The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1893-11-03
WHAT THE THREAT OF FREE
TRADE COSTS.


The approach of winter finds
Q multitude of workingtnen in
every section Of the country out
OF employment, The industrial
depression which Democratic or.
gans loudly asserted was caused
by the Sherman law has not been
helped by the practical certainty
that the Sherman law will be
speedily repealed. The deserted
factories to which ex.Speaker
Reed alluded so eloquently in
his speech in Boston on satur-
day night are still silent the
machinery which resounded with
the cheerful music Of industry
one year agoi is yet idle, wholly
or In part. 1t is not the Sherman,
law, but the prospect Of free
trade that has cut down the
weekly payroll and curtailed so
disastrously the grand volume of
American industrial production.
The manufacturer who has clos.
ed his factory on account of the
Silver Purchase act has notyet
been discovered.
Theloss in wages to American
labor mounts up into tens Of
millions weekly. a partial in
dustrlal census of 6s4 industries
in forty.one States shows that
out Of 100 ,423 hands employed a
year ago, lo1.76s are now idle !.
that where the weekly wages
paid last year were 81, 762, 2ss. !.
80 they are now but s549, 1864
a direct loss to wage earners
IN those branches of 81, COZ, S5i =
36. And these figures. be it re.
membered, represent the losses
of only a small fraction Of the
great army of American work
ingmen. Apartial census which
has been made in Ohio, where
Major Mckinley is waging his
splendid campaign for protec-
ton, shows 1892 persons idle
outof %, 1852 who were employed
last year. In the famous knit
goods manufacturing ceuter of
Cohoes, in this State, the mills
that were taxed to. their utmost
capacity a year ago to fill their
orders are now idle or running
only on half time, while thous-
ands of men and women who
formerly found profitable EN-
ployment within their walls have
the means to purchase neither
food nor fuel. In many other
New York towns similar condi-
tions exist.
Everywhere in the manufac.
turing regions of the country the
sad tale is the same. The suop-
house and the pauper's dole of
bread are the substitutes which
Democracy has to offer for the
high wages, personal independ.
ence and comfortable homes se-
cured to workingmen through
Republican protective legisla-
ton. And still the Democratic
Legislators at Washington. with
a recklessness which is criminal
and disregard of American in
terests which falls little short of
treason, go on with their schemes
to transform. the threat of free
trade into grim reality! Every
man who is idle in New York,
Massachusetts, and Ohio, every
voter who has been deprived of
work and wages, has a remedy in
his ballot if he will but use it. A
decisive defeat for the Demo
cratic and free trade ticket in
these three great States will
teach the tariff smashers at
Washington that they cannot
make war on American industry
with impunity. The Press calls
upon every workingman topro-
tect his home. his family and his
own manhood by his vote IN Y.
Press.
It's said that some one gave
poison to 10 head of fine cattle
belonging to farmer Andrew
Lunsford, Of Lewis county. None
of the cattle have died but all
act very strange and are in a
critical condition.
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