The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1892-04-16
PROTECTION AND PROGRESSION.

PROTECTION AND PROGRESSION.
The price question has been settled
thoroughly, says the Chicago Inter
Ocean, and in favor of protection to
American industries. 1t will be the
turn of the protectionist speakers and
writer's to quote prices during the com
ing campaign. The free traders never
have been able to use them effectively,
for, almost universally, protection has
lowered prices when it has had time
to operate. Where it has failed, as in
the case of sugar, it has been because
the manufacturers benefited by it have
been too apathetic to avail themselves
of its advantages, and their apathy
properly has led to removal of protec-
tion from articles whose production
was not stimulated by it. The Demo-
cratic gains in 1890 we're not made by
quotation of what prices really were
"on account of the tariff" but by
false prophesies of what they would
be s'on account Of q new tariff These
prophesies now are matter of ridicule.
They cannot be used again.
But there is fine field of education
now to the advocates of protection, in
which may be displayed the philosophy
of tariff operations. The voters may
De educated into knowledge of how
protection lowers prices by increasing
production, and the american Ecoao-
mist has been the first to enter this
field. The figures that we are about
to produce are gathered from 1t.
The Mckinley bill gave incresed
protection to many grades of silk and
lace manufactures,and it largely added
to the tariffs ON velvet and plushes,
and increased the duties on many
qualities of hosiery. Everybody re-
members the malignant joy with which
the Democratic press predicted the in
ability of any, save the very rich, to
buy silks or plushes or laces under the
provisions of the Mckinley bill, and
the rapture with which it insisted On
the need of the people to wear patched
socks and stockings, Ton account of the
tariff" Equally we'll does everybody
know that silks and plushes and ho-
siery and laces are cheaper to-day than
when the Democratic press was max
ing its alarming predictions as to an
immediate and permanent rise in the,
price of them. But as to the reason
why everybody may not be so well IN
formed.
1t is this: Since the passage of the
Mckinley bill sixteen new factories
for the production of these articles
have been established in the United
States. Sixteen new American COM
petltors for possession of the Ameri-
can market have made their appear
snce. One of these is paying $4,000 a
week in wages, another is paying $500
a week, one is paying $4,000 a year,
another $4,000. The wages run
from So per week for girls to $40 for
skilled operators.
There were Democratic complaints
of duties on cotton ties, tools and ma
chlnery, but seven new factories for
the production of these things have
been put in operation since the passage
of the Mckinley bill.
As to tin-plate. the American peo-
pie have heard much from the Demo
cratic press, and even now an unusual-
ly audacious free trader will venture
to say that no tin plate is made in the |
United States. The Amser;ca7s Econ.
onsist, however, notes that the WAL
lace Banfeld & o.. works at Irondale,
Ohio, are giving steady employ ment
to 700 men, and paying from 81 to SO |
per day for tin workers, and from
81. 20 to SO fer iron workers, for this
firm rolls its own steel and plates be-
fore coating them; it is producing
100000 sheets of tin.plate daily.
Seven other firms are quoted as actu-
ally engaged in the manufacture of
All these are creations of
the Mckinley bill
Besides these, three tin works have
enlarged the sphere of their operations
since the passage of the bill, and this
is true of thirteen lace, silk, plush and
hosiery firms, in addition to the six
teen new ones already mentioned.
These are but few instances of the
of American Industries
since the enactment of that law which
the free traders viliied as measure
Of oppression.
Il
The Eugene Register gives forth no
uncertain sound regarding its political
'aith, and this is the way it voices its
sentiments in favor of the grand old