Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-09-06
APPEALS TO WORKlNGMEN.
Democrat Charged with Thos of Com
munistic Kind.

Democrats Charged with Thos of a Com
munistic Kind.
The appeals of free trader to the wokingman
are largely addressed to his prejudices or to
his passions and not infrequeatly are pro-
nouncedly communistic. The new Democratic
leadership RACES at the employer and seeks to
communicate this rage to the employee. re-
greet that all employers of labor are no: just
and considerable and that capital sometimes
takes too large a share of the profits. But do
not see that these evils will be ameliorated by
a tariff policy the first necessary effect of
which is severe wage cut and the second a
large diminution of the aggregate amount of
work to be done in this country. II the injus-
tice of his employer tempts the workman to
strike back he should be very sure that his
blow does not fall upon his own head upon
his wife and children. The workmen in our
great industries are as a body remarkably in
telligent and are lovers of home and country.
Claims of the Protectionists-
They may be aroused by injustice. or what
seems to. them to be such, or be led for the
moment by others into acts of passion but
they win settle the tariff contest in the calm
light of their November hresides and with sole
reference to the prosperity of the country of
which they a~e citizens and of the homes they
have founded for their wives and children.
No intelligent advocate of protective tariff
claims that it is able, of itself to maintain
uniform rate of wages without regard to
fluctuations in the supply of and demand for
the products of labor. But it is confidently
claimed that protective duties strongly tend to
hold up wages and are the only barrier against
a reduction to the European scale
Southern States Participate.
The southern states have had a liberal par
ticipatiou in the benefits of the tariff law; and,
though their representatives have generally
opposed the protection policy, / rejoice that
their sugar. rice, coal, ores iron, fruits, cot
ton cloths and other products have not been
left to the fate which the votes of their rep.e-
sentatives would have brought upon them. In
the construction of the Nicaragua canal, in
the new trade with South and Central America,
in the establishment of American steamship
lines, these states have also special interests,
and all these interests viii not always consent
to be without representation at Washington.
Sugar the Free List.
Shrewdly, but not quite fairly, our adver-
saries speak only of the increased duties i'm
posed on linen. pearl buttons and other ar
ticles by the Mckinley bill and omit altogether
any reference to the great and beneficial en-
largement of the free list During the last
fiscal year AS, OOO,112 worth of merchandise or
1915 per cent. of total imports, came in
free Cthe largest percentage in our historv)
while in 1880 the percentage of importations
was only 34.4S per cent. The placing of sugar
upon the free list has saved to the consumer IN
fifteen months. after paying the bounties pro-
vided for, Ss7, OOO,OOO This relief has been sub
stantially felt in every household upon every
Saturday purchase of the workingman
The ''rInrkets of the World"
One of the favorite arguments against
protective tariff is that it shuts
us out from participation in what is
called with swelling emphasis the markets of
the world" If this view Is not a false one,
how does it happen that commercial COM
petitors are not able to bear with more seren-
ity our supposed surrender to them of the
markets of the world? and how does it hap
pen that the partial oss OF oar mark.t closes
foreign tin pate mills and silk plush factories
that still have all o her markets? Our natural
advantages, our protective tiriH, and the
reciprocity policy make it possible for US TO
have large participation in the markets OF
the worldr without opening our own TO n COM
petition that would de troy the comfort and
independence of our people.