The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-05-30

| treasury to meet current expenses, and was
but recently compelled to issue interest
| bearing bonds to the amount Of $1,000, 00f
| TO meet current expenses. The answer is
simple. When the profit to the staple agri-
| cultural producers is fair business is fair
| manufacture and imports are brisk and
| the custom house receipts swell the reve-
nue. without special effort on the part OF
any one Such was the case a few years
| ago when staple products sold at fair
prices.
The question was then, What shall we dc
| with our surplus revenue? But now when
| the staple products are sold at a price
| barely leaving margin Of profit, the pur-
| chasing power is diminished, manufacture
and imports decrease, the treasury and
custom house receipts have correspondingly
| diminished. The competition in the produc-
| ton of staple farm products has caused
great shrinkage in the purchasing power
| OF the people of this nation.
| This shrinkage has entailed orders fol
| manufactured goods to an amount causing
| an unsteadiness in the labor market which
| must result in a permanent decline OF
wages should this condition be permitted
| TO continue A like result must follow with
| the elimination of free hold farmers and
| their replacement by renters, should condi-
| tons remain unchanged, and which will
| further diminish the purchasing power fol-
| goods. This will again reduce the price OF
| labor and we will continue to go around in
| the same deteriorating circle until we have
| been leveed down to the standard average
| that the law of cause and effect will permit
| us to reach.
Free trade would at once relieve staple
| agriculture from it's oppressive yoke for
| the lessened government tax and greater
| security would enable the American pro-
| Queer of staple products to cope for long
| time to come with the Asiatic producer.
The removal of the burden of protection
| would, however, bring an evil fully as great
| as the one removed; and that is, it would
| bring the Austrian wage rate with 1t, ana
| in time, the Chinese wage rate for labor
| For, with free trade, there will be nothing
| to prevent a manufacturer starting work
| shops and mills in China with Chinese Ia
borers al Chinese wage rates, and sending
| his product to New York and San Fran
| cisco. That this is not done now, does not
follow that it may not be done.
IDLE WORKMEN.
Those who are inclined to treat this
| matter as joke should account for the
vast number of idle workmen in our coun-
| try. They who attribute this enforced
| idleness to the decentralization of silver are,
| in a measure, right, but only in measure.
Just as long as cannot compel England
to adopt that money standard most con-
| ducive to our interest it will be in vain
| to attempt to modify the price that England
| fixes upon our product by any standard
| that we may adopt, for if double standard
| ~
| country, England, with a single standard,
| would buy her supply from Argentine,
| from India, Egypt and Russia, and leave
| us higher priced wheat and cotton Tor
| the time being, until we would be willing,
| of our own accord, to sell 1t at the price
| she wishes to pay. This is the law.
| Fear of tariff changes has, to limited
| extent, curtailed the volume of work, but
| We're the demand for manufactures brisk,
| work would have continued uninterruptedly
/ -o;ff r1,,
| The real cause is centered in the fact that
| the principal customer of American manu-
| facture could not afford to buy the quality
| and quantity of manufactures that he for
| merly did, because he could not afford 1t
| on account of a much lessened net profit
| which he made
| The same cause must produce the same
| result next year and the year after, or un-
| til remedied.
| Would there be a great difficulty in hav.
| ing the remedy herein advocated adopted
| No; not if the majority want 1t. There
should be no greater difficulty in its adop
| ton than is involved in changing the tarlfl
| rate on any article of import.
This is meant to be protection TO staple
| farm products in the only way in which eX
| ports can be protected. For imports, pro
| lection is effected by tariff; for exports
| it is only possible to produce the same re
| suits by a reduction in cost of transporta
! ton.
| This is a fancy sketch, or a reality. IT g
| fancy sketch, the workman has no business
| to give it serious consideration; II realty
| what then? leave it to the intelligence o.
| the workmen of this country more espe
! cially to the intelligent labor leaders, t
decide.
| Let them probe this matter, and Wher
| thew have once decided that it is in theil
| interest we may then expect that course
| of action that will tend to bring maximum
| benefit. u. LlblN.