El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-01-11
PROSPERITY AND THE TARIFF.
Are Iutere. ting Letter From the Capt
toll Giving Details.


WASHINGTON, D. c., January s,
lS9S.-Eieh,een hundred snd ninet y-
seven has been iu the main a year of
prosperity. Eighteen hundred and
ninety-eight is TO be a year of still
greater prosperity.
Uncle Sam has good cause to con-
graduate himself and ID chuckle at his
broad domains now ii led WITH busy
men and women, factories smoking,
furnaces roaring and business booming
on all sides.
The early part of 1897 fels the quick
enlng throbs of a returning prosperity
and increase in business, and when
Pre- ident Mckinley was inaugurated
in March, the PEG lie locked forward
with confidence to gradually imprOv-
ing condition until The country should
reach it's Old-time cOnoition of plenty
and happiness. The president imme-
diately called special session of con-
gress for the purpose of enacting
protective tariff which should reopen
the factories of the United States. The
great work of revising the tariff on
protective basis and strikin g from the
statute b. oks the free-trade Wilson law
went on rapidly and was promptly
signs by the president. Even before
this climax and in antlclI alton OF 1t,
business began to take long strides
forward. Announcements were made
of factories opening all over the land
and thousands Of workmen were given
regular employment who had been
working on half time or less, and liv
ing from hand to mouth or starving
Business revived steadily. and the
people of the country ga hered con-
tidence in themselves and in the fu-
tore. The country has looked to tue
new tariff law as its assistant in bring
ing a return to prosperity. CHARM an
Dingiey of the Ways and Means CON-
nittee which franz the law said in
speaking of it:
Natural laws will bring about re-
turn of prosperity by themselves. A
period of activity always follows
period of depression. But we can pass
a tariff which shall assist the opera
ton of natural laws, tariff which
shall restore industries suffering the
effects of too much foreign competi-
ton, aud which will in turn neip
others to get on their feet. We will
keep out some of the foreign goods and
we will put more people to work in our
own country. The secret of the pros
perity of any people is the steady en-
ploymept and the purchasing power
of the masses We do not delude our
selves with any no ions that a tariff has
omnipotence, but it is important to the
will aid and not retard business az
tivity in our country"
This clearly expresses the sentiment
of the republican party en- the tariff.
And so far the new law has done we'll.
Industries have revived, wages have
increased, aud there is less and less
complaint of hard times, except among
the professional ca amity walters. The
production of many important articles
history of the country. Our
exports have been enormous.
Their excess over our imports reaches
$3.50 900, 900, beating all previous
records. At first it was claimed
that the new law was misers bic
failure as revenue producer. But
lately the revenue has so rapidly in
creased that it is now apparent that
before many months it will fully meet
the expenditures. This was not to BE-
expected imme diately after its pas
sage, owing to the large antieipatCry
imports during the last few months of
the Wilson law. Eut the receipts I'M
der the Dingley law have lfc ceased
each success Sive month since its enact
ment, until in December thu treasury
actually found a surplus of nearly two
million dollars star.ng 1t 10. the face.
1t is true, the expenditures in Decem-
Der we're very light, but it is confident
" predicted by treasury officials; that
it is only question, Of a fe@ months
when all monthly deficits will be- wiped
out, and the D.ngley law will have
justified all claims OF its friends TIE
gold raids which excited the country
during President Cteveland's admin
list alton have become thing of the
past, and. indeed, December, 1897,
sees more god in the treasury than at
any time since President Harrison's
administrat on. TIE figure reached is
over the 160 million dollar mark.
One thing, and by no mesns the
least, which has cOntribu ed to the
prosperity of the country has been the
,xtreme y sat slactory con iition of The