River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-04-26
WORkINGMEN IDLE.
Industrial Conditions Under Democratic
Supremacy.

"A local democratic paper says:
"All these years the republicans have been
promising to give full employment 10 all at
high wages by their tariff method They have
had the iiel1 10 themselves In 1890 they car
ried protection TO the extreme. They gave
every applicant Ill he demanded, and 70 some
they gave more And the fruit OF this policy
they promised the industrial millenniI m:
plenty TO do for everybody and prineely wages
They have OF late been forced 10 confess
failure. They and great numbers OF men un.
employed ana labor 10 account Tor the phen-
omenon without admitting any fault in their
system OF reciprocal rapine
The republicans not merely promised
TO give employment at good wages to
all who chose to work. but they gave
it. Such was the prosperity of the
country up TO March of 1898 that the
man who was idle was the man
who wanted to be idle. The wage
average was higher than ever before.
1t is unfortunately true that the con-
dition of affairs to-day differs widely
from that of 1890 and the years immed-
lately following. Work is scarce, wages
lower, and for one strike then there
are scores now
The republicans have not been
"forced to confess failure" however,
so far as confessing failure implies
that they have lost faith in the efficacy
of protection. They are forced to cou-
fess that they do not have quite as
high an opinion of the intelligence of
the American people as they had prior
TO November of 1892. When they saw
the majority of the voters casting their
ballots for free trade after it had been
explained to them just what the conse-
quences of march toward free trade
and away from protection would be,
and when they saw the readiness of
the people to discard a system under
which they had prospered for third
of a century, they were willing to con-
fess that there was failure of intelii-
gence.
The republicans are not surprised
that great numbers of men are out of
work now, and they have no trouble
about explaining it, They predicted
lack of work in lsa3-'94 if the demo-
Gratis were successful Their predic-
tions have come true. They said demo-
cratic success would lower wages 1t
has done So They said that there
would be innumerable industrial con-
fiicts while the country was trying to
adapt itself to the new democratic
wage scale. Those conflicts are going
on now
of course, II is not the fault" of pro-
lection that these phenomena of scant
work and low wages are visible every
where, for, while protection is still the
law, that law is practically dead let
ter II has been known for months
that low tariff bill was to be passed.
The minute the people made up their
minds that such was TO be the case they
began preparing for It They did not
wait for the day when the bill was to
go into force to take the necessary
steps TO adapt their business To the new
order of things. So, while the McKin-
ley law is in force to the extent that
the reduced quantity of dutiable goods
imported must pay the duties fixed by
the law of 1890. the protective effects
of that tariff have disappeared largely.
Every prophecy which the republic
ans made in 1897 as to the conse-
quences of democratic triumph has
been fulfilled. The democratic proph.
ecies have not been. The republicans
make another prediction. 1t is that II
the democrats will drop the Wilson
bill wages will jump up forthwith to
the old standard, there will be work for
every one, and the employers of the
men now out on strikes, being able to
give what they demand, will tell them
to come back at once.
The voters are SO well satisfied that
this is what would happen were the
Wilson bill thrown into the waste bas-
ket that they are preparing to elect
republican house this fall and repub-
lican president in 1895. They have
learned at last that protection is not
failure, and being far more intelli-
gent than they were in 1892 they will
restore it as soon as they can. Chicago
Tribune