The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1895-06-04
BESET WITH DANGER.
FREE RAW MATERIAL WILL WonK
OUR "UNDoING."


Business-Cheap Coats and Men.
The evils that Mckinley and Reed
predicted would follow the removal or
lowering Of the tariff are becoming more
manifest every hour. Our wooden ills
have been running night and day for
months, being among the leaders in tho
industrial revival, whereas if tho pro.
tests Of tho Ohio Woolgrowers' associ-
alton had boon needed the raw material
could not have been SO protitably work
ed, and goods woald not havo been put
down to starvation prices in order to
compete with the paupcr products of Eu-
rope.
AS good snit of clothes can now DO
bought ut retail for $40, and as cheap
coat means cheap man, the nation
will be degraded rs we'll as lose the ben
eft of years of education in the main
tenaace of high wages by means of high
tarlffs. Had the mills staid idle II few
months longer, wo should not now be
talking OF the return of prosperity and
an era OF cheap prices at the same time.
And when prosperity did come tho work
lnSinan could take his big salary and
pay the manufacturers the old cstub.
lished 40 per cent profit and respect him
self as much as the gambler who throws
away his last quarter for cigar. The
sudden rise of mcn like Carnegie from
perjury to colossal wealth would encour-
age him to speculate with such money
as he could save or borrow. banks would
be established, boom towns would be
hrti I'M.
like rockets, and when he had won his
fortune he wouldn't know how to value
1t and himself by the knowledge of tho
hundreds Of his comrades who had failed.
Nor is this all. When we took off tho
duties on certain raw materials We not
only maco low prices of manufactured
goods possible here hut all over tho
world. This led to such Increased con.
sumption at home that our manufactur-
ers have boon producing enormous stocks
Ill the effort to keep up with their or
ders, and new mon have been coming
into business, who have rushed intonlar-
kets that the older and wiser generation
neglected, thus letting down tho bars to
all manner of future disasters They
have been carrying Goals to Newcastle
by shipping WOODEN goods to Bradford
and shoes to Bristol. The result will be
that when they shall have lost all their
money, once the English see fit to cut
prices, tho foreigner will again seize our
markets, and we shall be ground under
the iron heel Of English gold
Already they have begun reprisals by
marking down their goods and threaten
tn Al,
South American markets, which we
might have captured by judicious stealth,
with the added satisfaction of making
tho heathcn pay double or triple the
profits that we can get from the British.
Tho Christian prerogative of spelling
the lands of tho bcnightcd are thus lost
to us forever.
Likewise we have subjected ourselves
TO still another menace Wo have 40
tariff on hides, and when the supply ran
low here our tanners went abroad and
bought in Argentina and Australia, be-
ing compelled 70 pay 100 per cent more
than IL months ago. Under the McKin-
ley regime raw materials were cheap
and only manufactured products high,
thus putting tho chief burden OF prOduc-
ton OF tho former, where it rightly bc-
longs. We do not deny that in this case
leather has gone up enormously, but this
has been used 10 our disadvantage, inst
as it was in a different way with cheap
wooden goods. The Boston Commercial
Bulletin, u stanch high tariff weekly,
had the following mournful intelligence
i'll last Saturdays market reports:
Some fears hive been expressed that the rise
In hides would cut American tanners OF from
the foreign markets. hut this will not bu tho
case, for our people can buy hides as cheap ns
nry,,Gdy else, and the rise here has been fol.
lowed b. corresponding advance o. thcothcr
side, SO that the relative cost of producing
leather In the eastern and western hcnIis.
phcrcs Is unchanged.
But another element comes now into play
which il succinctly confessed by the London
Shoe and Leather Record: Tho English mar.
kct has mover influenced the American TO any
extent. either by buying largely or by holding
of. Our American cousins simply used our
manufacturers ~ n means of getting rid Of
their surplus stock and consigned goods here
1t such low prices that people were tempted
TO use them and shut out other material At
last, then, we have got to depend on thom for
our supplies, and al course now that We want
the goods we shall have 10 pay their market
price for them"
There we have it. Heretofore orr sell
ers have let tho English market severely
alone, but now hypocrtical trade Jour
nal is seeking to decoy tannors into tho
trap to which we have already alluded.
In other words, the English are follow
ing tho mastery plan employed by
France with Germany in lS70-to de-