The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-01-01
THE REPUBLICAN REMEDY.
a TARIFF ON POTATOES.
The Slaves of Plutocracy Feeding the People
On Decisions. While They Destroy
Abraham Lincoln's Greenbacks.
The Consummaton of Long Line Of Abuses
On the Part of the Money-PoWer.


duce good times by putting up the
tariff. This will increase the price Of
commodities without increasing the
amount Of money in the hands Of the
people, with which to buy those COM
modities.
An American and an Irishman stop
ped at a street peddler's stand, to
look at some oranges. They were five
cents each. The American said:
did you ever see finer oranges
than those, and so cheap"
The Irishman replied:
Sure, l could have bought finer
oranges than those in the old country
for penny"
why didn't you stay there?" asked
the indignant American.
"Be gob-I didn't have the penny"
was the reply.
The trusts and rings for year past
have been trying to make good times
by putting up prices, and we know
what a dismal failure it has been.
The people didn't have the penny.
There can be no prosperity in a
country where all business has to be
done on credit, and the bank over
shadows the church, the school-house,
the mill, the shop and the factory.
Whenever there is more money to be
made in lending money than in en-
plOying labor, labor must starve; for
where the average earnings of indus
try, even in good times, are but three
per cent year. and the average earn
ings of money are from eight to a
hundred per cent year. the money
lender will eventually devour all the
rest of the community. He reduces
enterprise to discredit and want; and,
at last, afraid to lend any more to
his bankrupted victims, he sits in his
bank, with his vaults locked, idle He
has all the wealth in his hands but is
unable to make use of it. That is our
present condition.
The fool says:-"there is plenty of
money. Look at the banks"
The quack doctor, called in to at
tend upon an appoplectic patient, says:
= too much health; look at his face
see how red it is;-how beautifully he
snores"
The blood is all in the appoplectic's
bank:-his head. But if he does not
get speedy relief he will go to the
bone-yard. The United States are al
ready there.
Suppose raising the tariff on wooden
goods sets more men at work making
wooden goods, where is the demand to
come from for the goods? The farm
er is the great consumer. Will a
higher price for blankets increase the
price Of his wheat or cotton? Mo-
the prices Of those articles are fixed
by the worlds market, and the de-
monetization or silver has SO in
creased the value of the gold dollar
that it will buy two bushels of wheat
or two bales Of cotton, where formerly
it bought but one. That is to say,
the price of wheat and cotton is cut
in half, and the farmer has half as
much to buy with. In this condition
to increase the price Of what the
farmer has to buy without increasing
the price of what he has to sell is
cruel-is criminal. 1t is adding new
stings to poverty and greater depths
to misery.
Neither will an increased tariff on
oats or corn or barley or potatoes or
hay help US. AS one of our correspon-
ho
tected from lower prices abroad be-
cause the price here is lower than in
other regions: for the reason, that. in
addition to the depreciation caused
by the decentralization of silver all
over the world, we here add extOr-
tionate charges on transportation
owned mainly by foreigners: and the
fruits Of our industry are swept out CT
the country to enrich Englishmen
Germans, etc.
In these vast continental spaces,
far removed from the oceans, our ac-
cess to the commerce of the world
mainly depends On railroads. Ii
those railroads are bonded and stock
ed for twice what they cost, and COM
bined in one giant pool to hold up
rates. to pay interest on their bogus
capital. then we are little better than
serfS. 1t becomes therefore a prime
necessity to lift the people out of
ruin. that they should, as they do else
where, own the lines OF transporta-
ton, and fix rates that will wipe out
the watered stock. and give the poor
devils who inhabit the country q
chance to live.
The Republican leaders know all
these things as we'll as we do; they are
not fools. They know that the
remedy is the free coinage Of silver;
an abundant legal currency; to
drive the banks out Of the business
Of coming money: and government
ownership Of railroads, in short the
Omaha platform. But they are like
Macbeth:
Tiled to the stake.
And bear-like they must fight the course"
They won their victories, Of late
years. national and state and congress
sional, by the help Of the Money-pOw-
err. In Minnesota last year not less
than $3.50, 900 was spent to secure vic
tory for the Republican party Who
furnished that money? Not the peo-
pie. for they can scarcely buy bread
II