The Somerset reporter., 1893-07-06

The financial situation has much TO do
with this but the economic policy OF the
party IN power has more.
The party platform advertised the put
ting of certain raw materials upon the
free list and the manufactures of to-day
proceed with great caution and the buy
! ers adopt hand-to-mouth policy, great
! ly restricting production aud curtailing
business. They cannot coant upon the
future with any degree OF confidence :
do not know -'Where they are at, or
rather where they are going to be at
in the very near future.
Thus the uncertainty attending The
financial situation i supplemented and
aggravated by the further uncertainty at
tending the sweeping legislation propoS-
ed by the Democratic party in its plat
form upon which it succeeded in electing
President Cleveland and in securing Il
majority in both branches of Congress.
The party will be hampered and restrain
ed by circumstances and divergence al
interest and difference in opinion. there
fore ii is extremely doubtful whether il
accomplisles much in the Way Of changes
in tariff rates. but business uncertainty
is only made greater by this. and the
theory that the Democratic Congress
cannot do much harm i. little relief to
the industrial situation of the country.
The course of the last Democratic
house at Washington indicates that the
policy oil the party will be one OF special
antipathy to certain interests III which
many states of the northern part of GU"
country are interested including the
State of Maine. The one we desire to
call attention to at this line is Woul-rais-
irg, because the effect of this special an
tipathy is 50 manifest by the sharp drop
in the price of this product.
That this unprecedented drop of } to
6 cents per pound in the price of wool
nearly p per cent OF its value, is largely
due TO the aseendencv of tie Democratic
party and the uncertainty consequent
upon thai ascendency whichs deprcSseS
manufacturing interests in general and
the WOODEN business in particular must
be conceded by all fair minded people
unless their judgments are sadly warped
by politics. That the financial sit
uation contributed somewhat to This drop
may fairly be admitted. but the shadow
of free wool in the proposed tariff sched-
ule is responsible for the greater part of
il.
The farmers of Somerset. or mere speci-
tically speaking. the owners of the 10000
sheep in the county, are thus subjected
this year to Il loss of about SD 900 on
the drop of cents per pound in wool,
largely consequent upon the ascendency
of the Democratic party. Surely this
is a high price for one industry to pay
for luxury of this kind
IL is now favorite argument with
our Democratic friends that supply and
demand regulates the price of products,
regardless of tariff duties. and they cite
hay, wheat, cotton and potatoes As evil
denees of this theory. deducing there
from that the supply of wool and the
restricted demand, alone. accounts for
the reduction in its price. They do not
use this argument when they claim that
the tariff is always a tax. There is Il
wide difference between most of the
vegetable products of our farms. and
the animal products. especially wool.
The competition in hay, for instance.
comes from mitch less extent of terri
tory because of its bulk and expense of
shipping, therefore large crop is liable
to run the price down and small crop
to elevate it. 1.-The same is the fact
with potatoes. wheat, corn and cotton.
but with wool the conditions are differ
emf: the crop is not so variable, the an
nlal product the world over i, not sub
ieet to the yicssitudes of many of the
vegetable products. and the demand be-
ing nearly the same year by year and
imp lrtable from nearly every part of
the earth, it is folly to attempt to app
the same theories to the regulation OF
its price that are potent in fixing the
prices ot the more bulky articles like
hay and potatoes, which are. from the
very nature of he ca,e restricted to a
much narrower market.
There may havr been a slight rcduc-