The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-06-21
ALL INDUSTRIES suFFER ALIKE.

During the first Cleveland administra-
ton the present chief Of the Bureau OF
Statistics. a held down some
office to which a salary was attached, which
afforded him opportunity to count the num-
Der OF people employed by the so-called
protected industries. He made the number
very small. but his performance attracted
little attention beyond the free-trade press.
Now. six years after. Senator Allen. Popu-
list, OF Nebraska, is bothering the Treasury
to him 1t is supposed the imaginative
Senator believes he has struck a new lead.
and that in the campaign he will repeat
the stale performance of Mugwump Worth
irgton in 1857 to his audiences.
Protected Industries. forsoothl How many
industries, by being interlaced and woven
together are not protected? Scores of in
d~ustries. some of them the most extensive
and the best paid. have the prohibitory
protection of the ocean. The mass of men
who build houses. that is. put them to-
gether, have prohibitory protection by the
ocean for the reason that no building can
be shipped here fully constructed. There
are the thousands OF men and women en-
ployed as retail statesmen. b~ookkeepers, in
all the departments of transportation. from
the railroad engineer to the truckman, gho
are protected by locality. Add to these the
many thousands who are local blacksmiths.
painters, all the newspaper and job print
ers. repairers OF furniture, shoes, car
riages and machinery. market men. and
so on. These are all protected by the ocean
and distance.
The day after the presidential election.
anticipating the tariff revolution to which
the victorious party was pledged. business
men who had ordered machinery for new
enterprises Cancelled their orders. One
firm withdrew an order for paper mill
machinery for 500. 900. and the factory be-
gan to discharge men. The falling off kept
up quietly. but steadily. all along the
line Of the protected industries. By Au-
gust of last year 5000, 900 workers had been
turned to idleness. they began to leave
the iron. wooden, cotton. machinery-mak-
ing factories-the protected ndustries-by
thousands. The falling off in production
touched the earnings of railroads. and the
managers turned thousands of men in the
ness. Every thousand of workers discharged
meant that a thousand people had moth
ing with which to buy. They must either
keep along on accidental employment or
live with friends. Thousands Of men worked
on half or two-thirds time and they had
but half or two-thirds the money TO spend
at the groceries and in the dry-goods and
clothing stores. Soon the grocer and the re-
taller in manufacturing localities found a
third Of their trade gone. Then clerks were
discharged and another army of the I'M
employed recruited. Next. people could not
pay rents. the house owners had their in
comes cut down. and consequently more
people were discharged. Stagnation may
begin with the so-called protected indus
tries, but when they fall down the others
will go with them. None will escape the
shrinkage process in a greater or less de-
gree, except, perhaps. the person whose
sign is three balls.
If the Populist Senator had watched the
results of the present industrial paralysis
he would have seen that 1t crept to every
l mart Of tho xycta. pro+octaI cd o,.~o
tected. alike; but he has not desired to
see; consequently the cap and bells are on
his head by asking for the number en-