The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-07
Protection AMI PROSPERITY.

T. Stewart was worth.
PROTEGTlON AMI PROSPERITY.
To continue the discussion Of the local
Democratic Platform. we present the
following text: The Republican party
points with pride to the prosperity
which follows their administration. The
Democratic party answers that pros
perity is not upon the country because
of a protective tariff law, but in spite
of it,
There was prosperity in the United
States during the four years of Repub-
hcan rule ending with the second in
auguration of Cleveland. The treasury
had a great surplus; the national debt
was being reduced monthly; working
men were busy; the farmers were con-
tent. and capital was finding it's way
into all kinds of business. Then came
the election of Cleveland, who went into
power Oh the promise of a lower tariff,
which. he said, would not only make
living cheaper, but would lengthen the
lines of productive industry. The story
Of disaster which followed is appalling.
Taking alarm at the European compe-
tition which lower duties invited, A
,merican factories closed and discharged
their men. Three million newly made
tramps took to the road. Poverty en-
croached everywhere. True, certain ar
tieles In COMMON use grew cheaper, but
the scarcity Of money kept people from
buying them with anything like the
nj -har vx,ioa
higher and money more plentiful. The
rich man, instead of putting his means
into business and hiring labor, boarded
every spare cent. Payments on the ma
tional debt ceased and bonds had to be
issued to make good the deficits caused
by the falling off of customs revenues
Within three years the national debt
increased by a quarter of a billion dol
lars There was no way that the Demo-
Gratis could find to restore good times,
and the last winter of the Cleveland
regime saw so many desperate poor
that charity was strained to the break
ing point. During that season San
francisco alone had to feed and clothe
I10O0 people. The next winter. after
the Republicans came in, not more than
5000 were supported. The same COM
parison held good in other parts of the
Union.
The Republicans in nominating Nc.
hlhley promised the people good times
IL they would restore high protective
duties. and thus give the owners of in
vestment capital the confidence of
which low duues had deprived them.
1t was pointed out that a protective
tariff would open the American mills
and factories and re-employ an army
of idle operatives; it would stop the
drain on the treasury; 1t would disband
the Coxey armies; it would once more
make money plentiful. The people be-
heVed the promise, elected Mckinley.
restored the higher duties, and pros
perity followed. The day the tariff bill
passed saw bank clearances increase
$1OO.0O0.000. For a time there was no
great business for the textile mills. be-
cause American merchants, in the
months before the new Republican Con-
Sress met, stocked UP with cheap Eu-
ropean goods. AS soon as these import
ed wares were sold prosperity came in
like tidal wave. The local trade which
Europe had supplied went to American
manufacturers. No such enliyenment
in the iron and textile lines had ever
been seen before. 1t was the same
with agriculture. Overburdened Kansas
lifted one-third of it's mortgages the
first year; the whole West revived. And
at the same time, to show how intimate
was the relation between prosperity
and the tarin. certain manufacturing
centers of England, which had so flour
ished on American trade, all but shut
up shop" The complaints from Eng
land were as bitter In McKinley's first
and second year as the complaints from
America had been during Cleveland's
four years.
II Is idle to say that prosperity came
In spite of the Republican tariff. 1t was
that measure which gave workingmen
employment and investors confidence:
and without it there would have been
neither. We anticipate the answer that
the high price of wheat saved the farm
ers In 1897; but what saved them after
the price of wheat fell? 1t was nothing
more or less than the increased ability
OF the American people, due to the Nc
kinley revival of business. to buy farm
products. There was money to spend
and the farmers got their share.
80 much for the local Democratic plea
against protection. Tomorrow we will
consider other phases of the platforr,,