The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-06-17


TO the Editor of the Journal and Courier:
In reading your editorial on the grew
ance of the 1850 commercial travellers
thrown out Of employment by the trusts
my memory carried me back to just
three years ago, when / stood at the
junction of Broadway and Prince street,
New York, looking at an immense Uni
ted States flag suspended across the
street, bearing this legend, Commercial
Travellers Republican League. SOUND
Money and Prosperity" Music from a
fine brass band enticed me into the large
store on the corner fitted up as a cam
paign headquarters, and there J. heard
some of the best spell binders that could
be obtained for cash dilate on the beau
ties of a protective tariff, which was
painted as divine Institution for the
protection Of the working man. For did
not the foreigner send goods over here
cheaper than they could be made in this
country? And if these goods were not
kept out Of the country would not the
wage of the American workman be re-
duced? We were also told that the
trouble with the country at that Tune
was that we were suffering from over
production" that commercial traVeers
could not sell goods, or If they did, could
get so small a price for them as to make
it not worth while to go out. We were
then advised, both orally and pictorially,
that Mr.. Mckinley would put all TINS
right by opening UP the mills ana ena-
bling every one to get employment AT
ter listening to this kind of thing FOR an
hour ! left bordering on what l. had
heard and wondering why it was that
workers had to get their protection sec
ond-hand. For I noticed that these peo-
pie We're wise in their generation and
did not promise anything direct Said
they, IF you win help us to get a mo-
nopoly on this thing we will recompense
you" 1t sounded very much like Alex
ander Hamilton S "Take care of the rich,
and the rich will take care of the poor
L also wondered how opening up the
mills, and putting numbers of idle men
to work. would lessen the evils of over
production. To my dumb mind it APP
peared that such a remedy would only
aggravate the disease. Still many con-
Guided that such wise men could not err
in so great a matter, and | waited
events.
Your editorial gives the sequel. These
same men who put their money into es-
tablishing these monopoles are now
looking for means Of destroying them.
The only method as yet proposed is to
take off the tariff on all articles now
made by trusts Three years ago these
people advocated this thing, and now
they wish it abolished, not because 1t
has failed to work, but because 1T mas
worked too well in the wrong direction
for their particular interests. Mr.. Have
meyers statement of the case, as pub
llshed in your issue of to-day, presents
the truth of the matter most forctbly,
and it is none the less true because 1t
comes from such an unexpected source
Hasn't protection protected the peo-
pie" How? On the one hand, 1850
commercial travellers thrown out of en-
ployment, like many of their fellows in
other departments of trade likewise at
fected by the formation of the trusts, of
which the customs tariff, as Mr.. Have
meyer shows, is the parent evil. Where
Is this kind of protection going to end.
I1ef1 IS one gOUu luiuG dppu1 tllN iiidN
ter, which is that several thousand intel
lgent American citizens will be forced
to consider some of the glaring economic
problems Of the day. They will learn,
perhaps the truth which Mr.. Haven1ey-
err has seemingly happened upon, that
1T is the government, through its tariff
laws. which plumbers the people, and the
trusts, etc. are merely the machinery
for doing it"
Perhaps they will learn, also, where
all our much boosted excess of exports
over imports goes to, and how 1t is that
the earnings Of the, Workingman are so
protected that they never reach him in
full ratio. Perhaps in the end, they
will reach the foundation of it all, and
learning what justice, liberty and de-
mocracy really mean, will rise up to up
build the new nation on natures own
plan. Our hope is in these men, who
shall have learned the lessons they viii
teach by painful experience. which has
so often before been the torch-bearer OF
progress. w. IRU EMAN'