Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1898-10-13

nney are tired. Their condition with
ference 20 2 tariff reminds us of
ny young man who was counting tne
Du.ch girl. She was a buxom lass.
meisned about two hundred pounds and
nad oeen sitting on the young mans
hIee ior about an hour. At length she
sdiu, I'm afraid you are getting tired
uear.' He drew u deep sigh and an,
sWered, Och. no, I'm not tired I'm
scnoost numb" When the Popu,ists
numb" ssAos'
Mt. Bryan is the strongest free trad
el, the prince of free traders in the
country. The facts / have indicated
SHOW that he was wholly wrong on the
.ariH question. That fact that he was
wrong then arouses a suspicion that he
ma be wrong also on the financial
question.
What brought on the panic of 1892
I. vas the advent to power of a party
pieuged TO abolish the protective sys-
TEN, 10 repeal the tax on state banks
and re~-establish the old wildcat curren-
cy, n as 1t was known in favor of the
iree coinage OF silver. 1t was believed
that this party would carry out its
promises. What resulted? Business men
cancelled their orders. The balance OF
trade turned against us and gold be-
gan TO flow out. Workingmen became
alarmed as they saw the gold leave and
drew their little savings out of the
Dank. In a short time they drew $780,
oVO,OOO. Credit disappeared. The banks
refused to discount bills. The panic
came. brought OF by these revolution
airy measures, the panic came with soup
houses and Coxey armies and starva-
ton. 1t drove people to restitution and
despair. But they can't fool us again.
And they don't dare to talk on the
tarif. They know the people under
stand that.
We say that with no tariff we shall
have no industry. Will someone name
TO me an industry in this country
which has not been built up and estab-
lished by the tariff? And can you
name an article which we have put un-
der a tariff which has not fallen in
price? Why during the first twenty
years OF protection we started more
factories than during the two hundred
and forty years before, we put 116 900
more men at work in factories than
had worked in them since the landing
OF the pilgrim fathers. Hhere are no
tin plate %peddlers going around the
country telling about the high price of
tin plate, as they did a few years ago.
This was the last great industry which
our protective system has brought over
and planted in this country. We never
could establish it until we put a tariff
on 1t. We tried. But whenever a fac
tory would open the foreigner, who had
gotten a start, would put down the
price below cost and starve us IL and
then shove it up again and make us pay
the cost. When the tariff was put on
tin plate by the Mckinley bill it was
expected that we would by this time be
making one-third of our consumption.
How was that promise fulfilled? We
are supplying four-ffths. Has the price
risen? 1t is less than one-half. De-
spite the repeal of the tin plate tariff
by Mr.. Bryan and his friends the in
dustry has grown until now we manu-
facture more than any country in the
world. But how did we keep it alive
under the repeal? The manufacturers
had made their investment and could
not sacrifice 1t. They could not run at
the same wages without the protection.
They called their men together and
talked it over. And in order to keep
the men employed and the factories
running the men accepted a cut in
wages OF from ten to thirty per cent.
That shows the effect of Mr.. Bryan's
free trade. A cut of ten to thirty per
za-k 10 nn,a A~l ,% AAr ~.vn
claims to be the friend of labor. The
year before the duty was put on we
imported sc, coo, 900 pounds of tin plate.
Last year we imported only 1900, 900
pounds. The Dingley bill put on half
as much protection as the Mckinley
bill and yet since the Dingley bill
passed, since the so-called tax was
added to tin plate, the price has fallen
one-half and the wages have not. Thus
the cold facts have absolutely knocked
out the promises of Mr.. Bryan and the
free traders. Now If they couldn't man
age a little thing like the tin plate in
dustry, how do you expect them to
manage the great complicated financial
item RI the country?
And how about the promises and the
direp redictions which they made in
1896? How about the awful prophecies
of impending ruin they made in case
the frightful gold standard were fas-
tened on the country? Where are the
long lists of mortgages they used to
bring out to brighten the farmers with?
Where are those charts which Senator
Pettigrew used to carry around the
country showing that strange affinity
between wheat and silver? / wish |
had that chart here SO that / could
hang il up before you and hear you
laugh. They are not showing those
charts this year. They know that you
know that since those charts were
made wheat has been worth not nj
ounce Of silver, but two ounces and
three ounces. No, you can't find those
charts today.
They say that the 'Populist party Is
the poor mans partly. 1t is-the more
Populists we have the poorer we get.
/ rather hate to talk about free sill
yer. I hate to resurrect a corpse and
plant IL twice. / understand that SEN
ator Pettigrew talked about free silver
last night. 1t reminds me Of the funer-
al gloves. There was once a man who
was invited to be pail bearer at a funer-
al and he was given a pair OF black
gloves to wear. 1t was the greatest act