of eastern
monopolists, who. by an unsparing use OF
money, have bolstered up that party in
power in opposition to the wishes Of hon.
est voters all over the United States. I,
is q question OF the laborer's right to his
wages. Are they to be reduced at the
bidding Of the republican party, without
other reason than the dictation of eastern
money bags! Il Tom Carter to be the
one arbitrator Of what wages working
man shall receive in this state?
Lot no working man be deceived by thu
cry that the rise ison imported goods anG
Injuries alone. Thsrs is scarcely an ar
ticls OF necessary consumption that il
not increased BY this tariff bill. II any
critic disbslisves that prices have alread,
bsen advanced, or win shortly be I'D
vsncsd, Oh glassware, tinware, hose anG
knit goods, hats, umbrellas, tabls knivs,
and forks linens, blankets, womsn'l
dsss sooda drugs hEepms, mating