The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-23

A day or two ago, we used this ex-
preston
poor old Dingiey shows up pretty
miserably these days."
This offended the Red Dog poet of the
estate Gazette and he proceeded to
score .'The News to the best of his abil-
ity. Among other things he proved-to
his own satisfaction-that we are seiilng
more goods abroad and buying fewer
than we were a year age
IT seems to us that the fact is some
what irrelevant. The subject under dis
cussion was not protection. We nave the
assurance of Messrs. Dingley and Aldrich
tive but purely a revenue-raising meas
ure. Even if the point were cogent. we
know that our large exports are the re-
suit of crop conditions here and abroad
and in no sense of Dingleyism. Even Mr.
Dingley could not claim that a high
tariff would increase our exports. Tn
famous argument of Reed of Maine is
that it does not matter whether we sell
abroad or. not, "our home markets be-
ing so much more extensive and impor-
fant."
On the other hand. we cheerfully con-
cede that the present duties have d.
minished imports. Indeed, it is the very
point we make. 1t has diminished them
so badly that we have the biggest an
nual deficit in the history of the country
to struggle with in our hour of need,
while prices of goods are going up to
consumers and quality is on the down
grade.
One Of the proximate results of the de-
cline of imports will be the r~eintroduc-
ton OF shoddy as a staple material. TIL
Philadelphia Record" which, of course,
keeps special watch on the wool trade,
is authority for the statement that con-
sumers and manufacturers of woolens
are keenly feeling the pinch of the Ding
ley III as lUt O40 SlO1ho - - WV
and of the goods produced from it are
disappearing from the market. Prices
not only of wool and woolens but of
shoddy and of what are known to the
trade as extracts are rapidly rising.
How could 1t be otherwise, with the du-
ties on raw wool advanced from nothing
to 50 per cent, and on woolens from 80
per cent. in the Wilson tariff to well-nigh
100 per cent. in the present law? If prices
have not advanced as yet to the level
of the duties one cause of it has been
in the largely increased use Of the cheap
ing stuffs for clothing.
Commenting on this, the Record
says
While the ranch owners of the Rocky
Mountains, who Craze their immense
f1ocks of sheep on Government ranges,
count the profits of two clips a year in
the enhanced price of wool. the millions
of American consumers will have album
dam leisure to estimate the heavy cost
of a barbarous legislative policy which
makes clothing dear and bad and scarce
Tor the DenelL OIL Il comparatively Lew
wool growers and of the manufacturers
of shoddy M extracts" of shoddy. OF
course, the benevolent members of the
House Committee on Ways and Means in
fixing up the schedule of wool and wool
ems for the benefit of a few had no desire
to make an attack upon the health and
lives of their fellow citizens. But in a
climate like ours, with its wide nge
from Arctic cold to tropical heat n
with Its sudden changes. there is moth
ing in all the materia medlca SO essen
tial for the prevention of disease and the
preservation of health as abundant sup
plies of warm and pure wooden clothing.
1t would be alike malignant and foolish
to charge the trainers of the wooden
scheduie of the Dingley tariff with so
atrocious a design as to inf1ict an injury
upon the public health; but in their fran
tic zeal for Protection they have not con-
sidered the far-reaching OF
4 barbarous system of taxation upon the
clothing of 10000, 900 of American men,
women and children. 1t out-Herods
Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents!
The phase of the subject, however. in
which poor old Dingley shows UP most
miserably is in the revenue feature of his
bill. We have pleasure in submitting the
hgures to date for the current month to
the western gentleman who enlivens the
columns of the Estate Gazette with his
bulls. Here they are, in comparison with
those of last year,
receipts ............. So. ss4,s2 SIG, sas. III
Expenditures ......-. 2S,s55,ooo 2s,54S,ooo
Excess expend..... $, 900, $50
Excess receipts. $5,5fe,zil
But these are only the gross figures as
imposed on the public by Secretary Cages