The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-12-29


lar expressions on the part of the
Senate finance committee, whose men,
bers helped frame the law. The vigor-
GUS efforts Of the Republicans to re-
duce expenditures all along the line,
coupled with the rapid increase in
revenues under the new law, make it
apparent that there will be no necessity
for further legislation on that subject
in this session of Congress and probably
for many years to come.
BosToN's Mugwump papers are dis
turbed over the fight of cotton manu-
features to the South, where the raw
material is produced and where labor is
cheaper than in Massachusetts,, with
the consequence Of cheaper production
OF cotton fabrics than is possible in the
mills Of the old Bay State. In their
eyes the development of manufacturing
in the South, in competition with Mas
sachusetts, is one OF the evils of pro-
tective tariff. But true protection lie
national in its application, and il under
it the States Of the South become man
ufacturers OF the raw material they
produce the principle will be accom-
plishing Its perfect work, and the coun-
try as a whole will be benefited,
whether it is cotton or iron ore, or any
other raw material, that is converted
into manufactured product. II Mas
sachusetts cotton mills cannot compete
with those Of the South their owners
will have to adapt themselves to the
new order Of things industrial tho New
South is bringing in. That section OF
the country is simply pursuing the
course that northern statesmen, q gem
GRAFTON ago, commended to its con-
sideration producing more of the
things that contribute to good order
and material prosperity and "raising less
hell" In some inscrutable way the
Herald connects the low estate Of the
cotton industry at Fall River with
protective tariff; if there were inter-
national as well as interstate free
trade, everything would be lovely and
the cotton goose would hang high.
That is to say, if there is q devastating
food on the lower Mississippi remedy
would be found in inviting the Atlantic
ocean to submerge the sea coast States
of the North East. This is good free
trade logic, but it is mighty poor
grade of common sense. In consider
ing this matter it is we'll to remember
that the cotton.industry, the world over,
is depressed,-in England, the greatest
Of cotton fabric producers, as we'll as
in the United States.
THE NewYork Sun devotes over page
fits space, in recent issue, to exposing
the abuses Of the Nations bounty in
the granting of pensions. The Sun
maintains that the pension rolls are
padded almost beyond belief; that more
survivors" of the late war are draw
ing pensions than there are survivors;
that bounty jumpers and deserters, fake
widows and orphans, cheats and swind-
lers of all classes swell the debt to
Uncle Sans defenders. These fraud
ulent pensioners draw millions every
year and the gates are annually opened
wider to admit more. There are now
nearly l 900 900 pensioners and 500 900
applications still undecided. Schemes
and special acts for greater expendi-
lures for pensions are Matched at every
session of Congress. This is the in
dictment the Sun has drawn and it pre-.
sents great array of figures to sustain
it's charges. In 1873 James A. Gar
field, in speech in Congress, favoring
pensions for the old soldiers, stated that
the high. water mark had been reached
and that from then on the numbers on
the pension rolls would decrease. There
were then 238 AL pensioners. Since
that time 321 ,485 have been removed
from the rolls, chiefly by death, but
there are remaining 97e,0l4, with sew
eral hundred thousand applications
pending for admission to the rolls. In
the various phases of this subject the
Sun makes showing OF alleged abuses
that is possibly not new but is more
comprehensive and startling than any
other statement of the matter that has
been published. Politics rather than
singleness Of purpose to do justice to
the soldiers, and those who have actu-
ally suffered by the death or disability
of soldiers, is largely responsible for
this abuse Of the nations bounty. Pen
sion extension has been carried 30 far,
swelling the pension rolls, a genera.
ton after the end of the war, to num-
Der ten times as large as the army
Grant commanded in his advance upon
Richmond, and calling for the expendi
ture annually of 30 vast sum of money
that the question of pension reform OF