River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-03-29
OUTLOOK OF THE TARIFF.
What the Wilson BIZ VIII DO for Com
meree and Industry

What the Wilson BID VIII DO for Com
meree and Industry.
1t is certain that the Wilson bill will
pass the senate and become a law.
There will be amendments and modi-
fcations. but they will not change the
main features. 1t will still remain a
low-tariff measure, paralyzing our in
dustries and running our workingmen.
1t will become a law and it will re-
main in operation at least three years;
for it is impossible that the republicans
shall re- ain control of the presidency,
the house and the senate before 1897
and control of all three will be neces-
sary in order to change ii. 1t thus be-
comes a matter of paramount con-
alteration to ascertain what its effect
will be.
We are now in the midst of "a season
Of depression and idleness, caused by
the triumph of the democratic party at
the November election of 1892. The
democracy was pledged to policy of
tariff smashing. What naturally re-
suited?
First, that all industries which would
be directly affected by the tariff were
checked. No one concerned would be
foolish enough to buy raw material,
pay to have it worked up into the fin
ished product, and accumulate a stock,
with the prospect that he would lose
money by the operation. The wise
thing to do was to work off the stock
already on hand, and manufacture no
more than would supply the immediate
demand. This was the first great cause
of the depression. TO curtail manu-
featuring means. of course, to throw
large number of men out of employ
ment This destroyed or curtailed
their means of buying, and thus re-
duced the sales of merchants in all
lines. In a thousand ways the pros
pect of tariff change caused taking
in of sails by merchants and others,
and the present stag grafton is the result.
Second, it is always true that when
any change of existing conditions can
be foreseen by those engaged in pro-
duction or distribution, there is an inn
mediate effort to accommodate them
selves to the new conditions. 1t now
being reasonably certain what may be
expected, in a general way. from the
Wilson bill, an adjustment is going on.
Producers understand that they must
hereafter compete with foreign pro-
ducers on less favorable terms; that
they must produce cheaply enough to
meet the products manufactured with
cheaper labor Hence there is a steady
reduction of wages going on. Strikes
are powerless, for there are from two
10 "a dozen men ready to take any posi-
ton that is offered This reduction is
not alone in what are known as pro
tected industries" but in all les; for,
as the Blade has always saiu, reduc-
ton of wages in one great division of
labor means a reduction all along the
lire, until finally every man who works
for wages or salary shares in the re-
duction.
As soon as the Wilson bill becomes a
law, every body win KIN ow just what to
expect. and this process will go on
steadily until wages have fallen to
level commensurate with the protection
afforded by the Wilson bill. This re-
ductlon, now in progress, will go on
until this is accomplis he'd. Mills aud
factories will start up, but with fewer
hands, and at lower wages. The price
of labor will approximate more nearly
the European standard, the ability of
the people to buy will thus be cur
tailed. with the result that our mer-
chants and retailers generally will ex-
per .ence chemically dull times.
And how about the farmers? They
will be injured by the depression just
as much as anybody else. They will
find their market win not increase but
rather decrease. They will find
that the diminution of the buying
capacity of the masses will iniure
them just as much as it will any body
else Some articles may be cheaper,
but they will not have as much money
to buy, and thus the advantages prom
ised them by the free trade dema-
gogues turn out TO be Dead Sea fruit
fair and beautiful on the outside, but
dust and ashes within. The increased
export trade promised them will prove
a myth. Like the dog in the fable,
they will find that they have grasped
at the shadow and thus lost the sub
stance. -Toledo Blade.