Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-08-22
IMPORTS AND THE REVIVAL
a Natural Result of Returning CONNER
cial Prosperity.

q Natural Result OF Returning CONNER
cial Prosperity.
The republican press continues to
groan daily over the increase of inn
ports Catching at every straw which
they think may serve to keep them
and their Mckinley tariff issue above
| water, our republican friends point
| to the difference between the imports
of the last few months and those of
the CORRESPONDING months last year.
They refuse to compare the recent
| figures with those of the corresponding
period in the fiscal year 1898. but per-
sist IN telling their readers that the
country is going to ruin because we
are importing more goods now than
were imported in the depths of the
panic.
| 1t is true that the imports during
the months which have elapsed since
the enactment of the new tariff have
| been larger than the imports during
| the corresponding months of last year.
1t is encouraging that this increase has
taken place. Our republican friends
| should bear in mind the fact that at
| the same time the country has been
! experiencing a remarkable revival of
| business activity and confidence. Has
| the increase of imports para1yzed do
nestle industry? Let the great
and growing demand for consumption,
| the extraordinary list of increase of
wages, the resumption of work
| in hundreds of idle factories, the ad-
vance of prices, and the many other
proofs of returning prosperity, answer
| this question. It was inevitable that
recovery from panic depression should
be accompanied by an increase of i'm
! ports, and this increase would have
taken place even under rates like those
of the Mckinley act. Republicans
know, or ought to know, that the i'm
ports of dutiab1e goods We're consider
ably larger in the fiscal year 1893, when
the Mckinley duties were in force,
than they have been in the fiscal year
| just ended, although raw sugar was
| free from duty then and has been duti-
able since August % last. The follow
ing table shows the value of the i'm
ports during the eleven months ending
on May 81 for the last three years, the
last three figures of each number hav-
| ing been omitted:
TOTAL IMPORTS.
II Months, II Months. II Months.
Pree 's csc sssssi s1 4Sso Ss5
It will be observed that the imports
for the eleven months in the last fiscal
year were less by 1871 per cent. than
those of the eleven months of 1898, I'M
der the Mckinley duties, although the
free imports in 1893 were swollen by
S1O5. ZOO, 600 worth of raw sugar, while
the dutiable imports of 1895 included
about $40,O 900. 600 for raw sugar trans
ferred to the dutiable list. 1t is en-
couraging, and 1t is a sign of return
ing confidence and prosperity, that the
imports OF 1895 are larger than those
of 1884. The Mckinley rates did NOT
prevent the purchase of foreign goods
by the people of this country, who
shipped to foreign lands last year
$3.50, Zoo, 900 worth of the products of
agriculture, with other exports
amounting to about $3.50, 600, 0O0 Dur
ing the panic, however, their foreign
purchases were abnormally small; now
they are increasing again.
But the increase has not brought the
totals up to the level of 1893, and to
this fact-so carefully avoided or ig-
nored by them-we direct the atten-
ton of republicans and republican
journals The following table will en-
able them to compare the imports I'M
der the leading schedules during the
eleven months ending on May 81 of
this year with those of the correspond
ing months in the fiscal years 1894 and
1893. They always stop with 1894, be-
cause the figures for 1893 "a year dur
ing which the Mckinley tariff was in
full force) make their partisan pleas
and arguments ridiculous. For con-
venience in tabulation we have cut
%1o1 loo q E
Der:
IMPORTS COMPARED