The record-union., 1899-08-22
VOICE OF THE PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSIONS.
State and Coast Opinions on SUBJ
jects OF Living News
Interest.

] Tacoma Ledger: One of the most val
ued old-time arguments of the free Sill
verites was that however advantage
Gus the gold standard might be to a
| creditor nation like England, it was
| bad thing for debtor nation like the
| United States. The conditions have
rendered useless that argument, as
they have many others. The United
| States has changed front and has now
! become a creditor nation, like Eng
/ land when the arguments were made,
and would be in order to shift free sill
yer headquarters to some other coun-
! try.
REST AND RELAXATION.
| Stockton Mail: A doctor who does
not believe in advertising, but does not
/ lose a chance of getting his name into
! the papers, announces that he has
| found that the London stock brokers
who devote themselves, in strict tenn
| perance and regularity Of life, to the
| pursuit of their arduous business on
| change do not live or retain their
health and vigor as long as those who
| occasionally break loose and indulge
in a period of intoxication, thereby re-
| laxing the strain on one set of nerves
and putting the strain on another.
This is something like the discovery of
the other doctor who found that
there was food in alcohol. omitting to
state that there is much more food az
considerably less cost in a potato than
in a glass of whisky. AS he called
| alcohol food" so his colleague in the
| 1.-
rest; and, as the one discovery may
do harm in the case of thoughtless
readers, so may the other. Any change
of occupation and change of the mind
drift is rest, and as food can be easily
/ obtained without the poison that is IN
| whisky, so may rest and relaxation,
| without the dangers and degradation
| of drunkenness. The pursuit of fad
or hobby is the surest kind Of relaxa-
tion from the strain that business men
suffer from, and 1t does not matter
whether the hobby is a useful one or
purely frivolous. If the man tired with
| the work of the business world can
turn his back upon the mart or the
office and take up his hobby with in
| terest and delight he is all right, and
needs no other relief, even though he
merely devote himself to sticking post
! age stamps in an album
ARMOR PLATE.
Portland Oregonian Increased cost
/ of steel is availed of by armor manu-
| facturers to advance the price of plate
| to the Government, so that six pro :
tected cruisers authorized in March
cannot be built, if there were no other
reason, because the limit fixed by Con-
gress is farther than ever from the
factory figures. This was to be ex-
pected, not so much because the more
steel costs the more armor costs TO
make as because the policy of the
! arnor manufacturers has uniformly
been to ask the Government as high a
! price as they can find excuses to sup
port. They demand % per cent. more
for Krupp armor than for the Harvey
lied, and their reason is that, as the
Krupp is % per cent. better than the
| Harvey, Congress should be willing to
pay % per cent. more for it. Whether
the Krupp costs more to make than
the Harvey, they do not take the
trouble to allege. They consider, evi-
IDENTIFY, that it is their rightful privi-
lege to get all they can out Of the Gov
eminent. They sold armor plate to
Russia at a loss, they allege, but they
will not do so to the United States If
the Government will not pay their
price, it can go without armor. Once
they swore that they could not make
Harveyized armor for S4l0 a ton, and
directly took a contract for some at
shat figure, with the customary allow
ance for royalty. This attitude is large
ly responsible for the equally unreason-
ing antagonism to armor factories
manifested in Congress. Nobody knows
but the makers what armor plate costs
to make Estimates and beliefs as to
cost are SO wide as to leave the matter
Lone of the blindest doubt.
TARIFF NOT AT FAULT.
San Diego Union: People who hold
with Mr.. Havemeyer that the protect
i've tariff is the parent of trusts, are
wont to lay special stress upon the tin
plate industry as at present
conducted by a powerful monop-
ely. The manufacture Of tim
plate in this country had for several
years been regarded as a peculiarly for
chile object lesson of a great business,
giving profitable employment to thou
sands, built UP directly by the McKin-
ley tariff of 1890. Republicans were
Justly proud of the splendid results
achieved by their tariff in creating an
industry that was of so great value to
the entire country. Under these cir
| cumstances, now that the tin-plate
business has gone into a trust it is not
at all strange that opponents of the
protective policy fancy that they can
turn the tables by declaring that the
creation of this monopoly is the out
come of the tariff. The plea is plausible
enough, but it will not bear analysis.
A writer in the current number of the
Review Of Reviews goes into this
subject somewhat at length, and makes
it plain that the fact that a trust has
been formed in tin-plate, does not rem
der the principle of protection any less
sound. He says:
To say that the tariff created the
American tin plate trust is not quite a
fair statement without explanation.
What the tariff did was to make 1t
worth while for American capital to in
vest in a new line of business, and for
a certain amount of foreign capital to
transfer itself to this country in or
der to continue in the tin-plate indus
try There resulted a great number OF
mills, and they have now found it to
their advantage to combine and control
the American tin-plate business as
monopoly. According to the old the
ory of American protectionists domes-
tic competition in protected industries
81.