The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-10-29

bank notes now in use among the people
but in saying that he surely forgot his state
ment of no later than last June. He said
in the Senate: "Now Mr. President
another thing is plain, that the people OF
this country are not, whether rightly ol
wrongly is not for me to say, in favor oI
the longer continuance of the present bank
ing system beyond that period which will
enable them to wind up as banks Of circu-
lation, when the payment of the interest
| bearing bonds is made. am therefore in
favor of regarding the popular will as being
practically expressed that we shall not con
tinue this banking system longer than the
existence of the bonds that are outstand-
ing"
So that upon these four questions Sen
ator Sherman makes the best possible an
swer to himself He is for the Mckinley
Bill and he is against it, he is for the illegal
combinations of capital called Trusts and
he is against them, he is for the continued
purchase of ) 900, 900 ounces of silver pei
annum and he is against it, he is for the
continuance of the national-bank circulation
and he is against it. What better reply
can possibly be made to his speech than
his own former speeches? ? If so able and
accomplished statesman as Senator Sher-
man thus unequivocally cOntradicts himself
upon every question he ventures to discuss
you may be sure it is only because he finds
it is impossible to discuss such questions
from the standpoint of the Republican party
in the present canvass without such con
tradiction. Nobody knows better than he
knows that this whole question of defend
ing a high protective tariff in this country
at the present time resolves itself, of ne
cessity, into mere Juggling with misleading
propositions, and with statistics equally
misleading.
Senator Sherman knows perfectly well
that there are certain laws Of industry and
of commerce which are as completely be-
yond the scope of Congressional action as
the movements of the planets. Congress
cannot possibly create wealth. All it can
do is to take portions ofthe national wealth
by its citizens created, from certain classes
OF people in order give them to certain
other classes. Even in the State of Penn.
/ sylvania less than II per cent. of its labor
ers can, under any circumstances, be EN-
ployed in the industries which are said to
be benefited by high duties upon imports
leaving IS per cent. of the men who earn
their living by labor in this State, not only
without possibility of protection for theil
labor, but distinctly required to pay boun-
ties upon almost everything they eat, upon
almost everything they wear, and upon al
most every other article necessary to the
daily lives of themselves and their families
1t does very well for the opulent anC
self-satisfed members of the Manuiactur
ers' Club to declare that if these great
bounties are continued to them they vii
minister from their surplus wealth to tn,
needs of the workingman, but, unhappily
human experience forbids us to trust il
that respect even such estimable and worthy
citizens as they are. So far from taking
care of the workingman, the economic basi,
of modern society tends continually to di
minish the burdens of the employer and t.
increase the burdens of the employees.
--------TAXES AND TRUSTS.
~. &c sstsu
eral term TO include all the demands madt
/ by Government upon the citizen, whether
directly or indirectly, and, if so, it will be
found that nine-tenths of the whole of il
falls upon those who live by the labor ot
their hands, The rich, in the true sense
pay substantially nothing, and, on the con,
trary, very many of the rich, like the pro.
tected manufacturers, so far from paying
any taxes at all, realize immense yearly
profits out of the prevailing system of tax
alton. This fact need not rest upon my
statement. A leading and national Repub-
lican Senator declared four years ago that
the manufacturers of Pennsylvania were
more highly protected than anybody else
and made fortunes every year when times
are prosperous
To persuade ones self of the truth of
this statement, it is only necessary to con-
slider how frightfully the prices of the
necessaries of life are increased to those
who can only purchase them in very small
quantities at time. In our self-compla-
ceney we think of them buying coal and
sugar and clothing and tinware at the same
percentage of bounty to the protected in
dustries as we pay, bat the truth is that in
many cases their ability to pay being inf
nitely less, and being compelled to buy
very little at time, the burden of pay
ment upon them is infinitely greater. When
We pay So for ton of coal, they often pay
$50; and yet these great bounties from
labor, so far from satisfying the desire for
wealth in the classes who receive them
under the Mckinley Bill, have actually
only increased it, and so far from being
satisfied, as Senator Sherman warned them
they must be, with the bounties thus voted
to them, they have, in almost every instance
dehantly tFampled the law under foot, and
formed vast aggregations Of capital 20 ~ tp
make themselves absolute masters both of
the quantity Of their product and of the
price they exact for it,
The Cordage Trust is one illustration.
If there has been any class of American
citizens deserving of better fate than that
which has pyertaken them in the last
twenty years, it is the American faruer
Prof Lees of the Stevens Institute stated
the other day that his recent change from
the Republican to the Democratic party
was largely due to his own personal exDgsai NJ
,5'';''''e'ictir, ; and in New Jersey and II he
iad travelled in this State, he could conf
dehtIy have added it to his LIST 0nr
county oil Lancaster has been called tho
garden spot of America, and in il excoI- !
ent farms can be bought today for almost
@hat the buildings on them cost. While |
great fortunes are being made in so many |
,ther departments of American business
nc hard working American farmer each
ear has found himself poorer at the and
= 1t than at the beginning, until now in
senator Sherman's State of Ohio and in
ms State of Pennsylvania, his land i
'ofth; IN many cases, less than half what
was twenty years ago. ,
The total depreciation in the voIua Of /
lrm lands in this country since 1870 Is Z
feater IN my judgment than the cost Of I
" manufaetory in it, and get when the I
rmer OF today comes to bind his wheat C
hlch he must sell for the price fixed in t
Verpaol and less than it costs him. he ;s il
nirontsd n BY the fact that the Mckinley e
Ill puts an artificial price upon the twine o
must use, in order to give bountv - a
wealthy cordage manufacturers who W
attributed to the election of President y,
lrrlson IN 1888, and as if this was not /