Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-06-19
The WaterviIIe Sentinel and the Tariff.

| Sentinel declares that the Wilson tariff
levied customs duties on hay, grain,
meats and vegetables. So it did-a
low tariff for revenue only, and with
out any purpose of affording protec-
ton to the farmers. That it did not
do so is very clearly evidenced by the
fact that under it the prices of agri-
cultural products in this country
touched the lowest level since the close
Of the Civil War The Sentinel affects
surprise that the Wilson law framed
for revenue only should have failed of
its purposes. But that is precisely
| what il did. So far did it come from
producing the revenue anticipated
from it, that President Cleveland's ad-
| ministration was forced to raid the
| gold reserve, kept for the redemption
4 of outstanding treasury notes, in or
der to pay the current expenses of the
| government. This was in turn re-
| plenished by the issue of bonds bear
ing interest at five per cent. with the
| result that when the Cleveland admin
istration finally went out of Office.
amid the plaudits of the people, it left
creased by $262 000, 000-and this in a
period Of profound peace. when the
customs duties fail TO pay the ex-
penses of government there are not
many goods imported" says the Sen
tinel," ana it adds, las the Journals
argument is that we lose money every
have gotten rich under the Wilson
tariff law" 1t is true that u falling
off in revenues shows a falling off in
importations; but the failure of the
| Wilson law in this respect was not
due, az the Sentinel would have its
readers infer, to the customs duties
imposed by that measure, but to the
universal hard times with which the
country was afflicted during the period
| ii was in force ana which va lily con
tlacted the purchasing power Of the
country. Idle men do not purchase
many goods, at home or abroad, nor
We're the farmers whose products We're
selling at the lowest prices since the
close of the Civil War, the good GUS
toners under the Wilson law that they
are in these prosperous times we are
enjoying under the Dingley law. 1t
was true that, under the Wilson law
vastly larger per centage of
what we consumed was brought
in from Europe, and that the total
was not larger was due to the fact
that in that soup house era of Demo-
! cratic reform, when the country
| sWarmed with idle men, every
body was curtailing expenses in all
possible ways. The extent to which
the vastly smaller volume Of goods
which our contracted markets were
able to handle was imported
was strikingly shown in the
ease Of wool. In the fiscal year
1894, the last of the Mckinley law. we
|
used in this country. In the fiscal year
1897, the last year of the Wilson law, we
imported BIS per cent. of it-an in
crease Of 43.6 per cent. What was true
of wool was true in a greater or less
degree Of nearly all the articles con-
sumri in this country. Sugar and cot
! fan
about the only things to be given gen
crrua consideration by this law framed
| by W. l.. Wilson and Arthur +. Cor
man, both Southern men. Cndoubted
~ if The purchasing power of the coun
try had remained at the same high
mark under the Cleveland adminiStra
tiun. thai it had during the Har-
irson administration. the predictions Of
the advocates of the Wilson law with
regard to its revt nue. producing quail
itirs minht have l,een verified 1t might
even have produced "A surplus. The hard
times which followed in its wake, how
ever, $" largely reduced home consump-
tinn that the prophecies of its advocates
proved false, and after three and a half
years of low wages, low prices for
products, closed factories, idle men,
ana public soup houses for the feeding
the unemployed, il passed into history
as the most calantnus measure that
ever afflicted the Amen lean people.
Tkr Sentinel says that it cannot ex
plain how protection increases manu-
Featuring, but it cannot fail to observe
that il has Increased tremendously un-
der he Dinglcy law. 1t might occur to
it that a policy which prevents the far
mers ana manufacturers of foreign
countries whose wage scale and stand
ards of living are vastly inferior to
ours, from entering into and possessing
the American market on equal terms
with American citizens might possibly
I.., hI,iI MI