St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-05-24

4
| so long as a single soldier stood at
the polls in South Carolina or Louisi-
ana, debating who should vote, and
how they should vote. For two hours
he spoke, and he kindled anew, wher-
ever the tidings were carried, the spark
| of devotion to freedoms claims.
| Every one knows the result. The
| far-seeing statesman who headed De-
| mocracy's fight never sat in the preSi-
Dental chair, but military usurpation
| shriveled away before the scorching in
dignatlon of popular disfayor, and an
| other Magma Charta. attesting the right
to local government, was signed,
never to be violated again while the
| reins of state rest in the hands of an in
teliigent people.
A decade and a half have gone by
since that time and the hosts of the ma
| ton are forming again to contest once
more under banner embIazoned with
| great national Issues AS in the battle
| of 1876, many questions are before the
people inviting their attention and
awaiting their decision. Some talk of
| some and others of others, and before
citizens are permitted to cast their votes
| for the party of their choice, the world
| will have grown weary now of this one
and then of that. Safety comes with
| familiarity and the lives of men and
| states are allowed to drift on shoals
! and pointed rocks because Indifference
usurpS the place of enthusiasm, and be-
| cause the bugle's blast falls Oh ears
| deadened to the sound through surfeit
| and repetition. The GLOBE is a Demo-
cratic newspaper, pledged to the fur
thering of Democracy's principles. 1t
cares little for partisan trlumphS eX-
| cept in as far as they count i'll the
actualiZation of the creed it believes in.
The GLOBE is not only Democratic
newspaper. but it is a newspaper pub
lished in Minnesota, read by working
men and working women, and conse-
Grated to sincere effort for the
advancement of their interests and
happiness. With mission of this
| kind it now declares that the
great question before the country
to-day is the tariff question. Others
may talk of other things and give them
prominence in the battle. But the
columns of this paper will ring as far
, its powers permit with the arraignment
of those false teachers who are allied
for the perpetuation of monopoly's work
on our rational industries, and it will
be tireless in the struggle until the sin
full peryersion of the national taxing
power from its legitimate object to the
work of enriching one class at the
expense of another shall forever
cease. In the election of 1876.
victory did not light on the Democ-
racy's banner, and perhaps it will not
in 1892. But the fruit of one battle was
the triumph of the civil over the mill
tary authority, and no matter what the
party outcome. if the Democracy fights
with the courage of its convictions, the
battle of year from now will break the
shackles which chain the poor while
their labor goes into the Golfers of their
oppressors.
The GLOBE does not see how any I'M
subsidized newspaper published III this
section of the country can take any
other position than this. The wealth
and development of Minnesota depend
on the agricultural interests. What
helps them helps the state. There is
not farmer in any of our richest coun-
ties who will not say that the purchaS-
ing power of his plant and labor have
not declined from 90 to 25 per cent in
the past fifteen years. 1T is not meant
by this that the price of his products
oil i b,,4 thot
value as measured by the things which
he buys in distinction from the things
he has TO sell is thus much below the flg-
ure at which they stood before that time
For the decade following the war
everything commanded big re-
turn, because this was period of
unwonted activity. Then the fruit of
the fields began to decrease in value.
During the ten years between 1870 and
1880 the average price of corn fell from
1925 cents to All cents per bushel, the
average price of wheat from S1.29 to
Sl.07. of sea island cotton from "a cents
to IS cents, and of other cotton from "A
cents to 10 cents. This is the story the
farmer has had to tell for this stretch of
his life-and with varying figures for
the years which have followed. Now
the answer to this has been that such a
decline has been inevitable, and that
than it was at the beginning because
every other industry has experienced a
similar career. II this were so, there
would be no reason to complain. If the
farmer had to pay less for the money he
borroWS and the commodities he buys
| in the same proportion as his own prod
ucts have declined in value. he would
have no case in the tribunal of Justice.
But is this SO? Not at all. Every
natural decline in the price of manu-
featured goods has been prevented by
| the imposition of new tariff
duties which have limited production
and forced the farmer to pay the factory
owner price satisfactory in his eyes.
| Not only is this true, but the mad eco
monte theories of the Republican party
have gone further, and within a year
have deliberately increased the forced
contributions which have now so long
been levied for the enrichment of the
| manufacturing mOn0polies. The farmer
| who buys an ingram carpet to-day for
! his parlor floor does not pay as low a
| price for it as he did even twelve
months ago. Every yard costs him
from 10 cents to a quarter of dollar
| more then it did then, not because the
labor or Il e materials i'll it have risen in
price, but because the MCKINLEY bill
has decreed that the owner of every
native carpet factory should receive a
bonus of this size per yard from his fell
low citizens who have need of his wares.
Let the farmer once reflect on the
amount of toll which goes into the earn
ing of a dollar in a declining market and
| then answer whether there is any JUS
tice or right in the doctrines of protec-