The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1896-09-04

Gov. John p. Altgeld opened the polit-
zeal campaign at Girard, Ill.,, on the
evening If August 20. Twenty thousand
people listened to his speech, of which
The following are the salient POINTS,
There are all over the country merchants
who once were prosperous and active: their
business was large, the farmers and 'abor-
ers came to their stores and purchased
freely. Now every day brings a record
u new failures and new assignments.
Farmers and laborers are no longer buy
ing as they did. Business has fallen of.
collections are hard and bankruptcy Is
constantly hammering at the door.
There was time when the manufacture
ers were all busy making the various things
that were used by prosperous and pro-
gressfve people. There was a buyer for
everything they could make. Their shops
were filled with laborers receiving living
wages. Now that market has been to a
great extent destroyed. and there peing
no longer purchasers the manufacturer is
obliged to in part or in whole shut down,
and when he does so his workmen are
surned on the streets and their purchasing
power Is in turn destroyed.
There was a time when our railroads
were all busy. There was time when
there was activity everywhere in this land.
There was a demand for brains and a de-
nand for muscle. Every man willing to
work had his choice of labor. The great
common telling masses of our country
were contented, were educating their chill
eren, were good citizens and were happy.
All this has changed and there is paralysis.
stngnation, want. suffering and discomfort
all over this. the richest land under the
sun.
This change has not come suddenly It
has been creeping over US for a great many
n,.~ IL
SHINE and rain as before and nature has
yielded her harvests as bountifully as ever
before. The earth and the elements have
some all In their power to make man rich
and prosperous. 1t is not nature. but man
that Is responsible for the change The
causes Of our distress are not natural but
are artificial 1t is government policy that
n the mother of our sorrow.
During all the time that this depression
mas been coming upon us we have had
high protective tariff. We have to-day
tarfn that is higher in most respects than
IT was In war times and up to a year and a
half ago we had tariff that was almost
prohibitory, yet the distress of the country
became more and more intense. Nearly
every year for Is years we have had in New
York and the money centers what was
called money furry" That is. small
panic, the result of which each time was
slight lowering of prices and a slight low
ering of wages.
During this time the leaders of one Of the
great political parties of the country kept
advocating an increase of the tariff as
remedy for the rapidly-increasing ills of
the land. Although the tariff we had was
almost the highest in the world, and al
though the war had been over for a quar-
ter of a century, the only remedy that was
suggested was to raise the tariff taxes.
During the presidential campaign of 1858,
recognizing the fact that the conditions in
the land were rapidly becoming worse, the
leaders of this party, in their platform, ad-
sccated an increase in the tariff. The coun-
Try accepted their theory, and Mr.. Harri-
son was elected president, and when con-
gress assembled a tariff act was passed
known as the Mckinley law, which almost
doubled the already high duties While this
law was being framed, the leading manu-
1acturers Of the country went to Washing
ton to lobby, and ii is now a matter of his
tory that they got the bill framed just as
they wanted 1t. Maj. Mckinley, who had
she bill in charge. practically allowed the
manufacturers to write 1t themselves The
argument used was the protection of the
American laborer On this theory the
duties were made so high as to almost stop
importation In many lines, and yet the ink
Of the presidents signature to this bill
had scarcely become dry when over 800 of
those large manufacturers went home and
reduced the wages of their operatives
This was In 1890. The country is familia r
with the reduction of wages which then
sook place, and with some of the labor dis
furbances that followed, SO that the first
effect Of the Mckinley act was in many
cases to lower instead of raising the wages
OF the men, and when the workmen pro-
tested or went out on a strike their places
were nlled with men brought over from the
pauper districts of Europe. under contract
men who worked for wages on which the
American iaborer could not support his
family. The importation of foreign as a
substitute for the American laborers was
carried to such an extent that Mr.. Pow
Derby. himself Pennsylvania and well
posted In that regard, declared that almost
every native-born and every naturalized
American had been driven out of the shops
and mines of Pennsylvania and his place
Allied by pauper labor brought over from
Europe.
Ii was while this law was in force. dur
ing the spring of 1892, while Mr. Harrison
vas president, that the great Homestead
labor riots in Pennsylvania occurred This
law was In force until near the beginning
of the year 1895, and for the fiscal year
snding June 80. 1894. II produced a deficit in
the United States treasury OF So 40 0O0
This was due to the fact that the tariff In
many cases was so high as to check al i'm
Yortation. So that while the Mckinley law
brought the laborer no comfort and no
bread. II impoverished the United States
treasury. .s.ssss s.
Let as consider the money question in
ms relation to the hard times. There are
fundamental and immutable laws of
finance just as there are laws of physics,
and they are not difficult TO understand.
If you reduce the volume of money In
abe world you correspondingly reduce the
selling price of property and destroy the
prosperity of the producing classes. This
rule is recognized by all great financiers of
abe world as an immutable and funda-
mental law of finance. and 1t has been veri-
fed by the financial history of our coun-
try.
From 1862 to 1866 we had neither poij nor