The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-03-15
OUTLOOK OF THE TARIFF.

merce anu Ihuustry'
 It is certain that the Wilson bill will pass the senate and become a law. There will be amendments and modi- ications, but they will not change the main features It will still remain a low-tariff measure, paralyzing our in- dustries and running our workingmen. It will become law and it will re- main in operation at least three years; for it is impossible that the republicans shall regain control of the presidency, the house and the senate before lS97- and control of all three will be neces- sary in order to change it. It thus be- comes a matter of paramount con sidcration to ascertain what its effects will be.
 We are now in the midst of season of depression and idleness, caused by the triumph of the democratic party at the November election of 1892. The democracy was pledged to a 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 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 stagnation 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. It 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 steady reduction of wages going on. Strikes are powerless, for there are from two to u 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 lines; for, as the Blade has always said, a reduc- tion of wages in one great division of labor means a reduction all along the line, until finally every man who works for wages or salary shares in the re- duction.
 As soon as the Wilson bill becomes a law, everybody will know just what to expect, and this process will go on steadily until wages have fallen to a 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 and 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- perience chronically 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 will not increase but rather decrease They will find that the diminution of the buying capacity of the masses will injure them just as much us it will anybody 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 pTc-o a myth. Like the dog in the fable, they will find that they have grasped at the shadow and thus lost the sub stance. e.-Toledo Blade