The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-03-09
Tariff Cannot Save Them.

up TO clear realizating condition Of their
danger. A congress would be elected next
November that would compel Cleveland to
call an extra session next March, which
would Immediately take the government out
of the hands Of the national banks and their
tools, the corporations, and restore it to the
people. If the light continues to break as
it has been doing for the last three months,
it will moi be matter of surprise if such a
congress is elected next fall. The distress
which is grinding all classes except few
millionaires, should bring them TO their
senses if anything can. The manufacturers
are trying TO fatter themselves that il is the
Wilson bill which is keeping their mills
idle, but the more they think the more they
will become convinced that the Wilson bill
or any other tariff bill which can be framed
cannot make or break them. AS long as
the people have no money to buy their goods
failure is written in letters Of living light
before them.
Ali manufacturers and employers of many
hands are compelled TO borrow money con-
stantly to pay wages and lay in stock or raw
material. II the people Of this country, who
must he the principal consumers, have not
the money 10 purchase their goods, they
cannot afford to borrow from the banks, and
their mills must stop, run only by fits and
starts, or reduce wages. This has been their
condition for years, every succeeding year
growing little worse than the preceding,
till the grand breakdown was reached in
1898. The republican politicians were
quick to seize upon and charge it 10 the
election of Cleveland. And the banks to aid
the delusion Immediately took measures to
bring en- sudden panic. 1t needed but a
feather 10 break the camel back and they
supplied the feather. The break down was
| steadily approaching all through Harrison's
administration as every manufacturer, and
every farmer knows who uses a fair degree
Of business Judgment. Prices were steadily
falling, which must always contract and
cripple business. The population Of the
country was steadily increasing and the
business was struggling to expand to furnish
employment for the increasing numbers of
workers. Money is the only instrument
which can be used 10 employ labor and
increase business. That was constantly
growing scarcer and its place was being
filled by bank credits. Bank credits are
not money but debt, the very opposite of
money. No business can be run on debt
any length of time without collapsing.
When the purchasing clause OF the Sher-
man law was repealed il cut off fonr mil
lions of the monthly supply of new money,
which was injected into the general circula-
tion Of the country. This put stop to all
increase and prices everywhere dropped
more rapidly than ever before, although
they had steadily fallen since 1878 when
silver was demonetized.
The contraction of the currency Of a
country acts on the business of that country
like rigid ligature on the body Of grow
ing child, causing acute distress and
abnormal, unnatural, unhealthy conditions.
Every manufacturer knows this is the con-
dilion his business is in. He also knows,
or ought 10 know, that no tariff law can
relieve him, because the people who con-
sumo his goods are in this country. He
must sell here or he cannot sell a! all. They
have not the money to spend for goods.
They are not able even to buy sufHciency
of bread and are in hungry condition on
every hand. lie may cling TO the deluson
tariff his business will suffer. Il is Suffering
as badly already as it can suffer. If the
people cannot purchase his goods for want
of money they are unable to purchase for
eign goods from the same cause. There is
no balm for TIE manufacturer in tariff laws
as long as his consumers have not money to
pay for his goods. His mills must stop and
stand, tariff or 20 tariff.
When will oar manufacturers take their
eyes off Of that binding delusion, the tariff,
and learn that the banks have robbed and
ruined them by robbing and ruining their
consumers? The destruction of the money
and the substitution of bank credits for
money brought down prices and ruined the
farmers. They dragged down in their fall
all other business. No business prospers in
the country today but the banking business.
That class owns nearly all of the most
valuable bonds of the country railroad
municipal, State and National This is 4
first lien on all the most valuable property
in the country. As fast as these debts default
on interest they foreclose and take posses
sion. On their State and municipal bonds,
the authorities collect their interest for them
Every dollar of bank credit means a dol
lar of debt drawing interest from the pro-
dnctge industry of the country. The
manufacturers are in the same boat with the
farmers, merchants, and labofing classes Of
all lines of employment, and they cannot
escape through any tariff back door. Strange
they cannot see it. The banks are the
common robbers of them all.
The powerful banks of this country,
England and Germany which own the most
of the railroad bonds are considering the
forming of syudicres in which their inter
ests will be pooled, and trustees or agents
appointed 10 put TO sale all defaulting raj!
roads when they will be bought in by those
I Al. l.