The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-09-22

ing the past two years to any legis-
lative specific prepared by the Ameri-
can congress or the administration at
Washington, nor to any legislative
magic exerted by ministerial manipu-
lators of government machinery in
England, France. Germany or other
commercial countries. The measure Of
prosperity which now %pervades the
business world exists doubtless in spite
of legislative handicaps, class laws, a
lax enforcement Of wise statutes n
some measure of governmental OK
travagance.
1t will be remembered that the po-
litical campaign of 1896 was fought out
on the money question, one party be-
ing for a gold standard, the other for
the concurrent use of gold and silver
as standard money. Gold won, but no
change in our laws has occurred;
hence prosperity could not have come
from effective craftsmanship along
this line. While high or low tariff was
not an issue in that contest, the we'll
known views of the successful pres
idential candidate were construed
by many as a verdict in favor of in
creased duties, and accordingly the
president was urged to, and did, call
a special session of congress to revise
the tariff. The then existing law was
not effective as a revenue producer,
owing to the failure of one important
section of the measure to stand a Su-
preme court test.
The present tariff law was then en-
acted; it also proved inefficient as 4
revenue producer, but after being sup
p~lenented by the war revenue act and
the proceeds Of a bond sale, it provided
the government with sufficient funds
for its needs up until quite recently,
treasury department utterances fore
shadowing another bond issue or
higher taxes, or both. But it would be
a travesty on logic to affirm that high
taxation has brought us our prosper
ity. There are those, however, who
urge that the 'protective feature" Of
high duties on imports is a most eff
fective prosperity-breeder. If this con-
tention be granted, the prosperity thus
bred would be largely, II not wholly,
confined to the protected country.
That this is not the case in the pres
ent instance is graphically shown in
a statement by the distinguished pro-
t%ectionist and friend Of the present ad-
ministration, the Hon. Robert P. Por-
ter, who has just returned from a trip
abroad. Mr.. Porter says he "was
struck with the air of general pros
perity" that prevails throughout Eu-
rope. Work is plentiful and there is
nowhere an appearance of want. In
the continental cities, including Paris,
Berlin, Vienna and Amsterdam, vast
numbers of buildings are under con-
struction. The demand for iron work
is greater than European manufacture
ers can supply, and contracts are be-
ing awarded to American manufacture
ers. Europeans are buying large guam
titles of American machinery with
which they manufacture articles that
come in competition all over the world
with similar articles Of American man.
ufacture.
Russian capital is building vast lines
of railroad, is unable to construct as
many locomotives as required, and so
buys in the United States, because it
cannot buy in other countries of Eu-
rope. So it appears that the sale of
American manufactures in Europe, ac-
cording to Mr.. Porter, is not so much
because we can compete with the pau
per labor abroad as because of Eu-
ropes %unbounded prosperity, which is
so great that it cannot supply it's own
people with a sufficiency of wares,
merchandise, machinery and other
products. They are, therefore, COM
PEELED to purchase from Americans
whose government erects barriers
against their trade.
All this goes to show that the Re-
views classification of our prosperity
is correct, hat it is not due to tariff
tinkering, to monetary legislation, or
to anything logically traceable to poll
tics. Improved confidence" is much
talked of, but this will-o'-the-wisp is
a camp-follower of better business con-
ditions and not the p%rocurator of them.
Any rational improvement of conf
GGnrn jc h1 cod IN n nhor0o 30 c~.%-
related to or constituting the business
situation.
A demand for merchandise and con-
fidence as cause and effect are insep-
arabic; destroy the former and the
latter disappears. When there is lit
tie or 40 demand for the products of
labor and capital, there is little conf
dence, and this little is misplaced.
There is such a thing as too much
contradiction confederation of this
statement consult the longs" in the
stock and grain market who %perchancc
have been caught in a squeeze.
In the present heyday of our pros
perity a word of warning may reach
ears attuned to sweeter music, but the
warning is nevertheless opportunc and
needful. In times of prosperity pre-
pare for adversity-i. e., in our pres
perity we should discover the defects
in our commercial system and remedy
them. thus removing the causes Of
periodical adversely and depression.