Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-09-10
Tariff Influences =.



No country has ever existed where
wealth has teen created more easily or
been more rapidly massed in the hands of
the few than in this country during the
last thirty years. Now why has tn con-
centration of the wealth of the country
into the hands of the few been so marked
and noticeable? There is perhaps more
than one reason or cause for so disastrous
result But we pretend 10 say that
none have been more effective in bringing
about this state of affairs than has been
the high tariff which the war forced upon
the country.
And yet those who clamor for high
protective tariff were not satisfied with
the one left as q legacy by the late war,
but they have just emerged from the re-
modelling of that tariff upon a more iu-
iquitously high protective scsle-a sche>
dule which is to more certainly fleece tie
poor, that the rich may become still more
rich and lordly.
Is this What free people are to expect
IN the administering of free government
upon people painting for the mainten-
ance of constitutional liberty? If this is
TO be the result, how long will the pillars
of free government stand erect, as the
AONuhCIc pldIGu lD6ul anu tTGCItu the mdg-
niticent structure thereon? Let an educat.
cd people who have been reared under the
the Influences of our free institutions look
well to the tendencies OF legislation since
the war. Capital always has its Hobbies
TO thwart legislation which may have a
tendency to curtail the encroachments of
wealth ard power upon the rights of the
people.
Now let us see the influences of a high
protective tariff upon the transfer of the
wealth OF nation from the hands of the
many to those of the few. There are.
perhaps, somewhere from four TO six
millions of our people who directly are
interested In the manufactures of the
country-say one in 10. 1t is not
claimed that the tariff directly benefits
any but the manufacturers and those thus
employed.
Suppose we take q community of q
hundred persons to illustrate the work
ings of the tariff. Ten of these are en-
gagged IN manufacturing Q different kinds.
The principle of the tariff would say
that the other 80 must be taxed so per
cent on all they consumed OF the manu-
featured articles to put into the pockets
of the OIL er 10. How long does this
progress 90 on before 80 become very
poor and the 10 very rich? This is the
theory upon which a protective tariff op
crates. I, is kind of squeezing has been
going on very deliberately for the last 80
years
In the last success of the republicans
"a. e are told this squee zing process was
not scrt wed down TO its last drippines,
and cons' quently the late congress caus hi
hold of the lever and gave it another
twist, 10 see if there was not little more
substance the people would give up be
fore revolving, so that the rich could pi e
up still higher their wealth and ill 90 Ten
gains.
Do we overstate the bearing of this
questio The percentage of protection
Is nearly twice as great as it was In 1882.
when the country was SO Convulsed over
the matter that a reduction was forced
Those infant manufactures in those
days thought 80 per cent was all sufficient
But now. when this country has developed
resources never dreamed of in those DAYS,
we are asked TO take so per cent of all
m nufactured articles consumed BY the
masses and hand it over to the infant
manufactures, that those whose wealth
is so employed may riot in their ill-gotten
gain.
Inns is the great question to be settled
in the near future. The election of this
fall is to cast it's shadow before it upon
this vital is ue to the people. Iowa is
especially taxed in t. is direction. because
she is largely an agricultural state She
is great consumer of those very articles
upon which republican congress has
made heavy exactions. Now is the time
to start the vessel Of state in the right
direction.