The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-10-28
poss bly, arise from anv declaration OF war
o. other foreign comF lieattang
TEE EaRn rrwws

IHE EsRD TINS.
The fear of such a calamity started the
great revRls.on which has shaken the H.
dnssries OF this g7eas nation: ara its dire
effects have been intensified bY the intro
/ dGeIion Of thSt strange mongrel popu a-ly
known as the Wilson bill. That fear has
extlnguished the tres in our furnaces. has
1 stopped the machinery IN thousands OF our
manufacturing establishments. has left the
| shuttle Idle in the loom, aud allowed the
| rust 20 gather on the mechanics tools. Is
| has caused sfagnafion OF business and has
spread distress. ldaeness. and almost aaso-
/ iG.e starvation tarouehoEt the country
| IL has converted honest. hsrdgoTking,
self-respeeiing American citizens into re-
cipaenis OF public charity. The only privs-
| lege that the American workingman has
derived from the Tree trade theories OF the
| Democratic party IS that OF standing N
/ line, with the blush Of honest shame upon
| has cheek, TO receive his ration o. tree soup
| in order 10 sustain life.
In speech delivered before the Young
/ Mems Democratic Club 81 Boston April Il
| Secretary Morton said:
| The doctrine OF protection is avowediy TO In.
| crease production Bat protection can not cree
ate demand
l deny this statement most eEnph ATTIC
/ ally. Protection enables our manufacture
/ ers TO run their establishments at q profit
| and 10 pay their employees higher wages
| than are enjoyed by any similar class of
/ people in the world. The ability of the
/ people 10 consume the products of the
/ factories depends on the amount of wages
they receive, and on the ability of the
/ employer TO furnish remaneratiye employ
ment 10 labor. Lower wages means less
ened consumption. Ii wages are dimin-
! ished. Just IN the same ratio our markets
| for the products of our farms and factories
are destroyed. Good wages mean a con.
| tented. prosperous people, aud good
rxs@ xvfH sail
| in this country SO long "a they are
not intsrfered with by unwise legislation,
| forcing the American workingman into
competition with countries where labor
| is compelled 10 accept lesser results, aud
| to be satisfied with scale of living To
which our citizens have fortunately not
been accustomed.
Are the records of history and the ex-
| periences of our predecessors worth moth
| ingY Are the lessons they should teach
Us worihless2 Look back through the
| history of this republic and it will be seen
| that every reduction in our tariff taxes.
| every step in the direction of free trade
| has been followed by business depression.
| bankruptcy. want and misery.
| sTyER SUCH DEPRESSION BEFORE.
The Wilson bill, although not yet
/ passed and in spite of its having been
| greatly modified by the finance com mittee
| of the senate, has extended its balcful
4
4 merce. 1t Is true that some periods of
/ depression and disaster have previously
| oveetaken US. and that in some of them
/ influences other than that of the tariff
| may have had their effect, bat they have
/ been mere gentle breeEes compared with
the cyclone that has lately swept over the
! industries of the United States.
| The record of failures and commercial
disasters as recorded in the archives OF the
commercial agencies is appalling, and the
| year 1898 viii appear as the most disastrous
| in our commercial annals. During that
/ year the number of failures amounted
| TO Is, 75T, with liabilities reaching the
| enormous sum of 1851. as, 697. as per Dun's
| report-more than double the amount re-
| corded in any of the most disastrous years
| in the history Of American commerce.
| | most conscientiously believe that
1 very large proportion of this amount can
| be directly charged to the free-trade plank
| il the Democratic platform, aud the vic
! tory of that party at the polls. placing
them in a position TO make the attempt to
carry 1t into effect.
| PREVIOUS PAsfcs cAUsKp BY TARIFF 'RE-
| FORM"
| This is merely a repetition OF former ex-
| periences. except that the growth OF the
| country and the great extension of our
| manufactures. under the Egis of protec-
| ton, has made the amount of damage
4 greater IN volume.
The low tariff of 1916 was passed in accordance
| with the policy of the southern planters. that
| they should be allowed 70 obtain cheap
| English goods in exchange for their cot
| ton, and carried ruin to thousands engaged
| in manufactures, aud the destruction of their
| establishments 10 the amount of millions OF
| dollars. OF which the popular distress of the
| years 1878, 1919. 1920 and ISL afforded the most
| melancholy proof
The last utterance is the literal testi-
| mony borne by Henry Clay on the floor of
| the senate TO the effects of low tariff bill.
| He further said:
In 1874 tszif bill passed which gave
| some relief but this was considered a. an in
weston of the rights of the rich cotton planters
| and most gosogsly denounced. south
| Carolina threatened 20 resist the revenue laws,
| and gave the most solemn warnings that this
system would lead Go dissolution of the
| Union.
Does not this prove that Mr.. Mckinley
| was correct when he stated in q late speech
| in Minneapolis that
The Wilson bill turns to the pasi; sway with
the present Il is tor the plantation. not Tor the
farm or the factory.
During the period from 1916 to 1851,
| under Democratic rule and in the latter
| part of which there was so low tariff
that il amounted to practical free trade,
| the country sunk lower and lover into the
slough of despond," although these are
! wears held up in the report of the chair
| man of the committee on ways and means
| as models of pros perity. understood BY
Democratic free traders. Listen TO the
| following extracts from the New York
Tribune in January. iS55. and see what we
NAV expect If this in!quitous system
shall again blight our industries;
GO and see thousands, IN n aud women, boys
| aud girls, old and young, blacs aud whi'e, Of all
nations. crowdiag aud lostAng each other,
| almost fghtlng for FIRST chance, acting more
| like hungry wolves thHn human teInes, III -
. isud of plenty. waiting until The food - ready
| for distribution. such scene may Dc seen
every day between II and o'clock around the
corner oil Orange and Chatham streets, where
charity gives a dinner % the poof, snd soup add
bread TO others 10 carry 10 tbesr miserab8s
families The cry OF hard times reaches us
from every part OF the county. ne MAKING Of
roads is stopped factories are closed. and houses
| and 81 irs are no longer being baili
| FACTORY hands. oaaraskers, carpenters brick
LAYERS and laboFeFs are idle, aud paralysis -
! rapidly embracing every pTrsuit u the country
The cause of all this stoppsZe 81 eiscg alton IL
| 10 be found in the steady oGtior OF gold % pay
foreign labossrs for the clDSs. the sn9Ss. ias
iron and other things that could be produces b
American lahog. Bat which cannot ps produced
under our present. TsFsa He systsra-
That this was not mere ;ransitory
trouble is evident from the message OF
President Buchanan TO congress IN 1897,
from which make the foliowiag extract:
We have possessed a. the elements Of nsiioaal
wealth IA rich abundance. saG yet. EofEttn-
.tnnd.ng al these adEsataEss cur country
IN its monetary interests, II az the prevent so-
| raeut IN a depl8Essae coanlfton 10 fAe midst
| Of unsurpassed p3eatv IN a shs productions o.
/ szrtcnlfnrs and "a al the eleneztts Of B&f4unsa
/ wsalfh SO ana our manufactures snspsnded.
/ oar uuh4fc works retarded, our private ent@fs
| ,-S.ss nf a ffaraut k9nEs snsDJo1ee. anG thou
sands If useful laao.sys thrswn cSt OF snp&0y-
neat ana reduced . Haat
FACTS AsAIssr THEoRIEs