The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-02

used. an immediate advance is ne
cessary of from Is to 40 per cent
TO cover the increased cost of knit
goods; and we further
"Resolve, That, if it is necessary
TO carry out the above resolutions,
we will curtail production even to
the stoppage of our mills.
There are fifty thousand employees
in the knit goods industry, and unless
the whole people will pay an advance OF
from 10 to 40 per cent for these goods
this army of men are notified that they
will be thrown out of work. n few
days ago a prominent North CaroIinian
was in Washington and went into well
known store to buy a half dozen articles
for wear. When informed that the
price had increased forty per cent, he
bought three instead of half dozen.
This is what most mems necessities will
make them do The result will be that
the manufacturers will have to shut
down their factories and turn many
employees out of work, whereas but for
the high tariff the consumers could pur-
chase twice the number of knit goods
and twice as many men would be en-
ployed in their manufa cture.
The action of the knit goods manufac-
turers shows that the tariff was en-
acted to enrich the rich manufacturers,
at the expense not only of the consum-
ers, but also of the operatives employ
ed in the protected industries. Their
exposure Of the real purpose of the Ding
ley act has angered some of the high
tariff papers. The Philadelphia Ledger
is particularly severe upon them. THE
manufacturers evidently think" it says.
that it 1.-THE Dingley tariff, was made to
benefit themselves alone, and to injure
the entire body of consumers and the
working men and women engaged in the
knitting mills of the United States"
AS proof that the manufacturers re-
expression of the street is seen in this
paragraph in the call of the Association:
'The consumer tof knitted goods is
naked. stocks depleted, and the peck
cts of the agricultural classes full"
Therefore, the Association, taking adj
vantage of this nakedness. will increase
the prices form Is to 40 per cent. The
Ledger proposes severe remedy. 1t
says:
when Congress meets in Deem
her it should rpimpose the duties of
the late tariff on knit goods,
ms under them the prices
yielded satisfactory returns to the
manufacturers kept the cost to con
sumers fair and gave the working
people Of the mills wages not lower
than they NOW receive. The conten-
ton of the authors of the restitution
yesterday adopted appears TO he
from the light thrown on it by the
call for the convention, that. the
wheat crop being good and the farm
ers prosperous for the first time in
years. the knit goods manufacturers
intend to use the tariff as means
to the end of compelling the farmer,
in common with the whole mass Of
consumers. to pay an eXtortionate tri-
hute. If they refuse to pay it the
combination of knit goods makes it
to close the mills and shut out the
operatives"
1t is too late, Mr.. Ledger, for such a
inst proposition. The good money con-
tributed by the Knit Goods Associa ton
and other similar manufacturers bought
Congress at the same time that il elect
ed Mckinley. 1t was II part of the con-
tract that they were to have the right
to reimburse themselves by taxing the
people through the Dingley tariff. They
are merely enjoying their part of the
spols. The time for the Ledger to have
protested was when ii was busy helping
these tariff barons get the right to do
what it now wants to take from them.
1t would be dishonorable in Mckinley
and Hanna to refuse what they con-
tracted to deliver.
In the meantime, the consumers are
learning over again the primer knowl-
edge that the tariff is a tax, and becom-
ing indignant with those who say the
tariff does not affect price, and it there
fore makes no difference whether it is
high or low