, 1890-11-06

THE TARIFF SIMPLIFYED.

The tariff question is simple or
complex, just as one chooses to con-
slider 1t. The toilers of the earth
produce aud manufacture just so
much, and legislation can not possi-
bly, affect the quantity. But legisla-
ton can do this-it can regulate the
distribution and disposal Of those
products, and that is what the
Mckinley bill proposes to do,
Let us llken the United States to
a single large farm, and the Ameri
can people to a single family. If
that family confines its energies to
the growth of raw products and
takes those products to another
family for manufacture, while a
number of Its own members are idle
and calling for labor, what is the
result? The man ufacturing family
Is sustained by the producing family,
and the latter is kept in poverty,
whereas by giving employment to
its own idlers and manufacturing
Is own products, 1t would keep all
its wealth at home and become
prosperous. This manifestly would
be severe upon the non-producing
family, but we should not legislate
for that. Duty demands that we
consider our own countrymen.
The United States is one family,
and England is the other. Great Brit
ain is incapable of.producing enough
to supply her children with even the
barest necessaries of life. Yet they
live in comfort, and the wealthy
classes have the luXuries the ex-
travagances and the vices of life.
Whence comes the immense sum
necessary to supply the difference
between starvation and opulence
and pomp? From the producing
classesi of the outside world, from
the American farmer. The wheat
grower Of the Palouse helps to main
tain the royalty of England. There
Is no disputing this fact, England
can not get three out of two without
the United States contributes the
missing unit. We have been doing
that too long. The Mckinley bill
will stop 1t.
That American measure, con-
ceived by a Western mind and
passed by Western votes, proposes
to keep American products at home,
and to extract the utmost measure
Of value therefrom before offering
them to the domestic and foreign
consumer. 1t proposes to keep the
orange here, and not send it to En-
gland to be sucked in order that our
people may have the rind. To do
this will require the labor of an
army of men seeking employment.
Its effect will necessarily be the ad-
vancement Of wages, because the law
of supply and demand will enable
labor to set higher price upon its
factor. Foreign manufactures will
be forced to close down, but the de-
mand for their products will go
steadily forward, and American
wares will supply that demand.
Already these theories have be-
come demonstrated facts. In the
German Post of this city we find
the following special dispatch. From
Austria, from England, from France,
similar reports have been burdening
the wires. The Mckinley bill has
taken employment from thousands
of foreigners. is there q working
man in this city so blind as not to
realize that it merely takes from
foreigners to give to Americans?
Here are the kilograms:
SoNSEDHRG, Thuringia, oct. 2s.-The
toy man ufactorios of Dressed a l.eidcl,
at Ililburghausen, Oehme & Co., Knopf
q Co., Basser & Bros. at Nurnberg, ana
some smaller establishments. have dis
charged together about 200 wortmen,
mostly employed at the papier msche
and wax branch, on aecouat Of counter