The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-07-27
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NJ. NJ. MURDOCH. Editor.
SAME TUNE, DIFFERENT KEY.

SAME TUNE, DIFFERENT KEY
The Democrat howl, now, is on new
p,m,It but the strain of the tune has
q familiar sound. "Ibe Republicans
having increased the cost OF living TO
the people, how can the people prosper
while compelled to pay more for every
thing they buy!'' is the sum total OF
the refrain. VIII these Democratic Or
cans tell us why. in the face of flour at
300 per barrel and every other item o.
living proportionately high, that people
are breaking their necks 10 reach klon-
dyke? Wages being proportionately
high. prices cannot be too high. No
country or community was ever more
prosperous than its neighbors except
as prices for that country ruled higher.
Low prices and low wages mean low
civilization. India and China, with
their prices quadrupIed for everything
would be prosperous, progressive coun-
trjes. The danger which cOnfronts the
United States today is low prices upon
LIE ore hand and cOmbained capital
upon the other Should prices be forced
as low in this country as they are in
India. there would be not only strikes
but bloodshed. The Democratic idea of
forcing the price and wage conditions
g .l,+- ,,,,,,-,.,, 20 tho fran rra do Lowell of
England means a plutOcratic rule with
q standing army to support it, or other
wise a still more marked revolution, in
which existing conditions would be
wiped out. The era of quasi-serfdom
is past. ard so far as America is con-
cerned. impossible.
The Democratic party only last year
favored high prices, through imitation
by free silver. The controlling leaders
of the party alone were opposed. The
party in favoring free silver. favored
imitation. and therefore high prices.
Free silver and free trade are antagon-
istic terms. They are utterly antagon-
istic. One means high prices. the other
low. Low prices mean Serfdom for the
laborer. whether in field, factory or
mine. 1t never seems to occur To the
Democratic free traders that it makes
little difference 10 q man how little his
living costs 50 long as he has no work
and is earning nothing. or. upon the
IL.
as he has plenty of work at remunerat-
i've wages. The economy which low
prices and hard times enforce, in times
of high prices means wealth for him
who practices il. 1t is the Democratic
idea of free trade and low prices thar
under Cleveland Shrunk all values one
half and Frustrated the whole country.
If the Democratic tariff, hitched on to
rhe single standard idea. decreased the
rost of living. it also deprived hum
dreds Of thousands Of men Of work and
wages by opening our ports to the pro-
ducts OF foreign countries. and reduced
the wages OF millions of men to that
same single standard, until today I'M
told numbers find it impossible TO live
in decency and comfort Possibly the
new tariff may in some instances in
crease the cost ef the products of Amer
lean factories ard farms. but it will also
provide work for American working
men and give them higher wages with
W hch 10 purchase those products at
higher prices. There is not a man of
sense in the United States who would
net prefer higher prices with an Oppor-
tunity to earn something TO pay them TO
Democratic low prices with closed fac
tories and n poor market for American
agricultural products.
The fact is that hundreds Of thou
sands Of Americans, who are as good as
the men who constituted Cleveland's
bond syndicate, men in blood the same
as OF those who SIT in congress, have
lost in shrinkage of values, in wages
10 which they were entitled and which
they would have received but for the
sIccess OF the Democratic free trade.
trust and combine policy of 1892. sum
far greater. greater by thousand fold.
than any increase of cost of living
which VIII he experienced under the
new tariff law of the Republican party. |