The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-09-25
THE TARIFF-NOy SILVER.


If the Republican papers Of the coun-
try instead of allowing themselves to be
stampeded by the silver cry had steadily
and persistently pointed out the fact
that the tariff and not the silver ques-
tion is the cause of the present as it was
of the recent financial disturbance it
would have been better for Republican
principles.
To be sure the silver question may
have been incidentally one Of the con-
tributing causes of this depression but
the events Of the past seven weeks
conclusively prove that it was not--as
was alleged-the cause of the distur-
bance.
The great danger does not lie in the
direction of the silver states save as
they in combination with, other non
manufacturing communities exert their
efforts towards the destruction of the
protective tariff.
Mills have not been closed down
because of the silver question. Hundreds
of thousands Of workers are not idle
because of any dread Of this silver
bugaboo, but because of the dread of
the destruction Of the system that has
built on the banks of every New Eng
land river big mills and factories, en-
ploying hundreds of thousands Of
workers. producing goods that have
supplied the wants Of millions, and that
have consumed the products of the
cotton planter and the sheep farmer.
In the closing Of the factory doors, in
the silent spindles, in the faces of the
idle workmen who are walking our
streets can be read the lesson of the day.
Without protection our manufactur-
ers can only live by reducing their
help to the condition of the textile
workers of the Old World. There are
thousands of English men and women
employed in the mills of Rhode Island
today. Ask them why they are here.
They will tell you that tits because they
get better pay, have better schools and
better advantages than they ever OBJ
tanned at home.
Our manufacturers will as a unit de-
clare that without the protective system
they cannot remain prosperous nor can
they continue to pay the high wages that
have made our working people the pos
SCISSORS of happy homes, of accounts in
savings lbanks, contented and happy.
The protective policy has demonstrated
its value. The thriving cities, the i'm
mense output, the control of our own
markets have resulted from this policy.
Destroy the policy that for three de-
cades has exhibited to the world the
value of the protective system--substi-
tute for it free trade, which is the sub
stitute that the Democracy propose to
offer, and then wonder at the business
depression.
Confidence In business is the keynote
of success. Nine-tenths of all business
transactions of the day depend upon the
continuance of confidence. Can we tx.
pect confidence to exist when manufac-
turers know that the business policy of
thirty years is to be overturned; when
they expect that the knife Is to be drawn
across their throats; when they are igno-
rant of the conditions on which they must
continue to do their business in the
future2 Object lessons are being daily
given us concerning Democratic policy
Read them in the general distrust in
banking circles over the proposed return
to the wildcat era. Read them in the
closed factories and mills. Read them
in the thousands of idle railroad
employees, who have been laid off be-
cause of the decline in freight traffic
owing to the uncertainty of business.
Yet all this has been laid to the pur-
chase of silver. Republican papers
have been foolish enough to be stam-
peded by the Democratic hue and cry
raised to take away attention from the
real cause of the disturbance. Slowly
but surely they are coming to their
senses and realizing just to what pur-
poses they have been used.
The free trade policy of the Demo
cracy and not the silver question is the
cause of the existing disturbance In the
commercial world.