Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-06-24
Those Tariff Diagrams

Indianapolis Sentinel: The New York
Press daily diagram seems TO be daily
fraud. A good many of the stories
which the Press thinks 10 make impress
sive by the use of diagrams have been
shown up, and il may safely be assumed
as to any Of them, in the absence OF con-
elusive evidence TO the contrary, that it
is either wholly false or one of those half
truths which are worse than square lies
Recently the Press published, with a
diagram. the following:
A"high tariff democrat sends us word Of
firm OF large manufacturers Of flannel at Laporte,
Ind, whose business has been so stimulated by
the passage Of the Mckinley bill that the cost OF
manufacturing has been reduced. They are now
able TO offer, and Offering hannels which they
sold at 60 cents yard last year, al AZ cents yard
this year.
The Sentinel has been at some pains to
Investigate this matter, and as the result
Of its inquiries is able to say: t
l. That If there is single high tariff
democrat q. Laporte his identity is not
known TO the people of that city.
2. The best flannels made only re tail
at 40 cents yard, as everybody can
demonstrate by inquiry al any dry goods
store.
The Press says the Laporte fiannels
have been reduced from go to AZ cents.
When wool was 81 pound during the
war flannel only sold for 81 cents, and il
sold from the Lsporte Mills as low as so
cents. We are assured that flannel was
never sold as high ss 80 cents.
3. There has been no reduction in the
prices of the hannels made at Laporte
since the Mckinley law took effect, and
no change except that trade is little
duller than usual and the mills have been
shut down for some time. The price of
flsnnels is 80 cents yard for the best
grades, weighing from four TO four and q
half ounces per yard, and that has been
the average price for many years. Wool
at Laporte is bringing the same prices as
last year from 20 to % cents per pound
The Lsports mill men buy mostly at
Chicago, where they have large assort-
ments TO select. from. The Clear Lake
wooden mills sell entirely to jobbers
Marshall Field & Co. taking the bulk of
their product. They get 81 to 273 cents
yard instead of Al cents as STATED by
the Press, and this is the Price they have
been getting for several years.
4. The letter TO which the Press re
fers was evidently not written from La
porte, because it speaks Of the Fox
Brothers as the proprietors Of one of the
Lsporte wooden mills. There was such
firm, but it was dissolved six years ago.
since which time s. Fox has been the
sole proprietor of the mill.
That able journal, the Lsporte Argus,
reprints the Press story and, among
other things, says:
This will indeed be news to the people OF La
porte. The mills have been standing still land 1t
Il understood here 10 be because Of an unusually
light demand for lanneis. Besides thi. there has
been no reduction in the price Of fannels made
here, and there never was yard Of such flannel
az is made here that sold for go cents. .
The whole report is fake and the High Tariff
Democrat" is purely an Imaginary being, or some
''smart Aleck" republican, who is Intoxicated by
the exuberance of his own verbosity.N Here,
where all the facts known this story will Gre
ate broad grin, but it is safe 10 say nobody will
expect an increase in wages from the great flannel
boom "caused by the Mckinley bill" Neither
viii the farmers rush into town with wool to get
the increased price, because "the increased price
is not yet visible 10 the eye Of the honest granger
We have gone into some detail in eX'
posing this fraud, because the opportun-
ity 10 procure the exact facts was so
good. We dare cay that if all the New
York Press so called tariff picture"
were looked into as closely the results
would be the same. The Press evidently
manufactures its 'facts"(O, or else l..
obtains them from others who do.