The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-06-04
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
A PROsPFRTTY d PAEAcEA.

A PROSPERITY % PAEAGEA.
Great things are claimed for the
mutilated Dingley tariff, amended and
rewritten by the republican members
of the senate finance committee until
its original trainers could hardly find
traces of their handiwork, as great
things we're claimed for the Dingley
tariff in its original form as a restor-
alive of prosperity and a remedy for
all our serious ills. 1t may be that
there is some OCCULT power in this
tariff which will enable US to lift our
selves out of the slough of industrial
depression by our boot straps start
the cart before the horse, build pros
perity upon expectations, and put it in
the power of manufacturers to prosper
by starting up their mills even though
there be no market for the products.
But if there is not some such magic
power in the Dingley tariff it must fail
as a restorative of prospeFity-it must
fail to bring prosperity to our manu-
faCturers, for the mere starting up of
mills will not make a demand for
manufactured goods, and to increase
the output Of mill and factory, with
the result of piling up the products in
stOrehouses, cannot but lead to ruin
and disaster and a thickening of the
clouds Of industrial stagnation.
The building of higher tariff rates
with a view to depressing impOrtatiOns
of foreign goods can avail our manu-
factuFers nothing, for it is not an in
crease in impoFtatiOns of foreign goods,
it is not replacing of the products of
our own mills, in our own markets,
with goods of foreign manufacture,
that has been the cause Of manufsctuF-
ing depression. Therefore to build up
tariff duties to check imports, to pro-
vide remedy for an evil that does not
exist, can profit US nothing. The seat
of our trouble lies in dire falling off
in the consumption of manufactured
goods-lies in the impoveFishment of
those who buy the products of the mill
and factory.
In short our farmers and planters
have suffered such serious losses from
the fall in prices for their products
that has taken place during the past
few years that their ability to purchase
manufactured goods has been much
Iessened. Consequently a market of
sufficient breadth TO absorb the product
ofourmills and factories has been want
ing, and of necessity the shutting down
Of mills, the curtailment of production
and general manufacturing depression
has followed. So great has been the
fall in prices for our farm products
that our agricultural population did
not realize for their crops last year
within s5OO,OO00OO as much as they re-
ceived in 1892 Consequently they had
this much less to spend for manufac-
tured goods. That such a diminution
in demand should have led to dire
manufacturing depression is only nat
uFal, and as this, namely, the falling off
in domestic consumption, has been the
cause of our troubles we cannot pull
ourselves out of the slough of indus
trial stagnation by building up tariff
duties to exclude importations of for
eign goods. Compared to the curtail-
ment in demand for manufactured
goods, occasioned by the diminished
purchasing power Of our farmers, the
increase of importations of foreign
goods, and the loss of market to our
own manufacturers on this account is
infnitesimal. The absolute exclusion
Of foreign manufactured goods from
our markets would fall far short of
making good the loss in market coca
stoned to our manufacturers through
the depreciation in the value of agri-
cultural products.
The one and only sufficient remedy
for manufacturing depression is the
lifting of the premium on gold and the
consequent bounty on exports from
silver-using to gold-using countries,
which has led to the depreciation of
our farm products and thereby sown
the seeds of manufacturing depression.