The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1916-10-21
The TARIFF QUESTION
is THE GREAT ISSUE
FACTS AND FIGURES REGARD
ING THIS IMPORTANT PIECE
OF LEGISLATION.

Omaha, Nebraska.-The payroll of
the American workingman after the
close of the European war is the
greatest question with which the
United States has to grapple, says
Leslie M. Shaw, former governor of
Iowa and secretary of the treasury
"And that payroll depends absolutely
on the tariff" he says.
Mr.. Shaw is campaigning this
month in the west. From his home
in Dennison, Iowa, he is making ex-
cu~rsions into all the western states
speaking in the interest of the repub-
lican campaign. Driving home to the
minds of his hearers that the payroll
depends on the tariff, rising or falling
according to whether a high or low
tariff is in effect, he is hitting the
bullseye every day and is exposing
the sore spots in the anatomy of the
Underwood democratic tariff law.
Governor Shaw has always been
particularly appealing to western vot-
ers and his presence on the platform
in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, South Da-
kota, and other western states cannot
but have a strengthening effect on
the republican hold on those states.
"Many American industries face
actual ruin if the close of the Euro
pean war finds them in the naked and
u~nprepared condition forced upon
them by the Underwood tariff" he
says. "The tariff is really the great
issue of this campaign. We should
not forget the conditions which were
forced upon American workingmen
both of the farming and the factory
classes, by the nine months of the
Underwood tariff law before our i'm
mense wal orders came to help US out
of a terrible hole which yawned right
in front of us. l tell you the more
the people come to understand the
real peril of the Underwood tariff law
to our American industries and to the
welfare of our American workingmen
the more they are inclined to repudi-
ate this democratic measure.
"But the voters this year are de-
handing facts, not ~generalities. |
said some of our industries will face
ruin when the war is over unless they,
have protection. And when an in
dustry fails, those employed in that
industry are out of work. They can
not pay for goods produced by others
and so an endless chain of non-pro-
ducers, non-payers is started. A
short time g | spoke in North Car
DINA where there are 500 cotton mills
within 200 miles of Charlotte. Relia-
BILE reports from all but two of these
mills indicate they will have to close
after the war unless the Underwood
tariff law is repealed. Why? Listen.
Within the last year the Diapers, the
big automatic loom concern, sent a
full train load of automatic looms to
Japan to equip cotton mills in that
country. In Japan the men work for
81 cents per day, the women for IL
cents and The children for eight cents.
These American looms will turn out
just as much cotton goods for these
Japanese as they will for Americans.
These goods will be sent to what
should be American markets and II
there is no tariff protection for AM
erican mills, these mills must either
cut wage to the level of the Japan
ese, or close UP shop entirely. In
other words they must close, because
cutting wages to japanese levels or to
foreign standards of wages is un-
thinkable, uncomfortable, impossible.
That is only one instance.
"Here is another instance. In Chi
cago, recently, I visited a wholesale
establishment where | was shown a
room filled with American chinaware
made in Japan. The models were AM
erican, the decorations were American
and YOU could not tell them from Am
erican made goods. They will be sold
as American. Bear in mind that a
piece of Chinaware is only a penny's
worth of clay, plus labor. With no
tariff thrown around this industry we
cannot compete with Workmen who
use American machinery and work for
81 cents per day without reducing our
wage schedule to that of the Japan
csc. Every chinaware factory in this
country faces absolute ruin under n
Underwood tariff law.
"And you farmers must not think
that you are not affected by this men
ace. When the factories close and
the city men have no jobs, you will
have no market for your grain and
your meats. And did you know that
during the fiscal year ending June 80,
1914, under the Underwood tariff, this
country imported $375,000, 900 more
dSIlCultuI dl p1OOONOo ehNh WY ~
age for the last four years under re-
publican rule? You lost a market Of
just that size in the one year of the
Underwood tariff. Furthermore, there
were 1000, 900 men thrown out of en-
ployment during the first ten months
of that democratic tariff. Unem-
ployed men mean unfed families and
unfed families meal a c~urtailing OF
your markets. Can you raise wheat
as cheaply as any place on earth?
Yet during the first ten months of
this Underwood tariff Canadian farm
ers sent into this country four times
as much wheat as they did in the cor
responding months of the previous
They paid ten cents per bushel
tariff. and still sold the wheat at the
same price for which you sold yours.
"Our democratic friends tell you
this talk about our present prosperi-
ty being due to war orders is poppy