Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-01-11
The carnerIe letter.

The Carnegie Letter.
Our protection friends appear to have
been struck so queerly by the letter of
Andrew Carnegie, printed in Mon
days EVERY EVENING, that they are
totally unable to explain whether it
was prompted by his Scotch thrift.
ness" or his "unequalled liberality."
Well, it is their funeral, but to see the
autocrat of Homestead turning bis back
on McKinleysm certainly does recall
an old proverb about rats and sinking
ship.
Still, it is not to be gainsaid that
Carnegie makes logical argument, from
his new point of view, in support of his
contention shat it would be infinitely
better to have moderately satisfactory
tariff bill passed by the Democratic
party than even more satisfactory bill
passed by the Republican party What
gals our protection brethren the most
is that he, Carnegie, the great exemplar
Of Scotch thriftiness" and "unequalled
liberality," should go so far in his cham
pionship of "a moderate Democratic
tariff bill, securing us permanance and
stability satisfactory to all" as to even
counsel Republican Senators to vote for
such measure. This is rubbing it in
with vengeance, indeed.
II is amusing to see how the Tribune
wriggles. The letter was dated January
Sd, yet the Tribune did not make it
public until Monday. This suggests
the question whether the Tribune would
have printed it all had not the World
interviewed Carnegie as he was about
10 sail and printed what he said in its
issue of Saturday. Did Carnegie send
for World reporter after having salts
fed himself that the Tribune did not
wish to print that letter?
Be this as it may, the Tribune is
plainly desperate in its search for ma
terials to repair the breach that the
Carnegie bombshell has made in the
high tariff walls. Monday it belabored
the departing "robber baron" for
cowardly surrender, treachery of priuci-
pie, and other hard things, and con-
tended that Carnegie's expressed readi-
ness "to accept greatly reduced duties"
could have no application to other and
less opulent manufacturers. To-day the
Tribune, in still greater desperation,
throws out the innuendo that Carnegie
wishes to curry favor with the admins
tration, in order to improve his chances
for getting some government contract.
What new mares nest the Tribune will
discover tomorrow remains to be seem
But wasn't the Carnegie letter regular
corpse disturber in the protection camp?
The Boston Herald and the Baltimore
Sun have been investigating the current
receipts Of the savings banks of their
respective cities, with the result of dis
covering that the hardness of the times
has been very much exaggerated. In
Boston, the deposits show a falling off
amounting to barely 7per cent in Bati-
more we are not clear, from the SUNS
editorial summary, that they show any
falling off at all. 1t appears that the
Boston investigation followed police
census of the unemployed, the result of
which was also Every much less alarm
ing" than had been prognosticated. The
Herald does not give the figures in the
issue before us, but it says that "the
$4,000 or 10000 unemployed have
no existence-at least the police have
not been able to trace out their exist
ence, and in the absence of positive
wish to distort their report we do not
see how it would be possible to have
such wide margin between the results
OF the census and the mental compu.
tations of those who asked that thu
census might be taken" While the
Baltimore Sun says, of the savings
banks showing, that it sis so exceed
ingly favorable, taken in connection
with the protracted financial panic OIL
the year, that we may conclude from il
that the condition of the people in Balti
more, and especially of tine working
people, is no worse and not as bad as il
has been many times in recent years
The New York Press declares thai
the American manufacturer can swell
afford to pay the small sums required
by the duty on the foreign woods re
quired to mix with the native stock
This is another bit of heresy as bad al
Thomas Bracket Reeds declaration, il
the minority report on the Wilson bill
that "our goods are now met by foreign
goods on our own shores at a prict
made up of raw materials, plus labo
and plus the present rate of tariff, OIL
very nearly equal terms" What doe
this mean? Are all the Republican
leaders going to give up in this way tn,
time-honored dogma Of their party tina
the foreigner pays the tax? Have W
not been told over and over again By
the great and wise Mckinley that tn
foreigner is accustomed to load his shin
with products for the American marke
and then step up and pay the dut,
assessed upon them on their arriya
here?
The income tax proposition ha
aroused storm of opposition whicl
may be potent to eliminate this obiec
tionable feature. Many of the most in
fuential opponents of public sentimen
throughout the country are uncom
,nrorniainr IL, thar daruno;o.;a., e A.