Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-11-10

>CACdy PioICOIlOu, Will Gu0 ldLcSL
md greatest processes of manufacture,
with the best labor-saving tools, with
coal and iron ore at band in quantities
to amaze the world, with the entire
world open in which to hire their men,
" will have the pins knocked from
under them," unless the government
furnishes them the power to sell to us
by competition.
And yet these men are the loudly
proclaimed "Captains of Industry"
they are in fact the mewling, puking
" infants" born of the so-caled Amer
lean system of taxation, whose tender
stomachs revolt at the least change in
diet the government nurse has been
furnishing for hundred years.
Think of the Joliet Steel and Wire
Com pany saying to the Committee,
TIE years ago English wire rods cost
s68 ton in Chicago, and today
dom .stic (American) wire rods of
equal or superior quality cost $50
ton. If the duty of six tenths of
cent pound had not been imposed,
the industry could not have been es-
tablished in the United States, and
wire rods would now cost 500 ton"
1t is small business to beg, it is
smaller yet to lie. Ten years ago Eng
lish wire rods sold for $68 ton in
Chicago, and there was an ad yalorem
and specific tariff-tax On them of
three and one-third cents pound.
There are none to speak Of made in
this country, but when the ariff-t tax
was all removed save six-tentl of one
cent pound, then and not til then,
were they made in appreciable luanti
tites in this country. When the tax
was high and competition shut off
none were made here, when the tax
was reduced to a trifle and competitor
of the sharpest set in, then and not
till then, were they made here. No
one knows it better than the Joliet
company. If the tariff of -tenths
cents per pound established the in
dustry here when the former tariff tax
of three and two-thirds cents per
pound utterly failed to establish it
here, then the less tax the greater
the chance of establishing it.
Yes, "ten years ago English wire
rods cost 500 per ton in Chicago" and
ten years ago English wire rods cost
$50 per ton in Birmingham, England.
1t was the tariff tax of three and two
thirds cents per pound that had most
to do with raising the price to $68 per
ton in Chicago.
Yes, to-day domestic wire rods cost
$50 per ton" Why wasn't the COM
pany honest enough to say that wire
rods in England today cost $26 per
ton? No, they prefer TO lie about it
and say elf it were not for the
tariff-tax of sixth tenths cents per
pound wire rods would now cost
(here) 500 per ton. If we are
getting wire nails and Wire-fencing
cheaper than ten years ago we have no
tariff tax to thank for it, for the
decrease in price dates from the re-
moval of all but six-tenths cents
per pound of the tariff tax, which per-
mits the importation of the rods for
drawing out to gauge, cutting up into
nails, and twisting into fence-wire
Suppose delegation of farmers
were to call on the ways and means
committee would be obliged to
go themselves, for unlike the Iron and
Steel association they do not hire at
torneys by the year to present their
cause to congress- will suppose
the farmers called upon the committee
to tell it "their business was in a de-
plorable condition." ETC., etc. What is
the first thing the blackguards who
are hired to write for tariff tax papers
would do? You know that they are
hired to cry " calamity bowler of any
one intelligent enough to uncover the
devilment hidden in the tariff-tax, and
they would do it to the queens taste.
Would it be unreasonable for the
farmers to say to the committee,
F." Gentlemen, we voted for you, we
expect you to support the government
of the United States, and to vote
whatever taxes are necessary to main
tain its credit, to enable it to pay its
way fairly and squarely as one of the
leading nations of the earth. If in so
doing it is necessary for each one Of
US to pay 1855 per head. as we did in
1865, vote bravely, and we will foot
the bill. But before you vote any of
our money to fill the pockets of Car
negie, Phipps & Co. of Pittsburg, or
Neidringhaus Bros. of st. Louis, or
Sawyer & Co. of Oshkosh, we want to
know it. We, too, are producers. If
any producers are to be fattened from
the public pouch, we claim our share,
and expect you to see that we get it.
If Neidringhaus Bros, by your votes,
are to get money out of the public
for making tin plates, we claim an
equal share for raising wheat and
steers, we are growing fine specimens
of both. If neighbor Brown gets
money for wool raising, we claim an
equal share for growing potatoes; if
Jones is rewarded from the public
treasury for making cotton or wooden
cloth, we demand just as much for
our fields of squashes which are a
credit to American agriculture. If
Smith draws money from the nation
for manufacturing iron, we insist that
our sons who are shoemakers receive
a corresponding amount for manufac-
turing shoes.
We don t know much about polit-
ical economy, neither do our neighbors
know much about it, but we know
enough to say, that if. out of the
purse we make up for Uncle Sam each
year, he pays anybody a premium for
carrying on an honest business, he
ought to pay it to every one who car
rias ON an honest business and if orr