Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-12-22

TO WHAT Is n DUEe
The Republican leaders and their
faithful organs have started an entirely
new industry-that Of making political
capital out Of the result OF their own
abuses. They clamor and howl, and
even roar about Democratic hard
times" when the Democrats have
scarcely had a chance to begin the
work Of reforming the vicious Re-
publican laws that have caused it all.
The New York World tersely outlines
the situation in pointing out that if
ever the experiment Of taxing a nation
into prosperity had a fair trial, it was
10 the period following the war. And
yet the panic Of 1873 was the most dis
astrous, and the period Of business de-
preston for FIVE years thereafter vas
the most severe Of any in u history.
Il was officially estimated that at least
5000, 900 w~orkingnen were ont Of en-
ployment. And yet the tariff vas near
ly as high as the Mckinley abomina-
ton. The Republicans were in full
control Of the government.
From 1851 TO 1856, under two Repub-
lican tariffs, there were labor strikes
involving %, 3O4 establishments and
1928 O3 workingmen. OF these strikes
9,439 were for increase Of wages, and
ASA against reductions Of wages.
Then, as Master Workman SOVEREIGN
well says is the case now, protected
manufacturers showed no disposition
to share their bonus" with their work
men except upon compulsiOn.
The Republicans "tinkered" the tar
iG in 1883. In that year there were
0,Is4 business failures, involving S172,-
$4,000. In 1854 there were 10, 1868
failures, involving S226, $4,000. In the
next year there was q widespread bust
ness depression. with 1000, 900 men out
Of employment.
In 1890 the Mckinley bill was pass
ed, and there we're 1O,673 failures that
year and 70, 394 the next, with liabili-
ties ia each year amounting to nearly
$500, OOO, 900. The tariff went up to
nearly so per cent, but wages either
stood still or declined.
Tramps ana trusts were practically
unknown in this country until after we
had suffered from a m~onopOlists' tariff
for a number Of years.
The worst labor troubles, the bloodi-
esq riots, the most destructive strikes,
the most brutal lockouts ever known in
any country have occurred, says the
World, in the United States under
the high tariffs bought, made and
paid for by the contributors Of the Res
publican campaign funds.
The financial and industrial history
of the past thirty years is simply a sue
cession of short spurts of activity, arti-
fcially stimulated, interrupted by col
panics and long periods Of de-
pressious aud distress. In not ten years
out Of thirty has labor in the so-called
protected industries bean soe~-~ in
steady employment at fair wages.
The panic OF last summer started
when the averaGe tariff on dutiaoie
Goods was 4y.oS per ceu.. crafty near
Nv the highest in our history-and when
il was perfectly well known that no
could take effect for nine months
or a wear 70 come. 1t was due chiefly
TO the unsettlement of u currency by
the Republican silver-purchase and in
lation act. But the old trouble Of a mar
ket glutted with goods under the en-
ticement of tariff bounties contributed
TO the result.
The cry Of the McKinleyites that the
s~tagnatiou aud consequent distress are
due to a prospect that the u%ecessaries OF
the people and the essentials Of man
uiacture are to be untaxed, in obedience
to a mandate Of the voters twice re-
heated, not only imputes incapacity to
the people, but ignores the facts Of his
tory which are known to all intelligent
citizens.
The idea that the proposition to re-
duce the tariff to about the average of
ten years ago is ian abandonment Of
protection" aud has thrown the coun-
try into a depression which it never ex-
perienced before, is too preposterous to
impose upon any except the most hope
less Of the ignorant-those who will not
learn.