Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-08-10
WILL HISTORY REPEAT?


press asks this question Is an editor.
Al recalling what happened twenty
wears ago when the people gave tne
MEMORIALS free rein to try out thelr
fariff yaearies. The Manchester edi
tor sees the people confronted with the
sama conditions az in 1892. There Is
thiy difference, though, they have me
experience of twenty years ago 70
1nila them and the sober second
thought of the people between now
ana November can be relied upon 10
find EXPRESSION at the polls. the Man
rhastar naper's editorial follows:
twenty years ago the republicans
=, this country elected Grover CieVe'
land to second term on PLATFORM
favorinr a tariff for revenue only
we say the republicans electeo
i cleveland. and it is true. But tor the
votes az disaffected republicans Ben
i.ntn Harrison would have been given
q second term. s.,
when Harrison retired from offlce'
IN March. 1898, he left large surplus
IN the treasury. Labor was fully en-
Moved at good wages, capital was
seeking investment, everybody was
nol.ine money. and the goose hung
high. 49,.
inside of a year the country was
IN the midst of a depression when
rnersed into a panic. Business was
nrostrated, millions of men we're out
of employment, and the soup house
and the bread line became the most
flourishing industries of the country
The New York World, democratic
newsnaper, which had howled long
and loud for a tariff for revenue only,
distributed 1000, 900 loaves Of bread to
TIA hungry poor Of New York City.
what caused the change from good
times to hard times, from prosperity
to the direst adversely? The tari1r
tipkering Of democratic congress.
That and nothing else.
Today, Just twenty years later, the
American people are confronted Win
conditions strikingly similar to those
~ 1892. The country has never peen
20 prosperous as during the admins
tration Of William Howard TAFT. La
nor has never commanded such
nrices. The products of the farm
never sold for SO much Despite 'enor-
NOUS expenditures. the treasury shows
4 surplus. Common labor secures
from $3.50 to So day. No man VINO
wants q lob is out of one, unless he
is too tired to work.
The democratic party has adopted
4 tariff program identical with the
ona experimented with twenty years
ago. The democratic national plat
form demands q tariff for revenue
only. That means an enormous addi-
ton to our already large free list and
the opening of American markets to
foreign produce. Every dollar OF for
eign merchandise sent here on COM
petftiye basis replaces dollars worth
nf American-made goods. The demo-
cratic party proposes to take down the
bars and invite an influx Of foreign
goods. That is the way 1t proposes
to reduce the cost Of living.
Will history repeat itself In 1912?
Men opposed to protective tariff say
no. we are too great now, too rich,
"a he affected by tariff laws. That
Il what they said in 1892. So many
republicans believed then that the DEM
ocratic party was given the opportu-
nifty to test its pet theory, and 1t very
nearly "broke" every man who went
through the years from 1893 to 1887,
while millions were impoverished.
President Taft is a protectionist,
Roosevelt is an opportunist Wilson Is
: free trader. Yet there are farmers
in this county who will go to the polls
and vote against the nominee of their
party and invite another democratic
panic. But they ought to do it with
their eyes open. They ought to recall
the days Of 1s93-97, and ask them
selves il there is any possible excuse
for deserving the party Of protection
the party under which they have
enjoyed the most bountiful prosperity,
the most marvellous scale of prices,
ever known in this or any other
country.
Between now and election day every
man should ask himself this question
ask it soberly and decide it intelli-
gently.