The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1913-12-25

business concerns as now, and no business
men to take the lead in every movement
for the public good. Think it over.
CAUSE OF BUSINESS DEPRESSION.
Last week Bradstreet's and Duns'
both attributed the business depression
throughout the country to the unusually
warm weather, but there are other and
more enduring causes for the deprecia-
ton of stocks, the decline of railroad
earnings and the suspension of indus
tries whereby thousands have been
thrown out of employment. At the re-
cent annual meeting of the Home Market
Club, Boston, President Dowse said:
Since the agitation for a reduced tariff
began, New England has suffered loss
of $780, 000 600 in the value of its textile
stocks; large inroads in its fishing indus
try have been made by foreigners and
many of its manufacturing communities
| have been forced to curtal production
and decrease employment, resulting in
losses of millions of dollars to working
people and tradesmen.
Already the slackening of industry
throughout the country is noted, mills
and factories are on short time and this
great injury has been done to the bust
ness of the country and the welfare of
our people without a particle of benefit,
without any compromising advantages.
/ They have reduced the opportunities for
employment but they have not reduced
the cost of living, and when the country
realizes how it has been trif1ed with and
imposed upon, there will be a day of
reckoning which will, | hope, postpone
indefinitely any further steps toward
! free trade.
Secretary Marvin of the Home Market
Club was even more outspoken in his
denunciation of the Legislation which has
brought the business of the country to a
standstill, with the prospect of worse to
come. He said:
Not only have no benefits been derived
from this new tariff law, but the coun-
try will be extremely fortunate if it's
operation does not result in serious and
widespread injury.
There is an ominous slackening of
business throughout the United States
Bank clearings for October show a de-
crease of 9.5 per cent compared with
October, 1912; and the showing for the
week ending Nov. 18th is even worse, as
it reveals decrease in bank clearings of
eleven per cent compared with the same
week a year ago. The gross earnings of
railroads, another business barometer,
show a decline from a year ago. Bust
ness failures for October are greater
than they were in 1912.
We have paid a heavy price for ex
~. -
call a halt. The new freedom has
been tested and found wanting, but it
has served this useful purpose, it has
demonstrated to the country the value
and usefulness of those national policies
which the fathers of the nation inaugu
rated and which time and experience
have approved.
Those who voted for Wilson because
of President Taft's reciprocity with
Canada long since realized their mistake
in helping to elect an administration
which has thrown our markets open to
the world without any compromising ad-
vantages.
That Gloucester would suffer under the
Democratic tariff was generally accept
ed as a foregone conclusion. A contrib
utor to the Boston Transcript, whose
former articles have shown that he is
especially we'll informed as to fisher folks
and maritime affairs generally, has writ
ten of the conditions in Gloucester today,
after the bars have been down for two
months as regards raw material; manu-
featured fish is still protected. First,
there are evidences of the exodus of ''the
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia fisher
men who SO largely man our fishing fleet
and often end by becoming American
citizens of an especially valuable type"
Then about month ago fleet of twenty
vessels arrived from Canadian ports with
seven million pounds of fish, duty free,
and it is said this event may be expected
to occur twice year. The vessels them
selves were former Gloucester fishermen
that had been sold to the Provincials ten
years ago, to be replaced in our own fleet
by more modern craft. Do the con-
sumers in this country get their fish any
CucdpGI. 1uCy NV. 1AC
contributor says:
On ninety per cent of the fish which is
coming in from the Provincial market
the Provincials are the ones who are saw
ing the duty. The tariff strikes, in this
instance at least, not at the highest costs
of production, but at the lowest. The
expensive items are distribution-the
jobbers' profit, the retailers and the
cost of labor. So we have made pres
ent to the Provincial fisheries of the
} three-fourths of cent pound which
was supposedly designed for the pockets
. of the Yankee consumers and encour-
aged their industry at the expense of our
own. Well may the Lunenburger and
the Arichat Frenchman, the Cape Breton
Scot and the Newfoundland stay at
home to fish. And we'll may the fisher
les Of our northern neighbors rattle in
their pockets annually the loose change
of three-fourths Of cent multiplied by
twice 1000, 600. end then some. Out Of