Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-06-16
Wages Are Declining.

With the highest tariff ever known
In the United States, many of the pro-
tected industries are reducing the
amount of their product, and wages are
declining. At the same time the cost
Of living is at the top notch, and the
Republican conventions are declaring
their policy TO be "stand pat" The
present Dingley tariff has been in ex-
Istence about seven years, and there
has been no obstacle placed in the way
of its full enforcement. 1t should there
fore by this time If 1t is as beneficial
as the Republicans claim, have plant
ed prosperity so firmly that nothing
could overthrow it. Yet every day the
press dispatches contain news of the
railroads, those great barometers OF
trade, reducing the number of men
employed and in every way cutting
down their expenses to the lowest
limit. The New York stock market is
in state of collapse, and the public re-
fuse to buy either the railroad stocks
or industrial shares, although the price
has receded SO greatly since the boom
is over. Now, if the tariff is the key
stone of prosperity. why is business
dull and growing more SO? Why are
men out of work and wages declining?
The tariff should still be aiding the
textile industries with its protection
of 40 or more per cent. The tariff still
prevents any competition in the iron
and steel market from cutting down the
profits OF the steel trust, yet that 81
gantic monopoly is shutting down its
mills, and its stock is worth only
cents on the dollar.
And so the list of trusts might be
quoted and most of them be shown to
be unable TO pay the interest on their
stock that their optimistic promoters
promised. Nearly all are protected by
the tariff. and no reduction in prices is
in sight to reduce their profits. Still
but few are prosperous. The trouble
is the people have become poorer and
cannot continue TO buy the high priced
goods. The farmer is selling his hogs
and cattle for less money, and the beef
trust is making larger profits at the
farmers expense. All the farmer buys
IN at high trust prices, but he cannot
purchase enough TO keep the trust mills
going, and his brothers in the cities are
in the same fix. If the tariff was re-
vised, so that trust productions that
are sold too high here and too cheap
abroad were shorn of their unfair pro-
lection, competition would force the
trusts to at least modify their eXOr-
bitant profits, and the people would be
able to purchase more goods for the
same amount of money, and the mills
and workshops could continue to run.
Under these circumstances will the
voters indorse the stand pat" policy?
VIII they not rather vote for the candi-
dates who favor revising the tariff to
wipe out this trust monopoly? If it
can be shown that there is one good
trust that is only charging reasonable
profit. that would be ruined by cutting
off its protection from foreign competi-
ton, the schedule that shelters it might
remain unchanged. When President
Roosevelt was swinging around the cir
Gle in 1902 he often spoke of good and
bad trusts. but neither he nor any other
protectionist has ever exhibited a good
trust to an admiring public or offered
any evidence that such exists There
has been plenty of evidence that nearly
every trust is either sheltered by the
tariff or is fostered by monopoly, and
yet the Republicans, with ample time
in the last session of congress, refused
to investigate the plundering OF the
people and determined TO stand by the
trusts.