The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-04-08
A SMART ALECK.
HE TURNS A SHARP CORNER-BUT IT
WON'T DO.

Editor Representatives:
lam in receipt OF your paper of the
18th inst. which some friend evident
ly thought he was doing me a kind
ness to have sent to me. In looking
it over the first thing l notice is your
comparison Of the revenue received
under the last year OF the Mckinley
bill, and the first year of the Wilson
bill. Why can't you be fair? Why
not compare the first year OF the Nc
Kinley bill with the first year Of Will
son bill? Oh no,-that would not do,
the difference would be SO great that
it would not help you. You know
that the last year Of the Mckinley
bill was in effect the first year Of the
Wilson bill, from the fact that the
Democratic party 'was in full posses
sion of the government, and It was
expected from all their prediction
promises that they would lose no time
in doing away with the infamous
Mckinley Robber Tariff" so import
ers waited-waited-tO see if they
could not make their importations, at
lower rates. 1t is no wonder that un
der such conditions the revenues
were lOw,-yet they exceed the Wilson
revenues by twenty millions. Why
your readers are able to see through
such sophistry? Yours ETC.,
J. X. SMITH.
Minneapolis, March 10.
Now this is plausible but it needs
only word to brush it away.
He asks us to compare the amount
of revenue, paid under the Mckinley
bill, at a time when business was &C.
tive and imports large, with the reve-
nue. raised by the Wilson-G orman
tariff when the whole country was in
a state of financial collapse. This is
cunning, but it won't do. Imagine a
quack doctor who is called in to at
tend upon patient, who has Slight
cold in 1895, producing a. certificate to
show that the patient weighed 200 lbs
in 1895, while five years before he took
charge Of him lie was very sick man
and weighed but $50 lbs.
The table we gave from the Denver
"Road' showed that the revenue of
the Mckinley act, during its last year.
a year of panic, was only $40, 434 ,991
more than the revenue from the Will
son-Gorman law, during it's first year,
also year Of panic. And the Road"
argued that, testing both laws by the
same conditions. Of hard times, there
was only per capita difference of Bog
cents between them. And as this
would only pay for onc-half dozen
cigars or half dozen glasses Of
beer,-in .year!-the Road" argued,
very properly, that there was not
enough at stake to cons titute a great
national question, to the exclusion Of
the Money issue. For the controversy
now is whether we shall have $67.20
per capita Of circulation, as we had in
1866, or 1884 as we have in 1896; and
the difference of $63.41 per capita Of
circulation is gigantic thing com
pared with a difference of 301 cents
per capita of tariff taxes in year.M
But we are disposed to accommodate
our correspondent and go back to the
era of rushing business, in 1890. In
that year the customs revenues of the
United States were 1929, 668, 5s5. In
1894-5, according to the Denver
Road" they were $179,35 .0O). If
now we deduct the latter from the
former we have difference of $5o,3l
$50; which is the difference between
the revenues of the two bills five
years apart. and under widely different
condition. If now our friend will di-
vide that $5o,31S,5S5 among seventy
million people he will find that
the difference is serenty-seren cents
and fraction per capita! This would
be FIVE CENTS AND EIGHT-TENTHS OF
A CENT MONTH, or little over one
cent a week, or One-seventh of a
cent per day!!!
Is anything further needed to show
what an absolute fraud and sham and
humbug and egregious swindle this
whole Tariff fight is?-One-seventh Of
a cent! There is no coin that will ex-
press it. A man could pick more than
that value from between his teeth
after good dinner!
And yet for this we are to permit
the reign of Plutocracy to continue,
and the people to be driven out of
their homes. For this we are to per-
NIT wheat to be reduced in price from
one dollar bushel, Ct is worth that
in Mexico today, down to fifty-ce nts
bushel, the average price in Mime
sofa during the past year. This one
seventh of cent day is to be waved
in our faces, like red rag before a
mad bull, and we are to 60 rushing
over the fields and breaking down the
fences in pursuit Of that dirty, little
red rag,-and that fraction of a cent:
while all the rings and combines and
corporations in the whole world rob
US to their hearts content. Why the
Minnesota Wheat Ring alone steals
more from the farmers in one year
than the Tariff has taken from them
in 100 years. And the watered stock
of railroads takes as much more. And
the usurers as much more. But the
talk Is nothing but tariff! tariff!
tariff! till the cows come home.
But our correspondent wants US to
60 back to good times for commpari-
son. Suppose then we take the entire
custom revenue Of 1S90,-s229, 66S, $50
and divide it up among 10. 900, 600 peo-
pie; 1T is but little over three dollars
per capita, or less than one cent a dayv!
Give US free-silver and an abundant