The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1894-10-12
Political Argument Against Fact.

The moving looms and spindles of
our textile factories are the all-suffi.
eient answer to the questions about
dull times that Mr.. Mckinley pro
pounded IN his recent campaign
speech In Maine. Had such calamity
speech been made when the mills
were actually closed up by high pro.
tectionists, (closed under the opera
tons of the Mckinley tariff, long
before the passage of the Wilson bill
1t would have condemned the author
of such argument. But now to cry
depression in the face Of an inevitable
boom, reminds US of the ridiculous
rain. maker who tries in vain to raise
thunder sufficient to coax down the
least bit of redeemlng shower.
Ridicule rather than rain falls upon
the rain.maker and calamity howler.
There is only one thing left for our
fostered and protected industries to
do, if they would preserve the thunder
of such speeches, and that is to close
up their factories again and thus
make times dull indeed. The trouble
now is that they can't afford to close
up. They have already learned some
thing about the cost of closing for
political effect. They had rather the
campaign orators speech about dull
times should make him appear ridicu-
lous than to attempt to help him out
by actually closing up again. Now is
the very time they should close in
order TO give force to the words of the
calamity howler; but the trouble is
they are now cornered in such way
that all they can do is to reduce wages
and charge it up to the Wilson bill.
That's just what they want to do. But
here, again, is trouble in the shape Of
strikes where the reduction Of wages
is unreasonable. If home factories
want to fill the home demand for
their wares they must now try to keep
moving, or else foreign products will
certainly Eli the demand.
The threat to reduce wages to the
rates paid pauper labor abroad is an
other bit of Republican deception
that has been too long practiced upon
the unsophisticated voter. He is just
beginning to notice that the highest
wages paid in America are the wages
paid to forei gners who do about all
or mining, &c. And when you cut
the foreigners wages down to the
rates paid Americans he soon finds
his way back to the SO called pauper"
field Of foreign labor from whence he
came. If there is any class of men in
this country paid better than our
miners then the writer fails to know
1t. And if they are accustomed to
"pauper wages abroad, is it likely
that American wages would insult
them and not hold them .? Is it not
the truth that the protective combine
eontemplates the highest wages for
foreign labor, and that the deluded
American consumer shall foot the
bill every time he buys coal or iron or
anything else highly protected IN the
interest Of the manufacturer. What
ever the intent and purpose, is not
this the practical effectl Unveiled
and unraveled of all political sophistry
that is the way the naked fact looks
to us. If We are mistaken in this view
and about these things, which pertain
SO much to equity and fairness as
between the rich manufacturers and
the poor consumers of this country,
then we want to find it out before we
come to vote. The party (no matter
as to name it bears that forgets to
be equitable as between the masses
and the classes is the party against
which we shall vote while we keep
our ri ight mind and enjoy contempla-
ting integrity and good government
by, of and for the people"