Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-07-22
Prosperity and Plumber.

The full dinner pail and prosperity
cry of the republicans will have TO be
laid away in gold storage for another
campaign. The numerous strikes and
lockouts, the large number of men
hunting a job, and the railroads and
other large Industries reducing their
force of woTkingmen must be causing
scanty table il many homes. With
the number of bank failures greater
than at any time since the height of
the panic, prosperity cannot be very
prevalent. These and other causes
have had a most disastrous effect up
ON general business, for, according to
the latest report of business failures,
they far exceed previous years since
1887. Duns report for the first quar-
ter of this year gives the number as
I3.344. and the amount as $4S,966, 721,
and it is to be feared that for the quar-
ter Just ended the number will show a
further increase.
If the republicans had not falsely
boosted in their platform that re-
publican tariff always has been fol
lowed by business prosperity the fact
that the Dingley bill was a trust
breeder and oyershot the mark would
not be so remarkable. The constant
advance in prices. which, through the
enormous protection TO the trusts that
the Dingley law provided, has been
too great d strain upon the pockets of
the great majority of the people and
they have been forced to curtail their
purchases. Hence the large number of
T.. ,rNI,
lican platform could have truthfully
said that the republican tariff had been
followed by trust prosperity.
Giving an advantage by law to a GER
tain class of people at the expense of
the great majority is bound to be disas-
trOus in the end, even to the pamper-
ed tariff beneficiaries. for when the
consumers are reduced to the necessi-
ty of curtailing their purchases by
lack of means, trust sales are reduced
and trust profits are decreased accord
ingly. That is the present condition of
affairs. And yet the sacred schedules
of the Dingiey bill, which was sur
prisingly increased. TO allow the recip-
rOcity clause to be put in force by
treaties and still have ample protec
ton to foster the trusts, must not be
touched. Says the Quincy Herald:
Everyone remembers that the Ding
ley bill gave President Mckinley au-
thOrity to make reciprocity treaties
with France and other countries. but
the power of the trusts with the re-
publican senators was too great to al
low the treaties to be ratified. Many
of the rates of duties collected under
the Dingley law are still 30 per cent
higher than Dingley and Mckinley in
tended them to be, when the first
named reported the bill to congress
and the president signed it.
That 20 per cent increase of rates
has allowed the trusts to extort higher
prices from the people and many of
them are suffering from inability to
pay such great increase. If the vOt-
ers are satisfied with such high prices
they should continue the republicans
in power but they must remember that
the trusts are selling to foreigners at
lower prices than they are charging
here, and those who are suffering from
high trust prices will hardly indorse
the monstrous legislation that permits
our own people being plundered for
the benefit of foreign nations"