Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-10-17
TWO PICTURES,
Look on This and Then on That-A Poor
Mans Questions Answered.
Nrig YORK EeyaId

A gentleman writes to the Herald in
the following strain:
Il am poor man; one of the desIised
knights of Labor. My opportunities
for study have been few, and my opin-
ions on matters as comprehensive as the
Mckinley bill are therefore without
weight. Won't you kindly answer these
two questions: VIII the effect of that
bill be TO restrict the market for Amer
lean products? And if it will be, is not
that an injury rather than benefit to
the country?'
Mighty important questions these, but
they are easily answered, and the answer
will not be favorable to the bill.
First. Ifyou raise the price of given
article you thereby decrease the demand
for it. If people can get it at a cheap
rate they will buy it, if it is dear they
will manage to do without it. That is
one OF the aXioms of supply and demand.
Make wooden goods, for instance, so
plentiful that they come within reach
Of everybody's purse and everybody will
buy them, because wooden is necessary
to health in the winters cold. Make
them so scarce that they become dear,
aud you at once put them out Of reach
of the wage-earning class, which is the
largest class I'm all communities.
Second. If the demand is light be-
cause the goods cost too much, then the
manufacturer, very naturally and prop
crly-for he doesn't pretend to be phi
lanth: opiSt-runs his mill on three
quarter time, and consequently on a
l.. I'D f.l
men that he doesn't need them any
longer. There you have, say, 500 men
thrown out of work because the price OF
wooden goods is so dear that people will
do without them as much as possible.
Third. Now extend the range Of
high prices. Make the general cost OF
living dearer. little more must be
paid for this, that, and the other arti-
cleS of household comfort, few cents
more for every kitchen utensil, a few
Shillings more for the bed blankets, for
the baby'S clothes, and so forth and SO
forth, until the whole domain is covered,
what then?
Why, that a thousand manufacturers
limit their product, for there is no sense
and no profit in flooding the market.
Then these same thousand manulac-
turerS discharge a part of their working
force, and the unemployed are found in
every nook and corner of the country.
That is precisely the effect of the Nc
Kinley bill, and you can see it with one
eye shut.
Now, look at the other side. Suppose
the Democratic policy of worlds mar
ket for American manufacturers were
established, what would happen? We
could underScll any country in ChriSten-
dom, for we have the machinery, the
genius, the enterprise and the educated
labor The motto would then be, Cheap
goods, large sales and small profits.
Start up all your mills, for what you
make is within everybody's reach. Run
them long hours. Double the number
Of hands, Cor there is brisk trade and
heavy demand. You can afford to
pay fair wages. The great army OF
idlerS who are willing to work, but can't
get it TO do, are comfortable, well
housed, well fed, well clothed, happy
and contented. This everlasting war
fare between capital and labor settles
| itself, for all the men in the country
are so busy that they cannot stop TO
grumblc.
\ big market, plenty of work for all
except the criminal and lazy, general
buStling, rustling, hurrying, Scurryng
time-what more do men want, and
what is better on this planet to have?
Can YOU get'such condition Of affairs
out of the Mckinley bill. with its huge
profits for the trust and the monopoly
U III -
As well try to squeeze sunlight out of Il
cucumber. But give us cheap goods
and plenty of them, fair wages and work
for all, and you are as close to millen-
NAL prosperity as circumstances permit.
You can't have these things, though,
under a Republican administration.