Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1891-09-30
Cheap John: Clothes.


That the present ultra high or pro-
hibitory tariff as a rule raises the
price of the protected article to the
consumer must be admitted by all
fair-minded persons. If it does not,
then it must be sore disappointment
to those who paid and labored for its
enactment. Banking, in that case,
with Mr.. Quay in 1888, must haye
been equally as Improbable as for an
outsider to trust his cash to that pious
coadjutor of Mr.. Wanamaker, the
now retired Mr.. Bardsley, in 1890.
That the clients of Mr.. Quay Jared
much better is shown by the prepare
tons for great collection of ready
cash for pious uses in 1892.
An equally serious charge against
the present tariff is not only that it
increases the cost of living, but that
in almost all articles, more especially
in clothing, it distinctly lowers the
qualities of the goods. AS is well
known the American cloth manufact-
urer, restricted to American woods,
and forbidden to meet his foreign
rival in free market, resorts to rags,
shoddy, waste stiffenings and general
trade trickery. The famous SO suit
exhibited by Major Mckinley during
the debate on the Mills bill would, if
quality and durability were consider
ed, be dear at $3.50.
The chances are that tho Major
himself is dressed in the hated fabrics
of the base and unworthy foreigner,
and cheerfully paid premium on
them against American goods. IF he
is not he is an exception to the con-
federated beneficiaries of the law that
bears his name. They generally pre-
fer the alien purple and fine linen"
wherewith to drape their well.fed
bodies, because suppose, they know
best the mysteries of domestic manu-
facture.
BY the way, why do Americans buy
and pay high prices for foreign cloth
goods? In other words, are Ameri-
cans so lacking in skill, inventive
genius, taste, industry and resources
that they cannot make fine goods ?
Will anyone of Major McKinley's
friends plead guilty to such charge
Certainly not. To do so would be to
libel American mechanical ability,
handicraft and enterprise. The
American cloth manufacturer does
not make as fine and durable goods
as his foreign rival, because you have
tied his hands and left him at the
mercy of that national calamity and
legalized confscation, the wool tariff.
This marked deterioration in the
quality of domestic goods was bad
enough, indeed, but since the passage
of the late prohibitory law against
commerce, / am assured by those in
a position to know, the quality of
foreign goods now received in this
country has suffered a marked change
for the worse. In order to meet the
extraordinary tariff changes in the
United States the foreign manufacture
err is resorting to the cheap and dis
honest articles of his American rival.
This is, of course, what might have
been expected and should create no
surprise. Europe will work up into
cloth her own rag bags and old waste
heaps. The foreign bale of cloth will
have the same pattern and the same
price, but honest wear need no man
now expect. Commerce being OH a
level with smuggling and coin clip
ping may still show traces of an hon
est face, but the heart of it is full of
deceit.
If dressed at all, we must be, worthy
Major, with your $40 shoddy suit, for
under heaven you have left us now
no choice of a better quality, and yet
that favored child of Congressional
action, the Ohio wool-grower, gets less
price for his product. Verify, some
other inconvenient laws must be run
ming counter to that of our friend,
Major Neutrality-suspicious. VIM.
McAdoo.