The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-08-20
NEWS FROM
WASHINGTON.
Interesting Letter From Our
Special Correspondent.
Our Republican Congress and PreSi-
dent-Mark Hanna Is not Re-
SpOnsible for the Big
Wheat Crop.
Tennessee's New Congressman, Hon. Il.
w. Carmack, Made Favorable
Impression Upon the People
at the National Capital
Especial Correspondence

WASHINGTON, d. G. Aug. l6.-The
care with which the Hanna Nc
Kinley administration guard the
vital interests of the land is seen in
the haste wherewith the Reed-Ding-
ley-Aldrich congress was permitted
to escape from the Federal City
after their enormous labOrs in franz
ing and passing a tariff of trust
plumber, so that Hanna's political
debts could be met, and the pro-
ducers and wage workers be COM
PEELED to foot the bill, without any
advantage to themselves. Congress
adiourns, and the President fees to
Lake ChamplaIn. Yet Cuba is
bleeding at our southern doorstep,
with the possibility, nay the proba-
bility Of an Unforeseen collision to
evolve a bloody conflict with Spain.
The Hawaiian tumble is left all at
loose ends, with Japan made un-
friendly and European intrigues be-
hind stirring bitter hostility, to bear
ill will for the near future if not the
immediate present. To enable John
allow Mr.. Mckinley to have a good
quiet time on the $4,000 year the
people pay him, as we'll as to per-
NIT "business interests" such rest
az will enable it to take an account
of stock gained in tariff robbery, the
untiring enterprise, and courage of
American adventure is left in gold
bearing Alaska, without the pres
ence of an American soldier, or any
post, without land officers or land
laws in operation and with the fes-
tering possibilities Of a boundary
dispute on the richest gold field yet
discovered in the world, with the
bumptious John Bullism of the
greedy Canadians. All are left to
the mercy of Chance, while the ex-
hausted schemers retire to a sum-
mer survey of the plumber gained.
Then there's the Behring sea and
Aleutian seal imbroglio, to wait the
chances Of Alaskan disorders and
boundary passions, to be famed per-
haps into hostilities. The Mica
ragua canal business which ought
to have been arranged is left to the
intrigues of British diplomacy to
disturb and embarrass. And this is
the sort of Mark Hanna prosperity
and craftsmanship, to the partaking
of which we are invited to the Nc
Kinley administration board.
That an increase in the price of
wheat or other staple farm products
cannot in any sense be placed to the
: credit of the Hanna tariff, which is
, not yet operative, or by the effects
of alleged confidence produced by
an assurance of such legislation, is
seen by the fact that wages are
everywhere so pitifully low that
great masses of men are striking OF
threatening so to do, because the
means of life have so far fallen
below even wretched standard OF
living, as the sweating tailors oil
the bituminous coal miners. There
is no improvement in the wages OF
: labor, hence there is no general in
, crease of prosperity. The price OF
wheat has enhanced because
Europe, Argentia, and India are
short $50, 100000 bushels. The com
mercial price of silver still fluctuate'
or falls, because it is deprived of its
money function, and legislative anC
banking power is used to depres'
? and destroy its powers and value
under them. That national pros
perity has not come is seen in the
fact that money is still enormously
congested at the great centers anC
that reserves in the United States
a Treasury, gold and legal tender
, steadily increase. The large in
crease of savings bank funds in com
2 mercial and not in the industrial
/ centers, is striking proof of how
timid money still is, and sure sigI
: that small and domestic service are
D still depressed. Low interes
9 with abundance are certain
evidences that circulation is con
tracted. The tool is not in demand
ergo, labor is not employed. Any
3 increase of prosperity for the farme
2 then, and the manufacturers anC
f trades Immediately dependent upoI
farmers as class, is due entirely tt
e the desperation of industries having
= some ability to stand alone and live
= if that rigid economy is practiceC
a which degrades those who did i
and destroys the well-being of al
Others whose work supplies wants.
= 1t is not Mark Hanna then tina
t has made the farmers growth, if i
has come. Loss in other lands anC
~ favorable natural conditions, quick
ening the soil and ripening tn,
/ grain, with the toll of desperation
n added, and not McKinley's election
q or Dingley's robber tariff increasing
the cost of the breakfast table anC
the wardrobe, thereby curtailing tn,
5 supply, which helps labor and set
- primary enterprise in motion, con
: traction and tariff jobs. On every
pound of sugar bought by labor, hal
cent more is now paid, and on ever!
I wooden or textile garment, eXcep
where bankruptcy forces sacrifice