The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-05-03
THE BUSINESS SITUATION.
some Improvement Since the Democratic
Eefeat.


Eefeat.
1t is too much to expect that those
who care more for their private opinion
Or for their profit in importing than
for the good of the country and the
happiness Of fellow-beings will be led,
even by the events of the last three
years, to give up their worship of free
trade theories. But there are millions
In this country who have only accepted
such theories because they were taught
by respected college professors or by
favored political leaders, and these
millions are learning last from ex-
perience. 1t is to them that the story
Of enlarged importations and reduced
wages and manufacturing products
comes with convincing power. That
free traders feel this is confessed by
their eager citation of every advance of
wages at a single establishment, and
every resumption or increase of work.
Is if by isolated instances they could
disprove the personal experience of the
working millions Let it be distinctly
understood, once for all, that these
facts are neither denied nor overlooked
nor deprecated by any sensible Ameri-
can. They only prove that the tariff of
1894, which was as disgracefully de-
fective as it was UNANIMOUSLY dishonest,
according to the president and other
democratic leaders. fails to accomplish
as much as its advocates expected.
The avowed purpose was to stop the
defense and support of home industries
by duties on imports. If at any point
the duties are left so high that they
afford full protection to the home in
dustry against foreign competition
the democratic congress at that point
was false to democratic principles and
corruptly favored monopOlies. The
country has to learn by costly and
somewhat prolonged experience how
far and in what cases this is the fact;
and if 1t should turn out that the du-
ties remaining are at every point high
enough to protect home industries
and enable them to bear foreign COM
petition without reducing wages, the
result would only prove that the du-
ties are not what the people were
promised, but are base betrayals of
democratic principles and pledges, cor
ruptly granted to monopolies in return
for shares in the profits of sugar and
whisky speculation. But everybody Is
learning that this is not the truth, as
respects many of the industries.
In a good many establishments
wages have been advanced; that is.
part of the reduction made IN prepara-
tion for a democratic tariff has been
rescinded. Where twenty or twenty
five per cent. was taken off in many
cases ten per cent. has now been re-
stored. When it is found that partic-
ular industries are in no way affected
by the new tariff or enjoy all the pro-
lection they formerly had the old
wages have in some cases been re-
stored. But the fact remains that
large proportion of the workers are
now receiving lower wages than they
received in 1892, and they know both
the fact and the cause.
A good many establishments which
stopped while democratic tariff was
in preparation have now resumed,
wholly or in part. This also is glad
dening. The fact remains that many
have been wholly idle for two years,
and many more have as yet been able
to resume only with part of their force
or working part time. This also the
workers know by their own experience,
and the cause. Day by day, as the ex-
tent of foreign competition and the
effect of new duties come to be more
correctly measured, some concerns are
increasing force or resuming, while
others in different branches are re-
ducing force or suspending work, and
while it must be months before the full
effect of the competition on new terms
can be realized, every enlargement of
opportunity for American labor will
be hailed with joy, as a gain for the
country and an additional victory over
a laundering democratic tariff. At
this date the banking returns show
that actual business is 2O.2 per cent.
smaller than it was early in April two
years ago, before the breakdown came,
and largely increased part of that di-
minished business is due to the mar
keting of foreign products, of which in
February the imports in many leading
branches were twice as large as in
1898. This necessarily involves a de-
crease greater than the average in the
volume of trade resulting from the
marketing of domestic products--N.
Y Tribune