The Forrest City times., 1891-01-16
THE FUTURE OF REFORM
VIEWS OF CONGRESSMAN WM.
 M. SPRINGER.

Backward.
 Congressman Wm. M Springer will be prominent figure in the new Democratic House. He is already a candidate for Speaker, with show of being elected; but whether he Is elected or not, his long and conspicuous service in the Demo- cratic party lends great interest to his views of the outlook for tariff reform at this time. He talked recently to mem- Der of the New York Reform Club as follows:
 "The Republican politicians of Wash ington are now trying to divert public attention from the principal issue upon which they were repudiated at the No- -vSmheT election. They seem to be of ttne opinion that thefe is but one way open through which success is possible in 1892. Upon the tariff question they have been thoroughly repudated. They now hope by reviving sectional issues, through md by means of the force bill and ap- peals to sectional prejudice, to reform political issues upon other lines than tariff and taxation. In this they will be as much disappointed as they were over whelmed by the result of the recent election. The people of the country have pronounced against taxation of the 76any for the benefit of the few. They Will not give up this issue until it has eventuated in practical legislation in ac cordance with their demands. If we were now living under the form of gov ernment which prevails in monarchial England, the new Congress would at once be convened, and the Mckinley bill would be immediately repudiated; but under our moro conservative methods we must abide the constitutional forms required for securing results.
 "On the tariff question the Republ- cans can neither go forward nor backward with any prospect of bettering their con dition. To stand still is conceded defeat; to move in the other direction offers scarcely less advantage If they go for ward they must rely upon the fulfilment of pledges made before the election and pending the passage of the Mckinley bill, to the effect that while prices of articles affected hy the tariff might be temporarily advanced, yet ultimately and in the near future, by means of com petition, such prices could be greatly reduced and articles would be sold cheaper than before the passage of the bill-thus placing their reliance in the future for reversal Of the popular judgment in NovembeE upon a claim that competition is to come to their re- lief, and that by the time of the next Presidential election the people will be in the full enjoyment of cheap necessa- ries of life secured through competition. This hope Is fatteEing one; it can never be realized.
 Competition has'already done it's per feet work in this country in the matter of reducing prices. So perfectly has competition been carried on that com fnr hp of int O competition has been resorted to aR along uhe line. There is scarcely mar Ufacturing industry in the United States that is not moro or less controlled aty some kind of combination for the pEr- posefof limiting the output and reGu- latiug tue prices In some cases this combination Eas taken the form of trusts or organized monopolies- These trusts have secured the concentration of nearly all the capital engaged in d given industry, and by this combination com plete control of the output and prices has been secured. In other cases a more mild type of combination has been re- sorted to- In some cases the corl,bina- tion has been secured by means of cor respondence between the various in terests and tacit agreement reached as 10 output and prices, year after year But, through one form or another, 2 -scarcely an industry can be mentioned in which further competition is not pre- vented or made impossible by the mutual concurrence of those engaged in the business.
 Those, therefore, who look to compe- tition for 8 reduction of prices will be deceived. Prices of manufactured ar tioles can only be reduced, while the Mckinley bill is in force, by the reduc- tion of wages or by the adoption of inn proved processes. The latter will come without the tariff; it is entirely inde- pendent of it. In most lines of indus try it would seem that the processes of manufacture were almost perfect at this time; but still we may hope for con- tinued improvement in this direction, although such improvement will scarce ly be perceptibe in the brief space of two years. Lower prices secured by re duction of wages would be attended with greater disaster than if present prices should be maintained and wages increased; so that, wherever cheapness Is secured by reduction of wages, the remedy will be worse than the disease speaking in political sense, as it will affect the interests of the Republican party. Hence, it seems conclusive that the Republican party cannot improve its position on the tariff or on taxation by adhering to the Mckinley bill.
 "H however, the leaders of the party should determine to reverse their posi- tion, overturn the leadership of Harri- sori, Mckinley, and Reed and put Mir Blaine forward with the implied promise of the repeal of the Mckinley bill, the enlargement,of trade, through reciproc- fly and the bettering of their condition by repudiating all that the Republican party has done since it came into power it will find this latter condition more hopeless than the former.
 "President Harrison, in his message to Congress pointed with pride to the fact that there had been, recently. an in- crease in the prices of agricultural prod uets such as ,oorn, wheat, etc. and he cHdeayored to convey the impression that such increased price of agricultural products was the result of the Mckinley bill. Nothing coud he further from the truth. If he had taken pains to examine the reports on the condition of crops, which issued from the Agricul- tural Department almost simultaneous ly with his message, he would have found that in Kansas tho average yield of corn per acre was only eleven bushels, where as 1t ought to have been thirty The very fact that there is almost a total failure of the the corn crop in Kansas was one of the reasons which produced the political revolution in that Stato. The failure or shortness of the corn crop in the great corn belt of the country caused scarcity of this product and