Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-07-04
TRIUMPH OF THE WILSON, BILL

A8ny Benefits Already Result1ng from
the Democratic Tariff.
Everybody recollects the dolefu1 pre-
aictions that were made of what would
follow the passage of the Wilson bill.
Or the German bill, or the Wilson-Gorv
man bill, or whatever one may choose
TO call the tariff bill passed by the
Fifty-third congress. The bill was
modified very greatly during its pas
sage through congress, but the charac-
ter of the predictions never changed.
The same calamities that were to fol-
low the original Wilson bill were pre-
aicted again after each successive
modification. And after the bill was
passed and had become law it was
described as a free-trade measure by
protected manufacturers associations,
and a pathetic appeal was made to the
patriots of the country to buy domes-
tic goods at a high price, instead of
imported goods at low price, in order
to avert chaos and ruin among our
domestic producers.
Nearly ten months have elapsed
since the free trade bill' became
law, and the watchmen upon the noun
tains of Zion are looking for the COM
ing of that troop of disasters so conf
IDENTIFY predicted. Among those dis
asters was a reduction of wages of
labor to "a level with the pauper labor
of Europe and Asia. This has SO far
been fulfilled that every flash of the
telegraph brings intelligence of the
rise of the wages of hundreds or thou
sands of men. Day unto day uttereth
speech of the employment of more men
in our industries, and night unto night
showeth knowledge of larger earnings
and better profits. This is the first of
the free trade niseries.
In like manner the watchmen upon
the towers tell us of the building of
new factories and the enlargement of
old ones. 1t were long to tell the story
in detail, but one or two may be no.
ticed. The other day we heard that
the Cam bria Iron company would spend
two million dollars in the en1argemen t
of it's works. Then comes the news
that the Illinois Steel company will
build a new mill for the manufacture
CT structural steel at a cost of million
of dollars. This method of working
the ruin of our industries is altogether
new, and is worthy of the attention OF
that very numerous class Of CasSandras
who filed the air last fall with howls
o; coming calamity.
and fall about iron ore, and it was i'm
material whether the duty was taken
off or simply reduced, the same miser
les were to follow The misery has
followed. The other day the Port
Henry mines in New York began ship
ping iron ore to the furnaces in the
Rhenish and Westphalian iron districts
in Germany. The first consignment
amounted to fifteen hundred tons, and
doubtless, more will follow. The in
dustry which we were told could MOI
hold its own in the home market with
out large protection is going over the
ocean, and invading Germany, where
wages are low, and the American style
of living unknown.
Another misery that was to super
vene was the reduction of prices o
farm products, owing to the inabilit,
of the employees of protected manufac
turers to earn wages and their cOnSe
quent inability to purchase food ane
clothing. This has been verified, S,
far as it has been verified at all, b!
large advances in the prices of some o
the leading agricultural staples, in
Guiding wheat and cotton.
In the general wreck the railroads
were, of course, to have their share. 1
nobody sold anything, or bought any
thing, on account of the poverty su
perinduced by reduction of taxation
there would, of course, be nothing TO
the roads to carry. AS railroad gros
earnings are showing an increase O
six or eight per cent. over last year
when the Mckinley bill of blesse
memory was in full operation, it viii
be seen that the Cassandras of las
year have plenty of work to explain
this curious phenomenon.
In a word. all that was predicted @
the opera tons of the new tariff ha
been falSified. Just the contrary ha
occurred in every instance. This ough
to induce the calamity howlers to G
out of business, but it will not. A
soon as one prediction is falsitied the
make another just as good, but no bet
ter. The country is enduring the mis-
cries of free trade with a good deal c
resignation.-Lou Courier-J oul
nal.
The action of the national COZ
vention of republican clubs in refusin
to make any declaration or expires
auy opinion on the overlapping iSSu