Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1906-12-28

"ouiu not pay the laundry bill of
a stand-pat'' candidate for con.
gress. Yet for this meager wage
and the chance to earn it. the
American workman must compete
with the cheapest labor from the
worlds labor suppl, the tariff
atordlng no shield from this des-
tructlve competition. contributing
10 bounty and practically no bene.
hts under alleged protection TO
American labor"
In considering prices and condi.
tons affecting agricultural pros.
perity. il is important 10 consider
the worlds supply and demand of
both commodities and money, as
the world is the field of agricul.
tural competition. The farmer
selling in the universal market
meets competition Of like products
from tie cheapest lands, produced
by the cheapest labor of other
countries, selling his commodities
upon the basis of worlds supply
and demand at world prices.
determined by the UNIVERSAL
money standard, tariff schedules
having no effect in supplying him
with a market with prices above
the general level and with A
domestic money same measure of
value therein. And while chang
cd conditions Of the past twenty
five years have resulted in throw
lDg farmer and shop labor into |
world competition, tariff schedules |
have operated to shield manufac. |
turer and trust from like compe.
tltlon' comforting upon these the
double advantage Of immunity !
from general competition. with |
monopoly for sale of their goods
at their own prices in the Ameri-
can market.
Nothing could be more failaci-
Gus than the proposition crediting |
the present tariff law with the !
prosperity Of the last eight years. !
That law has added nothing to
our splendid agricultural prOduc- |
ton, nor to prices above the GEN
eral level for staples of agricuIt- |
ure. 1t has not resulted in new
and competing industries, with
cheapened goods to the consumer.
Its enactment was not cause for
the lesSened demand for money in
1896, and 1897, nor for the phe-
nominal increase in and a cheaper
ing of the worlds money supply.
1t has not advanced nor sustained
wages of American labor, neitner
has it protected that labor from
universal competition, while the
prohibitive schedules of the steel,
lumber, coal, wire fence and nail
trusts have produced no revenue
to the government. But the steel
schedule has given a bounty to
the steel trusts often to twelve
dollars per ton in excess of real
value for every ton of steel pro-
duced by the trust. The lumber
schedule has given a bounty of 25
per cent above the worth of lum-
Der to the lumber trust, for des-
tructlon of American forests,
while a like bounty is given the
sugar, wooden, wire and coal
trusts. These trusts while selling
their goods at trust-protected
prices, call in the cheapest labor
of the world, inviting that labor
into competition with the American
workman, while the schedules of
the Dingley law have proven a
machine for the most successful
transfer of unearned dollars to the
Golfers of tariff cormorants ever
conceived by human ingenuity
and constructed by human skill.
A law without feature or effect.
to which may be truthfully attri.
buted even a small proportion of
the general prosperity that has
grown out of and is due to general
causes, as was the widespread and
prolonged depression preceding
tho nrocopt nor;oJ -