The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-11-03

! Even III the state OF pennsylvania les
| that - per cent. of its laborers can unde
any circumstances be employed in the in
! dustries which are said TO be benefited b,
/ high duties upon imports, leaving IS pc
/ cent Of the men who earn their living b,
/ labor III this state not only without posi-
! bility of protection for their labor, but dis
| tinctly required to pay bounties upon al
! most everything they eat, upon almos
/ everything they wear, and upon almos
! every other article necessary to the daily
| lives of themselves and their families.
! 1t does very we'll for the opulent and sell
satisfied members of the Manufacturers
club to declare that if these great bounties
are continued to them from their surplus
wealth they will minister from their sur
plus wealth to the needs of the working
man, but unhappily human experience for
bids US to trust in that respect even such
estimable and worthy citizens as they are
80 far from taking care of the working
man, the economic basis of modern society
tends continually to diminish the burdens
Of the employer and to increase the bur
dens Of the employee.
Taxation may be properly used as a gen
eral term to include all the demands made
by government upon the citizen, whether
directly or Indirectly, and if so it will be
found that nine-tenths Of the whole Of it
falls upon those who live by the labor of
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 r.,
publican senator declared four years ago
that the manufacturers of Pennsylvania
were more highly protected than any body
else and made large fortunes every year
when times are prosperous.
To persuade ones self CT the truth of
this statement it is only necessary to con-
slider how frishtfully the prices of the nee
essarics of life are increased to those who
can only purchase them in very small
quantities at a time. In our self compla-
cency we think Of them buying coal and
sugar and clothing and tinware at the
same percentage of bounty to the protected
industries we pay. But the fact is that in
many cases their ability to pay being in
ffnitely less, and compelled to buy very
little ut a time, the burden of payment
upon them is infinitely greater.
When we pay five dollars for ton of coal
they often pay twenty dollars 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 Scna-
tor Sherman warned them they must be-
with the bSunties thus voted TO them, they
have in almost every instance defiantly
trampled the law under foot and formed
vast aggregdt ions of capital SO as to 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. II
there has been any class of American citi-
Zens deserving Of a better fate than that
which has overtakeu them in the last
twenty years it is tue American farmer
Professor Lees, Of the Stevens institute,
stated the otherday that his recent change
from the Republican to the Democratic
party was largely due to his own personal
experiences Of the increasing poverty of
the American farmer in Massachusetts,, in
Connecticut and in New Jersey, and if he
had travelled in this $,;ite he could conf,
IDENTIFY have added it to his list.
Our county OF Lancaster has been called
the garden spot Of America and in it eX-
Ce!lcnt farms can Dc bought to day almost
for what TIE buildings Oh them cost. While
great fortunes are being made in SO many
tther departments Of American business,
The E2rtWC!. az American farmer has
each year found himself poorer at the end
Of it than ut the beginning, until now in
Senator Sherman's state of Ohio and in
this state of Pennsylvania his land is
worth in many cases less than half what
1t was twenty years ago
The total depreciation in the value Of
farm lands in this country since 1870 is
greater in my judgment than the cost OF
any manufactory in it, and yet, when tie
farmer of today comes to bind his wheat,
which lie must sell for the price fixed in
Liverpool and less than it costs him. he is
confronted b the fact that the Mckinley
bin puts an artificial price upon the Irvine
he must use IN order to give a bounty to
the wealthy cordage manufacture who
contributed to the election of President
Harrison in 1o8S, and as if this was not
enough he finds his poverty further in
creased by having to pay an additional and
Illegal bounty in consequence of the forma-
ton OF the Cordage trust and the monopoly
u enjoys, and SO it is of almost every ar
ticle he now buys.
The Sugar trust is another illustration
applicable to the workingmen. The la
boring man, whether farmer or artisan or
day laborer, i obliged to buy sugar for
himself and his family every day Of his
life, and when he comes to buy it he finds
On artificial price has been placed upon it
by the Mckinley bill as recompense to
its wealthy manufacturers for the money
they contributed to assist in the election
of President Harrison four years ago.
And as if that was not enough he then dis
covers that another artificial price has been
added to it contrary to law in order to swell
the already vast fortunes of those who re-
ceive these bounties. Meanwhile he finds
oppressed also in the other direc-
uo.l, for just as a monopoly illegally re-
stricts production it deprives his fellow
workers of employment and adds to the
numbers in the labor market competing
with him for bread
That may not be accused of exaggera-
ton on this subject l quote the words of a
leading newspaper of this city. which SAYS,
The Sugar trust bids defiance to the laws
and goes its way, not honorably earning
money. but by combining SO as to create
an absolute monopoly and to entirely con-
troll the manufacture and sale of sugar,
getting profits and a surplus in way no
more honest than that of highwayman
who bids his victim, who is incompetent to
help himself, to stand and deliver"
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what the
Republican party has done in respect to q
Chief necessity of life. 1t is hardly there
fore astonishing that a bishop of the Epis-
copai church should declare the other day
that the cry of the workingman was utter
~ ignored, that the laws as they stand
protect only the rich, that the capitalist
controls everything AID that the laborer is
looked on only as beast of burden, nor is
1t very surprising that Methodist clergy
man OF brooklyn should solemnly declare
mat Mr.. Carnegie and his associates were
responsible for every drop of blood shed at
II homestead
These are not the rawlings of foreign
they are the solemn utterances
OF Christian teachers of our own blood.
no doubt but such mistakes
are due to capitalists themselves. and
what Is true of the Mckinley bill and the
great group of gigantic monopolies which
have mainly grown out of it is true also
OF the reckless pension legislation which