Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-09-29

plates. Put them down to lis per box of
100 IA by 20. full weight basis. Let the
w0rkmen take half pay for few months
and turn out more: then let the master
foregO profits for the same time" And
again that paper says: sit Is clearly the
interest of both (employer and workmen) }
price that will drive all competitors from
the field" But in spite of the doubts
raised by the elections of 1890. and of the
Vaccinations of foreign producers to main
tain their monopoly, the tin plate industry
has been established in the United States,
and the alliance between the Welsh pro
ducers and the Democratic party for its
destruction will not succeed. The official
returns to the Treasury Department of the
production of tin and terne plates in the
United States during the last fiscal year
show a total production of 1920, $50
pounds, and a comparison of the first quar-
ter, 826,922 pounds, with the last 49,
100000 pounds, shows the rapid de-
velopment of the industry. Over $780,
900 pounds during the last quarter were
made from American block plates,
the remainder from foreign plates. Mr.
Aver, the treasury agent in charge, esti-
mates, as the result of careful inquiry, that
the production of the fiscal year will be
100, 100000 pounds and that by the end of
the year our production will be at the rate
of 200, 000, 900 pounds per annum.
Another industry that has been practi-
cally created by the Mckinley bill is the
making of pearl buttons. Few articles
coming to us from abroad were so distinct
ly the product OF starvation wages.
THE HALF CAN'T BE TOLD IN ONE LETTER.
But, without unduly extending this letter.
I cannot follow in detail the influence of the
tariff law of 1890. 1t has transplanted sew
eral important industries and established
them here and has revived or enlarged all
others. The act gives to the miners pro-
lection against foreign silver bearing lead
ores, the free Introduction of which threat
ened the great mining industries of the
Rocky Mountain states; and to the wool
growers protection for their heeces and
fOckS, which have saved them from a
further disastrous decline. The house of
representatives at its last session passed
bills placing these ores and woods upon the
free list. The people of the West will
know how destructive to their prosperity
these measures would be. THIS tariff law
has given employment to many thousands
OF American men and women, and will
each year give employment to increasing
thousands. Its repeal would throw thous
ands out OF employment and give work to
others only at reduced wages. The APP
peals OF the free trader to the wOrkingmen
are largely addressed to his preiudlces Or
to mis- passions, and not lnfreQuently are
pronouncedly communistic. The new
Democratic leadership RACES at the en-
ployer and seeks to communicate his rage
to the employe. [ greatly regret that all
employers OF labor are not just and con-
siderate and that capital sometimes takes
too large share of the profits. But | do
not see that these evils will be ameliorated
by tariff policy the first necessary effect
OF which is a severe wage cut and the sec
Ond large diminutiOn of the aggregate
amnnnt n WORK n no done in this country
1t the injustice of his employer tempts the
workman to strike back he should be very
sure that his blow does not fall upon his
head or upon his wife and children.
woRKMEN WILL SETTLE IT INTELLI-
GENTLY.
The wOrkmen in our great Industries are
as a body remarkably intelligent, and are
lovers of home and country. They may
be reused by injustice, or what seems to
into acts of passion; but they will settle
the tariff question in the calm light of their
firesides and with sole reference to the
prosperity OF the country OF which they
are 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 a
uniform rate OF wages-without regard to
fluctuations in the supply of and demand
of the products of labOr-but it is confident
ly claimed that productive duties strongly
tend to hold up wages, and are the only
barrier against reduction to the European
scale. The Southern States have had lib
eral participation in the benefits OF the
tariff law. and though their representatives
have generally opposed the prOtectlOn
policy. they rejoice that their sugar. rice,
coal, ores. iron, fruits, cotton cloths and
other products have not been left to the
fate which the votes of their representa-
tives would have brought upon them.
In the question Of the Nicaragua canal,
in the new trade with the South and Cen
trail America, in the establishment of
American steamship lines, these states
have also special interests, and all these
interests will not always consent to be
without representation at Washington.
Shrewdly, but not quite fairly, our adj
versaries speak only of the increased duties
imposed upon tin, pearl buttons and other
articles, by the Mckinley bill, and omit
altogether any reference to the great and
beneficial enlargement of the free list.
During the last fiscal year $45S,O0O, 772
worth OF merchandise, or $3.50 per cent. OF
our total impOrtations came in free (the
largest percentage in our history, while in
1889 the percentage OF free lmportatlons
was only "a. ~. The placing OF sugar upon
the free list has saved to the consumer in
duties in fifteen months. after paying the
bounties provided for, 1887, 100000. This re-
lief has been substantially felt in every
household, upon every Saturday purchase
of the WOrklngman.
One OF the favorite arguments against
protective tariff is that it shuts us out
from position 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 our commercial
competitors are not able to bear with
more serenity our supposed surrender to
them OF the "markets of the world %
and how does it happen that the partial
loss of our market closes foreign tin plate
mills and plush factories that still have all
other markets. Our natural advantages,
our protective tariff and the reciprocity
policy, make it possible for us to have
tariff participation in the market Of the
world without opening our own to COM
petition that would destroy the comfort
and independence of our people,
BIMETALLISM.
The resolution OF the convention in favor
of bimetallism declares, l think, the true
and necessary conditions of movement
that has, upon these lines, my cordial ad-
boronoo an6 cuppnrt I am th0rOuUhlV