Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-05-21
ONE PLEDGE UNFULFILLED.

ONE PLEDGE UNFULF|LLEO.
A little over two years ago the
Baltimore convention adopted in it's
platform among other things the fol-
lowing
The high cost of living IS a
serious problem in every Amer
lean home. The Republican party
in its platform attempts to es-
cape from responsibility for pres
ent conditions by denying they
are due to a Protective Tariff.
We take issue with them on this
subject and charge that excess
sive prices result in a large meas
ure from the high Tariff laws
enacted and maintained by the !.
Republican party and from trusts
and commercial conspiracies fos-
tered and encouraged by such
laws, and we assert that no SUBJ
stantial relief car be secured for
the people until import duties on
the necessaries of life are mater
tally reduced and these criminal
coaspiracies broken up.
We now have had more than a year
of Democratic government and sever
months of Democratic Free Trade, but
has the cost of living been lowered?
The Democratic tariff has brought
the farmers wheat into competition
without decreasing the price Of bread.
The price of bis corn has been held
down through Argentina importations,
but the meal, starch and other byprod.
ucts remain the same even down to
corr fed pork.
1t has lowered to the farmer the
selling price of butter and eggs, but
the price to the consumer has not
varied. The American beef industry
has been opened to the South Ameri-
can markets, but it, takes just as
much to buy a steak and a roast as
under the Republican protective
tariff.
How it effects the industrial condi-
lions is best shown by a recent article
in the Portland Commercial-Review
which We reprint below in part:
1T has been the means of throwing
thousands of men out of work and of
blocking hundreds of financial tran.
sactions that would, if carried out,
have added to the prosperity that the
country enjoyed when Wilson was
elected. AS shown by Mr.. Prender-
CAST in his speech at the Republican
State convention, the New York Cen.
trail Lines have laid off since last
September $1,000 men, the Erie Rail.
TOAD company 5000, the Norfolk &
Western Railroad Company 5000. the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company .15,.
900. and it is said that it will be netces.
tary sto dispense with the services OF
to,oO8Snore or this road. In October,
4913, AZ had ll42, 900 men on full time.
Pn Msreh, Il 1914. $1,000 only were
bn full time. The American railroads
havesa nominal payroll Of 100000
fmpl1sessst with families they repre-,
fenta7s12 per cent. of our whole popu.
lation. Next to agriculture our great
est industry is railroading, represent
Ing 100000 miles of track and an in,
vestment of SIS, 900, 900, 900. There is
one gravely erroneous popular idea
that the railroads are&owned only by
the rich. The Pennsylvania Railroad
Company has 100000 stockholders
and the securities of all roads are in
the hands of hundreds of thousands o.
owners, many of whom are in a great
measure dependent upon the dividends
their investments are earning. The
public has been told that the railroads
are discharging their men with a view
to forcing an increase of freight rates
from the Interstate Commerce Com
mission, The falsitv Of the charge 1,
proved by the figures just published
by the commission itself, which show
that the net revenue per mile of til,
Eastern roads was only $1SS in Febru
airy, 1914, as against Sab in Februar,
1913. The total operating revenues de
creased $12. 200, 1000 in February, 1914
al compared with February, 1913
Further, that there had been a tota