Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1897-05-06


dullest intellects; and through the re-
dueiO al G6surdlm it may bs possible
once for all to take the tariff question
entirely outside the domain Of partisan
politics and permit of its treatment in
the future from a purely business
standpoint. Many of our Republican
friends sincerely believe that an ade-
quate tariff is the principal cause Of
many evils that afflict our people
They so easily forget that these, condi-
tions had existed whether under the
operations of high or low rate Of duty
and the outcome of its legislation will
in my opinion prove so disappointing,
so barren in results, as to riyet closely
the attention Of the American people
to the true cause of the disease, and we
shall then be ready to cease the treat
ment of symptoms and strike at the
very root of the disease itself.
The first effect of the passage of the
new tariff bill unquestionably will be
to kindle many a furnace, and start
many forge and loom. The first
tendency of manufactured products
will be to rise, and labor will be active
ly employed for sixty or ninety days,
The warehouses will be stored full of
manufactured products, and then they
will await market, absolutely ignOr-
ing the fact that the men producing
wheat in the Mississippi Valley at 35
cents per bushel, cotton in the South
at cents per pound, pork in the West
at or cents per pound, cannot pur-
chase but 1.-THE of these products
which the factory produces. Any old
farmer will tell us that the cost of a
bushel of wheat is days work Fifty
per cent. of our people are engaged in
agriculture or of its kindred pursuits,
and it stands to reason, and ought to
be plain proposition, that half of the
people employed in agriculture, earn
ing from SO to so cents per day, cannot
purchase what the other half produce
working at the rate of Sl.5O or 80 per
day. They can purchase only about
one-quarter of the latter's product.
And so the mills and factories must
again close and remain idle three
fourths of the time, or the prices of
their products continue to diminish I'M
til the agricultural half can purchase
what the industrial half produce.
With high tariff, with revenue
tariff or free trade, we believe that no
permanent prosperity can be the por-
ton of our people under the warAng,
blightlng sway of the single gold stand
ard. In bimetallism alone, operating
to raise the price level of the world,
will be found a solution of the problem
and relief from the ills confronting
agriculture and industrial production.
AS student of political economy, l
have found it laid down as an axiomat-
ic principle in finance, that the volume
of money determined the prices Of pro-
ducts. For more than twenty-five
hundred years this law was undisput-
ed and uncontroverted. Until the mon
ey question became burning issue in
our American political system, no
writer or teacher ever presumed to as
sert the contrary; and despite their ar
guments that two and two may be
four, five or even seven under varying
conditions, there will still be those
found, and their number constantly in
caeasing, who will hold to the propo-
sition that two and two arc four and
cannot be either more or less. Let the
tariff bill pass, build it, if you please,
as high as the moon; the higher it is
built the more clearly the people will
perceive its absolute inutility. Our
Republican friends are destined to an
overthrow through their mistaken di-
agnosis and application of remedial
agencies. see but one loophole Of es-
cape for them in the next great politi-
cal contest, and that is the inaugura-
ton of great foreign war. Whether
or not this may be determined upon
will be made manifest in the future
course of political events.