Waterbury Democrat., 1902-10-20
TARIFF AND TIE COAL TRUST.
How the Duty on Anthracite Made the Coal Barons More Power
 fu Than the Government Itseif

abroad or that the party in power could have been cheated by such trick. He had doubtless seen many things equally unjustifiable done in the way that he supposed this to have been done. When laws are passed, not for the bene- fit of the entire people, but to give special advantage to particular classes, at the expense of the rest of the public, it is inevitable that selfish and interruptions men should seek these favors by any means that they think will suc- ceed. And when party in power is dispensing such favors it is ab- surd to suppose that they will all ways or even generally know ex- actly what they are doing. At best they are at the mercy of .ne sturdy beggars who furnish them with all the facts they care to have. It is not strange that MT Moody should think that the beneficiaries of the coal duty were guilty of a sneak ing and cowardly" device. They are quite capable of it.
 But in this case. as in most oth-
 
 at all. The majority party were quite ready to grant all that was asked for and even more, with knowledge that it was a gross inn position. and that by no stretch of imagination could it be supposed to be of the slightest advantage to the workingmen. or to the trade and industry of the country, or that it could have any effect whatever except to bind more tightly the fetters of practical monopoly in which the whole people were al- ready held. It was pointed out to them in open debate that the off, cial statistics showed tie coal mine owners, or 1essees, actually engaged in considerable exporta- tion of coal against which there was only an insignificant importa- tion. The facts had no more weight then than like facts have now on the minds or cOnsciences Of the tariff mongers in congress. The latter can always find some sophlstry with which to salve their consciences. Here is AIr Shaw, MT lloody's colleague, going about pleading that the de mand for free raw material is un- reasonable because there is mo such thing. The moment that the pick of the miner touches the pro- duct of a mine, he declares. 1t be- comes a manufactured article, and Is entitled to protection as such. He IS blind to the fact that almost every product of one industry is the material of another and that every tax to raise the price of one product must raise still more the price of those into which it enters. 1t would be more sensible to say that there is no such thing as a completely manufactured article, the tax on which will touch only the immediate consumer. The tax on coal, for instance, adds to the cost of everything manufactured with fuel, from the locomotives sent to foreign markets to the din- Ter the workingman's wife cooks for him and his family. ard the heaviest burden falls on the work ingmen.s There is no more palIia- tion for it's cruelty than there would be for a direct tax on his food. And the duty on anthracitte Is only an extreme example of the outrage
 It only remains to be. said that tl Willingness of the republican congres to grant all they wanted to the co, barons has had it's natural cons quence. The mine owners were mad more powerful than the governmel itself, IS has been proved during Il coal strike when the humiliating spe, tacle<was presented of the president , the United States begging of the baror to submit the strike dispute to arbitr. ton so that the great Suffering migl pc averted and the contemptuous r lection by them of lis interference The republican party sowed il tarlff seed the people are reaping full measure the harvest of the trus- Ill coal at prohibitive prices, and be, at 3O cents a pound. Do the people want a continuance these conditions? If so, they shoul vote the republican ticket from ton bottom. For it stands for the tari which, through it's natural offsprin the trusts, has made the necessaries { life harder to get.
 liS people uO HOC want to go c contributing by their toll and industr to the aggrandisement and power ( the trust magnates, then they shoul vote the democratic ticket without scratch, for the party stands out boldl as the champion of the plain peopl pledged if returned to power to throttl and defeat the oligarchy which mel aces not only the rights of the plai people. but the free institutions of tH country.