Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-05-22
Policy and Principle.

years to any. responsible and expert
enced man who VIII start Tannery
in this town."
"Boomopolis will pay $50. 900 for
first-class Brick Yari."
The first Flour Mill in Boomopolis
will corral just $4,000 bonus"
And this shows the way in when
BoomoppiiS or any other town OF us
entrrprising sort builds itself up. The
small capitalist. whose means VIII not
permit him to compete with richer
men in the East, finds in the Western
bonus, or guarantee. n SAFE means OF
embarking In his chosen trade with
out running too great risk. HIS bus
mess is carried on at a loss for the first
wear or two; but the Boomopolis poo
pie make that loss good to him; for
they know lie is helping to bring new
settlers, and that new settlers, mean
increase business for the whole COM
munIty.
Ii is policy that pays. 1t has built
up sc res nf pro- porous Western towns,
and led thousands of bright, active
Eastern men to cast their fortunes
with their Western brethren. 1t is "a
fair policy-fair to those who give and
those who receive assistance. It's d
manly policy; f'r the help is extend
Ell but once To any man; he has to
prove that he deserves it, and when
he ceases 10 need it, it Is withdrawn.
Ii is busiuess-like pOlicv-If it is adj
ministt red i'm busint ss-like fashion
as it has proved in it's practical appli-
cation. And it is a policy that SCENE
to he thoroughly satisfactory to the
citizens who are IN the booming BUSH
ness.
Now suppose that young thenrist
of advanced ideas should go the May
or of Bnomopolis, ("r whatever may he
the title and position of the head man
| of the town. and should say to him:
Look here. have better scheme
! to increase the growth of the town
than this bonus scheme can ever be-
Shall unfold ito"
| The Mayor, being man of receipt
i've mind, with liberation for new
ideas, might be supposed to reply:
"UnfOid."
Then suppose the young man to un.
| fold as follows:
drop the bonus idea altog ether.
Make new business profitable by tax
| ing outside sources of supply. Why
should New York and Boston make a
profit out of Us? Let US make a profit
out of them. If a man comes here sell
ling shoes, tax his shoes five per cent.
al UdtOrena, or ten per cent, or forty
per cent, or fifty per cent, or three
| hundred per cent, or whatever NAV
be necessary To make it impossible to
compete with BoomopOlis shoemaker,
no matter how small the demand for
shoes may he. If a man wants to ship
hides here from Chicago, put sucn a
tax on his hides that the BOOmOpolis
slaug can undersell him and
yet make profit, even if it doesu't
sell hundred hides year.
This system is bound TO encourage
home industry and to benefit local la.
Dor. If man can get three times the
outside price for his hides or for his
shoes, of course he can afford to pay
his workmen three times the price he
would otherwise pay them. Hence.
more money goes into circulation, and
general prosperity is the result. Boom
opOlis must look out for its own inter
ests, We want to buy goods from our
own people, and not to put money into
The pockets of Eastern manufacturers
If they want to bring their goods here
and to try to undersell our people, just
because their facilities are better, why
tax 'em till they can't. Boomopolis
for Boomopolltans"
And, surprising all this to have been
said, we may naturally suppose the
Mayor of Boomopolis to reply thus:
young man you are ali everlasting
and irredeemable ass, and your theory
is the foul of an ass. We don't want
TO make life in this town hard, we want
to make it easy. We are not trying to
make it all unattractive place to set
tiers; we are trying to make ii place
where they will want TO come. We
I'm, ~ ri ali
away; we are trying to keep them here.
Who in thunder wants to live In n
town where he has to pay three times
as much for his shoes as he would have
10 pay in other towns? Where's the
attraction in paying thirty cents for q
ten-cent louf of bread?
nd as for the labor part of your
schemt-youne man. are you such a
new-laid egg as to imagine that eth.
ployers pay their employees in pro-
portion to the prices they get for their
goods? They pay them what they
have to pay them. Just the same as you
pay what you hare to pay for your
clothes and your fod. Profit-sharing
may be an A good arrangement; but
1t isn't general ut present. Young
man, your scheme is about as vision
ary and unbusiDess-like and generally
idiotIc as anything | ever heard of;
and if it were adopted. rd resign and
90 and live i'm Russia. I'd rather be
bossed by a Car than by a gang OF
monopolists. 1t costs l. So in the hong
run. Now, git"
| That, or words to that effect, would
be the answer of the Mayor of Boomo-
polls to any wild theOrist who propos-
ed TO advance the business of BOomO-
polls by any such means. And yet
this very same Mayor of BoompOlis, if
it so happened that he were a Repub-
lican, would thus express his views N
4 the question of protection and the de-
STABILITY of a strictly home market
and would promptly go off. If it ha ppen-
ell to be election time, and vote for the
party that has fastened upon the coun-
try. not as u matter of expediency, but
as matter of principle, the very sys-
tenn which he laughs to scOrn when it
is proposed that it shall be applied tn
his own town. where it will directly
affect his own interests.
| How true it is that that system is
the mere shift of expectancy and not
the firm establishment of principle has
never been better shown than in the
last few weeks. The r publicans in
Congress have undertaken tn ''revise''
the customs tariff, which as a measure
of safe and conservative government
has furnished them with their one ef-
fective war-cry for the last twelve
years. They have been br"ught to
face the uncomfortable fact that the
revision" means only re-distr.bu-