The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1895-06-01


AS good suit Of clothes can now be
bought at retail for @10, and as cheap
coat means cheap man, the nation
will be degraded as we'll as lose the BEN
eft Of years Of education in the main
tenance Of high wages by means Of high
tariffs. Had the mills staid idle few
months longer, we 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 the work
ingman could take his big salary and
pay the manufacturers the old estab-
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 men like Carnegie from
penury 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
built, lucky investments would go up
like rockets, and when he had won his
fortune he wouldn't know how to value
it and himself by the knowledge Of the
hundreds Of his comrades who had failed.
Nor is this all When we took off the
duties on certain raw materials, we not
only made low prices Of manufactured
goods possible here but all over the
world This led to such increased con-
sumption at home that our manufactur-
ers have been producing enormous stocks
in the effort to keep up with their or
ders, and new men have been coming
into business, who have rushed into mar
kets that the older and wiser generation
neglected, thus letting down the bars to
all manner Of future disasters They
have been carrying Goals to Newcastle
by shipping woolen 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, the 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
ing to overrun the new Asiatic and
South American markets, which we
might have captured by judicious stealth,
with the added satisfaction Of making
the heather pay double or triple the
profits that we can get from the British.
The Christian prerogative of spelling
the lands Of the benighted are thus lost
to us forever.
Likewise we have subjected ourselves
to still another menace We have no
tariff on hides, and when the supply ran
low here our tanners went abroad and
bought in Argentina and Australia, be-
ing compelled to pay 100 per cent moro
than 10 months ago. Under the McKin-
ley regime raw materials were cheap
and only manufactured products high,
thus putting the chief burden Of produc-
tion on the former, where it rightly be-
longs. We do not deny that in this case
leather has gone up enormously, but this
has been used to our disadvantage, just
as it was i'll different way with cheap
woolen goods The Boston Commercial
Bulletin, q stanch high tariff weekly,
had the following mournful intelligence
in last Saturdays market reports:
Some fears have been expressed that the rise
| In hides would cut American tanners of from
the foreign markets, but this will not be the
case. for our people can buy hides as cheap as
anybody else. and the rise here has been fol-
lowed by corresponding advance on the other
side, 80 that the relative cost Of producing
!
| pheres II unchanged.
| But another element comes now into play
which is succinctly confessed by the London
Shoe and Leather Record: "The English mar
ket has never influenced the American to any
extent. either by buying largely or by holding
on. Our American cousins simply used our
manufacturers as means of getting rid Of
their surplus stock and consigned goods here
At such low prices that people were tempted
TO use them and shut out other material At
last then, we have got to depend ON them for
our supplies, and Of course now that we want
the goods we shall have to pay their market
| price for them"
There we have it. Heretofore our sell
! ers have let the English market severely
alone. but now o hypocritical trade jour-
nal is seeking to decoy tanners into the
trap to which we have already alluded
In other words. the English are follow
ing the mastery plan employed by
France with Germany in 1900 de-
coy the enemy ON her soil and then crush
him to death in her embrace. It is true
the burly Teutons were able to survive
the French hug. but is our case parallel?
Have we not been repeatedly warned by
Governor Mckinley and Mr.. Reed that
our manufacturers are in no condition
to cope with British gold and British
cheap labor? Once we invade England's
industrial markets, we shall have our
ships burned behind us, and when we
have grappled with the enemy we shall
be his'n.
We can nee from this that no matter
how business continues, we have laid
the foundation Of our undoing II pros
perity do not fully return, it will be be-
cause our industries were stricken down
In the Democratic congress, and II 1t do,
1t will be to overwhelm us utterly with
the cheap prices and the low instincts
that go hand In hand with the sordid
habits Of economy we have acquired dur
ing the hard times. Louisville Courier
Journal
| Not Believer in the Old Maxim.
Addicks IL not q believer In the maxim