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

no, God bless him, he's too honest to enter
into trust or combination to fix and regu-
late the prices of what he produces. That's
what the iron, steel, tin, glass, lumber, and
| coal barons have done until today these peo-
| pIe have monopoly of the necessaries OF life,
| fix the prices to suit themselves, and the peo-
| pie pay for it all.
Free trade is simply an impossibility in this
| country for a half century at least; hence the
old stale cry Of Free Trade hurled at US by
our friends, the enemy, is simply another case
of ''stop thief by the rogue himself. Large
revenues must be raised to support the gov,
eminent, and it always has been the settled
policy of all parties to raise the money neces-
sary for this purpose imports, whlskey,
and tobacco. These are indirect taxes, and
are not felt so perceptibly as direct taxes,
such as your County Commissioners levy and
collect.
The Democratic position is to make raw
materials free, so as to stimulate manutactur.
ing and to reduce the taxes on the actual
necessities of life. This would cause the
death of trusts and monopolies, and save the
people at least $500, 600 900, or SIS per capita
each year The Republicans oppose this
| doctrine for specious reasons known to every
| intelligent man. The taxes are forty per
cent higher now than during and immediate
]
| palliation for this condition of affairs. Listen
| to what some very eminent Republican lead
ers said on this subject Gen. John A. Logan OF
| Illinois, a U. s. Senator, and Vice Presidential
candidate with Mr. Blaine in 1884, says: 1--WE
want reduction of the tariff. We are taxed
on every Interest," blood is not only extracted
from the larger veins of the body polite, but
it is bound hand and foot, and covered all
over with gallinippers who are allowed to
suck blood from every vein. '-Consresslonal
Globe of April %, 1870
Supreme Court Justice Miller, a staunch
Republican, in one Of his famous judicial
opinions, said ITO lay with one hand the
power of the Government on the property of
a citizen and with the other bestow it upon
favored individuals to aid private enterprise
and build up private fortunes is none the less
robbery because it is done under the forms OF
law and is called taxation. This is not legis-
lation. 1t is decree under legislative forms.
Nor is it taxation. Beyond cavii there can
be no lawful taxation which is not laid for
public purposes.
Congressman Kmute Nelson, of Mime.
sofa, now the nominee of the Republican
party for Governor of that State, in a speech
in Congress on March 18th, 1888, said among
other things: The price of labor is
primarily governed by the law of supply and
demand. The protected producer does not
measure the wages he pays by the amount OF
protection he gets, but by the ease or diff
entity with which he can produce labor, or by
the fact whether labor is plenty or scarce.
A protective tariff only helps labor indirectly
by charging the demand for 1t. One OF the
secondary results of a very high tariff is
overprsduction and this leads to stagnation
and suspension, from which comes to the
aborer lower wages, lockouts, strikes, and
untold miseries 1t has been the fashion of
certain economists to ascribe the marvellous
growth of this country for the past twenty-five
years wholly to our tariff laws Statistics of
growth in all conceivable forms have been
paraded, accompanied with the exclamation,
Behold the tariff This is all pure exag-
geraton.
Presidents Garfield and Arthur, Senator
Sherman, of Ohio; Secretary of the Treasury
McCulloch, and other well known leaders OF
the Republican party, at different times
strongly advocated reduction of the tariff
proving the present attitude of the pem"orhcy
Ia he H.. correct one. Since then, instead OF
reducing the tariff, the Mckinley Act in
creaSes it from an average OF Al per cent TO
81 per cent Since 1870 the average wages.
the price of farm hands and of farm products,
have decreased steadily, until today they
scarcely afford living to the toiling millions
of unprotected people. This would be all
right if the purchasing power of dollar had
increased proportionately. 1t is not so much
the amount we receive in return for our pro
ducts, whether of farm, trade, business, or
labor, but what is its purchasing power.
When we 20 to the store or mill, how much
will Il dollar buy? That's The tdIif queS-
HOn in HM shell. 1t would be funny, but
for the fact that we are taxed to death by the
Mckinley Act, TO know that farmers could
save money by purchasing their implements,
American. made, in any European country,
obtaining an order on the manufacturers or
general agents here. To illustrate plows
reapers, mowers, threshing machines, drills,
etc, are sold here ior export to supply the
foreign trade at from 20 to 80 per cent. less
than the same articles can be bought by the
men who sell to the farmer. Axes are sold
for 81 per dozen less; nuts and bolts from 10
10 30 per GeRi, less per dozen, for export
than 10 home purchasers, AnAmerIean lady
travelling abroad This summer prlced a sew
ing machine before leaving her home IN
Philadelphia, and found that Il machine sell
ing for $50 there could be purchased i'll
London for $40 She bought it, taking an
order on the Philadelphia house of the
Company, and thus saved SIS by the transac-
ton.
Senator Sherman, ? tsr-seeing Republican
statesman, in 1870, when the maHuiacturers
were clamoring for d higher tax, said ut
is wrong and contrary to the prosperity OF the
American people" He said further that the
people would rise in their might and destroy
lie whole system of protection if the protect
/ ed industries would not submit to a reason
able tariff" Let the people apply Sherman
remedy. Cut down projection to the point
that eren and c.rdct justice may BE- dong 70 the
ioiling millions Of 4me,icd's great farming
and iaJoyiHg interests. This will dissolve
!he ubiquitous trusts and unholy combina-
tons, that, like the octopus, or devil fish, OF
the ocean, gathers in and destroys every livr
ing thing that approaches it. Cut down the
tax on the necessaries of life and abolish it
entirely on raw materials, aud thus expand
and stimulate our manufactures, and send our
goods to all the markets Of the world.
American genius, pluck and energy, with
our rich natural resources, will, under these
= conditTons, enable oornPete- with all
ualious and underSell the manufacturers of
the Sosij Yours very truly,
Jos. A. GoULDEN,
Chairman ofSpeaheF Gommittee, Tammany
Hall.
! MUTUAL