The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-09-17

Newark. Sept. 9.-All the anti-tarifi
logic that can be found in free trade
textbooks and in tariff for revenue
only campaign speeches fails when we
come to examine the cold figures show
ing what tariff protection has done and
Is doing for American industry and
American labor And 1t is the cold and
unanswerable figures that appeal to
the minds of the workingman, not the
doctrine that Woodrow Wilson has
studied in books by British writers
written from the British point of view
and intended to induce other countries
that have large markets to open their
doors free to British goods
1t may be asked in a general way
what the effect would be of a Demo
cratic law, passed by congress and
signed by Woodrow Wilson, on the
lines of the tariff reform demanded
in the Baltimore platform and recon
mended by Mr.. Wilson as the national
policy which he would carry out if
elected.
In the first place, it will be conceded
that we will get cheaper goods There
can be no donbt about that Woolens,
cottons and other things will be i'm
ported, to sell at lower prices than
they are now sold at in the stores.
But cheapened prices will be at the
expense of closed factories, as our man
ufacturers will not be able to produce
goods except at a loss or by reducing
wages to figures that would at once
depopulate the factories.
When the factories close the income
of the workingman as we'll as of the
manufacturer ceases. Probably the
manufacturer whose business has
been ruined will have some other In,
vestment to live upon, but how will 1t
be for the workingman? If he has
been thrifty he will have money In the
savings bank or in the building and
loan. That will tide him over for a
while. When 1t is gone he is
stranded.
Thanks to Democratic tariff reform.
the goods exposed for sale in the
stores will be the cheapest in price,
for they have been imported. But
without employment and without
weekly wages or other income, what
good will the cheapened prices be TO
the workingman and his familyl And
that is the vital point of the tariff
question
II labor is impoverished all other
| infOroCfc DC bo r4A
keeper is among the first to feel the
effects. Close the factories of a city
like Newark and it would mean bank
ruptcy for the business man. a big
slump in the income of professional
men, the closing of banks, the rapid
disappearance of accumulated savings,
the sacrifice of homesteads acquired
by years of labor and thrift Close
the factories and up would go the
death rate, for impoverished thousands
could not buy nourishing food or prop
err clothing and could not employ doc
tors or buy medicine.
We have had public soup houses in
times when the prices In the stores
were cheap and labor was unem-
ployed, but even the soup house has
financial limit 1t must be main
tanned by taxation And when in
comes are swept away who is going
&c pay the taxes to pay the cost OF
public soup
Evictions for unpaid rent are pain.
full. We in this country have had our
feelings wrought up by the published
stories of cruel evictions in Ireland
the unfortunate people being turned
out into the highway and boys But
consider what could happen in New
Jersey city. The landlord everywhere
is entitled to his rent. and the law is
on his side Without wages to pay
rent how will the workingman and
his family fare? Houseless, foodless
and in despair they must take the high
way and beg
We have had financial panics that
have tried the souls of men and WON
en-, but they have always had a hori-
Eon of hope Behind the black cloud
the sun was still shining. But com
pared with the effects of a destruction
of tariff protection the worst of our