The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-09-15
The Talk of a Socialist.

The Philadelphia Record, of which
William M. Singerly, Democratic can
didate for governor of Pennsylvania,
is chief proprietor, finds itself under a
cross fire because of its attempt to
justify the Democratic effort to bring
about free raw materials. The Record
first quotes this assertion of The
TRIBUNE:
Free iron ore means absolutely no good
to Scranton. The Lackawanna Iron and
Steel company gets its ore from the Corn
wall ore banks in Lebanon county; and
the removal Of the duty on imported ores,
if it shall affect the local iron industry at
all, will affect it by depreciatlng the value
OF its Lebanon properties. Free lumber
means deprecated values to the large
timber interests of Scranton milling capi-
tai in Potter county, besides hurting the
farmers of Wayne, Pike, Wyoming and
Bradford. Free coal meant the loss OF
anthracite's seaboard industrial market,
and free wool, unless soon chsnged, will
mean the extinction Of the sheep.growing
industry in the agricultural counties ad-
Joining US and the readjustment of our
textile industries on a lower wage basis in
order to ward off the costly rivalry of
German competitors in the knit goods
market.
Then it makes the following reply:
Out Of the 100000 people who live in
Lackawanna county there are probably
not 800 who make speciality Of raising
wool to sell. They are not so foolish as to
attempt to compete on their valuable
acres against the herders of Texas and
the territories, and Of Australia, Argen-
tina and South Africa, who have the ad.
vantage Of cheap lands. and who control
the markets of the world. But every one
of the 10000 are interested in the low
cred price and better quality Of woolens.
They all wear clothes. and most of them
sleep under blankets. For like
reasons the large majority Of the
people of Lackawanna county will
find their advantage in the cheaper shelter
and larger means of comfort resulting
from free lumber. Free coal instead of
curtailing the market for bitumlnous coal,
would widen it. The late William L.
Scott, himself largely interested in coal
production, was strong advocate Of free
coal as a means Of steadying prices and Sc
curing special field for the Pennsylvania
of bituminous coal in nearly every part of
the middle, western and southern states
is fact that tariff rates do not alter. The
competition between anthracite and BIZ
luminous Goals cannot be mitigated or
prevented. But free iron ore, by stimu-
lating and cheapening the cost Of iron pro.
duction in eastern Pennsylvania. would
be of large advantage to the producers
Of both hard and soft coal. 1t would set
some Of our prostrate steel works going
again, to the advantage of the coal pro-
ducers of Lackawanna county. The
SCRANTON TRIBUNE probably let's the cat
out of the bag when it says that few
owners Of ore beds and timbeA tracts in
Scranton would not find free iron ore or
free lumber favorable to their special in
terests. The great corporations which
gather up the ore beds, the timber tracts
and the coal fields, and which manage to
make dear the commonest necessities of
living. find ready trumpeters and de-
tenders in the journals quoted. They have
the audacity sometimes to turn up the
whites Of their eyes and pretend that they
are speaking as the champions of labor.
Out with theml They cannot forever fool
the people, even the anthracite people for
whom they so confidently speak.
1t is interesting to note, first, that
cheaper clothing is of little benefit to
the man who has no money with which
to buy it. The object of the German
knit goods manufacturer who competes
at low prices with the woolen goods
made, for example, in the woolen mill
in this city will have been attained
when, after having discouraged wool
growing in the United States, he shall
have the Scranton woolen mill at his
mercy and can raise prices at pleasure.
Thus, we shall have two results,
neither of which Is desirable. We
shall have the wool growing and the
wool manufacturing done in a remote
country, and we shall not have either
the low prices now promised or the
wages with which to pay those prices,
whether they be low or high.
We desire to note secondly that
Lackawanna county cannot well be
prosperous while the various indus
tries within Its borders or conducted
by men who live within those borders
are not prosperous. laundering is
one Of these interests. The Scranton
capital which is invested, for instance,