The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-02-02

and gold standard contraction. We were
told land our club is i'll it) that to repeal
the purchasing clause in the Sherman act,
contracting the currency three and one
half millions month"; was just the thing
to do-confdence and credit would be
restored, the price of our wheat, cotton,
etc., would enhance in price, the laboring
men would find work, the wheels of ma
chinery would be set in motion. The
farmers would be in condition to pay their
taxes and perhaps something on their
mortgages, trying the experiment of run
ming new machinery without oil. The
ne t only thing now in the way is the
anticipated passage of the Wilson bill.
have shown that by the condition of the
farmers that no more goods and of the
cheapest quality can be sold and only for
cash, for the farmers of the West, South
and elsewhere have mortgaged their
FARMS tools and machinery, and credit is
largely played out. l can't see any way
now for business to start up in our manu-
featuring centres than for the people of
these localities to consume what they
produce. This would be like our brother
farmers of the South and the West, rails
ing wheat and cotton to sell to themselves
to raise money to pay their mortgages.
| have contended that our system OF tariff
taxation Il will call it) created competition,
;oh, ~ ~ Il,
low to the consumer. Well, 1t has, and the
price of our manufactured goods al the
present time is too low to justify the manu-
facture OF goods, only by cutting down the
price of labor. If our laboring class would
see that when the farm ceases to pay profit
to the farmer, there was nothing to base
employment at remunerative wages on, and
that whenever the former suffered by taxa
ton, disaster, contraction of the money
volume, or otherwise, they would rise above
party and vote the farmer into prosperity
at the first election. The truth is our
laboring class can not look for steady work
aud fair pay until the agricultural States
enjoy prosperity.
The accumulation of wealth in our manu-
featuring States has been drawn from the
farms. In the last decade (ten years. the
accumulation of wealth in the States of
Pennsy lvana, New York and New England
has been more than all the agricultural
States in the Union. This condition would
have ended years ago, only for the system of
doing business on credit basis. THE farms
have been taxed to meet 1t, indirect taxation
surely A dangerous experiment in bus
inees point of view. Where is this vast
accumulation of wealth-not with the farm
ers, not wholly with the manufacturer even,
for we read that in the savings banks of New
York and Massachusetts there is over $685.
95l .S07 of deposits, mostly belonging to our
factory operatives.
We have had at various periods several
conditions of the tariff ta axation, and never a
condition of continued prosperity under
either. Take Henry Clay tariff, moder-
ate compromise tariff, and we 6ud that on
the 3lst of December, 1888, all ad valorem
duties of more than 20 per cent shall be re-
duced one-tenth. On the 3lst day of De-
cember, 1885, there shall be another reduc-
lion of one.tenth on duties of the same class;
another equal reduction on the same class
and the same principal the 3ist day of De-
| cember, 1887, another December 81, 1889.
On the 3lst day of December. 1S41, one
half of the residue of such excess 10 be taken
nff, and from and after the Both of June,
1912, the remaining half excess 10 be taken
If, leaving maximum OF 20 per cent. From
this time until 1887, the country prospered,
| the government was not only out of debt
but distributed $2S, ,lO1 .646 of surplus re-
| venue among different States. The currency
had increased from SOL 900 900 in 1880 to
$l49, 000, 900 in 1887. Then came the de-
maud for coin from England, together with
the specie circular from President Van
Bnren which required all payments for land
to be made in specie. As result the banks
faiied, the money fed the country, and th-
people suffered. Then again the Walker
tariff of 1s46, another moderate tariff The
circulation increased from 800, 900 600 in
1S43 to 2l5,000,000 in 1857. Beginning
with 1850, steady export of gold had taken
place. Congress demonelized all foreign
coin February Dist 1857, and drove it from
the country. A run was soon made on
few banks which disclosed the fact that a
specie basis was iraud, and general panic
ensned. All this under the lowest tariffs Of
modern years.
Then comes the Morrill, tariff of 1861.
until the Mckinley tariff of 1890. In 1873,
under this highly protective tariff. came the
most destructive panic of the century. Here
again is found the cause in greenbacks called
in and destroyed, and other paper currency
retired until the aggregate volume of cnr-
rency had been reduced from ST. 500, 400 2l7
in 1866, ffty-two dollars per capita, to $685.
S96, 1852. In 1878, silver was PRACTICAL,
demoneIized, and general financial destitu
tion prevailed. Since that time the currency
of the country has heen steadily contracted,
and with perhaps the highest rate of duty
the country has ever known, the panic of the
present year has eliminated. The lessons
to be learned, drawn from these statements
of facts are: That in spite of the benefits
which may result from either Free Trade
or Protection, hard times and distress will