Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-12-10
The Nlcnrngnan UannI.

sion DO made for Improving the harbor OF
| Pearl River and equipping it as a naval
station.
Tho Nicaraguan Canal.
The annual report of the maritime canal
company of Nicaragua shows that much
costly and necessary preparatory work has
been done during the year in the con-
struction of shops, railroad tracks, and
harbor piers and break-waters, and that
| the work of canal construction has made
| some progress.
/ deem it to be matter of the highest
concern to the United States that this
canal connecting the waters of the Attain
| tic and Pacific oceans and giving TO us a
short water communication between our
| ports upon those two great seas, should be
| speedily constructed and at the smallest
practicable limit of cost. The gain in
treghts to the people and the direct saw
ing TO the government of the United
States in the use of its naval vessels would
pay the entire cost of this work within a
short series of years. The report of the
| secretary Of the navy shows the saving in
our naval expenditures which would re-
suit.
! The senator from Alabama, (Mr. Nor
gam in his argument upon this subject be-
| fore the senate at the last session, did not
ovcrestimate the Importance of this work
| when he said that Tho canal is the most
/ important subject now connected with the
| commercial growth and progress of the
| United States" If this work is TO be
| promoted by the usual financial methods
| and without the aid of this government,
the expenditures, in its interest bearing
securities and stocks, will probably be
| twice the actual cost.
l dOEnOt doubt that, built upon these
business methods, the canal would, when
fully inaugurated, earn its fixed charges
and operating expenses. But il its bonds
| - la, Tod hnn H.,
every bond sold is to be accompanied by a
| gift of stock as has come to be expected
| by investors in such enterprises, the traf1ic
| will be seriously burdened to pay interest
and dividends. ] am quite willing TO roc
ommend government promotion in the
| prosecution of work which, If no other
! means offered for its completion, is OF such
transcendant interest that the government
| should, in my Opiuion, secure it by direct
| appropriations from its treasury.
| A guaranty of the bonds OF the canal
| company to an amount necessary TO the
! completion of the canal could, think, be
| so given as not to involve any serious risk
! of ultimate loss. The things to be care
| fully guarded are the completion OF the
| work within the limits of the guaranty,
| the subrogation of the United States to
| the rights of the first mortgage bond
| holders for any amounts it may have to
! pay, and in the meantime a control of the
a
! mismanagementa and loss. most sincerely
| hope that neither party nor sectional lines
| will be drawn upon this great American
| project, so full of interest to the people of
| all our states and so influential in its
| effects upon the prestige and
| and occupied solely by its employees. In
! September 1889, revolt took place among
these laborers, resulting in the killing of
! some of the agents of the company, caused,
| as the labOrers claimed, by cruel treat
! ment. The president then gives the his
tory of the case recommend legislation
| that shall place labor contracts upon this
and other islands giving the relation that
| Navassa has to the United States under
| the supervision of u court commissioner,
| and that shall provide, at the expense Of
| the owners an officer to reside upon the
| islands with power to judge and adjust
| disputes and to enforce Just and humane
treatment of employees. 1t is inexcusable
that American laborers should be left
within our own jurisdiction without access
| to any government officer or tribunal for
their protection and the redress of their
wrongs.
The Tariff Question.
The general interest in the operations
of the treasury department has been much
augmented during the last year by reason
| of the conflicting predictions, which &C
companied and followed the tariff and
| other legislation of the last congress af-
| feCting the revenues, as to the results Of
| this legislation upon the treasury and
upon the country. On the one hand it was
| cOntended that imports would so fail of as
| to leave the treasury bankrupt aud that
| the prices of articles entering into the
| living of the people would be so enhanced
| as to disastrously affect their comfort and
| happiness, whilo on the other it was
| argued that the loss to the revenue
| largely the result of placing sugar on
| the free list would gain to the people:
| that the prices of the necessaries of
life including those most highly protected,
would not be enhanced; that labor would
have a larger market and the products of
the farm advanced prices; while the treas
ury surplus and receipts would be ade-
quate to meet the appropriations, includ-
| ing the large exceptional expenditures for
the refrnding to the states of the direct
tax and the redemption of the AZ per cent
bonds.
1t is not my purpose to enter at any
length into a discussion of the effects of
the legislation to which ] have referred;
but brief examination Of the statistics of
the treasury and a general glance at the
state of business throughout the country,
will think, satisfy any impartial inquirer
that its results have disappointed the evil
prophecies of its opponents and in a large
| measure realized the hopeful predictions
Vi lLS lIlCuu5. hdIclS, IL GNtE utiOEt, III
the history of the country has there been
time when the proceeds of one days labor
or the product of one farmed acre would
purchase so large an amount of those
things that enter into the living of the
masses of the people believe that full
test will develop the fact that the tariff act
of the Fifty-first congress is very favOra-
BILE in its average effect upon the prices of
articles entering into common use.
During the twelve months ending Octo-
Der l, 1890, TO September 60 1891, the total
value of our foreign commerce imports
and exports combined) was 81, al, 500, 4O6,
which was the largest of any year in the
history of the United States. The largest
in any previous year was in 1890, when
our commerce amounted TO 81 ,647, l39, 093
and the last year exceeds this enormous
aggregate by over one hundred millions.
1t is interesting and TO some will be sur
prising, TO know that during the year end
ing September 80, 1891, our imports of
merchandise amounted to 1924, 1881
which was an increase of more than eleven
million dollars over the value of the i'm
ports of the corresponding months of the
preceding year. when the imports of
merchandise were unusually large in an
ticipation of the tariff legislation then
pending
The average annual value Of the imports
Of merchandise for tho ten years from
1881 70 1899 was $500, 1855 622, and during