The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-02-05
TEE SITUATION.
To the Editor Of the Eagle.

You had me say in last Sunday 5
| EAGLE hope our legislature will ask
congress by what authority they give
/ the American manufacturer 81 100000
per anuum and Kansas producers not
one-thousandth as much. You should
1 have said zoo, 000, 600 for manufactures,
and l might add Kansas pays more for
protection than she gets out OF lt-and
| for that matter so does the whole Unit
ed States, for with the tariff bill we try
| to protect our American industries, but
let in 1890, 437, 117.17 worth of foreign
manufactured good-which we might
make, including the raw material we
might grow.
There is but one way TO make tariff
bill for revenue that Will not defraud the
! American people, and that Is 10 tax the
inpor ations of goods we cannot make
and the raw material we cannot grow,
and put such tariff on foreign goods
we can make and on raw material we
can grow to exclude them. This Is our
right and privilege and our duty to our
selves-no matter what foreign nations
may say about it. / say 1T respectfully,
but emphatically, We can never prosper
as d nation until we adopt this plan. The
sooner the better for the lasting good of
the manufacturer, the producer and all
the people.
1t used 10 be a true maxim, when
competition prevailed, that supply and
demand regulated the price OF our
products, but such is not the case now.
The competition still exists in producing
them, but combinations now control their
sale and fix price at their own sweet
will. France and Germany are opening
their gates to let in American products
free, which ought to advance
the price of hogs in Kansas ! cent
pound; but no, the eastern packers
control the price, and expect TO make
all they can. cost the producer what II
may. Our farmers have been selling
hogs all winter for cents a pound less
than it cost them, considering the price
of corn. Beef, and everything else we
grow, is in like condition. Nor are the
groceries we buy an exception. fifty
five million tariff was taken off sugar,
and we ought to buy the best granulaIed
sugar for cents a pound but 1t Is -
cents, or 90 per cent more than 1t ought
to be. Some one. or more, are trying TO
get the fifty-five million the government
gave to the people. The Spectator Is
worse than despot. The despot, with
out law, robS the people of their accumu-
lations: the speculator with law takes
our very living. The profit or accumu-
lation is never seen, there Is nothing 10
eat or wear but what he takes his part
first; often that part is the greatest. The
query is how are we going to prevent IT:
| see no better remedy than for the people
TO elect their representatives 10 office,
from the president down to the lowest
official, and make just laws for the BEN
eft of all.
The American Financier is another
great Spectator. He would have
YOU believe that the National bank
ing system was the best in the world.
OF course Il is for him, when be gets the
interest and increase, or loss and destruc-
ton of the bills. 1t reminds me of
sharp trick boy played on an uncle of
his who had fine orchard, and the boy
thought it a good place to keep bees.
The clever old fellow did not object, so
the boy left his bees in the orchard I'M
der the apple trees, and few empty
hives to put the new swarms in: and
the honey. The boy made him believe
that he got his pay by the bees circulat-
ing among the trees and fertllizing the
blossoms; but, somehow or other, Uncle
Sam got it into his head
that he might as well go into the bee
business himself and save all the honey
and increase. An improvement on the
national banking system is already seen
in the gold and silver certificates. The
government receives the gold and silver.
and. as it should, gets the benefit Of
the loss Of the bills. But why not 20 a
step further-buy all the gold and silver
in the United States and pay the govern
ment bonds and save all the inter
est, and pay for it in the issue of legal
tender notes This is the best and only
banking scheme ever devised by the
American people for the people-mOney
better than gold or silver, because the
government gets all the increase and
honey. Gold or silver is nothing but
dead weight compared to legal tender
notes. The dollar in gold or silver has
to be bought with another dollar, has TO
be coined and recoined at somebody's
expense, and when lost is gone for good.
The legal tender costs little and pays its
own wav, is a real benefit instead of an
expensive luxury. Kings and queens
NAV reverence gold and silver, but the
best money for the American people is
the loyal legal tender notes. They cam
not depreciate in value because they are
the measures of all our values and will
remain so as long as our country exists.
II. f. BIDwEIL.