The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1891-10-16
About Mckinley Prices.

The effort of the Republican press and ora
tors to convince the people that the McKinle.
bill doesn't raise prices Is highly mirth.pro
voking. or course there Isn't an inteligen
man In the country that doesn't know that 81
far as there Is any truth to the claim 1t mean
that for some reason or other the bill ha
failed to accomplish Its purpose. 1t wa
passed for the av0wed purpose of raising
prices. Harrison, Mckinley, Read, and all
the rest of them proclaimed 1t at the time
and argued that high prices were blessing
What else did Harrison mean when he sale
"cheap coat implies CHEAP man under it?'
What else has been the meaning of all this
dreary argument year after year that higf
tariff was for the benefit of workingmen be-
cause 1t would raise their wages?
| 1t Is true that there have been adventitioui
circumstances that have prevented or retarded
the movement to the higher level of prices &C
generally as expected and intended from the
Mckinley bill. The great financial depres'
zion that struck the wordthe month after iti
passage, has forced the liquidation of vast
deal of business, has loaded the market with
bankrupt stocks and has compelled manufac'
turers and producers In every country to SAC
rifce stocks to keep above water. 1t is true
also that the importers overdid their business
30 tremendously In the few weeks after the
passage Of the bill before 1t went into effect
as to largely defeat their plan OF abnorna
profits and depresses the prices of their over
stocks. Another factor, that 10 constantly In
opera ion, always has been and always wi
be, unaer high tariff or low tariff, is the i'm.
provements in machinery and methods Of
production that are constantly pushing prices
down, so that speaking by long periods the
only effect of the tariff is to delay the peoples
getting the benefit, and Its damage can only
be measured by comparing at given time
the prices In different countries.
The result OF these different forces Is that
prices have not on the whole advanced as
much as was calculated; In some things they
have even decreased, and In some remained
almost stationary. But as a general average
there has been an increase, on some things
very oppressively so-and there Is still per-
ceptible upward movement, whereas, by
natural laws, without artificial obstruction.
the movement would be the other way. In
the matter of carpets, for instance, Arthur I
Lyman of the Lowell carpet company, In a
letter to the Boston Herald says:
"That the Mckinley bill increased the cost
of carpets; that the prices OF carpets were
advanced In consequence of the Mckinley
hill; that they would not have been advanced
If the Mckinley bill had not passed; and that
IT wool had been made free the cost and
prices of carpets would have gone down,
are facts that cannot be disputed by any one
who understands the carpet manufacture and
trade and Its condition In 1890 and 1891"
And he adds few questions which touch
the juggling ON this question:
"But what is the meaning of this rejoicing |
determination on the part of the republican
protectionists to prove that the prices of all
the goods made In Massachusetts have fallen
since the passage of this blessed Mckinley
biz? Is that what the manufacturers urged
Congress to advance the dulles for? Does a
'o.calIed protected manufacturer want to
nave the prices of bis goods put downV
Another important consideration In this
and one that has very wide bear
ng is pointed out by M. M. Holmes. 1t is the
to raise prices by cheapening quail
ty, or to substitute at the old price an article
hat Is Inferior. Comparing cheap carpets
old now with those sold In 1860. Mr..
Iolmes says:
Commercially 1t Is the same, but In fact 1t
quite different carpet. Commercially,
nd In fact the carpet sold In 1860 for 10 .
ents per yard was all wool; commercially
be CARPET sold today at GO cents IL all wool;
ut In fact 1t Is wool, hair and jute. The
uty on carpet wool has forced the manufac.
lrers In this country to substitute hair and 4
lite for wool, and II we do not get more hair
I'd jute In our carpets In the future 1t will
1t be the fault Of Mr. Mckinley and his pro- II
ctlve friends. {
The carpet experience Is no different from 4
at In any branch of business where tariff q
cites have bad unimpeded operation. n
In fact you have only to follow the high +
riff orator who denies the "high price" eff n
ct to fnd him discredlting himself. When RI
strikes the tobacco raisers Of the Connec. a
tut Valley be will be sure to tell them that ?
e high prices they realize this year are due r
nothing but the increase In the tariff. And I,
expects them to believe 1t when be tells v
EN- that tariff increase has no effect on any
Ing else! When he addresses an audience
consumers be tells them that the low q
Ice OF sugar is due to the Mckinley q
l's lowering of duties, even while he vO- I,
crates that the same effect Is produced by :,
Ising the duties on everything else.