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THE STANDARD
NO. 90—[VOL. I]V, NO. 12. [address label pasted over masthead: “104 Dr. Walter Mendelson 167[?] 179 W 74th st” (handwritten/stamped subscriber label, not part of the print)]
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888.
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p. 1, col. 1
THE STANDARD F[OR THE CA]MPAIGN.
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Terms of subscription will be found on the fourth page.
CONTENTS:
The President on Democratic Clubs.
The Australian System of Voting.
Senator Sherman’s Speech.
Mr. Randall’s Renomination.
Nat McKay’s Pictures.
United Labor Party.
In Line—A Speech by Judge Maguire.
Harlem Republican Club Challenged.
Campaign Letters.
The Beating of the Drums.
The New Conscience.
Straws Which Show the Wind.
A Cobden Clubbite in Disguise.
A Leader Who Declines to Lead.
A Statesman Who Has Been Eating Something.
An Expert on the Stand.
The Apology for Trusts.
From H. Martin Williams.
Men and Things.
The Candidate’s Prayer (Poem).
The St. Louis League the Talk of the Town.
Society Notes.
The Earth for All (Poem).
My Experience With Tramps.
Queries and Answers.
Current Thought.
Mr. Cleveland has written to Chauncey F. Black, president of the national association of democratic clubs, expressing his sympathy in the purpose of the association, and his appreciation of the value, as an educational influence, of societies in which the democratic position in this contest shall be fairly and calmly discussed. Mr. Cleveland says:
The struggle upon which we have entered is in behalf of the people—the plain people of the land, and they must be reached. We do not proceed upon the theory that they are to be led by others who may or may not be in sympathy with their interests. We have undertaken to teach the voters as free, independent citizens, intelligent enough to see their rights, interested enough to insist upon being treated justly, and patriotic enough to desire their country’s welfare. Thus this campaign is one of information and organization. Every citizen should be regarded as a thoughtful, responsible voter; and he should be furnished the means of examining the issues involved in the pending canvass for himself.
This is the same idea as that expressed in different words by Governor Black in the ringing address before the convention of New Jersey democratic clubs which THE STANDARD recently published:
The contest is nothing less than a contest for the emancipation of American labor. Shall the government take the earnings of the many and confer them upon the few, without even the ceremony of passing them through its own treasury? That is the question, simple and naked. The monopolists understand it perfectly, and they are pouring out money wrung from the hands of the producers to have it decided affirmatively. If we can only make the plundered understand it as clearly as do the plunderers there will be no doubt about the result.
What Governor Black is aiming at, and what Mr. Cleveland has evidently in mind in his letter, is not the formation of torch-bearing, uniform-wearing, vote-the-straight-ticket associations, into which political clubs in our day have so largely degenerated, but the revival of the spirit and practice of those republican societies which in Jefferson’s time were such efficient means of propagating democratic principles by rational discussion. The distinctive feature of this campaign, one which Mr. Cleveland’s stand on the tariff question has given it, is its appeal to intelligent discussion rather than to blind party loyalty. This appeal is telling and will continue increasingly to tell. And it is rapidly bringing the democratic masses to a better appreciation of democratic principle than they have had for a generation. There could be no more efficient aid in this movement than the establishment of a system of democratic clubs which should actually discuss the application of democratic principles to such questions as that now uppermost.
It has long been a republican taunt that the democratic party is “the party of ignorance.” Whatever color of truth there may once have been in the charge, the reverse is now clearly true. Since Mr. Cleveland asserted his leadership, the appeal of the democratic party has been to intelligence; that of the republican party to ignorance. Democratic speakers and journals, with more or less ability and more or less courage, are addressing themselves, as Mr. Cleveland did in his message and in his letter, to the sober reason of “the plain people.” On the other hand, the republican speakers and journals are addressing themselves to ignorance and prejudice. Their whole stock in trade in this controversy consists in reckless misstatements of facts, cooked or invented “statistics,” faked extracts from foreign papers, and attempts to rouse the fears or the prejudices of the most ignorant class of voters. Refusing all propositions to discuss the matter in p. 1, col. 2 issue before the people in joint debate, they are carrying on a campaign based evidently on the belief that a lie roundly asserted is as effective for political purposes as a truth.
The establishment of a line of democratic clubs, or, as Mr. Black would prefer to call them, democratic societies, which should really discuss public questions, and thus educate their members in the democratic philosophy, would be of inestimable advantage to the democratic party and of enormous benefit to the nation. But, whatever may be done in this direction during this campaign, the great obstacle to the permanent organization of such societies within party lines lies in the general conditions which have debauched our politics, and given party management to those who care nothing whatever for principle. The Tammany society, whose name has become a synonym for political rascality and corruption, was originally one of those educational societies which Mr. Black would revive. That it has become merely a machine for the management of elections and the distribution of spoils, is because our elective methods necessitate just such machines.
By bringing a great issue into practical discussion, Mr. Cleveland has done much for the elevation of our politics. And every step that is taken in abolishing or cutting down tariff duties will tend to make the general political atmosphere purer and clearer, by diminishing the pecuniary interests that are now concerned in the making of national laws and the control of the national government. But to get rid of the influence of money in elections, to take party control out of the hands of bosses, and to give the judgment and conscience of the masses a chance to assert themselves as against the combinations of those who go into politics as a mere money getting business, we must make such a change in our elective machinery as will secure to the individual voter that full liberty of choice which the spirit of our institutions requires.
Liberty of choice the voter can not have under our present system of voting. Theoretically he may write his own ballot, and vote for whom he pleases. But practically, if he would have his vote count, he must vote a printed ballot having on it the names of candidates for whom some considerable number of others have agreed to vote. The printing of these ballots and the furnishing of them to voters is the foundation of the power of the political machines. To print great quantities of ballots, to distribute them by mail or by hand, to station men around the polling places to see that every voter who will take one is provided with the party ballot, require large amounts of money and thorough organization. And as all this is necessary to enable one party to cope with another at the polls, what may be styled the mechanical part of party organization becomes all important, and those who control that ordinarily control the party. They have but to secure the nominating machinery to give to any candidate they may put up just such advantages over an irregularly nominated candidate as a railroad, once built, has over a freight wagon. If voters do not like the nominees of one machine they must accept the nominees of the other machine, or, else, practically an impossible task, attempt to construct a machine of their own. The enormously heavy expense of thus presenting the ballots to the voters leads to the practice of assessing candidates and office holders, and gives an enormous advantage to those who will expend money in politics with the expectation of profiting by the control of legislation and administration. Our political parties must have money. Our elective system requires it. Hence, those who are willing to put money into politics can gain a power in party organizations which nothing short of a complete change in the voting system can permanently deprive them of. And besides the money required for what are. under our sic, the legitimate expenses of politics, the same method of registering the popular will affords every temptation for the illegitimate use of money at elections. Since the voter must, or at least may, obtain his ballot within sight of the polls, the secrecy of the ballot is utterly destroyed in the case of those for whom secrecy is most necessary. An employer or foreman, or any one else having power over voters which can be used coercively can, under our system, stand near the polls and see that every man over whom he has influence takes a certain ballot and deposits it. And in the same way votes can be safely bought. The bargain is made, the voter takes the ballot handed him, and holding it in view until he votes it, returns to some agreed p. 1, col. 3 place and receives his pay. This facilitation of intimidation and bribery it is that has already, in many of our states, rendered elections shamelessly corrupt.
The remedy for all this is simple. Bosses, rings, the control of cities by the worst elements of their population, and the political power of moneyed combinations and great corporations, are not evils which attach to democratic institutions. They grow out of our method of voting. They would exist in as great degree in the other English speaking communities as they do here, were it not that they have adopted a more rational system of voting.
The plan of voting which has cured these evils in other English speaking countries was proposed in the first place, I believe, by Jeremy Bentham, and being first adopted in Australia, has come to be known as the Australian system. Its main features are that the ballots to be voted are provided at public expense, and that perfect secrecy is secured. The names of all candidates proposed by a prescribed number of electors are printed on an official ballot. This the voter receives from an election officer at the polls, and taking it into a private compartment where he is concealed from observation, makes his choice by a mark against the name of the candidate he wishes to vote for. Then, bringing out his ballot already folded, he hands it to the receiving officer. Thus intimidation is made impossible, and the security of the briber that he will get the vote he bargains for is utterly gone. And thus, also, the great cost of running a candidate or a ticket is done away with, and the power of the machine is destroyed. A candidate nominated by the required number of citizens is presented for choice to every voter, and in this, the vital point, elaborate organization and great sums of money give no advantage. The necessity for booths and ticket peddlers, and the opportunities for illegitimate expenditure which they give are done away with.
This simple change is for us the most important of all political reforms. It would strike a death blow at the power of machines, and to a large degree destroy the influence of money in our elections; it would end the corruptions which are poisoning our whole governmental system at the very source of all power. It would relegate the mere practical politician to his proper place, and bring men of brains and character to the front. Parties would then be compelled to discuss principles, and political clubs would of necessity become, what President Cleveland and Governor Black desire, associations in which principles and measures would be discussed.
Massachusetts has already adopted the Australian system of voting, though it will not go into effect until next year. In a number of other states it has been indorsed by both parties, and in at least half a dozen of them it will be adopted during the coming winter. In New York, an excellent bill was passed through both houses of the legislature at the last session, and was presented to Governor Hill. He refused to sign it, giving reasons which were not founded on any structural defects in the bill, but placed him in opposition to the reform itself.
Since Governor Hill has been renominated by the democratic machine on a platform which opposes this reform, its adoption in New York, where perhaps of all our states it is most needed, depends upon the gubernatorial election. A vote for Governor Hill means a vote against electoral reform and for the continuance of the present system, with its corruption, its intimidation and its virtual disqualification from important office of all citizens who cannot or will not buy their places. This is in our state politics the great issue, beside which all others sink into insignificance. To those who support Cleveland and Thurman, not because they are the, nominees of a particular convention, but because they do represent an appeal to the intelligence of the people, there can be no question of what they should do. The same reasons which call upon them to support the democratic presidential nominee call on them to oppose the democratic gubernatorial nominee.
Senator Sherman’s speech on the retaliation bill on Tuesday was a remarkable and commendable one. Mr. Sherman said:
It would be better for all if the whole continent north of Mexico shared in the prosperity and blessings of the American union. But the way to union with Canada is not by unfriendly legislation, but by friendly overtures. The true policy of the government of the United States is to tender to Canada freedom of trade and intercourse, p. 1, col. 4 and to make that tender in such a fraternal way that it should be an overture to the Canadian people to become a part of the American government.”
The union could only be accomplished with the free and hearty assent of both peoples. The use of any force would defeat the object. It could not be promoted by controversies or retaliation. Those measures look to and generally end in war. No greater good could be accomplished than by a wise and peaceful policy to unite Canada and the United States under one common government, carefully preserving to each its own local autonomy.
All this is true. But it is in the highest degree inconsistent with protectionist claims. Free trade with Canada would indeed give to both countries all the more substantial advantages that could come from political union and would pave the way to that. But what would become of our home markets, of our infant industries and of American labor, if we were to throw down the tariff wall that separates us from Canada on the one hand and from Mexico on the other? And if free trade with Canada would be a blessing, why not free trade with England?
The Philadelphia Record shows a magnanimity that passes into weakness in proposing to give Mr. Randall another trial by accepting him again as a democratic candidate for congress. On the true line of party division—the line which this campaign is drawing anew—Mr. Randall is not a democrat. He has no more place in the democratic party than has James G. Blaine or Charles A. Dana. He has held his seat in the house of representatives for many years by virtue of republican support. And by virtue of his disguise as a democrat he has, done more efficient work for the high tariff party than half a dozen avowed republicans could do. If Mr. Randall must be re-elected, it is better that he should be openly re-elected by republican votes than that he should have the indorsement of a democratic nomination. And if he still has sufficient control of the democratic machine in his district to get a regular nomination, the supporters of Mr. Cleveland’s policy ought to oppose him by an independent candidate.
I spoke to a single tax Cleveland and Thurman meeting Thursday night of last week in Jersey city; on Friday night at Elizabeth and on Saturday night at Philadelphia. On Monday night Everett Glackin, Louis F. Post, John L. Butler of Pennsylvania and myself spoke in Brooklyn. On Thursday night of this week I am to speak in Newark, and on Friday night to make a short speech and answer questions in Cooper union. On Tuesday I shall speak on the tariff before the Teachers’ institute in Reading, Pa. Wherever I have yet gone I have found large and enthusiastic audiences, thoroughly enlisted in the support of Mr. Cleveland as against the robbery and sham of protection.
I would again urge every one of our friends, no matter in what part of the country he may be, to sign and forward the enrollment blank which is to be found on the eighth page of THE STANDARD. And I would urge them not merely to do this for themselves, but to secure the names of as many others as possible. These names are not intended for publication, and signing the blanks involves no obligation further than is stated. But these signatures constitute an enrollment which will enable the committee to forward communications and documents, and be in other ways a great advantage.
Mr. W. B. Estill, who, by his communications from the Pennsylvania coal fields, is well known to readers of this paper, is now traveling through New York state on behalf of THE STANDARD. Mr. Estill is a good speaker, thoroughly informed as to the blessings which American labor in the highly protected state of Pennsylvania has derived from the protective tariff; and whenever there is opportunity sic friends should get him to make a speech.
HENRY GEORGE.
NAT McKAY’S PICTURES.
Nathaniel McKay is one of the protectionists who learned logic in the old Sunday school books.
“Johnny Smith went sailing on Sunday; Johnny’s boat capsized and Johnny was drowned; ergo, if you go sailing on Sunday your boat will capsize and you will drown.”
This is the way little Nat McKay reduced his Sunday school stories to syllogisms; and he was always careful not to go sailing on Sunday, for little Nat did not want to drown. He was bothered at times when he heard of boys who were drowned while sailing on week days, but his explanation of such phenomena was that the time of those boys had come, and, therefore, the day of the week had nothing to do with the question.
When little Nat grew up, and was told by the editor of the Press that President p. 1, col. 5 Cleveland was bent on making this country a free trade country like England, Nat asked the editor of the Press if he knew anything about England.
“Yes,” said the editor, “I am an Englishman.”
“Do they have free trade in England?” again asked Nat.
“They have it now,” replied the editor, “but when I was a boy they had protection there.”
“What effect did free trade have?”
“Very bad! very bad, indeed,” said the editor. “My father was a landlord over there; and when they had protection he was quite comfortable in the rents he received for letting men work on his land; so comfortable, in fact, that he himself could work or not, just as he pleased. But free trade made land cheaper, so that people could get a chance to work for less rent, and my father’s rents were awfully reduced. It ruined him.”
Nat thought the matter over, and came to the editor with what he supposed was a bright idea.
“If free trade in England ruined your father, who was a landlord,” said Nat, “free trade here would ruin our landlords. Suppose we make this clear to the American landlords and they’ll vote against Cleveland.”
“No;” said the editor, “it’s not the landlords that we want to reach. We want to show the workingmen here that free trade will ruin them.”
“But how can anything—free trade or anything else—ruin landlords and workingmen both?” asked Nat.
“My dear sir,” said the editor, “you mustn’t ask how things can do things; you must find out what happens.”
Nat recalled his Sunday sail boat syllogism, and agreed to the editor’s proposition.
“If,” continued the editor, “you want to know what free trade does for workingmen, go to free trade England and look around.”
So Nat went to England, and on his return wrote an address to the “Workingmen of America,” which the Press published in full last Sunday, illustrated with some portraits and a drawing that suggests our own “Shantytown,” but is called “Scene in the Black Country.”
In this address Nathaniel McKay says the facts he has gathered among British working classes “show that free trade is the blight and the curse that rests upon that land,” and assures us that “if free trade is to be our policy it will not be long before the misery and suffering at present among the English toilers will be stalking through this land too.” But the reader will look in vain for even a solitary fact tending to show that the poverty of England is due to her free trade policy. Mr. McKay’s logic is that of the sail boat disaster in his Sunday school books: “England is a free trade country; English workingmen are frightfully poor; ergo, if you have free trade you will be poor.”
Mr. McKay made some comparisons of prices of goods and wages of labor between England and the United States. But again his logic is that of the Sunday sail boat disaster, for he placidly assumes that the differences are due to protection here and free trade there. This assumption is inadvertently discredited by Mr. McKay, however, when in one place he supposes that something of the difference may be “due to the fact that 10,207 persons own two-thirds of England,” and in another gives thanks, not to protection alone, but to “protection, progress and enterprise,” for the better conditions of labor here. It might have been still further discredited by allusions to our larger territory, greater natural resources and cheaper land; but space is too limited to specify the variety of discrediting facts which confront Mr. McKay’s disordered theory.
What Mr. McKay has really done is to gather some information about the miserable condition of the English working classes. His collection of statistics is of no value, but his descriptions of work and modes of living are not overdrawn.
He speaks of a boiler maker in Manchester whose wages are $8 for sixty hours’ work, and who lives in a brick house having two rooms on the first and two on the second floor, for which he pays a rental of seventy-five cents a week. His floor is stone and uncarpeted. For breakfast he has a pennyworth of cheese and bread—with butter, if he can afford it, if not, lard—and some tea; at midday he gets two cents’ worth of meat; at night he has herring, perhaps an egg, butter, bread and tea. He considers himself as well off as any mechanic in Manchester, and it costs him $7.50 a week to support his family of eight. Mr. McKay asks what hope life holds out to him? What hope, indeed! But how does this relate to the question of protection or free trade? Think of a brick house with four rooms in one of our protected cities for $3 a month! Think of a workingman in New York getting shelter for a family of eight for less than a tenth of his wages! The fact is bad, but the intended comparison is a boomerang.
From the boiler maker Mr. McKay goes to the saleswomen of Manchester, who earn from $3 to $3.50 a week in large places, and are docked for holidays. In smaller places they get from two shillings to four and ten pence. Presumably, therefore, since it is free trade that makes low wages, p. 1, col. 6 there is more free trade in the smaller places than in the larger!
Jumping from Manchester to Wigan, the writer found himself in the midst of such destitution, squalor and wretchedness as he had never before seen. The miserable homes of the mechanics are mostly built in rows extending an entire block; they are of brick, two stories high, and face on stone paved streets or courts. The largest room in one of these “tenements” is eleven feet square and seven feet eight inches high. It has only one window, and the sun, as Mr. McKay supposes, “has a hard time in finding this aperture, but to obstruct still further its cheerful health giving rays—so rare at best in this foggy climate of England—the window is subdivided into thirty panes of glass.” Why Mr. McKay should attribute the rarity of sunlight to the foggy climate of England and not to the free trade policy of England is inexplicable. It was a good opportunity overlooked. He also neglects to consider whether the subdivision of the windows into thirty panes may not be a survival of the custom that originated in that phase of English protection which, by putting a tax on glass above a certain size, protected people from the use of it. Possibly, too, nobody told him that in the days of English protection, when that house was probably built, Englishmen were benevolently protected against too much light and air by a special tax on windows.
The coal mines of Wigan come in for a share of Mr. McKay’s attention; and after describing instances of women unsexing themselves for the opportunity to earn bread by working in a mine, he gives wages as from $4 to $4.50 a week for miners and from twenty-five to thirty-five cents for women. Then he goes to the cotton and woolen factories of the same town, where children get ninety-five cents a week and laboring men $3.75; and thence to other parts of England, in which he finds similar conditions, but which, either from lack of descriptive power or because he did not see the worst, he does not present with the sic that the real facts would warrant. The picture is black enough, though, as he draws it, and any man with a heart in his breast must cry out against the inhumanity that permits such poverty and wretchedness where natural opportunities to produce wealth are so abundant.
But the picture is not an English picture, and when Mr. McKay offers it as distinctively English and a result of England’s free trade, he proves either his ignorance or his insincerity. Since he makes no effort, not even the slightest, to connect it with free trade, except by bald assertion, it is a fair inference that he is insincere. In Germany he will find similar conditions in worse degree; are they due to free trade? Germany being a protection country, they cannot be. And it is not necessary to go either to England or Germany to find conditions such as Mr. McKay describes. They exist in this country. His descriptions of miserable city life in England are not without their counterparts here, and when he tells of workingmen occupying whole houses of four rooms, he is describing what are palaces to thousands of our overworked and underpaid people. His rates of wages in the mines of the Black country are lower than in Pennsylvania, but not much; and except that women work about the mines there his accounts of social conditions are little, if any, worse than they are in the mining regions in Pennsylvania. He regards $8 a week wages with the rent of a whole house for seventy-five cents as a pitiable condition, and so it is; but in Pennsylvania coal regions wages do not average more than about $7 and rent is $1.25, while the Pennsylvania miner pays full price for the coal he uses and the English miner gets it free.
Mr. McKay, true to the instincts of your thorough going protectionist, while modeling his logic on the pattern of sail-boat disasters in the Sunday school books, puts his “facts” in statistical tables which have to be taken on faith. How reliable those statistics are for comparison between England and the United States may be inferred from the wages of locomotive engineers, which are put at 35 shillings per week in England and $21 in America, and locomotive firemen, which he says are 26 shillings there and $12 here. These figures, as figures, may or may not be correct. But as indicating relative conditions they are clearly wrong. If wages were really as much higher here than in England as these figures suggest, we should have engineers and firemen coming over from England in such numbers that the brotherhoods of locomotive engineers and of firemen would be powerless to keep wages up to present rates. Instead of that, we know that our immigration from England is extremely light and that the great volume of immigration is from protected countries.
The working classes of England are in a deplorable condition. Mr. McKay need not to go sic to find it out. Every one who has ever been there knows it. So is the condition of the working classes of Germany, and France, and Italy, and Russia, and the United States. Except the United States, it is worse in all these countries than in England, while in the United States it is in the average some- continued on p. 2 →
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2 THE STANDARD, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888.
p. 2, col. 1
← continued from p. 1 what better. But why attribute the favorable difference between this country and England to protection without attributing the unfavorable difference between the other countries and England also to protection? Does not the fact that the working classes are more or less in bad condition in both protection and free trade countries suggest to any candid mind that there must be an explanation more universal than mere fiscal policies? When we consider the question inductively from facts to principles do we not find the better condition where there is greater freedom? And when we consider it deductively from principles to facts are we not assured that freedom elevates and restriction depresses the condition of those who are dependent for a living on their own work?
The United States, in spite of its tariff restrictions, has the greatest freedom of any country, and therefore are its wages as a rule higher and its conditions of life easier. Its tariff restriction has in effect made all its harbors shallow, but still it has a vast area of comparatively cheap land which gives comparative freedom to work, and its area of free trading territory is coextensive with that of its confederated states. If this country were no larger than England, and its population as great, Mr. McKay’s story of English wretchedness would appear to our “protected” working people, to such squalor would they be reduced, like a fairy tale of more than ordinary splendor.
We reprint this week from the North American Review Henry D. Lloyd’s article on “The New Conscience.” It is well worth reading.
Advocating no special line of action, Mr. Lloyd contents himself with pointing out that there is stirring in the heart of man, as it has stirred for thousands of years, a force that moves to action, and will not be satisfied without it—a conscience that cries and cries, and will persist in crying every day more loudly, until the cruel injustices that mar our civilization shall be swept away. And it is the glory of the gospel of industrial emancipation that we who advocate the single tax are preaching that it will satisfy to the uttermost, [roundly?] and completely, the demands of that new conscience of which Mr. Lloyd so eloquently speaks.
THE UNITED LABOR PARTY.
It Holds Several Meetings and Receives Its Presideatial Candidates.
The united labor party of New York city and vicinity held a ratification meeting in Madison square garden last Saturday, which was addressed by the candidates for president and vice-president, R. H. Cowdrey and W. H. T. Wakefield. The garden had been decorated for the anti-poverty fair, now being held there, and the speeches were made from a platform in the centre of the hall. The audience was small.
Mr. Cowdrey said the tariff issue was a false one, and a worse surplus than that in the treasury was the surplus of landlords. He looked for a big vote in Illinois, Kansas and Minnesota. To a Herald reporter Mr. Cowdrey stated that he expected the party would poll 30,000 votes in Chicago alone.
Mr. Wakefield said that it was possible that the united labor party would carry the state of Kansas.
W. B. Ogden, chairman of the national committee, made a speech in which he evoked a storm of hisses and groans for Henry George by speaking of him as a renegade.
Robert Pyne of Connecticut, Dr. A. S. Houghton of Ohio and Dr. McGlynn also spoke, and resolutions indorsing the candidates and denouncing the old parties were adopted.
On Sunday night an entertainment was held in the Windsor theater on the Bowery, under the auspices of the Sixth assembly district of the united labor party. The regular anti-poverty meeting in Cooper union was also held, and the hall was about three-quarters full. The Cooper union meeting was addressed by Dr. McGlynn, Mr. Wakefield, Mr. Odgen and Mr. Cowdrey. The advertisements stated that Mr. Cowdrey would deal with the “Protection and free trade fallacies,” but he devoted his time to reading a large number of short extracts from THE STANDARD, which he claimed proved that Henry George was a traitor. He intimated that Mr. George was receiving pay from the democrats. He also read part of Mr. Pentecost’s first letter in THE STANDARD, in which he advocated independent political action.
Messrs. Wakefield and Ogden both denounced the republican party, the latter especially in very strong terms, but these criticisms were for the most part received in silence by the audience, while the democratic party was hissed whenever referred to.
At the doors of the hall a paper called the People, which has lately passed into the management of a number of gentlemen prominently connected with the united labor party, was sold. It contained a report of the recent anti-poverty excursion, an article in favor of ballot reform, much denunciation of the democratic party, which it declares “is now the lazar house for all the political lepers who betrayed and deserted Dr. McGlynn and the united labor party,” General Harrison’s letter of acceptance, Congressman McKinley’s recent speech in favor of the “American idea of protection,” and much other matter denouncing free trade and advocating protection.
The anti-poverty fair is now in progress in Madison square garden. As yet it shows but little spirit, and is but thinly attended. The police prevented the band from playing until a license was taken out.
IN LINE.
Judge James G. Maguire Makes a Ringing Speech for Cleveland and Free Trade.
At a great meeting held in Metropolitan hall, San Francisco, on Sept. 6, Judge James G. Maguire made a ringing speech. He said he had been dissatisfied in times past with the failure of the democratic party to avow democratic principles, but that he took pleasure now in declaring his intention to support Cleveland. Judge Maguire went into the subject of protection at length, denouncing the notion that tariff taxes could benefit labor or raise wages as a delusion and fraud, and declaring that what labor needed is not protection, but the destruction of restrictions and monopolies. Of President Cleveland he said:
I do not propose to compare the two presidential candidates. They cannot be compared. Cleveland was a man unknown to fame. He was esteemed as an honest man
p. 2, col. 2 > and was believed to be a lucky man, but not until this very year did he put the stamp of his character upon the country. His every public act during the past year has been that of a statesman. Four years ago I placed Thurman over Cleveland and desired his nomination. But I am satisfied now Cleveland today stands at the very head of the list of American statesmen. I can imagine no manlier act of a chief magistrate of the nation than his imperiling his own re-election for what he deemed the general good of the country. All parties recognized his honesty, his re-election was assured, and yet against the warning voice of many of his party leaders, and against the protest and outcry of a populace which was worshiping the idea of protection as a fetich, he said: “The people need relief from an oppressive tariff, and my country is of higher importance than my party.” So he stood up for the right and sent that message to congress which it was believed by thousands had sealed his political doom, but which has everywhere aroused the true democratic spirit, and led his party to turn its face toward freedom.
HARLEM REPUBLICAN CLUB CHALLENGED.
The Harlem branch of the New York free trade club has challenged the Harlem republican club to public debate. The following correspondence explains the situation:
HARLEM REPUBLICAN CLUB, 24 EAST 125TH STREET, September 5, 1888.
DEAR SIR: The communication of the New York free trade club of the 3d inst., relating to a proposed series of debates, was duly received by the Harlem republican club.
I am directed by that organization to state that the Harlem republican club is a political organization, dealing only with the policies of the two great parties as declared in their respective platforms and shown by their attitude toward questions upon which legislation may be either necessary or expedient. The Harlem republican club desires to know if the New York free trade club intends to represent or speak for the democratic party in the premises. The manner in which this preliminary inquiry is settled will determine whether any further communication with reference to the matter is necessary. With continued assurances of esteem, very truly yours,
CHARLES D. BAKER, Cor. Sec. Harlem Republican Club. Mr. J. Hamilton Dillon, Secretary.
NEW YORK FREE TRADE CLUB, 13TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT SECTION, 161 East 125th street, September 15, 1888.
Charles D. Baker, esq., Corresponding Secretary Harlem Republican Club—DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 5th inst., responding to our proposition of August 3 for a series of debates, is at hand. The question which you ask as to the relations of this club to the democratic party would seem appropriate only if your club is the official representative of the republican party in the Thirteenth district. Our understanding has been that your club takes part in this campaign in support of the republican ticket as ours does in support of the democratic ticket; and that neither organization is in any way accredited as the mouthpiece of the party in accord with which it is acting.
Our challenge to you is to discuss the tariff question at issue between the two great parties; not as official representatives of these parties, but as political clubs of a similar nature holding opposite political views. The free trade club has never found protectionist organizations to show much willingness for this fairest of all forms of controversy, but we trust that your club will not neglect or evade so good an opportunity for both sides to present their arguments before the voters of the district. Very respectfully yours,
J. HAMILTON DILLON, Secretary.
Pushing Him Along.
APARTA, sic., Sept. 12.—Inclosed please find $1.25 for a six months’ subscription to THE STANDARD to be sent to the accompanying address. This man is the democratic candidate from one of the state senatorial districts of southern Illinois. I met him twice recently and I criticised one of his tariff speeches, showing him some of the weaknesses of the democratic position. I said he ought to have been able and should have wound up his address by saying, “Protection is no theory, but a lie, a sham, a fraud! Labor, what is it that it should need to be protected? All that labor needs is freedom to exert itself,” etc. You know the rest. This struck him forcibly and he repeated the phrases several times to himself and then said: “Say, send me that Henry George paper, will you? Here’s the money,” and as I left for the train his last words were, “Don’t forget to send me the paper.”
So altogether I think southern Illinois will before very long have one more democratic speaker who knows something about what we are driving at.
JOHN G. HUMMEL, of St. Louis.
Organized for Work in Jersey City.
There is now an active single tax organization ready to whoop things up for Cleveland and freedom in Jersey City. It bears the name of the Hudson county single tax league. It is composed for the most part of young men full of energy and enthusiasm, who mean to conduct a live campaign. Their first important move was the big mass meeting in Oakland rink, on Thursday, Sept. 13, which Henry George addressed, and from which came a number of accessions to their membership. Any one desirous of joining in the movement should address the secretary, Joseph Dana Miller, 86 Ege avenue. A regular business meeting of the league will take place on Friday evening, Sept. 21, at the Avenue house, Five corners.
A Single Tax Button Ready.
The Single tax Cleveland campaign committee has authorized the sale of a single tax button. It bears the figure of a cat, with arched back, ready to fight, and surrounded with the motto, “Free trade, free land, free men.” The button is woven in silk and is made up of three colors, red, white and blue.
While the figure of the cat indicates the watch word, “See the cat,” it suggests the names of the democratic presidential candidates, “Cleveland and Thurman” (C. A. T).
Buttons can be had on application at the headquarters of the Single tax Cleveland campaign committee, 12 Union square, or at the office of THE STANDARD. Price ten cents each.
To Single Tax Men of Omaha, Neb.
OMAHA, Neb., Sept. 15.—All single tax men of Omaha, Neb., and vicinity, are requested to send their names and addresses to the undersigned at once, the object being to form an organization for united and effective work, and to secure, if possible, for a beginning, an address from Henry George on the occasion of the western trip which he has announced. Let all speak at once.
PERCY PEPOON, 511 South Twelfth street.
Why Not? Don’t They “Own” the Mines?
New York World.
The coal combination has just advanced the price of coal twenty-five to fifty cents a ton. It controls the full supply of this country so absolutely that no individual nor company, though possessing ten millions of capital, could successfully mine and send anthracite to market.
p. 2, col. 3
CAMPAIGN WORK.
The enrollment of single tax voters who intend to cast their ballots for Cleveland and Thurman this fall has now reached the five thousand mark. From this time on it may be expected to push ahead rapidly, as over fifty thousand blanks, aside from the blank printed each week in THE STANDARD, have been placed in the hands of men who may be relied on to circulate them.
All persons who have not yet done so should cut the blank form to be found on the eighth page of this copy of THE STANDARD, paste it on a sheet of paper, circulate it for signatures, and return it as soon as possible to THE STANDARD office.
The major part of the signatures have thus far come from the “metropolitan district”—New York city, Brooklyn and the suburbs.
The committee has completed arrangements for the big meeting in Cooper union at which Henry George, in compliance with his promise, will, after briefly explaining his principles regarding the single tax and free trade, answer all pertinent questions from the audience.
The mail of the committee has swelled out to large proportions, and indicates widespread enthusiasm. Some idea of the tone of the letters may be inferred from the following extracts. Many of the letters were full of interesting details, but pressure for space compels us to compress them into a few lines:
L. Ruthrauff, New York.—Said Mr. Pentecost: “We vote for Cleveland, not because we are democrats but because he slapped the fetich in the face.” So say I.
J. L. sic, Brownwood, Texas.—I have never voted a democratic ticket in a national election in my life—I am sixty-four years old—but will be compelled to this sic for conscience sake. I sign your enrollment blank, and accuse Henry George, his book, “Progress and Poverty,” his paper, THE STANDARD, and his free trade speeches as the cause of my departure from the G. O. P. God help the right!
Karl A. Karlson, Brooklyn.—I was a republican in 1884, but am for Cleveland this year. All the real single tax men, whom I estimate at three-fourths of the whole vote cast for George last year, will support the democratic ticket.
I. J. David, Baton Rouge, La.—I send you my name and that of one of my neighbors for enrollment. Many are now discussing the single tax who only a short while ago would not even listen to it.
A. R. Goedecke, Peoria, Ill.—I am a born free trader, but I did not reach a solid foundation until I read “Progress and Poverty.”
H. Beach, Philadelphia.—With this find list of men who will vote for Cleveland. They are coopers working in one shop and have been led to see the cat by Joseph Burns.
Capt. Thomas Collum, chairman Independent workingmen’s association, New York.—I am glad to see the firm and fearless stand you are taking for the democratic ticket. I will be only too happy to join in your movement and render my services at any time you may require me to address a meeting or assist in any other work.
J. A. sic, St. Paul, Neb.—Here are eight signatures to add to your list. Six of these men are farmers and two of them were formerly republicans.
George B. Rounsevell, Speedsville, N. Y.—I voted the prohibition ticket in 1884, but this year, like all the single tax men I know, I shall support Cleveland, and when he and his party get to the point where they want to stop, I have hopes they will find it everlastingly too late to do so. I shall, of course, vote against Hill, not that I love Miller more, but Hill less. As far as I have had experience free traders are the aggressors, and such “tariff reformers” as I know are ready to reform it out of existence.
E. Stuart Hinton, Grand View, N. Y.—Cleveland courageously threw down the glove to leagued monopoly when he sent his message to congress, and we, as lovers of freedom, owe it as a duty to our cause to support him. At least ninety per cent of the 219 George voters in Rockland county will vote for Cleveland. Nearly all of us are down on Hill for his veto and for his cowardly position on the tariff.
A. B. Stoddard, West New Brighton, N. Y.—The tariff discussion will open the eyes of the masses to the real situation, and every believer in the single tax, will help remove its greatest obstacle—the idea that a tax on the products of labor can help the producer. I shall try to make David B.’s defeat as large as I can.
Sebastian Quod, Brooklyn.—I believe the single tax cause will be more advanced during this campaign than in ten years of work on the independent lines. I now see THE STANDARD being read on the cars—a thing I never used to see. I found at first opposition to the Mills bill, then later people liked the idea of free materials, and now many of them are almost free traders. I know several people who believe in our doctrines, but are afraid to come out; they prefer to swim with the tide. But “times change and we change with them,” and they will find better conditions pretty soon.
B. B. Martis, Troy, N. Y.—I have never voted the democratic ticket in my life, but shall vote for Cleveland this year. I consider his tariff message tne most important state paper since the emancipation proclamation. But I do not want any Hill.
C. V. Harbottle, Pulaski, N. Y.—This tariff discussion makes it easy to talk the single tax, and many are being “born again” slowly. I think Cleveland will be elected, but which ever party wins I believe things are working together for the good.
D. C. Sullivan, Ridgeway, N. Y.—I am an ex-Butler man, and shall vote for the democratic national ticket and for the republican governor. Free trade is gaining here.
R. A. Coe, Binghamton, N. Y.—I have always been a free trader, and Mr. George’s books made me a single tax man. I am for Cleveland, of course, and shall also vote for Hill.
George Smith, Ilion, N. Y.—Inclosed find post office order to cover cost of sending STANDARD for one month to inclosed addresses, the remainder to go to campaign fund of the Single tax Cleveland committee. If you will remember, Mr. J. Rix and I some time ago bought $5 worth of Henry George’s “Land Question,” and we have since been circulating them. We are getting men to read and think, and making converts. I was a republican in sympathy up to last fall, when I cast my first vote for Henry George, of which I am very proud. This fall I hope to cast my vote for Cleveland and Thurman.
Alex. Veitch, St. Louis, Mo.—I never before thought it worth while to vote, but now that you have let the light into dark places I can see, and I shall do all I can to help others to see. God bless THE STANDARD!
Calvin A. Beltz, East Maunch sic, Pa.—If I had been old enough in 1884 I would have voted for J. G. Blaine (the uncrowned king and defender of trusts), but I have since become a free trader and believer in the single tax, and will therefore support Cleveland and Thurman, as they are moving in the right direction. I hope Hill will be defeated. Inclosed find $1 for the campaign fund.
Frances M. Milne, San Luis Obispo, Cal.—It
p. 2, col. 4 seems to me there never has been so sublime a spectacle in American politics as the unselfish devotion to right and truth which these single tax free trade mass meetings prove. History will appreciate their real nobility. I inclose the signatures of several men who will vote, as single tax men, for Cleveland.
Theodore J. Werner, Newark, N. J.—As a believer in high protection I voted for Blaine in 1884, but as I am now convinced that the tariff has no effect in raising wages I shall vote this fall for Cleveland. Free trade is making great advances here; where the high tariff party gains one recruit the democrats gain ten. The threat that if Cleveland is elected the factories in this town will be closed is played out.
S. F. Fielding, Kansas, O.—I am one of the working men whom the tariff has not made rich; indeed, I was driven from home to find work elsewhere, and am scarcely able to support my family.
J. C. DeForist, Bradford, Pa.—I am only a mechanic, but in the many discussions I have with protectionists I find it no trouble to meet their arguments and set them thinking. We have very good men among us here, and it has been asserted that the Bradford land and labor club has done more to make Cleveland voters than all the democrats.
John Brown, Albany, N. Y.—Hill is not a favorite here in the state capital. The administration is not in sympathy with him. I know this from one of the city officers. They fear him, however, and do not care to arouse a discussion about him.
C. McGinniss, Portchester, N. Y.—From what I know of people here (I am only here temporarily) I judge that free trade is winning. A retired New York banker who always voted the republican ticket tells me that he is now for Cleveland on account of his free wool message. A railroad conductor whom I meet makes the same change of party, and two railroad contractors think we have already too much protection.
T. A. B. Morris, Buffalo, N. Y.—I attend the meetings of the Cleveland democracy every Monday evening, and can assure you that free trade is on the win; that mere tariff reformers are simply exposing their weakness. I was a single tax man two years before “Progress and Poverty” was published, and was called a crank and a lunatic, and told that I ought to be put in an insane asylum. I got the book almost as soon as it was published, having heard of it through the Irish World. When I first read it I thanked God I had at last discovered a man who thought as I did. Since then I have read it seven times, and have read all Mr. George’s other books.
John Hatton, New York City.—Cleveland will get my vote for the reasons contained on the enrollment blank, and I believe a large majority of the George men of 1887 will vote as I do. I think that single tax men should organize in each congressional district; the enrollment has made this possible.
Rome Adams, Oak Hill, N. Y.—When the foundation of the protective tariff begins to crumble, it will be seen that a revenue tariff is sic and expensive. Our work will then be nearly completed. For this reason I, and I think seventy-five per cent of the George voters of last year, will support Cleveland.
Henry A. Kramer, New York City.—Our work of abolishing an oppressive system of taxation, if it is to be accomplished, must of course be commenced; and since Grover Cleveland has taken the initial step I think he merits our support. I should say a considerable majority of last year’s George voters will support Cleveland. Protectionist statisticians are gradually awakening to the fact that their figures are no longer received as gospel truth, and people are investigating for themselves.
George H. Van Winkle, Hornellsville, N. Y.—I was a Butler man four years ago. This year I shall vote for Cleveland, not because I have suddenly become a democrat, but because the democratic party under Cleveland is becoming democratic, and Jeffersonian principles, which gave it vitality in the past, are again being invoked. The democrats will have to give as good reasons for making an attack on the protective tariff as I do for trying to wholly annihilate it. Two-thirds of our 1887 men are for Cleveland for this reason. Owing to the inactivity of the democratic party in this section protection seems to be on the gain, and when the democratic politician gets cornered by a protectionist on account of his advocacy of a tariff for revenue and incidental protection, he is ever ready to say to us true free traders, “seek him, seek him.” Of course we have no trouble in bringing down our game or compelling him to seek refuge behind the bloody shirt. All this will be changed when the discussion gets really “under weigh.” Free trade talk is leading our way. People are no longer scared by the “horrors of a direct tax,” which would follow the abolition of duties when they are shown that there is one direct tax that would be less felt by real producers than the present indirect taxes.
George J. Ball, Olean, N. Y.—I know of but one of our last year’s George men who will vote for Harrison. Free trade is growing rapidly. In discussing the tariff, men who a few weeks ago disclaimed any intention of interfering with protection, are now boldly proclaiming the system to be a robbery. In the heat of argument they are often led to make statements which, whether they know it or not, are good single tax doctrine.
S. B. Binfield, Juniata, Neb.—Inclosed please find my application for enrollment in the army of single tax men. In this township there used to be scarcely a single democrat, now there is a respectable minority.
Arthur Groves, La Due, Mo.—Of the six men whose names I send, three were republicans and two democrats. They are all solid for Cleveland and the single tax.
Wm. Jackson, Middleport, N. Y.—Every man here who voted for George last year will support Cleveland this year.
Silas L. Anderson, Hestonville, Pa.—I send the names of five men who are not ashamed to be called George cranks.
Jeff A. Bailey, Cornwall, Cal.—The three names I inclose are names of men who voted as follows: For Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Weaver, Cleveland (1884), and we propose to vote for Cleveland again on single tax grounds.
W. G. Purnell, Elkton, Md.—I have always been a democrat, but I go into the fight this year with an enthusiasm I never felt before.
W. J. Meany, Brooklyn, N. Y.—Inclosed are three names for the enrollment; two of us voted for Blaine in 1884.
John J. Vogel, Texarkana, Ark.—Inclosed are ten names for enrollment. I have made a few converts here, and now find that democrats are beginning to listen to my arguments.
R. A. Shearer, Kansas City, Mo.—Here are five names for enrollment—three of which are names of men who last presidential campaign voted for Blaine.
F. W. Rockwell, Farmington, Iowa.—Inclosed addresses of nine men who as single tax men will support Cleveland. Five of them were formerly republicans.
Isaac Broome, South Amboy, N. J.—Please enroll me among the single tax Cleveland men. I have always been a free trader, but have not voted for the milk and water democracy since the first Lincoln campaign, and could not conscientiously vote for a tariff
p. 2, col. 5 party. But I will now vote for the new democracy. I am thoroughly single tax.
C. S. H., Syracuse, N. Y.—I inclose seventeen blanks to which I have obtained signatures. Most of the signers have hitherto been republicans. I have interested friends who have more time and large acquaintances in the work of obtaining signatures.
Hubbard C. Packard, Boston, Mass.—In addition to sending you my name and address, I want to explain how I came to be a single tax man. I am an inspector on one of Boston’s public buildings. Since I came to hold the position, on the 21st of last May, a hundred men, mistaking me for the foreman or contractor, have come to me for a job. When the fiftieth man applied I began to ask myself “Why is this?” and I talked with my friends about it. “Oh,” said they, “these men probably drink and in that way have lost their jobs.” But, although I was a prohibitionist, this explanation did not satisfy me. “Rum,” I answered, “would not fill their places; there must have been as many more men who were idle, standing ready to jump into their places. Rum surely did not lose all of them their jobs,” and I was more perplexed than ever, and began to closely study the problem, and I bought THE STANDARD and “Progress and Poverty” and “Protection or Free Trade?” Now I have come to see the cat, claws and all, and an ugly looking animal he is. Four years ago I voted the prohibition ticket because I thought rum was the cause of the social evil, but I have since found a cause behind this cause, and I shall vote for the democratic national ticket as a step toward applying the remedy. I am authorized to send you the accompanying seven names for enrollment.
A. Vinette, Los Angeles, Cal.—I inclose a list of seventy-four single tax men who intend to cast their votes this fall for Cleveland and Thurman. They are all wage workers. I secured this list in two days’ rustling, and did not find a single “George man” who advocated “protection.” Mike De Young’s prophecy at the Chicago convention that Harrison would not carry the Pacific slope is likely to prove true; and Mr. De Young daily eats his dish of crow and wishes he had never, never said it.
W. A. Graves, Hornellsville, N. Y.—Please enroll my name for Cleveland, Thurman and free trade. This is my first vote, and there is nothing like starting right. “Progress and Poverty” and “Protection or Free Trade?” did it.
Edward Killian, Corning, N. Y.—I voted for Blaine in 1884 because I was a protectionist. But I will vote for Cleveland because I am now a single tax free trader, and I think the election of the democratic candidates will be an encouragement for them to go further and give us free trade. I will not vote for Hill on account of his veto of the electoral reform bill.
Charles H. Kohlmon, St. Paul, Minn.—In my boyhood I was an sic, and from that time I voted with the republican party, until a few years past. Since then I have voted with the greenback, labor and other third parties. This time will be the first time I ever voted the democratic ticket, and I do this simply because I believe the logic of events will compel that party to go to far greater lengths in the pathway of freedom than its leaders at present anticipate. I am first, last and all the time for free soil—the abolition of private property in land. Local politics here in Minnesota are somewhat mixed, but the republican and farm and labor parties declare for the Australian system of voting.
J. L. Babcook, Erie, Pa.—I send three signatures with this and will send some more in the near future. My first affiliation was with the republican party, then with the greenbackers, and I still hold to the latter’s monetary principles. I voted for Butler in 1884, but I will certainly vote for Cleveland this year because I believe thoroughly in the principles advocated by Henry George.
W. J. Boreman, Parkersburg, W. Va.—Here is a list of eleven names, the third list from here. There are lots of such men around through this country. Cleveland started them thinking; and getting hold of tracts, STANDARDS, and other literature, they are naturally following the trail into the single tax camp.
Arthur T. Brock, Haverhill, Mass.—Inclosed please find the names of eight single tax Cleveland voters. I could undoubtedly have obtained a larger number but for ill health. The gospel is spreading.
Henry M. Fair, Breckenridge, Col.—I did not vote in 1884. This year I will support Mr. Cleveland purely from a single tax standpoint. Long before “Progress and Poverty” was published I saw the injustice of private ownership in land. I learned this grand truth through the Irish World, and although I am still a reader of it, it cannot convince me that English tory landlord protection will settle the labor question. It must be clear to all who can think that many of the “labor troubles” have sprung up under our present tariff laws.
Frank H. Ringemann, Cincinnati, O.—Inclosed find a list of men to be enrolled as most earnest single tax Cleveland and Thurman apostles. Several of them cast their votes for Blaine in 1884, but are now, and until the end, ready to aid our cause. Good work can be done here. The mortar is moist, and it needs but the touch of the spear of the single tax to bring down the wall.
Julius W. Juzwik, New York City.—I am a waiter working for a small salary, and protected against goods which I need for myself and my family. I am doing what I can among my Polish friends, whom I find easier to approach and convert than my English speaking acquaintances. Next week we will open a Cleveland and Thurman tariff reform club, where Polish-Americans will be shown the cat.
William H. Adkinson, Seneca Falls, N. Y.—The seven men whose names I send for enrollment all voted for George in ’87, and are solid for Cleveland this year.
John McAuliffe, Unionville, Conn.—THE STANDARD is not on sale here, and as I could not get together enough money to subscribe I went without it for some time. You can imagine my joy, however, when, on going into the democratic club room which was opened a short time ago, I saw on the table a dozen copies of the last issue. Inside of half an hour they were all gone. I secured one and read every word of it. The local democrats are meeting the issue squarely. Both parties in this state have declared for electoral reform—the Australian system. So we have no fear on that score. Free trade sentiment is growing here.
John J. Faulkner, Brooklyn, N. Y.—The list I send contains the names of some who have voted the republican ticket many years. They are with us now.
E. Ericson, Des Moines, Iowa.—Add me to your list of single tax voters. I am an emigrant, to whom T. V. Powderly says the nation owes no gratitude, but I owe gratitude to the nation for the liberty of using the ballot, and I will vote for Cleveland and Thurman.
Francis E. Cottier, Cleveland, O.—With this I send fourteen names for enlistment. There are two single tax clubs here, and the movement is growing. Petitions to the Ohio legislature are in circulation. They are similar to those in the other states. Nearly all those who believe in the George doctrine will vote for Cleveland this fall without regard to former politics.
p. 2, col. 6
THE BEATING OF THE DRUMS.
Protection versus free trade is the cause on trial, with the voters of the United States the jurymen.—[Syracuse Herald.
The tariff question is the question and it has come to stay till settled. There’s no dodging and no half way business about it.—[Cedar County, Neb., sic.
No more effective wage increasing movement was ever begun than that in behalf of lower tariff taxes, which means higher wages.—[New York Times.
“We have entered upon no crusade of free trade,” says Mr. Cleveland in his letter of acceptance. A crusade against protection is nothing but a crusade of free trade.—[Pittsburg Commercial Gazette.
The stupid lie that “there is no surplus” deceives nobody, not even him who repeats it. There is a most dangerous surplus, and it has already begun its corrupting work in the extravagance of expenditures.—[Indianapolis News.
Tariff oppression now manifests so glaringly, such injustice, so at variance with the spirit of our American institutions, that the masses of our people are not necessarily called upon to reason against it. Their instincts are prompting them.—[Pearsall, Tex., Sun.
The total labor cost in a ton of American steel rails is about $5.50. The tariff bonus is $17. But the manufacturers claim that any reduction of that bonus must be taken from the wages of the laborer rather than from the profits of capital.—[Chicago Herald.
The tariff is a tax. The republicans affect to be tired of hearing that, but before the ides of November come they will be more tired of hearing it. The tariff is a tax. It takes money out of the poor man’s pocket which ought to be left there.—[Ann Arbor, Mich., Argus.
Ben Harrison used to call the greenbacks “Mr. Pendleton’s vagabond currency,” and he wanted an idiot asylum built for the greenbackers. Most of the old greenbackers have managed to keep out of the asylum and will go to the polls in November and vote against Ben Harrison.—[Indianapolis Sentinel.
The tariff question is here. It is has sic for settlement. Tariff reduction must come, and as the people become more and more acquainted with the robber tax they will reduce and reduce till the people have the privilege of buying and selling where they can do the best.—[Cedar County, Neb., Nonpareil.
The statistician of the Knights of Labor at Detroit reports that out of forty assemblies recently visited, seven-tenths of the members favor the Mills tariff reform bill, while the other three-tenths go farther and advocate a still greater reduction of the tariff than is proposed.—[Magnolia, Miss., Gazette.
Unrestricted reciprocity is the medicine recommended by the best physicians to cure international fever and prevent a return of the disease. The tories, at the very moment when the fever seems likely to become peculiarly severe, invite Canada to abandon all thought of taking the medicine.—[Toronto Globe (liberal).
In all the history of past and present superstitions nothing equals the insane idea that a protective tariff is a blessing to the man robbed by it. Future historians will refer to this superstitious delusion as the most incredible and marvelous instance of national insanity in all the world’s records.—[Council Grove, Kan., Anti-Monopolist.
The result of the Maine election shows that the tariff issue does not keep democrats from voting the democratic ticket. The party never polled so many votes in Maine before. If the democrats in the other states shall follow the example set them by the democrats of Maine, the election of Cleveland and Thurman will be assured.—[Philadelphia Record.
sic Mr. Z. L. White’s statements in the Philadelphia Press that 150,000 laborers are interested in preventing any serious cut in sugar duties, we believe the people at large would welcome any legislative action that would cripple the combination which is advancing the price of sugar as fast as it sees fit.—[Boston Transcript (Ind.)
The people are aroused upon the tariff question as they never were before. They do not mean to stop till something be accomplished toward ridding the poor of the crushing weight of taxation upon everything they consume, and toward freeing production and exchange from the unneeded restrictions which now hinder their development.—[Boston Globe.
It is easy enough to understand why the owners of such factories, mills and mines whose products are increased in prices to the extent of the tariff duties, should be in favor of the highest possible tariff; but it is most difficult to understand why the people, the purchasers of these products at the increased price, should be willing to tolerate protection for a moment.—[Salt Lake Herald.
This is not a campaign of generalities and party flummery. The business of the democratic speakers is to explain to the people that the war tariff is a fraud, which fleeces the public at large for the benefit of a few monopolists, and that the arguments by which it is sought to justify it are misleading and disingenuous.—[San Francisco Examiner.
We believe that the land value system of taxation can be best accomplished by the abolition of tariff taxes, and indorse the position of President Cleveland in his message to congress Dec. 6, 1887, as being a step in the direction of tariff abolition and ultimate free trade. By the term “free trade” we mean not only freedom in exchanging products but freedom in production.—[Dayton, O., Workman.
Remarkable as it is, there are to be found workingmen, and friends of workingmen, who have never been benefited a cent from the tariff, but who have paid out many dollars every year in protection tax, arguing against tariff reform on the ground that protection is needed for the poor man. The truth is, as they will find by carefully investigating, that protection for them means tariff reform.—[Norfolk, Va., Landmark.
“Free trade” as a popular bugaboo has lost its power to frighten. Frank Hurd came to Cleveland unheralded by usual methods and filled Music hall with a crowd eager to hear the eloquent advocate of that side of the national topic. The enthusiasm shown in the three rousing cheers at the close of his address shows in a striking manner how much and how fast the people have been thinking on questions which a few years ago only a handful could have been drawn to hear discussed.—[Cleveland, O., Union.
Competent authorities declare, and Master Workman Powderly bears out the statement, that there are more than a million of able-bodied men in the United States in a condition of enforced idleness, caused by the extreme depression in business affairs. How does this happen in a high protection country like the United States, where the protectionists assert that the high tariff protects the workingmen? Republicans cannot charge this state of affairs to free trade, but the cause lies at the door of high protection, as protecting the “home market” has reduced the workingman’s opportunity to get work.—[Lynn, Mass., Bee.
If we could put faith in the persistent asseverations of our war tariff advocates, wages in the United States ought of late years only to be higher than in any other country, whereas the truth is that wages in the United States have always been higher than in Europe. Over a century ago Adam Smith took note of the fact that wages were enormously higher in the British North American colonies than in the mother country. Yet he insisted that what protectionists now claim—that profits of manufacturers and high wages are correlative—is fallacious, being seldom, if ever, the case.—[Chicago News.
Page 3 of 8contents
THE STANDARD, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888.
p. 3, col. 1
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
Henry D. Lloyd in North American Review[—?]for September.
Four hundred years before the workingman of Nazareth in behalf of the toilers of the world came to deliver his message of love and a sword, a new conscience stirred some obscure heart in Greece to speak for liberty for the laborer.
Plato was dreaming of the elevation of man through impossible republics and preposterous stirpiculture, and had no ear for this new voice. But Aristotle, man of science, knowing that the humblest of opinions may come to be the biggest of facts, puts it on record, though evidently merely as an eccentricity of contemporary thought. “There are some,” he says, “who think that it is only the fashion of despotic government which makes one man a slave and another free, and that the tie must be unjust because it is founded in force.” His was one of the greatest of minds, but it never divined that in this whisper of the new conscience of a few nameless Greeks lay the full diapason of a cry before which would fall many a wall of citadeled oppression, built on sand because founded on force; unjust and therefore unsound. That still small voice rolls around the world, shaking the oppressor out of his seat, whether king, priest, man stealer or monopolist. To the accompaniment of the guns of Fort Sumter and the Wilderness it sang the chorus of union and liberty which Lincoln in 1861 heard sounding forth from the mystic chords of the American heart. Those unknown Greeks were the first abolitionists. Lincoln signed only a chapter of the emancipation which they proclaimed, and that not the last chapter. Ceaseless growth means ceaseless emancipation. The symphony Lincoln heard plays on. One by one the cries of imprisoned and imprisoner blend into the strains of a widening freedom.
It is the fashion of scholars to speak of the Greek intellect, the Roman will, the Hebrew conscience. The Hebrew had a conscience, not because he was a Hebrew, but because he was a man. The same birthright belongs to the Greek and to all of us. It was the voice of conscience, “that prophetic sign of my divine monitor.” which always spoke to Socrates when what he was about to do would be wrong, and by the same revelation God wrote the Ten Commandments on the hearts of men before they were graven on the tables of stone.
Fichte says that the greater the wealth and rank the greater the vice. Seldom does the new conscience, when it seeks a teacher to declare to men that what is is wrong, find him in the dignitaries of the church, the state, the culture, that is. The higher the rank the closer the tie that binds those to what is, but ought not to be. It is the tramp Christ who has not where to lay his head, the peasant Luther, the poor mechanic William Lloyd Garrison, who are free to listen to new truth, and brave and free to speak the words that lead men out of old church and old state and old industry. The new conscience which warns civilizations to do justice to the workingmen has always encountered the opposition of the mighty ones of earth. If this spirit of love and liberty stirred in the heart of any Jews of the old dispensation, their priests, unlike the scientific observer of Athens, let the fact find no record in their scriptures. Aristotle declared that no man could be a workingman and lead a life of virtue. In ancient times learned, pious, patrictic, noble, all agreed that the victor who had the right to kill had the right to command, and that he who was given his life had no right to demand his liberty. Lawyers invented the doctrine that the slave could not buy his freedom, for the money he proffered for it must be his master’s. The early Christian church did not so much disapprove of slavery as of the enslavement of its own members. In the United States religious synods voted that the slavery agitation should be suppressed by laying on the table, unread, all petitions, resolutions and other papers about it, and evangelical alliances forbade young people to dance, but refused to declare it sinful for a bishop to hold slaves. Boston hissed the fanatic who declared that the theater would receive the gospel of anti-slavery truth earlier than the churches. But in two years slaves on the stage in “Uncle Tom” shot their hunters amid loud applause, while the pulpit remained silent or hostile. As for property, its broadcloth mobs attacked meetings of women for proclaiming the new freedom, dragged Garrison through the streets of Boston to hang him for maintaining the right of the black workingman to fuller growth, and its presidents and supreme court judges ran with the bloodhounds to catch the fugitive laborer. The courts then, as now, made many things successful which they can never make respectable.
When the subject of the extension of slavery in the territories was before congress, a southern member arose and told how he loved his black “mammy.” He had been nursed at her breast with her own black baby. “I love that black mammy,” the southern member fervently exclaimed, “and when I go into Nebraska I want to take her with me.” “We do not object,” said Ben Wade, “to your taking your black mammy with you to Nebraska; but we don’t mean to let you flog her or sell her when you get there.” Pro-slavery law and order easily proved that to buy and sell workingmen in the market was constitutional; pious, profitable, based on contract. sic. All that the new conscience could reply was: “Hear the whistling of that lash, that drip of blood, the cries of that mother, the cries of the children; see those empty homes, those human faces twisted out of shape, master’s as well as man’s.
It was ridiculous, was it not, to meet those judges and bishops and millionaires and great editors with this talk about the lash, and blood, and the sacredness of the persons of working men and working women? There was no argument in it, only sentiment. The gravestones of Arlington and Gettysburg prove that sentiment can force a hearing.
There came a day when the black mammy could not be sold or flogged, at home or abroad, when families could not be torn asunder at the auction block, when the great brothel was closed where half a
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million women were flogged to prostitution, or worse still, degraded to believe it honorable, when a professedly Christian nation ceased to deny, by statute, the bible to every sixth man and woman of its population. This was what the new conscience did for the slaves with the help of religion, but against the opposition of the church; with the help of the spirit of justice, but against the opposition of lawyers, judges and legislatures; with the help of the true science of labor, but against the efforts of the economists and capitalists. After all is over, lawyer, priest, professor and money maker find that they were wrong and conscience right, that the theory that treated men and brothers as chattels or goods was illegal, unjust, irreligious, uneconomical, and wealth destroying.
For twenty-three hundred years the argument never reached a higher plane than that attained by the forgotten Greeks, who held that they were unnatural ties which were founded on force. This revolt against ties founded on force finds another echo in the aspirations and ideals of those who are to-day seeking for themselves and others the right to work in secure tenure of employment, to live as long a life as their neighbors live, to live it as freely and to rear healthfully and happily children to live after them.
It was the force of battle that overcame the laborer of the old regime; it is the force of the market that subdues the laborer of to-day. The tie between the laborer and the master is still one of force, although it is not now one of visible chains. You say, “The laborer is free, he consents.” Yes, free as the captive was—to work for what he can get or die. Like him he consents to save his life, or, more accurately, a part of his life. The congressional committee investigating the strike of the Reading railroad’s men asked General Manager Whiting, as reported by the Associated press: “Have you made no effort to supply the places of the striking miners?”
“No, sir.”
“Why?”
“Because we desire and expect our old men to come back.”
“At your own terms?”
“At the old rates, yes.”
“What force do you rely on to bring these men back?”
“Well, sir, their necessities.”
It is not by free will that the workingmen of to-day work ten, twelve or fourteen hours. sic competitive wages, live in poor tenements at high rents, spend their days as mere servants or grooms of machinery, and, sending out their little boys and girls, and their pregnant wives to work, sacrifice almost everything that makes family life for you and me so sweet. They do not submit by consent to live a life not much above half the average length of that of the prosperous. Workingmen the world over are struggling to free themselves by every means of strikes, protest, organization, even to the desperation of physical violence. Singular behavior, is it not, for men who are only doing what they want? They are kept down by force, by the force of competition instead of conquest, by the strategy of the generals of supply and demand. Once it was the force of the warrior, now it is the force of the capitalist. It was their weakness and the strength of others which formerly made the workingmen merchandise, and force still keeps them at the mercy of the markets. But the unresting heart of man is always in revolt against ties founded on force. Yesterday it declared that government is the control of man by man, and that the rights of rulers are drawn from the consent of the governed. To-day it avows that property is the control of man by man. That the rights of the ruled are the source of the rights of the rulers in property as much as in government. That if the common people can be allowed to vote in government, they can be allowed to vote in that other government, property. That if they do not insist upon their right to vote upon all affairs of property, they will lose their right to vote in matters of government. That there is no conscience, new or old, which compels the many to die undeveloped in order that the few may live misdeveloped.
What stirred the warrior’s heart to spare the captive instead of killing him was the first beat of a new conscience. When it grew stronger it said: He is more than a commodity. Grown stronger still, it says to us: His labor is more than a commodity. The central doctrine of the slave power was that the laborer was merely merchandise. The central doctrine of the money power is that labor is merely merchandise. Society supports the latter, as it did the former, with the consolidated array of all its institutions and laws. But both doctrines, and all that is built upon them, are absolutely destructive of the liberties of the laborer not only, but of the liberties of all. The conscience that said the laborer shall not be a commodity, though despised of the builders, is now a corner stone. A new conscience takes its stand before all our institutions, and says to them: Labor shall not be a a commodity, for the labor is the laborer.
Under the theory of merchantable man the employer said: My workmen. Under the labor commodity theory the employer says: My workmen. Neither means my sheep to feed, but my sheep to shear. Congressman Hutton of Missouri says about the Reading strike: “I am tired of reading about strikes. Capital should be at liberty to pay whatever it sees fit for labor, and to employ whom it chooses.” An iron manufacturer lately said: “If you employed on a large scale you would soon find that you ceased to look at your men as men. They are simply so much producing power.”
If the captains of industry can reduce ore to iron only on these terms of reducing men to units of power, the sooner the captains of industry are discharged and their places filled by brothers of industry the better.
Henry Ward Beecher, after the emancipation of slavery, said, amid enthusiastic applause, “We have struck the shackles from the slave, and made him free and a citizen. Now he must take care of himself, and work out his own social and industrial salvation.” “Why?” asked the new conscience. Is he not still your brother?
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Because you have abolished one of the wrongs done him by you, does that give you the right to maintain the other wrongs? Are you not still his neighbor? When you work with him, and divide proceeds into profits and wages, will the God of Plymouth church considerately turn his back, so as not to see whether you love your neighbor as yourself? The remark of the great pulpit orator epitomizes the whole spirit of our civilization toward the laborer.
The ancients bought and sold men: we buy and sell the heart beats only. The new theory that though the workingman is not a thing, his labor is a thing, marks but a slight advance on the old. It means that the labor can be bought and sold regardless of the man behind it; that the buyer, the employer, can take any advantage of the seller, provided he does it under the formulas of supply and demand; that to buy his life of him cheap and sell it dear is all we have to do with the laborer; that the only conscience the buyer needs is to observe the rules of the market; that he can depress or raise prices without moral responsibility for the backs bent or hearts broken by his manipulations; that he can take more than he gives, regardless that the “goods” he gets are the lives of workers who cannot survive if they receive less than they give; that buyer and seller have a right to deal with each other as if they were business animals, instead of business men. The labor is the laborer, because the man has to live twenty-four hours in order to be able to work eight or ten. His heart and head, his thoughts, his wants, his aspirations, all co-operate to produce the so-called commodity which, at the sound of the factory bell, is ready to begin the work of the day. When the man leaves the factory, he but takes the “commodity” away to recuperate his wasted energies for another day. That which he has left within those walls is not a thing. It is himself. “The great fundamental principle of anti-slavery is that man cannot hold property in man,” said Garrison. The doctrine that “labor is a commodity” gives man property in man, and is therefore iniquitous and void. If labor is a commodity, the laborer is a commodity, and chattel slavery still exists, freed only of all its biblical and patriarchal restraints, possessed of powers for abuse more dangerous because indirectly exerted.
If you shall not buy the whole man, you shall not buy or sell part of a man. You shall not count into your purses the ruddy drops, from morn till noon, from noon to dewy eve, and then say, I know not whence they came, nor how. We who “buy” labor, who take all the expenditure of life that labor can part with, and do not return to the laborer that share in the produce of labor which will permit him to repair his vitality, maintain a family, attend to his political duties, save enough for sickness and old age, have enough for such play and rest as will enable him to live to his allotted span, are, in the words of the bible, “man stealers.” In our day and civilization such a man stealer is as bad and wicked as the slaveholder in his. We who take from any business profits or interests on capital while any of our employes are suffering for want of means for full growth as individuals or citizens, are man stealers, and we as man stealers are to-day, as of old, robbing children of their years of joy, men of their prime and mothers of their motherhood. It is no excuse for merchant or manufacturer or mine owner or railroad corporation that the “system” permits, even commands, such wrongs. Mankind and God never separate the sinner and the sin. The sinners will go down with the “system” if they don’t change it. The money power so contracts with the working man, working woman, or working child, that it gets the whole of him or her or it, as Wordsworth says, “health, body, mind and soul”—it gets the whole twenty-four hours of him, her or it—and says, I cannot share with you enough to let you live at the rate of twenty-four hours a day for a natural life. I and my system can find others in the free labor market so wretched that by themselves they cannot live a week. They are willing to give me outright ten hours a day if I will but pay them enough to live at the rate of fourteen hours a day for the few years their bodies can stand it. As you know, our God is a God of competition, supply and demand, “free” contract. You must take the wages the other man will take, or yield to him your “sacred right to work.” This may seem hard to you, but you must admit that it is right, for all our good and brave business men and their college professors will easily prove to you that you are not a man, but merely a seller in the market, and your labor is not your life, only a commodity. When the employer, the nation, the world of employers sit, in comfort, and the employed are massed in the tenements whence comes the bitter cry of the outcast, and where poverty, prostitution, intemperance and premature death are chronic, are they on one side any less the oppressors, are those on the other side any less the victims of force, because the fashionable world says, “Labor is a commodity?” The incantations of political economists cannot cure disease. Conscience cares nothing for the fine phrases of professors, statesmen, lawyers, clergy, employers, for their sic and philosophy of business. It says, “What have you done?” What are the results? Bother your theories and doctrines of rights? Show me the facts, not the formulas! It looks at Chicago and New York, at Cain in his palaces and Abel in the slums, at the profits of one “brother” and the wages of the other. It does not ask what church do you go to on Sunday, nor who were your professors in political economy. No, it only repeats the question asked under similar circumstances some thousands of years ago, What hast thou done? Where is thy brother?
Let us listen while a delegation from the money power remonstrates with the new conscience for its unreasonable sentiments and ideas. Here they come, one by one, and range themselves about. First speaks the merchant prince:
I have a right to buy where I can buy cheapest.
Conscience.—See these little stunted,
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hollow eyed girls coming out of that factory!
Lawyer.—Wages are settled by contract.
Conscience.—Where can I find white haired workingmen?
Capitalist.—Every man has a right to do what he will with his own.
Conscience.—What is the price of a senatorship to-day?
Statistician.—Never were food, fuel, clothing so cheap.
Conscience.—Little Mary Mitchell works in Waterbury’s rope works five days a week, from six in the evening till six in the morning.
Railroad King.—Every man makes his own career. I was a workingman myself twenty years ago, and now I keep a carriage, a butler, and several judges and legislators “in four states,” and—
Conscience.—That tired looking man is a railway conductor of a company owned by half a dozen men worth $300,000,000, which is not enough for them, so they squeeze a few more dollars a month out of him by making him on every alternate trip do twenty-eight and a half hours’ continuous work without sleep.
Banker.—Our wealth is increasing one billion dollars a year. We have boards of trade, the best railroads in the world, packing houses that can kill ten thousand hogs.
Conscience.—The sickening stench, the blistered air, the foul sights of the tenements, and the motherhood and the childhood choking there!
Conservative.—This is the best government in the world. America is good enough for me.
Conscience.—Listen to that “tramp, tramp, tramp” of a million men out of work.
Philanthropist.—The church is renewing its youth. We give millions of dollars for hospitals and foreign work and domestic missions to carry the gospel to the poor of all nations.
Conscience.—I hear a voice in the abbey that cries: We do not want charity; give us work.
Manufacturer.—Without this system of industry the subjugation of North America to civilization would have been impossible—we could never have shown the world the magnificent spectacle of—
Conscience.—There is a little boy standing ten hours a day up to his ankles in the water in the coal mine!
Coal Monopolist.—I have a statistician who can prove—he can prove anything—that the workingman is a great deal better off than he ever was, that he makes more than I do, that small incomes are increasing and large ones decreasing and there is no involuntary poverty, and that the workingmen could live on twenty-five cents each a day, and buy up the United States with their savings—and—
Conscience.—How long shall it be cheaper to run over working men and women at the railroad crossings in the cities than to put up gates?
Clergyman.—The poor we are to have with us always.
Conscience.—That sewing woman you see pawning her shawl has lived this winter with her two children in a room without fire. Are you wearing one of the shirts she finished?
Statesman.—The workingman has the ballot and the newspapers. He is a free citizen.
Conscience.—As the nights grow colder see how the number of girls on the streets increases!
Now what can a man of affairs, a business man, a reasonable man, one who understands political economy and the constitution of the United States and all that do with such a disputant as this? The more the pride of America points to its magnificence and boasts of its Declaration of Independence, the more does the new conscience point to the wrongs and sufferings of these miserable men, women and children—and so few of them, too!
All extreme cases, you say? Just so. It was the possibility of its extreme cases that destroyed slavery. The possibility of such extreme cases as these demands the abolition of the system and the philosophy which permits them.
Upon the false theory that men cease to be brothers when they buy and sell, upon the theory that employer and employe are not fellow men, but merely dealers in a non-human market, is built up the false society in which we live. The new industry and finance have put the labor of mankind under the control of the money power, which declares its right to deal on all sides with men according to the rules of a prize ring called supply and demand. Conscienceless and greedy as the old slave power, its competitive rents give us the slums. Its competitive wages leave women the choice between suicide of body or suicide of soul, and tempt men to find in the stimulant of drink a substitute for the stimulant of food. Professing the gospel of competition, it imports contract labor, breaks up trade unions, employs and disemploys labor in order to buy cheap of men who have no commodity but themselves to sell. But when it turns about as seller, it confronts the buyer with pools, trusts and combinations denying competition. The revolution of the new industry and the concentration of wealth has given the money power unlimited means to buy, and the morals which permit it to buy men as commodities permit it to buy everything, even the things once held too sacred for traffic. The system that denies the manhood of man in the most sacred function of all, sic, must deny it in all the relations based on this foundation. The system which permits the welfare of the laborer to be settled by competition, the law of the market, the false claim of property to do what it will with its own, must allow all welfare to be settled by the same philosophy. If the money power can make life and the means of life mere commodities, it makes it right to buy life as cheap as possible, to sell it as dear as possible. It makes it, when bought, the buyer’s own. Hence the capitalist’s claim of a right to do as he will with his own is the claim of a right to do as he will with human lives. Such a system, and it is exactly ours, has no moral reserves with which to meet the money power when it applies these principles as it is doing to-day in every direction to the moral ruin of society. Just
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this result is being worked out. The money power with its huge fortunes and corporations built up on the right to treat life as a mere commodity, more and more treats everything else as a mere commodity—from the virtue of employes to that of trustees, public and private. It refuses to respond when called to account. It simply asserts its right to buy cheap and sell dear, and to do what it will with its own. Andrew Carnegie, before the sic century club, dismisses the labor agitation by saying in effect, “Since no man in the United States need be a pauper unless by his own deliberate act, there is no labor question.” Must American citizens wait to redress their wrongs until they have been made veritable paupers by the steel rail trust and its confederate price conspiracies? That was not the way of the fathers. The price of tea in the American colonies was cheaper after the imposition of the tax than before. Nothing could be so light as that—a burden of less than nothing. But Justice Dana, in the presence of a great assemblage of the angry townspeople of Boston, standing under the Liberty tree. administered an oath to Mr. Secretary Oliver that he had not distributed and would not distribute the odious stamps.
The people of Boston did not wait until they had been made paupers. “Enslave but one human being,” said Garrison, “and the liberties of the world are put in peril.” Surrender to the money power the right to make but one price, the control of all prices will surely follow. They who control the prices of a nation control the liberties of its markets, and will come to control all its other liberties.
The conservative cries out, “You are going to destroy society.”
Did it destroy society to abolish slavery?
The conservative cries out, “This is a revolution!”
No, it is the remedy.
During the last century has come the realization of the vision of the ancient Greek poet who foresaw a time when “the shuttle would weave and the lyre would play of itself.”
That is the revolution.
Time was when judges sent men to jail for forestalling, cornering the markets. That was in the “dark ages.” Now the money power establishes “trusts” in everything, and our judges tell us that the burden of monopoly is “light.”
That is the revolution.
The new industry has broken up the brotherhoods of the old industry, and has swung the few strongest and cleverest of the workingmen into palaces, and front pews, so far away from their old comrades and fellow workers that, as one of them said: “I have no time to remember their faces, much less their names.”
That is the revolution.
It is the revolution that has capped the new industry with the high finance, and tied up the people in the paper chains of charters, contracts and stock exchange securities. “The time is coming,” said the earl of Derby not long ago, “when the people of Europe will repudiate their national debts,” which now take eight hundred sic dollars a year from them.”
That is the revolution. And the gospel of the revolution is the doctrine that you can do anything with your fellow man provided you do it in the market.
The remedy is in the new conscience, which says simply that a man shall never be so much of a buyer or seller as to cease to be a brother, and that labor shall not be made a market thing.
Before us is the practical question, What is the next step? The next step, like the first step, is more liberty for the laborer. His emancipation still invokes sic. Conscience has freed him from frightful abuses, but frightful abuses remain. His growth is not yet full and free. A gospel of hatred is rising in classes and masses which hates employers, hates employes, hates household service, hates household servants, hates foreigners, hates pools, hates trades unions, hates the grangers, hates reformers, hates politics. All these are symptoms of a high fever. But a new mankind has been conceived and will be born—a winged beauty out of the earth-measuring worm—which will not know force, and fraud, and hatred, and will let love, their natural tie, bind men and nations together.
Churches come and go, but there has ever been but one religion. The only religion has been that which clears off one by one from the face of man the earth stains that hide the god imprisoned in the flesh, which breaks down one by one every barrier which incarnation has put in the way of the growth of the god within in the likeness of the god without. In the sight of the new conscience wherever man walks, there is the holy land, and it raises the cross of the new crusade which shall deliver it from the infidels who deny the divine right of the people that the will of God shall be done on earth as in heaven. It insists that every question between men is a religious question, a question of moral economy before it becomes one of political economy, and will make all political, industrial, and social activities functions of a new church—a church of the deed as well as of the creed—a church that will not only preach Christ but do Christ—a church where science, the revelation of what has been, will never be at war with religion, the revelation of what ought to be—a church which will make its worshipers share this world as well as the next world—a church which will recognize no vested right of property in man except the right to love and be loved—a church which will declare that the difference in the death rate between the classes and the masses is evidence of murder done for money—a church which will look upon idleness by the side of industry, wealth by the side of poverty, luxury by the side of want, health by the side of disease, as impious and profane in the highest degree, the real sins of the Holy Ghost—a church which will stop the manufacture of poorhouses, because it will stop the manufacture of poverty—a church which will not let any man offer charity to those to whom he refuses justice—a church which will not help the poor, but will set them to helping themselves, and will slay the infidel in the path—a church which will abolish all middlemen in morals, and will make every man doubly guilty who
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grinds the face of his fellow by an agent, guilty for himself and guilty for the agent—a church that will offer not even the lowliest member of the communion of mankind crumbs from the table, but a seat at the table, and a full meal three times a day every day—a church that will consider it more practical to keep its buildings open and its congregation at work in relays night and day than to let “brothers” starve and freeze or go astray for want of sympathy or advice—a church which will persecute the heretics who give the highest bidder the best pews in the churches and the best chance in the courts—a church which will teach that the life eternal is the life we are living now—a church which will not let the poor give up all of this world on the unsecured promise of the rich to divide the next world—a church that will judge civilization not by the six million dollar cathedral on Murray hill, but by the children in the back alleys—a church that will “dine with the poor and preach to the rich,” until there are no more poor—a church which says that those who are to be brothers hereafter must be brothers here—a church that will know what its members believe only by what they do—a church which recognizes nothing as love which does not bear justice as the fruit—a church of law and order, but the law is for the rich as well as for the poor, and the order is to be peaceful growth for the least of these little ones—a church which will prevent the anarchy from below by punishing the anarchy from above—a church which will deny the right of infanticide to the employer, now denied by society only to the parents—a church which declares the sacred right to work to mean that he who works a full day shall live a full day, and that employment is a right, not a charity—a church which will restore reverence to men by giving them leaders in church, state and business worthy of reverence—a church which will make every social wrong a moral wrong, and every moral wrong a legal wrong—a church which will teach men to turn the other cheek when they can do it as free men, not as slaves—a church which will deliver with the message of peace, the message of a scourge for the money changers in the temple—a church which will tell the merchant prince that between him and his ruined competitors, and between him and his employes, there is a moral question greater than the question of markets—a church which will abolish the merchant prince and the factory corporation sooner than let them abolish the childhood of children—a church which will not let the employers profess on the Fourth of July that all men are born equal, and then fatten the rest of the year on the advantages of organization which they deny to the employe—a church in which God will be natural and men supernatural—a church which will abolish charity and philanthropy, for these cannot be between brothers, and need not be where justice is—a church in which no man will have a right to do with his own what he will, but only a right to do what is right—a church which will take the weak and despised out of the earthly Inferno of dirt and want and ignorance to which they have been condemned by the oppressor—a church which will keep a hell hot in this world to punish the oppressors here for every blow they strike at God through his image, man—a church which will tell the sinner that repentance fit for heaven only begins by restitution and reparation on earth—a church which will teach that brothers must share both the mess of pottage and the birthright—a church which will worship God through all his sons made in his image, through a mediator, Mankind, which, having suffered all and sinned all, can sympathize with all, and will carry all the weak and weary ones safe in its bosom—a church which will realize the vision of Carlyle of a Human Catholic Church.
STRAWS WHICH SHOW THE WIND.
A single tax on the value of land appeals to the common sense and sound judgment of all who study the matter.—[Detroit, Mich., Onward.
The rate of wages depends on many factors, of which the most important are these: Intelligence, freedom and land.—[Rockville, Ind., Tribune.
Referring to the vetoed electoral reform bill, the Buffalo Courier, democratic, says: Legislation of this character is demanded by public sentiment. It is advocated by democrats, republicans and representatives of labor organizations.
Absolute free trade—the abolition of the tariff and of all taxes on personal property and improvements on land, and the increased value of land by reason of labor done on it, provides the only remedy for the industrial slavery foisted upon us by our iniquitous and illogical system of taxation.—[Pearsall, Tex., Sun.
Land, labor and capital are the three factors in production. The higher the price of land is the lower the returns of labor and capital will be. The rent paid for the use of the natural resources, upon which all human industry depends, determines the amount that is paid as wages to labor, or interest to capital.—[Grand Rapids, Mich., Workman.
The present land system of this country is vicious and unjust to a great degree. The legal right to purchase and hold out of cultivation and from occupancy any amount of land any man or corporation can command the means to do, is exceedingly detrimental to the welfare of the country. The tendency is to abnormally raise the value of land against the poorer classes and to prevent close and neighborly sic.—[Portsmouth, O., Leader.
Andrew Fyfe says in the editorial columns of the sic, Mich., Workman: Henry George and others outside the Knights of Labor are the leaders in the labor movement of to-day. The Knights of Labor are dying of conservatism and cowardice in handling the economic questions as they are forced before the people. Powderly is either satisfied to be an officeholder or unable to grapple with the fundamental principles of social or political science.
There would be fewer tramps roaming the country, a menace to the liberties of the people and the rights of property, were the monopolists that virtually control the country through the opportunities given them by a contracted market for labor’s products, and therefore by a contracted market for labor, swept away by the abrogation of oppressive tariff taxes. Not that the mild measures proposed by Mr. Cleveland will solve the labor question. That is too much to expect. But it will be a step in this direction by simplifying the problem through the removal of one of the factors that adds to its intricacy and mistiness.—[Detroit Evening News.
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4 THE STANDARD, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888.
p. 4, col. 1
THE STANDARD.
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888.
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THE STANDARD advocates the abolition of all taxes upon industry and the products of industry, and the taking, by taxation upon land values irrespective of improvements, of the annual rental value of all those various forms of natural opportunities embraced under the general term, Land.
We hold that to tax labor or its products is to discourage industry.
We hold that to tax land values to their full amount will render it impossible for any man to exact from others a price for the privilege of using those bounties of nature in which all living men have an equal right of use; that it will compel every individual controlling natural opportunities to either utilize them by the employment of labor, or abandon them to others; that it will thus provide opportunities of work for all men and secure to each the full reward of his labor; and that as a result involuntary poverty will be abolished, and the greed, intemperance and vice that spring from poverty and the dread of poverty will be swept away.
A COBDEN CLUBBITE IN DISGUISE.
Mr. George Douglass is an Englishman who has undertaken to instruct the American people how to manage their own affairs. We cannot assert positively that he is an emissary of the Cobden club sent over here to assist his fellow Englishman, Mr. Robert P. Porter of the Press, in the [work?] of making the stupidity of protectionism more patent by defending it. But it really looks that way. Else why, when Mr. Douglass makes a particularly ridiculous speech, does Mr. Porter quote it approvingly, as who should say: “Look at that, now.”
Mr. Douglass made a speech in Bridgeport, Conn., the other day, which he prefaced by reading an extract from the Newcastle (England, not Delaware) Chronicle, telling how a family of nine persons were obliged to live on twenty-five shillings a week. It seems this family’s weekly expense bill was as follows:
| £ s. d. | £ s. d. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent | 0 4 6 | Milk | 0 0 7 |
| Meat and bacon | 0 4 0 | Flour | 0 3 4 |
| Vegetables | 0 1 0 | Clothes ticket | 0 2 6 |
| Butter | 0 1 4 | Boots ticket | 0 1 0 |
| Groceries | 0 3 6 | School | 0 1 0 |
| Cheese | 0 0 9 | Sundries | 0 1 6 |
| Total | £1 5 0 |
Mr. Douglass did not then go on to tell his hearers that under our blessed system of protection there are in Pennsylvania any number of miners’ families (generally less than nine persons) who would jump out of their skins with joy if they could be certain every week of rent, meat and bacon, vegetables, butter, groceries, cheese, milk, flour, clothes, boots, school and sundries. This may have been because he has not been long enough in this country to find out how a great many American working people actually live. Or it may have been because he thought he could do the free trade cause better service by making a pretended protectionist argument, and leaving his hearers to detect its absurdities for themselves.
Anyhow he adopted the latter course. Taking this twenty-five shilling a week family as a text, he went on to show how much better off they would be if only the bacon that they now get for four shillings were made to cost them six shillings, and the price of their week’s supply of vegetables, butter, cheese, milk and flour, raised from seven shillings and six pence to, say a round sovereign. Because the vegetables and other things can be produced in England; and would be produced in England, were it not that foreign competition keeps the prices so low that the farmers and market gardeners can’t afford to rent land to raise them on. Under the free trade system the only way out of the difficulty is for the landlords to lower their rents, which of course it would be absurd to expect. But under a protective system the foreign meat, and bacon, and vegetables, and butter, and groceries, and cheese, and milk, and flour, would be effectually shut out, and then the prices would go up, and the farmers and gardeners would go to work, and the landlords would get their rents, and the Newcastle family of nine persons would—that is, they would—in fact——
Well, now, when you come to think of it, what would that Newcastle family do? They couldn’t earn any more wages, that’s certain. Because, when England stops buying food from the United States, and France, and Germany, and Denmark, and Australia, and India, and Chili, she’ll have to stop sending manufactured things to those countries unless she is willing to keep on sending them for nothing. Less manufacturing, less iron and coal.
p. 4, col. 2 Less coal, less work for the people of Newcastle. The unfortunate family would earn considerably less than twenty-five shillings a week, while their food would cost considerably more. What could they do save to retire to the poorhouse and curse the whole protectionist system? Observe Mr. Douglass’s high art. Pretending to advocate something that he knows is absurd, he just tells his hearers enough about it to start them on a certain line of thought which, when they have followed a little way—bang! bump! behold a brick wall square across the path, and the whole protectionist argument knocked into smithereens.
But Mr. Douglass’s artfulness went even farther than we have indicated. He didn’t talk about the twenty-five-shilling-a-week Newcastle family directly—doubtless because he feared it would make his connection with the Cobden club too obvious. He vailed them with an allegory. He took a piece of tin plate, cunningly provided for the purpose, and pretended to be talking about that, though, of course, it was plain he had the Newcastle family in his mind the whole time.
“See this tin plate,” said Mr. Douglass. “It came from England. She sent it over here with a lot more tin plates and other things, to pay for meat, and bacon, and butter, and cheese, and flour, for that family in Newcastle. Last year England sent over here 6,500,000 boxes of these tin plates, for which you gave her $28,133,333 worth of bacon, flour, cheese, etc. She would have sent a lot more, but you couldn’t afford to buy them, because before you could get the tin plates she did send you, you had to pay a fine to the government of $6,532,500 and a profit of twenty-five per cent to the dealers who advanced the money to pay the fine, making a total of $8,165,625—which was the same to you as throwing every fourth box of tin plate into the sea. And now the wicked Mills bill is proposing that you shall get your tin plates next year without paying that $8,000,000; and what a dreadful thing that will be. How are you ever going to afford to build your houses if you get as much tin plate roofing for $3 as you used to get for $4? How can you ever eat canned tomatoes if the tins cost less than they do now? How, my friends,”—Mr. Douglass was very impressive here—“how can you ever look your wives in the face and tell them that your votes have aided to bring down the price of tin dippers and sauce pans? What will your children do when alphabet plates can be bought for one cent instead of two?” (Sensation, and a voice, “Put the other cent in a tin savings bank!”)
“But this isn’t all,” said Mr. Douglass, pursuing his allegory, and picking up his tin plate again. “This plate is made of iron, coated with tin. Now you can produce iron in this country. You do produce it. And you would produce a great deal more if the men who produce it could afford to pay the men who own the iron land for the privilege. You could produce tin, too. You haven’t done it yet, but I’m sure you could. There are spots in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania that look quite tinny. I’m sure you could produce it if you could only make it worth the landlords’ while to let you.
“Suppose, now, that instead of abolishing the duty on tin plate, you increase it from one cent a pound to a cent and a half. That would make the annual tax you pay for the privilege of using it $9,750,000, or with the twenty-five per cent added, $12,187,500—just the same as throwing away forty-two boxes out of every hundred.” (A voice: “We couldn’t afford to use it at all. There wouldn’t be a box brought over.”)
“Exactly. There would not be any brought over. And what a blessing that would be! Because then the price of iron plates would go up, and the miners would dig more iron and the men who own the iron mines would get more money. Perhaps, if the tinny looking places I have spoken of turned out to be very tinny, you might produce some tin and make tin plates for yourselves; and what a thing that would be for the men who own the tinny places. Why, it has been calculated that if you used American sheet iron instead of foreign tin plates, the bosses would be able to employ 24,000 more men in their mines and sheet iron factories. Twenty-four thousand men! Just think of it! Why, they could get them all from Hungary and Italy in less than a month, and get them cheap enough to leave lots of profit for the men who own the iron mines and tinny places. And if the men who hire the miners and own the sheet iron mills shouldn’t happen to make money enough, all they’ll have to do will be to form one of those strictly private affairs called trusts, and that’ll make things all right for them.” (A voice: “And what good will that do us?”)
“What good will that do you? That, my friends, is something you must figure out for yourselves. You don’t own any iron mines, or any tinny looking places, or any sheet iron mills. You’ll have to pay more for your roofing—or your landlord will, it’s all the same, you’ll pay it in the rent—more for your canned tomatoes, more for your tinware, more for your sheet iron stoves. You won’t get as much wages as you do now, for the farmers, who buy the sewing machines, and wagons, and harness that you make, will naturally sell less grain, and bacon, and butter, and cheese to England, when the things that England has, to pay for these things in, could not be brought into this country. In fact, from the point of view of your purely material interest, the duty on tin plates is a bad thing for you, and would be a worse thing if it were increased. But just think of the encouragement you’d be giving to British agriculture? Don’t you see that if
p. 4, col. 3 you refuse to let the Englishmen buy bacon and wheat from American farmers you force them to make bacon and wheat for themselves? And as they can’t make bacon and wheat without hiring land to do it on, your duty on tin plates really helps the English landlord to get his rents. Isn’t that glory enough for you? And then, of course, that Newcastle family will go the poor sic, and——”
But at this point the audience became disorderly. Cries of “English impudencc!” “British landlords!” “We don’t want any more poor houses here!” “Send him home!” etc., were heard from various parts of the hall. Mr. Douglass saw that his work was accomplished. To use a vulgarism, the audience had “tumbled.” The disguised Cobdenite sat down with a smile of satisfaction, the chairman made a few totally inaudible remarks, and the meeting dissolved. It was a great night for Bridgeport.
Since writing the above we have examined a copy of the Press of Sept. 14, and find we have somewhat paraphrased Mr. Douglass’s remarks. He didn’t say what we have imputed to him. But what he did say amounted to just the same thing. If he is an Englishman, he couldn’t help it, any more than Mr. Porter. And they are both, in their peculiar foreign way, doing efficient work for American freedom.
A LEADER WHO DECLINES TO LEAD.
Mr. Terence V. Powderly, the general master workman of the Knights of Labor, issues, in his paper of last week, what he terms “A Ringing Address to Our Members,” in which he tells his brother knights how they ought to act in the present political and social crisis.
The duty of the knights just now, it seems, is to be STEADY ALONG THE LINE. Mr. Powderly says this, and prints it in capital letters, and it really has a grand, impressive sound, like Wellington’s “Up, guards, and at them!” or Old Hickory’s “Forward, and give ’em hell!” It is only when the individual knight tries to find the line along which he is to stand steady, that there dawns upon his mind a sense that the grand master workman’s sounding order is all sound. It doesn’t mean anything. And worst of all, it isn’t intended to mean anything.
A burning issue is before the country of which the Knights of Labor are citizens—an issue which concerns every individual knight, and in which the order as an organized body, has the keenest possible interest. In public halls, in newspaper columns, in rushing trains, in stores and shops, wherever men can get a chance to address their fellow men, a fierce debate is going on as to what line of national policy will secure to those who work the highest rate of wages. It is not merely a speculative debate; it is one that will have a practical result. On the sixth of November—only a few short weeks hence—the debaters will vote their opinions and decide whether the policy of protection shall be fastened upon the country for an unknown period, or the way be opened to free trade. Now, if ever, the head of the great order whose constant object is to secure better wages for workers ought to speak with no uncertain voice. But this is what he says:
My views on the tariff and its opposite—free trade, as well as on that which is so often confounded with both—protection—cannot be expressed in a single sentence, in a single speech or article, and I shall carefully prepare these views for publication in a work which I intend to issue in the near future. Whether it will be published before the campaign ends or not makes but little difference, for it is not likely that either party will adopt my views on protection.
Isn’t that a pretty utterance from a man called and chosen to be the leader and adviser of half a million working men? “Stand steady along the line! I can’t exactly say which way you ought to face, nor advise that the line should move in any particular direction. But stand steady! and by and by, when the battle has been lost and won, I’ll tell you what I think would have been wisest for you to do.”
Mr. Powderly has had a great opportunity, but he has thrown it away. He might have been a leader; he has preferred to be——a master workman.
A STATESMAN WHO HAS BEEN EATING SOMETHING.
The lotos plant must flourish in Great Britain. It will be remembered that when Ulysses’ followers ate of this vegetable, they lost the run of things in Ithaca and took no further interest in home affairs. Something of the same kind seems to happen to American statesmen when they go to sojourn for a time among the swan-like aristocracy of England. The symptoms are not quite so aggravated as in the case of the Grecian mariners, for the visiting statesmen retain recollection enough to come home, which may be due to some fault in the English system of lotos culture. But the statesmen certainly get here in an awfully mixed and bewildered condition, showing that they must have eaten something. The sad case of the “nobleman from Maine” is familiar to all. The horrible mess he made in his remarks on the trust question sent a shiver of dismay through the protectionist ranks, and from all quarters the anxious cry went up, like a faint echo of the Mulligan days: “What have they been giving him?”
And now our own Chauncey, beloved of the good Shepard, has come back, and he too has been eating something to make him forget. He was all right at first. He knew what he ought to say, and said it like a man. He spun his little yarns about the jubilations of the English papers over the prospect of democratic success, and the artful manner in which they were choking back and
p. 4, col. 4 concealing their joy, lest we should get to hear of it. He said that the United States was the best place in the world to live in, and that if all the anarchists and communists and dissatisfied elements generally could only go to Europe as he had done, and have the same good time that he had been having, they would conclude, with him, that it would be unwise to make any rash changes in the tariff or anything else. All this was perfectly delightful, and the reception committee cheered themselves hoarse, while the Mail and Express reporter pounded his bible till the leaves were loosened and the texts commenced to tumble out. Then the Sam Sloan landed and Mr. Depew got his trunks-full of pauper industry through the custom house, and went home to sleep the sleep of one who has said his lesson perfectly.
But the next day, when the committee had left him and the reporters began their pryings, the deadly lotos got in its work. Mr. Depew could remember his lesson as a whole, but not by sections. He could begin at the beginning and say it all off straight to the end, but a sudden question from the middle was too much for him. So, when a reporter began by asking him what they were saying in England about our election, he came out with this:
I met an Englishman, a nobleman of high education, who had traveled all around the world, and knew America thoroughly. He favored the election of General Harrison.
This surprised me, as Mr. Harrison is almost unknown in England. I asked the reason for his preference. He said that such a measure of tariff reduction as is proposed by the democratic party would be the severest blow ever struck at English manufacturing and commercial supremacy.
He said that he was convinced from what he had seen himself, and from what he had been told by eminent English manufacturers, that the American people, with free raw material and their marvelous faculty for adapting machinery to the most complicated and delicate manufactures, would soon control the markets of the world.
Under the present system the English manufacturer has it all his own way, and he anticipates with dread the day when he will have to meet his American cousins on equal terms in the markets of the world.
Now wasn’t that a pretty thing to say? To tell the Americans that the nobility of England want to see Mr. Harrison elected, though they don’t know anything about him (that was an unkind cut about being almost unknown), simply because the triumph of protectionist principles here will be a good thing for Englishmen. Of course it’s true, but that is no excuse. If Mr. Depew is going to begin to tell things because they’re true, he’ll break up the whole protectionist party.
The next protectionist committee that goes down the bay to welcome a returning statesman had better take a bottle of aperient medicine along, and try to get the lotos poison out the statesman’s sic before they turn him loose. If Andrew Carnegie comes back before election and is allowed to land in a lotosized condition, there is no telling what may happen.
AN EXPERT ON THE STAND.
Mr. August Lewis, the straw goods manufacturer of this city, whom STANDARD readers have learned to know and esteem, has been telling the Times some inside facts about the relation to the tariff of the industry in which he is engaged. They are not of the kind that the Press is so fond of introducing into its daily “Tariff Talks,” and they don’t altogether square with the turgid preachments of the Tribune. But they are none the less interesting, for all that.
To begin with, Mr. Lewis tells us that the straw braid used in hat manufacture is altogether of foreign make. He says:
It is not possible that any can ever be made here. It was tried at Mackinaw, on the Canada line, several years ago, but we cannot raise the right kind of straw, and the industry has been so long developed and is conducted so cheaply in China, Japan, Italy and Switzerland that it would not be desirable to try to make it here if we could raise the straw.
Yet straw braid pays a duty of twenty per cent. And when, while the Mills bill was under advisement, manufacturers were asked if the duty could not be dispensed with, they replied “that straw braid was now cheap enough, and that the duty might as well remain.” Wasn’t that an astonishing thing for them to say? Remember, they were neither newspaper editors nor college professors, but shrewd business men, caring not a straw for theories, but intent only on making as much money as possible. Yet, when they were asked if they wouldn’t like to have twenty per cent taken off the cost of the raw material of their manufacture they said, “No, thank you!” It’s a puzzle to outsiders. But it isn’t any puzzle to Mr. Lewis, who is in the business:
The reason the manufacturers object to the removal of the duty is because they think that perhaps the business would become more widely inviting than now if materials were cheaper. A duty fosters monopoly. They claim, of course, about election time that they have at heart the interests of wage earners. It was not long ago, however, that the leading manufacturers tried to organize a movement to restrict production by shortening the working season. That is protection consistency.
And then Mr. Lewis goes on to show how this duty on straw braid limits employment, not only by fostering monopoly, but also by shutting the manufacturers out from markets that they might otherwise control:
The Canadians go to England for their early purchases of straw hats, but as the season advances they come here and buy largely of us, in spite of our twenty per cent duty on the braid and a further duty of twenty per cent imposed at the Canada line. We could monopolize the trade of Canada if we had no duty to pay, and thus supply millions of people more than we now supply. No dealer is going to cross the ocean for any of his goods if he can get them on anything like as good terms within a night’s ride from Mon
p. 4, col. 5 > treal or Toronto. Thus there is every reason to believe that our output would increase with free material. This means more work. The season for manufacturing would no longer be only six months. More work and an increased demand, with cheapness for the finer grades, imply better wages. I am firmly convinced that, with duty free, labor would not only be longer employed, but would be better paid.
Now just compare this frank common sense talk of a business man with the fine drawn nonsense of the protection doctrinaires. “Do away with the duty on straw braid!” shriek these gentry. “Good heavens; no. Why, straw braid making is an infant industry—or will be as soon as it gets born. Raise the duty to 100 per cent; clap on a specific duty in addition, if necessary; and then you’ll see! Why, we can set several thousand women and children to work plaiting braid.” Yes; and after the women and children have been dragged from school and home to work in braid factories, the next thing will be a straw braid trust. And then, if any rash man dares to hint that all this is really choking the straw goods manufacture, forcing Americans to wear hats of poorer quality and higher price, and completely shutting our straw goods manufacturers out from foreign markets, he will be asked sarcastically if he wants our women and children to be forced into competition with the pauper labor of China, Japan, Italy and Switzerland? The story of the jute industry will be repeated.
In freedom only is prosperity to be found. And freedom consists in being free. The man who is forbidden by law to choose whether he will make a thing himself, or get somebody else to make it for him, is to that extent deprived of freedom. And he suffers for it, just as surely as would Chauncey M. Depew were he compelled to abstain from post prandial oratory and stay at home to darn his own socks.
THE APOLOGY FOR TRUSTS.
The Sun of Sunday last printed a lengthy interview with a gentleman, who modestly declined to allow his name to appear, but for whom the Sun vouches as being “one of the great manufacturers of the country.” This great manufacturer talked through nearly a column and a half about the blessings of the protective system, and the wonderful things the tariff has done for the poor laboring man whom the great manufacturers so love and cherish. And then—perhaps in a moment of bitter candor—he came out with this singular utterance:
There is one thing that I want to emphasize, and that is, that while this country is rich, and the wage earners have wages that, for purchasing power, are much better than they ever had before, there are not a few manufacturers who have been losing money year after year in the hope that things would take a turn and yield them something. It was continuous losses, not smallness of profits, but actual losses through the fierceness of competition, that compelled the formation of what are called trusts. It came to this: Either the manufacturers must quit business, give up the work and ambitions of a lifetime and turn their workmen adrift to shift for themselves, or they must get together and regulate competition. Only those who have had experience can appreciate the anxiety and worry and desperation of manufacturers before they found relief in trusts.
There we have it! And from a protectionist paper’s own chosen witness, too. The tariff not only enables manufacturers to form trusts, but actually leaves them no alternative. With their raw materials weighted with a heavy tax, with no outlet to the markets of the world, with an unwholesome domestic competition fostered by the expectation of unnatural gains, their profits sink, and sink, until, as this great manufacturer tells us, they must “either quit business, or get together and regulate competition.”
The tariff is the father of the trust. The Sun, and its “great manufacturer,” think this is a perfect justification of the trust. The American people will be more apt to see in it an unanswerable condemnation of the tariff.
The intelligent reader who overlooks the “Tariff Talks” of the Press misses much fun. The latest nugget from that mine is an interview intended to show that the remission of the duty on lumber will not reduce the price of pine lumber in the American market. This is the way he does it: The American manufacturer controls the making of prices, because the importation from Canada is too insignificant to affect them; therefore, if the duty is removed the price here will be the same, and the only persons benefited will be the Canadian exporters. It may be worth while to remark that it is not the American manufacturers, but the owners of our pine forests, who control the making of prices and to whom the benefit of the tariff goes. Also, that if the exportations from Canada are small it is because Canadian lumber, after the duty is paid, is no cheaper than our own. Also, that if the duty were taken off, American forest owners would be brought into direct competition with Canadian forest owners and would have to charge less for “stumpage” or the importation from Canada would soon be “significant” enough to affect prices. Also, that this protection argument is just as sound as any other protection argument.
A pernicious bill to amend the naturalization laws has been introduced in the house at Washington. By giving the federal courts exclusive jurisdiction over the subject it makes naturalization expensive, difficult, and in many cases impossible. Any one living below Albany in this state would be compelled to bring his witnesses to New York, while in some states he would have to travel hundreds of miles to secure his citizenship. All that can be said in favor of this provision is that it
p. 4, col. 6 makes a few central points where records of citizenship can be found, a purpose that could be much better served by requiring certified copies of records of citizenship wherever perfected to be filed with the secretary of state at Washington. The bill also denies naturalization to any anarchist, socialist or communist, or to one who belongs to any society or association of such. Whoever drew that provision is an ignoramus, unless he intended to interfere with freedom of opinion and speech. A man has the same right to be an anarchist, a socialist or a communist that he has to be a republican, a democrat or a Presbyterian, and the same right to associate in societies with others of the same faith; and to exclude such a man from citizenship is to violate a fundamental principle of citizenship. The proposer of this law probably had a vague notion, derived from the Chicago troubles, that anarchism, socialism and communism are synonymous with crime. If he had he may be acquitted of an attempt to shackle freedom of opinion and speech, but of inexcusable ignorance he stands convicted.
The trades union congress of England have by a large majority passed a resolution in favor of the nationalization of land. According to the London correspondent of the Evening Post no attempt was made to define the meaning of land nationalization, and widely different views were entertained on the subject. But however views may have differed as to the mode of nationalizing land, there could have been no diversity of opinion among the majority who passed the resolution as to the essential principle that the use of land is a common right, of which no one can be justly deprived; and that a majority of this influential and representative body should have reached such a conclusion is matter for congratulation among single tax men everywhere.
The Evening Post thinks it does not mean much, but is a natural outcome of recent laws appropriating lots to be let to workingmen, and of the exceptional treatment of the Irish land question. These it regards as “impressive acknowledgments that land is a very peculiar kind of property with which the state may take peculiar liberties,” and thinks it “not surprising that the workingmen have taken the lesson to heart.” Whether this is the lesson the workingmen have taken to heart, or whether they have found out the truth for themselves, that land is a peculiar kind of property with which the state may take liberties, is not very important. The important fact is that they have learned the truth. The treatment of the Irish land question is indeed a vital sic. It was a lame sort of treatment, to be sure, but it embodied the admission that land is something of which individuals can not claim that absolute right of ownership that attaches to the products of labor.
The Post is guilty, however, of what, for an economic paper, is a strange jumble of ideas. After stating that rent is “rapidly disappearing in England under the competition of the remoter parts of the globe,” it concludes that “when it has gone the land will no longer dazzle workingmen or anybody else in England.”
It is strange, first, that an economic paper should suppose that men who seek the nationalization of land, so as to make free opportunities to work, are dazzled by rent.
It is strange, second, that an economic paper should suppose that rent in England is disappearing under competition with remoter parts of the globe. Agricultural rents are falling under that competition, and mining rents may fall, but as the industries which depend on these natural opportunities are transferred to other parts of the world, manufacturing and trading interests will take their place, and manufacturing and trading rents will increase. While agricultural ground rents in England have fallen, the aggregate of ground rents there have risen. If it were otherwise, it would prove no more respecting the land question than the fall in Oil City real estate proved when that city was in decline.
It is strange, third, that an economic paper should suppose that the rent of England can ever be “gone” until the time for the New Zealander to sit on London bridge and think is near at hand.
Such economic idiosyncracies would not be out of place in a column of protection “tariff talks,” in which conclusions are everything and facts and reasons nothing; but in the Post they are shocking.
A genuine Irishman, who hides his identity in the nom de plume of “O’Hara Mac,” is contributing protection theories and other bulls to the Press from Dublin. His letter of last Sunday was a gem.
According to “O’Hara Mac,” “the great evil in Ireland is that opportunity of labor is limited, and the monopoly in land has still further tended to circumscribe that opportunity.” That is as neat as the remark of another Irishman, who complained that his opportunity to get something to eat, which was limited, was still further limited by lack of food.
“O’Hara Mac” also observes that “one might also say that the sole occasion for the employment of labor is on the land.” He means opportunity instead of occasion, of course, and if he can find an opportunity for the employment of labor in Ireland, or in any other country, that is not on the land let him secure a fortune by getting a patent for it without delay.
But where “O’Hara Mac” really shines is in his plea for protection for Ireland. As to that, he boldly asserts “there can be no question of doubt but that its absence, continued on p. 5 →
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THE STANDARD, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888. 5
p. 5, col. 1 [continued from page 4]
← continued from p. 4 with other internal causes, keeps Ireland in the slough of despond.” What about the “other internal causes?” Monopoly of land alone is an internal cause big enough to eliminate absence of protection entirely. A country where monopoly of land prevails need not look any further to learn why it is kept in the slough of despond. The Press’s Dublin correspondent is altogether too parenthetically careless to make a reliable protectionist investigator.
After this dubious generalization “O’Hara Mac” gets down to details. There are several large strata of coal untouched in Ireland, he says, capable of furnishing fuel enough to last the country for years; and they are left untouched so that the English product may find a market there. Is he quite sure that is the reason? Is he positive they would not be worked at once if the landlords would take their hands off? He thinks protection would operate beneficially here. No doubt it would—for the owners of those strata. Suppose there were an Irish parliament; and suppose the Irish parliament put a tariff on coal so high that it would be cheaper to pay the owners of those strata their royalty and dig coal in Ireland than to import coal and pay duty. Then the owners of the strata would get a royalty which they do not get now and Irishmen would pay more for coal. “O’Hara Mac” has evidently never been in protected Pennsylvania.
And he certainly did not consult with Nathaniel McKay, whose letter on English misery appeared in the same issue of the Press, for he takes the trouble to explain “the successful operation of the free trade system in England,” while Mr. McKay is at great pains to prove its failure. These two letters should have been more cautiously edited.
It is difficult to say whether the genial “Mac’s” point about Daniel O’Connell’s advocacy of free trade for Ireland is a joke or not. Here it is:
The population at the time was nearly double what it is now. The demand for work was great and the supply restricted. Consequently the great competition and the average supply kept down the daily wages of the laborer. Given the proper developments of the industrial resources of the country, fostered by protection, and the daily wages of the laborer would have been more than quadrupled. Owing to the vastly decreased population the supply of work is now more proportionate to the supply of labor, and wages are much increased from O’Connell’s time. If benign conditions obtained now, in how much greater increase would the reward of labor be shown?
That is to say, there are two ways of improving the condition of a people: one, by the imposition of tariff taxes, and the other by thinning out the population! The hated Saxon, according to “O’Hara Mac,” has done only a portion of his duty by the sister kingdom. If he had reduced the Irish population to one man, and then protected his home market with a prohibitive tariff, the protectionist idea would have been realized. But, seriously, about all that can be made out of this is that it is not protection, but the supply of labor relatively to opportunities to work, that regulates wages. Laborers were relatively plentiful and opportunities to work scarce in O’Connell’s time; therefore wages were low. But now opportunity to work is more proportionate to the supply of labor, and wages are comparatively high. But why should opportunities to work be scarce when population is large and more plentiful when it is sparse? Large populations make greater demand for goods than small ones, and demand for goods is demand for labor. Scarcity of opportunities for work, therefore, cannot be due to large population; nor, since wages are regulated by supply of labor relatively to opportunities to work, can it be due to protection, which has no other effect than to increase prices, and by restricting demand for goods lessen opportunities to work. The reason that opportunities to work are scarce in large populations is not because the demand for work is less, but because the raw material—agricultural land, mining land, residence land—is dearer and therefore, for use, scarcer.
Governor Hill’s high protection organ, the Sun, is described by the Chicago Tribune as “a great wag,” a compliment which Mr. Dana accepts with the remark, “Now you’re shouting.” It is indeed a great wag, but a wag without a conscience—a heartless practical joker. It pretends to be a democrat and occasionally justifies its claim by something like this, which appeared last Sunday:
We are suffering from too much law all around. Cranky philosophers and whining social philanthropists are all the time spying out what seems to them objectionable practices on the part of their neighbors in the management of their business, the pursuit of their pleasures, the disciplining of their households and the general conduct of their life and affairs.
Accordingly, continues the Sun, these cranks induce the legislature to pass laws which make the meddlers substantially moral censors of the community and regulators of its manner of life. This is good democratic doctrine. But how do such sentiments accord with the protectionism with which the Sun tries every day to trick its readers. A man wants to manage his business by sending American goods abroad and trading them for foreign goods; another would pursue his pleasures by causing an invoice of some American product to be sent to Cuba in exchange for his favorite brand of cigars; and another, devoid of the spirit of household discipline, is inclined to permit his wife to buy French instead of New Jersey silk for a dress. But in all this the Sun sees something objectionable, and begs the legislature to maintain custom houses to prevent these transactions and to create official “censors of the community and regulators of its manner of life.” p. 5, col. 2
MEN AND THINGS.
Among the items of the sundry civil appropriation bill is one of $100,000 for the preliminary work of creating, within the recesses of the Rocky mountains, a series of vast reservoirs, to be utilized in irrigating the now arid plains which need only water to develop a marvelous fertility. The scheme is advocated by Major Powell of the geological survey, who will have charge of the work.
It is when an idea of this kind takes practical shape that the difference between what is and what ought to be becomes most apparent to people who will take the trouble to think. Here are millions of acres of land, arid, barren, utterly useless to humanity, the unquestioned property of the whole people of the United States. An officer of the government, educated and employed at the expense of the whole people, devises a scheme by which these now useless acres can be rendered capable of supporting several millions of people in comfort. Suppose the scheme carried out, as it bids fair to be, at the public expense. Suppose it to be entirely successful, and the wilderness made to blossom like the rose. Will the people of the United States—the whole people—who now own the acres and the mountains, and who will have paid every dollar of expense involved—will they be any better off for this marvelous improvement of their domain? No, indeed! The men who are lucky enough to get hold of the improved acres will be better off; but the great mass of the people, the men out of whose pockets the greater portion of the expense will come, will be, if anything, in worse case than they are at present. So soon as it becomes at all probable that the proposed irrigation scheme will be successful, a few wealthy men will manage to secure pieces of paper signifying that the redeemed lands are theirs; and after that, the chiefest part of whatever benefit may come of Major Powell’s project will accrue to them, their heirs or assigns.
But suppose the American people should refuse to give to any individuals the right to control these redeemed lands forever. Suppose they should permit any of their number who might be willing to brave the hardships of pioneer life to settle upon these lands, in security that no wealth they might ever produce should be taxed away from them, and that no taxes should be levied upon the land until the pressure of competition for the privilege of occupying it should demonstrate that it had a taxable value. Would there be anything inequitable or impracticable in such a policy? Would it not, on the contrary, be a policy of the highest equity and the most consummate practicality? Nobody disputes that the nation—that is, the whole body of living people in the country—owns those plains and mountains now. Will it not be the very sublimity of stupidity to give them in perpetuity to private individuals just when they bid fair to acquire value?
These are questions which those who doubt the justice and the wisdom of the single tax on land values will do well to ask themselves.
Here is a circular which is being sent to manufacturers and employers generally throughout the country:
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, NO. 91 FIFTH AVENUE. MANUFACTURERS’ LEAGUE, NEW YORK, Sept. —, 1888.
STEPHEN W. ROACH, President; THOMAS C. PLATT, Chairman of Executive Committee; JAMES S. THURSTON, Secretary.
DEAR SIR: You will confer a favor on the Manufacturers’ League if you will procure and forward immediately a list of all voters, plainly written, without regard to their politics, now employed by you.
It will greatly facilitate the business of the campaign if you will have the names copied on legal cap paper, written only on one side, leaving margin at top and left hand side.
Yours respectfully, T. C. PLATT, Chairman of Executive Committee.
Strange, isn’t it, that a party whose cherished purpose and dearest hope it is to get every man’s wages raised, should venture to hope for the co-operation of the men who, as a class, are notoriously anxious that wages should not be raised. Stranger still, that their hope should in many cases be justified.
The Knights of Labor, the federation of trades, and other similar organizations, are as sincerely anxious as the republican national committee can possibly be to secure higher pay for every man that works for wages. Suppose they should try the experiment of sending round a circular, asking for “a list of all voters, plainly written, without regard to politics, now employed by you?” It would be curious to see how many answers they would get.
The truth is that the protcetionist national committee and the manufacturers’ league want to get the addresses of voters that they may tell them that the league and the committee exist only for the purpose of securing higher wages to the workingman. And the protected manufacturers send in the addresses cheerfully because they know, and on the best of evidence, that the real purpose of the league and committee alike is to make it easier for the protected monopolists to grind the faces of the unprotected poor.
The greed of the controllers of the jute bagging trust may possibly defeat itself. The cotton planters have been forced to look around for some other material that may be used in baling cotton, and it is said they have found it in wire gauze, which costs about the same as the old fashioned bagging, and has the additional advantage of being impervious to fire. The cotton exchange of this city have the matter under advisement, and if they and the European exchanges agree to accept wire gauze baled cotton, the new bagging may come into general use.
But suppose it does? Suppose the jute bagging industry swept out of existence, and the pauper jute growers of India compelled to stop deluging us with their product and taking our cottons and kerosene oil in exchange; shall we be any better off? For a short time, perhaps, yes. But we can no more buy wire gauze in the world’s markets than we can jute bagging. We must buy it of the American manufacturers, or go without. The duty on it is five cents a pound. How long will it be before the wire gauze trust succeeds the bagging p. 5, col. 3 trust, and cotton growers have to hunt for a fresh style of envelope for their bales? The strength of the trust is in the tariff first, and in the monopoly of natural opportunities finally. Sweep away the tariff and the trust will become difficult. Sweep away land monopoly and it will be impossible.
We clip this strange story from the Times:
Otto Alexander, twenty-nine years of age, pleaded guilty in general sessions in July last to an attempt at forgery, and was remanded until his father, who lives in California, could be heard from. The case came up again yesterday before Recorder Smyth, who suspended sentence on condition that the young man should leave the country. He was sent to the Tombs to await the sailing of the vessel on which he will go. Alexander’s father came to this country in 1846, and in 1849 went to California, where he began business at his trade of a cigarmaker. He became wealthy. Otto came to this city several years ago and found employment in the Liberty printing company of 62 College place, where for some time he has been receiving a salary of $4,000 a year. Two years ago he married a Swedish girl, who spent all his earnings. It was she who handed him a check for $5,000 purporting to be drawn by William Noble of the Grenoble apartment house. He tried to get it cashed by Nesslage, Colgate & Co. of Wall street, by whom the forgery was detected, and he was arrested.
Since when has banishment been a legal punishment for crime in the state of New York or in the United States? That a man should flee the country to escape the law is natural; but the practice is considered so far reprehensible that extradition treaties are negotiated to prevent criminals obtaining advantage by it. But to compel a man to flee, by process of law, is certainly something new in American jurisprudence.
Suppose the country to which Recorder Smyth has exiled Mr. Alexander refuses to receive him and sends him back again? Will Mr. Smyth consider that a sufficient reason for pronouncing the sentence now mercifully suspended? Suppose Alexander comes back of his own accord, but prudently lands in Jersey City? On what grounds could New York ask for his surrender? Suppose the recorder had made it a condition that he should go to Siberia, or the Aleutian islands, or Terra del Fuego?
We object, and justly, to foreign powers sending their criminals to our shores. Recorder Smyth’s sentence is an offense against the comity of nations.
The making of cardboard or strawboard boxes is an important industry. The boxes are used for an immense variety of purposes, from packing baseballs to sending home bonnets, and there is scarcely a large city in the Union which has not several factories devoted exclusively to paper boxes.
The box manufacturers of New York and vicinity assembled in convention last week, to discuss the condition and prospects of their trade. That was the ostensible object of the meeting. What they really assembled for was to see if they couldn’t combine together somehow to avoid the exactions of the strawboard trust.
The strawboard manufacturers provide the box makers’ raw material. They represent a capital of over $6,000,000. A few years ago they came together and formed the usual combination in the usual manner. Strawboard was then selling for $28 a ton. It now sells for $47.50. As it costs about [$30?] a ton to produce it will be seen that since the trust was organized the business has come to pay fairly well.
So the box makers came together to see what they could do about it. Of course it didn’t take them long to discover that they couldn’t do anything against the trust. Strawboard pays thirty per cent duty, and up to that limit the board makers have their customers at their mercy. But if board pays thirty per cent, boxes pay thirty-five per cent. So the box manufacturers, instead of wasting time trying to fight the board trust, just turned round and agreed to organize a trust of their own. So here is another added to the list. And like every other trust monopoly, its whole strength is in the protective tariff. Sweep that away, and from sugar trust to box trust, the whole misbegotten lot will tumble like a house of cards.
A Point in Mr. Pentecost’s Speech.
NEWARK, N. J., Sept. 14.—In his able speech last night Mr. Pentecost said that the manufacturers were the only ones benefited by the tariff, and instanced one of our factories here as an example. It seems to me that Mr. Pentecost’s statement is misleading to all those that are not single tax men. We know what he meant, but outsiders would take it that he meant all manufacturers.
Now, as I understand it, the tariff is not one cent of benefit to any manufacturer engaged in making goods open to unrestricted home competition; that in fact the tariff is a burden to all except those who either hold a monopoly of a natural opportunity or through combination or control of transportation facilities have a monopoly of production. The factory which Mr. Pentecost referred to (every Newark man in the audience recognized the allusion) is just one of those monopolies. In this busy town there are hundreds of different manufactures carried on, nearly all of which meet unrestricted competition, and not only reap no benefit from the tariff, but are damaged by having their market restricted. A very large proportion of these are so small that the proprietors are in the fullest sense workingmen themselves, and it seems to me that it should be a special object with us to make it plain to them that the tariff wrongs them just as well as it does the men they employ.
F. J. WERNER.
PERSONAL.
Gerald Massey, the poet and lecturer, will arrive in New York in a few weeks. He proposes to lecture through the United States this winter.
Rev. George Brooks of London is again in town, and is stopping at 351 West Fourteenth street. He is making a study of the single tax movement here with the view of putting his knowledge to good use for the cause on the other side of the Atlantic. Mr. Brooks is a single tax man, and has played an important part in the social movement in Great Britain, having done, for one thing, good work as a member of the editorial staff of the London Christian Commonwealth, which commands large influence, and which has for some time past been striking sturdy blows against the iniquity of private ownership in land. p. 5, col. 4
THE CAMPAIGN “STANDARD” FUND.
WHITESTONE, L. I.—Inclosed find $1 for the campaign fund. I want you to send THE STANDARD of September 1, and as many free trade pamphlets as possible, to the addresses given below.
I have only lately become a convert to the single tax and I cannot show you what I think of it better than by telling you that I hope to make converts of these men, who are all working for republican high tariff bosses. I think I might have lived in Ansonia a long time before I should have heard of the benefits of free trade.
JAMES MCKINLEY.
Now there is a good letter—a letter that it is a positive encouragement to receive—from a man who just takes hold of the work that lies close at his hand, and does it with all his might. There are plenty of other STANDARD readers who have it in their power to distribute literature and do missionary work among “men who are working for high tariff bosses.” If they would only do it, every one of them, do it now, do it earnestly, do it with a determination to succeed, with what a wildfire sweep would the gospel of industrial emancipation sweep across the land! For making a convert is like dropping a stone into a pool. It starts a fresh center of agitation.
Friends, this is a campaign we are engaged in now—not a pleasure party. And a campaign means fighting, self-denial hard, steady, persistent work, with a determination that whatever the rest of the world may do, your part toward the victory shall be accomplished. Now just pause a moment, each one of you, and ask yourselves if you are doing the fighting and the work you ought to do for the cause you love. Has your contribution to the campaign fund been sent in yet? It must come soon to be of service. Have you brought in any converts? You must bring them soon if they are to be of any service in the fight. Is THE STANDARD regularly read and circulated in your neighborhood? Do your newsdealers keep it? Has it a club of subscribers at your post office? Ask yourselves these questions, and when you have the answers, decide in your own consciences whether you are doing the full measure of your duty or not in this most important crisis.
Here is the record of the campaign STANDARD fund for the week past. Its figures are a stronger appeal than any we could make in words. The work that might be done within the next few weeks is well nigh incalculable. The work that is actually being done is small indeed by sic. We are ready and anxious to do our share. It rests with you, readers of THE STANDARD, to do yours:
James M. Quere, New York…….. $1 00 George Datch, Pittsburg, Pa…….. 1 00 A Friend, Jersey City…….. 5 00 Leo Fradkin, New York…….. 1 00 James Beggs…….. 1 00 Robert Baker, Albany, N. Y…….. 1 00 J. F. C…….. 1 00 John Welsh…….. 1 00 R. A. Shearer, Kansas City, Mo…….. 1 00 C. P. Cooper, Brooklyn, N. Y…….. 2 00 In the Shadow of the “Dakota”…….. 1 00 William F. Elflein, Cleveland, Ohio…….. 2 00 Cincinnatus…….. 5 00 S. B. Riggen, Portland, Ore…….. 2 50 [A. M.?], Elkton, Md…….. 35
Total for the week…….. $25 85 Previously acknowledged…….. 2,984 97
Total to date…….. $3,010 82
FROM H. MARTIN WILLIAMS.
Facts About His Stumping Tour Through Kansas.
WINFIELD, Kan., Sept. 10.—I have been speaking for Cleveland and free trade for the last three weeks in this state, and have reason to believe that my labors have not been fruitless. Each day’s observation and experience only goes to confirm me in the opinion that the wise and sensible thing for single tax men to do is to support Cleveland in this campaign. Speaking for Cleveland and the democratic party, we get a hearing such as we could not hope to get if we were antagonizing them, and everywhere I find attentive, eager listeners, whose minds are fruitful soil for the reception of the single tax idea, and we are reaching hundreds of thousands of people we could not reach by any third party diversion, and turning their thoughts in the direction of freedom. And when once their faces are turned toward the light, they will keep going on until they see the truth in all its beauty and symmetry.
To our brothers and sisters everywhere, let me say that the future is bright with hope and full of encouragement. The blessed light of the dawning of the glad day of deliverance is streaking the eastern sky, and the rising of the sun will soon follow. Let us be of good cheer! The same beneficent Providence that provided its rich, bounteous blessings and opportunities for all is raising up able, eloquent advocates of the truth in places we least expect, and so
Ever the right comes uppermost, And ever is justice done.
H. MARTIN WILLIAMS.
The Colored Workingmen of the South.
BROOKLYN, Sept. 16.—I write to show how the good work is going on in my trade. My organization is a very large one, and composed of white and black. There is trouble in getting our colored brothers to vote for Cleveland, but I have thus far been successful beyond expectations. Mr. Cleveland’s letter of acceptance, where he says he intends to protect our colored citizens in their rights, is doing its work. I have talked to quite a number of colored men outside of my organization. They all hold that they have no fault to find with the northern democrat, but with the southern democrat, who is held to account for the outrages on the colored race in the south. I am inclined to believe that the republicans are in a great measure to blame by stirring up race prejudice. When two republican senators, for instance, marched a lot of colored men through the streets of Charleston and sang “Hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree,” I don’t think it did the colored people of South Carolina any good.
In my opinion, the best thing for white and black in the south is the step our friend in North Carolina has taken—that is, to organize and exchange visits. It is necessary that the white workman should organize the black workman, and educate him regarding the industrial question. For if the black workman falls he will surely pull his white brother down with him. We whites of the north take colored men into our organizations, and demand for them the same pay as we ourselves get.
I would like to hear from our friend, Mr. Ring of Texas on this subject. It should be the means of bringing a good many colored men into our ranks.
GEORGE L. FAULK.
Just Exactly Why.
We’re going to vote for Cleveland, I’ll tell you the reason why, He slugged the fetich on the jaw, Which made the humbug die.
TOM BAYLES. p. 5, col. 5
The Candidate’s Prayer.
James Brown, Chamberlain, Dakota.
O Thou who giv’st especial care To man, when he’s a millionaire, Hear, I beseech Thee, hear the prayer Of Hoosier Ben; Who seeks alone, with zeal most rare To please rich men.
O Lord, we’re in a dreadful case, The war’s played out, and face to face We’re brought with those who us menace With lower tariff, And I this fall must run the race With Erie’s sheriff.
And Lord, if tariffs lowered be, And trade and industry are free, From grasp of “trusts,” Thou know’st that we Lords of Protection, Deprived of power to tax, will be In deep dejection.
Thou know’st Protection’s but a snare, That “pauper labor’s” plenteous here, But Lord, for that what do we care? While we can get Of Labor’s meed the lion’s share Let Labor sweat.
Of course when we take off our hat And make a speech to Hans and Pat, We rave and screech that free trade flat Has always sunk ’em: But, Thou, Lord, knowest well that that Is merely buncombe.
Lord, help us longer to deceive ‘em, And oh! confound that cursed Clevelan’— Oh, Lord, let not a soul believe ’im Though truth he teaches, That lower tariffs will relieve ’em From “trusts” grim clutches.
In Sunday schools much time we’ve spent, And then, with aid by Ingersoll lent, We’ve taxed at twenty-five per cent Thy blessed Word; The rich can pay’t, ’twill but prevent The common herd
From learning aught of Heaven and Thee, But such as millionaires like we May deign to tell them; thus d’ye see We’ll Heaven protect From pauper Labor’s suppliant knee— The scurvy sect.
Lord, show me what I’d better do: Since Blaine’s come o’er the waters blue His followers all their troth renew, While I’m neglected; Oh! do not let him boss me too If I’m elected.
And Lord, if power divine can show A way to harmonize these two “Pure homes,” “Free whisky”—Thou must know Our platform’s mandate— O, give thy servants here below To understand it.
Now hear my earnest cry and prayer, O, boost me to that White house fair— Put Levi in the senate chair; And, when we meet, Thou of his gold shalt have a share To pave thy street.
THE ST. LOUIS LEAGUE THE TALK OF THE TOWN.
The Kind of Meetings it Holds—A Knock Down Question to an Eloquent Protectionist Speaker.
ST. LOUIS —Mr. L. P. Custer of Indianapolis, Ind., and Mr. Hummell of St. Louis addressed our league the other evening. At the close of Mr. Hummell’s remarks the chairman announced that an opportunity would be given any one present to argue the tariff question from a protectionist standpoint, and Senator Davisson, a prominent union labor man and an able speaker, came forward. His argument is conceded to be the best ever made for protection in this city. For nearly an hour he dwelt in silvery tones upon the beauty and necessity of the protective system, until it seemed as if the free traders present were almost ashamed of themselves, such was the power of the speaker’s eloquence. Then some one in the audience put a question which bore its own answer so plainly that the audience fairly roared. It was this: “Since other nations will not give us their goods for nothing, but demand our goods in exchange, does it not follow that the more we receive from other nations the more we shall have to return to them? And since the goods we must export for the goods we import can only be produced by the application of labor to land, how will this trade lessen the demand for labor?”
This question was more than the senator could answer, and he made an attempt to dodge it by saying that imports were paid for with gold, and that the demand for gold hunters was already supplied. Then it was explained to him that in order to get gold we must either dig it out of the ground or produce something to exchange for it, either of which would require labor.
The senator was fairly beaten, and was about the only one in the hall whose faith in the protective policy was not completely shattered.
Senator Davisson has agreed to discuss the question with Mr. Hummell at our next meeting (Sept. 16), when he promises to come prepared to convince us that we are all mistaken. We are “open to conviction,” and are determined to hear the truth. Our league is the “talk of the town.”
W. C. BOHANNON, 2219 Chestnut street.
Among the Farmers of Northern Westchester.
SCRUB OAK, N. Y.—I am spending my vacation here on a farm, six miles from the town of Peekskill on the Hudson, and about five miles from the Yorktown station on the New York city and northern railroad. Of course I have been out gunning for converts to the single tax, but with rather indifferent success Even if there was a better conception or, for that sic; a more general knowledge that there existed such a doctrine, and supposing that the women did not hang back and conservatively block the way to the progress of this new idea—even then the work of propaganda here would not, it seems to me, be easy. For what surplus of spirits and energy is left him after his hard daily grind the ordinary farmer expends in thinking how he is going to sell his farm for a big price. There is some talk of a railroad from Peekskill to Lake Mahopac, a distance of twelve miles, and farmers thereabouts are dreaming dreams of opulence. Land is expected to advance in value, and they hope to sell at handsome figures. They are wretchedly poor—too poor to properly cultivate their farms. A large number of them carry a mill stone of a mortgage around their necks and are compelled to take boarders during the summer to help worry along. A stupor seems to hang over them; a dreadful stagnation prevails throughout the country. They will sell or lease nothing less than the whole farm for fear that losing ever so small a part will be detrimental to the sale of the remainder.
Speak to these farmers about the single tax, so far as the single tax petition to the legislature goes, and they favor it; but say anything about taking the full rental value of land for public purposes, as I have done in a few test cases, and at once the land speculator takes the place of the farmer. Most of them are simply “holders” of land.
Of course, as soon as the full significance of the single tax is seen, many of them will be won over to our cause; but at present large bodies of them are governed by avarice.
THEODORE ATWORTH. p. 5, col. 6
SOCIETY NOTES.
On Wednesday afternoon the princess of Schleswig-Holstein arrived to be the guest of Mrs. Frank Kinnicutt, and on Friday Lenox society has been invited to the latter’s house to meet her distinguished visitor. Lenox was happy when it had the Prince Henri d’Orleans to run after, and it now bids fair to go mad at the coming of the princess—a real, live princess. If the saying be true that coming events cast their shadows before, then from rumors circulated the princess is to be dined and wined at a great rate. The Count d’Arcc on Friday evening will entertain her at dinner, and on Saturday night a dinner of fourteen will be given her by Mrs. W. C. Whitney.—[Lenox letter to New York Herald.
Carl Gieseke, a twenty-six year old German, committed suicide by drowning; his body was fished up in Buttermilk channel on Monday of last week. He had been out of work for a long time, and had written a letter to his father in Oldenburg, Germany, asking for aid. The answer he got was a refusal, and in despair he took his life. In his pocket was a letter in which he cursed his father and called him his murderer. As he had no relatives here his body was buried at the expense of the county.
The grand ball of the season was, of course, that given on Friday night by Mrs. William D. Sloane, which was not a disappointment, in spite of all that had been promised and expected. Every one who has been in Lenox knows Mr. Sloane’s beautiful residence and its capabilities for every kind of entertainment. The broad piazzas, each one of which is equal to a large room, were all inclosed, decorated, and furnished, and the spacious hall, which is distinct from the marble vestibule where the guests entered, was used for dancing. Flowers, especially the superb hydrangea, which is the queen of decorative blossoms, were present in every shade and variety of color, the Hungarian band gave out its weirdest, sweetest strains, and the German favors, without being extravagantly costly, were selected with the utmost taste. The shepherdess crooks decked with ribbons and large bunches of artificial flowers were especially picturesque, and the Indian baskets from Mt. Desert, which were filled with the most toothsome sweetmeats, were eagerly longed for by the dancers.
A telegraphic dispatch from Chicago states that the city penitentiary is filled to overflowing, and that the overseer, Mr. Felton, has repeatedly of late had reason to complain of its being so full that there was no room for the prisoners sent there. Last Saturday the police authorities held a meeting, and recommended that the police court judges should in the future substitute for short term imprisonment a “severe reprimand” in various cases, so that the Bridewell shall not be overcrowded.
Senator Stanford of California is having constructed for himself what will be the most costly modern tomb in existence. It is to be erected in California, but is being prepared at the east. The entire cost of it will be $250,000. The material is of Vermont granite and marble, and the heavier parts of the tomb are being cut at the quarries and shipped from there directly to the west. The heaviest stone used in the structure is cut from a solid block of granite weighing forty-three tons and has already been shipped on a car specially constructed for the purpose. Two other stones, weighing over twenty tons each, and cut and polished, have followed it.—[Philadelphia Record.
Annie Haas, the young woman who died in Bellevue hospital on Sunday morning from injuries received in falling from an old fire-escape in the rear of the house 199 Second street on Saturday night, was buried to-day in the potter’s field. The only relative who had come to see the body was her brother-in-law- Joseph Scherer, of 535 East Twelfth street, who said that he was too poor to bury the remains.—[New York Evening News.
The Jewelers’ Weekly gives a list of a few novelties in jewelry. It says: “A chased silver hand glass, the rim set with sixteen large fresh water pearls, is considered cheap at $500. An expensive but handsome novelty is a gold handled pocket knife with emerald and diamond setting. A bracelet recently made to order is faced with eighteen large opals. In the corners of the setting sparkle thirty-six diamonds. The combination is effective.”
Factory girls in Chicago work nine hours a day for 16½ cents. In one factory they work two and a half days for 45 cents. In another place they get 35 cents for making a $35 cloak.
The new club house of the Manhattan athletic club will cost, with the land, about $400,000. It will contain, besides the gymnasium, a rifle range, bowling alleys, Turkish and Russian baths, lounging rooms, a cafe, concert room, parlors, smoking rooms, etc. The number of members now on the roll of the club is 520.
Mary Berg, the young shirtmaker who is at the head of the young women’s protective association which meets at 28 Lafayette place, in a recent interview said: “I know a factory where the girls are obliged to go to the employer sometimes and ask for a dollar toward a board bill.”
Ex-Secretary Litchman of the K. of L. Condemned.
Local assembly No. 3,534 of the Knights of Labor in Philadelphia, composed of textile workers, at its last meeting passed the following resolutions:
Whereas, Charles H. Litchman, ex-general secretary of our order, has gone forth into the political field, taking the side of politics in preference to labor organizations;
Resolved, That Local assembly No. 3,534, in session, condemns Charles H. Litchman for misrepresenting the political views of the members present and for endeavoring to use the order for political and financial considerations.
The following resolutions relative to the Mills bill were also passed:
Whereas, As textile workers we have for years felt the evil effects of a tariff tax on the raw materials of our industries in lessening our opportunities for work and reducing our wages; and
Whereas, The present tariff laws impose a heavier tax upon raw materials and the partly finished products than upon the finished commodities, thus being directly in the interest of the foreign manufacturers; and
Whereas, The Mills bill reverses this obvious discrimination against American labor by grading the duties upward in accordance with the amount of labor required to make the commodities; therefore,
Resolved, That we, the members of Local assembly No. 3,534, discarding all parties and considerations, do protest against the continuance of the present unequal and unjust system of tariff schedules and demand the passage of the Mills bill as a measure calculated to bring prosperity, steady work and better wages for every textile worker in our country.
That Would Do the Work.
Chicago Mail.
It is entirely within the power, as it is the imperative duty, of Pennsylvania to enforce her own laws as to land assessments. Under the laws of the Keystone state provision is made for the equal assessment of all taxable property. If this were done the forestallers of coal would soon be brought to terms. But it is not done. Great tracts of coal lands are assessed at their nominal agricultural value, thus practically evading taxation. In one instance it is stated that 3,000 acres of coal lands are assessed as agricultural land at the rate of $6 an acre, whereas the market value of the property is more than $3,000 per acre. If this holding were taxed at its true value it is clear that the owners would have to use it in which case the only limit on the supply of coal would be the demand. The artificial scarcity would disappear, and plenty prices would succeed to monopoly prices.
Page 6 of 8contents
6 THE STANDARD, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888.
p. 6, col. 1
The Earth for All.
[Gerald Massey?].
Thus saith the Lord: You weary me With prayers, and waste your own short years; Eternal truth you cannot see Who weep, and shed your sight in tears. In vain you wait and watch the skies, No better fortune thus will fall; Up from your knees I bid you rise, And claim the Earth for all.
They ate up Earth, and promised you The Heaven of an empty shell! ’Twas theirs to say; ’twas yours to do, On pain of everlasting Hell! They rob and leave you helplessly For help of Heaven to cry and call: Heaven did not make your misery; The Earth was given for all!
Behold in bonds your Mother Earth; The rich man’s prostitute and slave! Your Mother Earth, that gave you birth, You only own her for a grave! And will you die like slaves, and see That mother left a bounden thrall! Nay! live like men and set her free As heritage for all!
MY EXPERIENCE WITH TRAMPS.
Somehow I can never fully realize that this New Jersey settlement in which I live really is a city. Tree shaded roads, houses with grassy spaces on either side, broad lawns and flower gardens, are things to me irreconcilable with the city idea. In my house we habitually speak of the two closely built streets which constitute the business center of Plainfield as the “village;” and when a neighbor talks about “the city” we never for a moment imagine that he can mean anything but the city of New York.
But Plainfield is a city, and no slouch of a city either. I forget just how many thousand inhabitants she has, but there are enough to entitle her to a carrier delivery system; and the civil service commissioners, or whoever else are potent in such matters, have just been choosing from among a hundred or so of applicants the lucky half dozen who are to bring our letters to our doors after the carrier system shall have begun operations. She has industries, too, has Plainfield, which her owners have fostered by a wise system of protection—giving them land for less than its value, and in various occult ways encouraging them to plant themselves here, where they are not wanted. They blow their whistles intermittently during the day; beginning usually at the sacred moment when I turn over in bed for that delicious last nap which is the very sublimation and apotheosis of slumber, and ceasing at 6 p. m. when the happy artisans and laborers go home. She has a police force, too, and a fire department, and an excellent system of public schools. And as the center and soul of her municipal being, she rejoices in a mayor—of whom I desire to speak with all possible respect, not only because I am of his tenantry, but because he really is an efficient executive and a citizen who has done much for the town he partly owns—and a common council, who meet at stated intervals to deliberate on the common weal, receive messages from his honor the mayor, pass ordinances, and vote supplies. In short, notwithstanding her lawns, and shade trees, and vegetable gardens, Plainfield is in all respects a completely rounded municipality, and only needs a million and a half more inhabitants to be in every way the equal of New York.
One thing Plainfield is very decided about. She objects to tramps. The roads leading to the city are placarded with proclamations by his honor the mayor, notifying all and singular the tramp fraternity of the terrible things that will be done to them if they presume to set foot in Plainfield’s streets. I think six weeks in the county jail is what they are threatened with, and, if I mistake not, the six weeks are to be rendered yet more terrible by hard labor. Within the city, too, pretty much every house is guarded against tramp invasion by a large dog—generally a mastiff of commanding and awe inspiring appearance. On the whole, I think if I were a tramp I should give Plainfield a wide berth; and doubtless in the tramp itinerary or guide book there is a thick black mark against the city’s name, with comminatory comments in choice tramp English.
And I suppose the tramps, as a rule, do steer clear of Plainfield; but I am bound to say they don’t keep away from it altogether. They may not penetrate to the heart of the city, where the active and intelligent police force keep watch and ward, but they certainly get as far as the outskirts. I live in the outskirts, and I know. Tramps have visited me.
The first who came along was a tramp sure enough—a typical tramp, red faced, bloated, frowsy haired, with broken shoes and garments glistening with an indescribable greasiness that turned one’s stomach to look upon. It was early one winter morning that this gentleman knocked at our kitchen door. I had just been making the fire and putting the kettle on, and being rather incomplete as to my toilet, felt naturally annoyed at having to open the door. So when his trampship preferred an humble request for a cup of coffee, all the orthodox political economy in me rose up, and with a curt refusal I banged the door in his face, and then wished I hadn’t. My own coffee was ready in a minute or two; and as I put the sugar in it I heard my next door neighbor’s mastiff making a prodigious outcry. Looking out, I saw the tramp on my neighbor’s kitchen porch, and the big dog straining at his chain and barking out his fury. Then the servant opened the door, heard the wayfarer’s petition, disappeared, and came back in a moment with a great steaming bowl. I know it must have been scalding hot, for I could see the cloud of steam rising from it; but that tramp just [glued?] his lips to it and swallowed the coffee at a draught. I felt ashamed of myself. Somehow, the orthodox political economy didn’t seem to fit the case as it had a few minutes before; and an old quotation about a cup of cold water surged up in my mind. So I drank my own coffee—hot and strong, with rich boiled milk in it—and the tramp went on his [way?] and I [saw?] him no more. He may be p. 6, col. 2 dead now. For his own sake I trust he is. But I hope the day may never come when he will remind me of that bitter winter morning when he begged for a cup of coffee and I slammed the door in his face. The orthodox political economy, so to speak, slips up in one respect. It allows the surplus population souls. This is unsatisfactory, and may be more so by and by. Perhaps, however, it was a mistake of God’s, and the orthodox economy can’t help itself.
My next tramp visitor arrived soon after the blizzard, and looked as if he had been caught out in it. This tramp didn’t come to the kitchen entrance. He rang the front door bell, not because he felt above his business, but because it was raining cats and dogs, and the roofed veranda was a grateful shelter. He was the wettest looking man I ever saw. He looked as if he were wet clear through, from his clothes to his alimentary canal. He stood there in a puddle of his own making and rained just like a cloud. He was too wet to look greasy, and his dripping hair was plastered to his head; but he smelt of whisky, and was evidently a disreputable character. He asked, civilly enough, for something to eat, and I brought him out some bread and meat, which he devoured on the spot—the water dripping from him all the time—with an eagerness that showed his hunger was no mockery. When he had finished eating he stood there a moment, saying nothing. I said nothing, too. Then he slouched away, out into the cold driving rain, and I went back to my fireside with a comfortable feeling inside of me, such as one experiences when he has done his fellow man a kindly turn.
But within an hour or two the ghost of that dripping tramp came back to bother me, and the comfortable feeling in my inside went away. The rain lashed the window panes as the gusts rose and fell, and I seemed to see that fellow man of mine, wet and chilled to the bone, slouching away into it, and leaving the warmth and dryness of my home behind him. Of course, this was a morbid feeling, and totally unreasonable. I had done all I could for the man—more really than I should have done. It wasn’t my fault that he had to be out in such weather. It wasn’t my fault that he had no umbrella, or that he was poor, and wretched, and thinly clad. I couldn’t have brought him into the house. He would have ruined the hall carpet, and made the kitchen uninhabitable, and deranged the household economy generally. Charity is very well, and it’s all very fine talking about the crust of bread and the cup of cold water—for that matter I had given him the crust, and he didn’t need the water; but for a man to turn his home into a tramp’s house of call would be simply a caricature of humanity. It would be to put a premium on pauperism. I said all this to myself, and it satisfied my intelligence perfectly; but still I saw that tramp slouching away into the pitiless, driving rain, and shivering with the cold. And as I write about him I see him now. It’s awfully foolish, I know; but foolish or not, it’s so. Perhaps this is another of God’s mistakes.
It was warmer weather when my next tramp came along—a bright, sunshiny morning toward the end of May, when the trees were just bursting into leaf and life outdoors was pleasant. There was nothing disgusting about this tramp. His complexion was bright and clear; his clothing, though old, patched, torn in places and soiled with the dust of travel, was a long way from being filthy; he didn’t slouch, but walked along like a man who was tired, but had a definite purpose of going somewhere. A kind of apprentice tramp, in short. I was sitting on the veranda, waiting till it should be time to start for the New York train, when he pushed the gate open and walked up to me.
Could I give him any work to do? he asked. . I sic, and I told him so. He gave a kind of a half sigh and turned to go away, when I hailed him and brought him back. A lazy impulse of curiosity was upon me and I thought I would like to ask him a few questions. So I said “Hey! come back here a minute!” and he came, obediently enough. He was a good deal stouter and stronger than I, and could probably have thrashed me in about thirty seconds; but he came when I called him. It occurred to me afterward that this was because I had work and he had none. I’m sure I don’t know any other advantage that I had over him; and if he had said, “Hey! come here!” to me, I certainly shouldn’t have gone. But then he never would have thought of saying it. Men looking for work don’t talk that way to their betters.
Well, I made him sit down, and I asked him if he didn’t want some breakfast. Of course, I didn’t treat him like an equal or a friend. I didn’t say, “Now, come right in, the breakfast’s on the table, and a cup of coffee will do you all the good in the world after your long walk.” If I had spoken to him that way he would probably have thought me crazy. I merely said, “Don’t you want something to eat?” in a tone just sufficiently dignified not to encourage any liberties on his part.
No, he wasn’t hungry. He had had some breakfast at a house down the road. Where did he come from? From Trenton, where he had been working in the potteries. I think he said he had earned as much as $10 a week there; but he had been laid off two or three weeks ago, and hadn’t been able to find any steady work since. Born in this country? Oh, yes; born in Pennsylvania. How had he got along since he left Trenton? Well, he’d had a pretty rough time. Some days he managed to get a little work to do, but most days not. He hadn’t been actually hungry—folks were generally willing to give him something to eat. Nights he slept where he could—generally in an empty box car. Where was he going? He didn’t know, but supposed if he kept on he’d fetch up in New York.
It was time for me to start for the train, and I had to go. But I wanted to get the rest of that tramp’s story—to find out where he was born, how he had been brought up, what chances he had had and neglected, and all the other particulars of his life. I wanted to write him up for THE STANDARD, and I thought he might fill two or three columns very comfortably. p. 6, col. 3 So I gave him fifty cents, which he took without hesitation—men looking for work lose that fine sense of delicacy which distinguishes us who have work—and told him to come back at the same time to-morrow, and I would give him a chance to earn as much more. Then he went away and never came back, and so missed having his biography published. Perhaps if I had given him nothing and told him to come again next day and get fifty cents, he might have reappeared. Perhaps he found work and didn’t care to come. I don’t know, and never shall. But, on the whole, I’m glad I gave him that half dollar.
It was August before I had another visit from a tramp. One or two may have called at the house while I was away and been treated according to the mood of whatever member of the family happened to encounter them; but if they did I didn’t hear of it. By the way, did it ever occur to you how much a tramp’s good or evil fortune depends upon the mental condition of those he begs from? If you have had a little domestic difficulty—such things will happen, perhaps, even in your generally well regulated household—or if the beefsteak at breakfast has been tough, or if Smith has been worrying you about that little bill, the tramp that applies to you has a poor show. You ask him why he doesn’t go to work, and make cruel references to whisky, or perhaps say nothing, but just whistle for the dog. If I were going to try to make a living as a tramp, I think I should take a preliminary course in physiognomy, so as to be able to tell whether a man was in a good natured frame of mind or not before I spoke to him.
Well, as I said before, it was in August that my next tramp visitor presented himself. Like his immediate predecessor, he was perfectly sober, and poorly, but not filthily clad. I judged him to be about twenty-five years old. He didn’t ask for food, or money, or work. He simply inquired if I could give him a pair of shoes. He certainly needed them badly enough, for those he had on were absolute wrecks—mere ghosts of foot coverings. It’s a stony country about Plainfield, and his feet were bruised and bleeding. He made no complaint, and didn’t obtrude his feet in any way to attract sympathy—just asked for a pair of shoes, and waited, with a look upon his face as though he fully expected to be told to go to the devil.
Of course I questioned him. It wouldn’t have been right not to do so. Shoes are not made to be thrown away upon undeserving objects, even if their feet are cut and bleeding. I can’t precisely call to mind any passage in which Christ instructs us to make strict inquiries before bestowing alms; and the Good Samaritan certainly brought out his wine and oil without any preliminary questionings; but as Hosea Biglow says, “They didn’t know everything down in Judee,” and what might have been all right in the first century would be altogether wrong in the nineteenth. So purely from a sense of duty I kept the young man standing on his bleeding feet, while I cross-examined him a little. He came from Newark, he said. Was a burnisher by trade, but had lost his job. Was looking for work among the farmers hereabouts, and hadn’t much doubt of finding it. I asked him if he belonged to the burnishers’ union, and he said yes. Then I asked him for his card, and he didn’t have it—said he’d lost it.
I made up my mind that that young man was lying. Besides that, I only had two pairs of shoes: those I was wearing at the time, and a pair of congress gaiters, newly heeled and soled, which I expected to last me through the coming winter. Of course I would have liked to relieve the poor fellow’s distress, but I felt it would be wrong to do so. And I really experienced a feeling of virtuous satisfaction in denying myself the pleasure of alms giving, and at the same time keeping my winter shoes, all from motives of the highest morality. So I said I had no shoes to give away, and he turned to go. As he went down the steps I noticed, where he had been standing while I talked to him, a tiny drop of blood. Then I called him back and went and got the shoes for him.
One tramp more completes my list. He came on one of those chilly days which disgraced the incoming of September, when the thermometer went down pretty nearly to the freezing point. He was a rather stupid looking boy of sixteen or seventeen years, who didn’t wait for any questioning, but told his little tale of his own accord. He had been a pot washer in an eating house in Easton, Pa., at a salary of two dollars a week and his bed and board. Two weeks ago his right wrist had been badly scalded by the upsetting of a pot of boiling water; and of course he couldn’t wash any pots after that; and so he lost his situation. He was trying to make his way to his uncle in Boston, and he was very cold, and could I please give him some old underclothes. His wrist was bandaged up, and I could see by the appearance of the flesh outside the bandage that he wasn’t lying about the burn. Nor could there be any doubt that he really was suffering with cold. His clothes were mighty thin, and he certainly had no underwear on—or if he had, the holes in the underwear and the holes in his trousers corresponded with phenomenal exactitude. I sat him down by the kitchen fire and talked with him while one of my daughters looked through my stock of clothing for an undershirt and drawers sufficiently valueless to give away.
The boy was like the knife grinder celebrated in history—he hadn’t any story to tell. He was the most densely ignorant specimen of humanity I ever encountered. I really don’t think he knew enough to construct a lie. He knew he came from Easton; he knew there was a place called Boston, where his uncle lived; he had a general idea that if he followed the New Jersey Central railroad track—though he didn’t know the name of the road—he would get to Boston in time; and that was all. He didn’t know where he was, he didn’t know what towns he had passed through, he had never heard of Plainfield, or Elizabeth, or Jersey City. He said his uncle in Boston was a day laborer, but didn’t know what street he lived in, had p. 6, col. 4 never seen him, had never had a letter from him, and couldn’t have read it if he had. He knew how to wash pots—at least I suppose he did—but apparently he knew nothing under heaven besides. If he had just come from washing pots in sic space, he couldn’t have shown more ignorance of the world around him.
I offered to dress his wrist and was mightily relieved when he declined, for he didn’t look nice to touch. He said he had had it dressed the day before at a drug store in a big city where this railroad and another railroad crossed each other. I couldn’t understand what city he meant at the time, but when I came to think it over after he had gone I concluded that he must have got as far as Elizabeth and then somehow got turned around and headed back toward Easton. When the underclothing arrived I gave it to him and showed him an outhouse where he could put it on. I was standing in the doorway when he reappeared, looking considerably bigger round the waist. He gave me a vacant sort of a look and shambled off without a word of thanks or farewell. I don’t know that I expected any. In strict justice, perhaps, I ought to have thanked him.
These are the true stories of my tramp experience so far. They haven’t been many, and I dare say you will find them very commonplace and uninteresting. To tell the truth, I have written them out because they are a puzzle to me, and I hoped that as I wrote I might reach a solution of the puzzle. But I haven’t.
What puzzles me is this: I treated these unfortunates in a variety of ways; but I never got any satisfaction out of it. Whatever I did for any one of them I always wished afterward that I had done something else—only I couldn’t say what. I felt sincerely sorry for most of them, and would gladly have shown my sympathy. But I didn’t know any way to do it; and looking back now that I have written out their stories, I can’t see that there was any way. Though I am a precious long way from being a Dives, yet between me and these poor Lazaruses there was a great gulf fixed—a gulf which I might, perhaps, step across if I chose to become a tramp myself, but which I could never reach across. For them and me there was no common standing ground on which we could talk as man to man. And yet the only really essential difference between me and them was that I had, and they hadn’t.
T. L. M’CREADY.
A Printer’s Illustration from His Own Trade.
BOSTON, Mass.—The inclosed list of single tax Cleveland supporters are all members of Typographical Union No. 13. There are a good many others among my acquaintances who are believers in free trade and the single tax, but who are not as yet voters.
It seems to me it ought to be an easy matter to convince printers that an unjust distribution of the “fat” of the land tends to make men selfish, narrow minded and cowardly, just as the unequal distribution of the “fat” of a newspaper does in the office where it is tolerated. The principles of our union are opposed to favoritism in giving out certain kinds of work to certain men unless they pay all the privilege is worth, and it is conceded that the best way to determine what the privilege is worth is to sell it at auction. It has been my experience that where these principles are carried out, where every man has an equal chance with every other man, each according to his ability, a better feeling prevails. In the office in which I am employed every man is on an equal footing, and the only way one man can make more money than another is either by his ability to set more type or by closer application to his work. As a consequence, there is a general feeling of satisfaction, and among fifty men I do not know one who is not friendly disposed toward all the rest. I formerly worked in an office where things were different. It seems that when this paper was an “infant industry” certain men were given the privilege of setting the advertisements. As the paper grew from an insignificant little sheet to one of our most prosperous metropolitan journals, other men were added to this favored class, and these men now virtually get all the “fat.” Every man in that office knows that the system is wrong, and several ineffectual attempts have been made to break it up. But opposed to all such attempts are the men who are directly benefited, the men who expect at some future time to be benefited, and the “conservatives,” who are satisfied with “things as they are.” As a consequence, a feeling of dissatisfaction prevails among all but the favored class, and the man who works in that office and is not willing to take every little mean advantage of his fellow workman is going to get decidedly the worst of it.
Printers know the way to secure equality, and in all good union offices equality is secured. They should all read “Progress and Poverty,” and learn how methods similar to their own would work when applied to land.
WM. F. SHERLOCK.
Which Horn of This Dilemma Will the Republicans Choose?
HUTCHINSON, Kan.—The republicans for more than a quarter of a century have been asking the support of the people in consequence of their war record. They claim the glory of putting down the rebellion. If they had not fought and bled and died the people of the southern states would have established a government of their own, and this would have been a terrible thing.
Now, suppose the people of the southern states had succeeded in establishing a government of their own, what would have been the most striking result? Obviously the establishment of a double line of custom houses between them and us. All other changes, when compared with this, would have been trivial. We could have got along without the southern congressmen and senators at Washington. We would have saved a great deal of wrangling and quarreling without them. We could have saved a million of men and more than six billions of dollars by allowing the people of the south to quietly secede. But we didn’t. We spent four years in the horrors of war. We sacrificed a million of lives and maimed a million more. We have spent more than six billions of dollars, all to prevent a double line of custom houses from being established between us and the people of the southern states, between us and the pauper labor of four millions of negro slaves. And the republicans think to-day that the country owes them an everlasting debt of gratitude, and billions more of pensions, and an eternal right to rule, for what they did in saving us from this double line of custom houses south of us.
But we have a double line of custom houses north of us, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the people on the other side of that line would be glad to have them abolished and to have commercial union established. Commercial union is very near a full union. The difference between a commercial p. 6, col. 5 union and a full union with Canada would be that in the former Canada would not send congressmen and senators to Washington to make fools of themselves, as some of ours do; nor would they get appropriations from our national treasury. In other words, a commercial union would have nearly all the blessings of a full union, without any of the curses.
We can abolish the custom houses north of us (where there is no pauper labor) for nothing, and without the loss of a man. But the republican party is opposed to this. That party would be willing to sacrifice another million of men and six billions of dollars more money to maintain that line of custom houses. I do not care which horn of the dilemma they choose, but I think they should either admit that it would be a good thing to abolish the custom houses north of us, or else that it was not a good thing to prevent them from being established south of us. They should not ask us for our support for what they did south of us, and at the same time ask us to support them for the opposite policy north of us.
J. G. MALCOLM.
Politics in Illinois.
GENESEE.—This is a unique campaign. Instead of the “bloody shirt” and glorious past of the old parties, the tariff and state reforms are discussed by both the speakers and press.
Ex-Governor Palmer is making an active canvass as democratic nominee for governor. If all the signs do not fail he will carry the state. The state taxes, without any debt, have increased in the last twelve years from twenty-seven cents to fifty-two cents on the hundred dollars. In the same period there has been a large decrease in the assessed value of property in the state, the most of which is found in the valuation of the railroads and the protected industries, the manufactories. The farmer has been growing poorer, yet his taxes have increased. The indications are that enough of them see the cat to give the electoral vote of the state to Cleveland.
Most of the labor leaders are free traders and support the democratic ticket. Bert. Stewart, of the state and national labor bureaus, is the fusion candidate for Congress in his district. It is the district from which the greenbackers and democrats elected Mr. Stephenson, the assistant postmaster general. Stewart will probably carry the district.
Owen G. Lovejoy, son of the abolitionist, renounced his faith in protection this spring, and the democrats nominated him for Congress. He has a 5,000 majority to overcome, so his conversion can not be for office. He is making a thorough canvass of the district, showing the absurdity of protection. I understand that he is a convert to the single tax theory.
It is through their party machinery that the republicans continue to hold the northwest. They have a “whipper” in each township, who threatens the deprivation forever of the sweets of office, which in nine cases out of ten proves potent. Half of the republicans in Illinois would vote for Cleveland and tariff reform if it was not for this party machine.
Hon. L. D. Whitney has been doing yeoman work throughout the northwest. He has been addressing farmers’ meetings on “the tariff and the trusts” since the first of last January. He has made a great impression upon the older men of the republican party. I find there are more old men changing their politics than young men. I also find that the wage-worker is doing more thinking on his “own hook” than ever before.
The labor party candidates are not going to poll many votes this election, though Streeter is universally respected. But the tariff question is of such vital interest that most of the old greenbackers and labor men feel compelled to vote with the democrats.
Most of the democrats in the west are free traders at heart, and Cleveland’s re-election will give them courage to fight the next campaign more openly.
E. J. P.
Going to Whoop Her Up for Cleveland and Freedom.
SPARROW BUSH, Orange County, N. Y.—Inclosed find list of names of men who will support Cleveland because he has taken the first step toward industrial emancipation. This district last fall gave Cook 61 votes, George 57, Grant 42. We expect to add the first two amounts together this fall and cast them for Cleveland, and in order to bring about this result we have organized a club and named ourselves “Progressives.” We shall hold weekly meetings at which all phases of taxation will be discussed.
We are all readers of THE STANDARD and fully believe in “free trade, free land and free men.”
C. L. DEDRICK, President. JOHN SHEEHAN, Secretary.
Labor Day—and What?
Detroit Advance.
Organized labor has celebrated its third anniversary. It has marched with music and banners, a spectacle for all the people who ever go out on the streets to see spectacles of any kind, and has been made the subject of lively admiration and much wonder as to what it all meant, any way.
As a parade it was a shining success. But what is the advantage gained? . .
One obscure little transparency in the line bore the legend, “Down with wage slavery.” Workingmen themselves are the ones to put it down. The best thing that can happen to a wage worker is to cease to be a wage worker. Did the demonstration teach them how to do that? Did it give any hint how to do it? While the line of separation between employer and employed was very distinctly drawn; and the former appeared, so far as they appeared at all, as the patrons of the latter, while the latter put on all their gayety and freedom; still, that is not the normal relation which should exist between the two classes.
Let all the people who marched fix their eyes on that bolted door upon which is inscribed, “We get rich through others’ poverty,” until it shall vanish out of their pathway; and then they may join in a parade which will be a genuine jubilee.
. . . At the precise hour when the labor day parade was billed to start from the Grand circus park on its annual exhibition, the auctioneer stood up to sell, in lots suitable for speculative purposes, 110 acres of land on both sides of McClelland avenue, in the eastern portion of the city.
MISCELLANEOUS.
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“DEMOCRATS,” ATTENTION!
It is proposed to organize an “INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION,” through which true “Democrats” the world over, without regard to national lines, may effectively co-operate to promote the reform of government (town, county, state, national and international) in accordance with the following principles:
I. That the one legitimate end of government is to guarantee to every one his just freedom: i. e., the largest liberty compatible with justice.
- That in order adequately to “guarantee to every one his just freedom,” government must, as fully as practicable—
- Guarantee to every one, by adequate legal sanctions, the following civil rights:
- The right to share equally with all others in the benefit of all naturally existing materials, liberties and opportunities (by personal use, occupation or control, where such use, occupation or control can be specifically had or enjoyed by all in common; and in all other cases by receiving, or otherwise profiting by, the current rent of all such “materials, liberties or opportunities,” the specific use, occupation or control of which cannot properly be had or enjoyed by all in common).
(b). The right to immunity from all aggressions on either person or property—whether direct, by violence, or indirect, by fraud, neglect, extortion, or breach of contract.
- Guarantee to every sane and non-criminal adult in the community—a really equal participation in the governmental function; directly, where their personal action is practicable and expedient; and indirectly, through really “responsible” and “representative” agencies, wherever the personal action of the citizens themselves is either impracticable or inexpedient.
- That the reforms involved in, and which would constitute the democratization of society, may be most efficiently, properly, and conveniently advocated, tested and introduced, by the organization of the International Democracy, itself upon democratic principles, and therefore under a constitution substantially similar to the political one recommended for society.
As, in some countries for all, and in all countries for some, it might be dangerous to avow membership of this body, the names of all desiring it will be kept secret.
A “Constitutional Convention,” representing the entire Federation, is called to meet in Washington, D. C., on the first Monday of May, 188[9?]. It is to consist of the [500?] (or fewer) candidates who shall have been named as proxies by more (actual or intending) members of the Federation than any other candidates not included in the number; no member to have more than one acting proxy (though each may name alternates), and each proxy to have in the convention not a single vote only, but precisely as many votes as he has principals to represent.
Every true democrat desiring to be represented is invited to send his or her designation of a proxy (and alternates), and every candidate for appointment as proxy, his name, address and personal policy (for publication, or private communication to inquirers, as he may choose). The results of the voting will be announced from time to time, the polls closing on the 1st of February, 1889.
Address, without delay, I. D. F., Box 15, Station D, New York City.
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Page 7 of 8contents
THE STANDARD, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888. 7
p. 7, col. 1
QUERIES AND ANSWERS.
Accumulated Wealth.
DETROIT, Mich.—Is it true that under the single tax accumulated wealth would escape its share of taxation? If not, why not?
J. K. [FINEHART?].
Accumulated wealth in the sense in which you use the term would not escape taxation, but in the true meaning of the term it would.
Accumulated wealth is composed of tangible things which have been formed by labor and are not yet consumed, such as horses, clothing, food, cattle, land, improvements, railway tracks and rolling stock, and so forth. These things would be exempt under the single tax. But what you mean, no doubt, by the term “accumulated wealth” is the value of property owned by the rich. The Astors, the Vanderbilts, the Goulds and others have fortunes estimated variously far up in the millions, and these fortunes are thought of as accumulated wealth. But in large part they are not accumulated wealth. For example, suppose the Astors own a house the value of which is the same as the lot on which it is erected; suppose that the net income from house and lot is $5,000; then at five per cent the house and lot are together worth $100,000; and as they are of equal value; the house is worth $50,000 and the lot is worth $50,000. Now, it would be said that in sic instance the accumulated wealth is $100,000, while in fact it is only $50,000, the value of the house. The remaining $50,000 is not accumulated wealth, but a capitalization of the annual value of the privilege of using the lot. To the Astors it is equivalent to accumulated wealth, since they can exchange it for wealth to that extent; but to the community it is not wealth at all. Its value represents nothing that the Astors or any other individual has added to the aggregate wealth, but only a power in them to tax the community. With the house it is different. Its value is an addition to the general wealth, and until its parts return in process of time to the original elements it will be a part of accumulated wealth.
Under the single tax this house would be exempt from taxation, but the lot would not; so, using the term “accumulated wealth” as you have used it, part would be exempt and part would not. It is the same with all sic “accumulated wealth.” Railroad stocks, mining stocks, manufacturing stocks, real estate deeds and so on, all of which are commonly but erroneously spoken of as accumulated wealth, would be exempt from taxation in so far as they represent products of human labor; but in so far as they represent land values they would be taxed, not directly as stocks and deeds, but indirectly through the tax on the value of the land they represent.
Commodities.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—(1) What is a commodity? (2) Is labor a commodity?
M. A. WELLARD.
Derivatively a “commodity” is anything which affords a convenience. Hence, goods are called commodities. But I should say that as a term of political economy commodities are things which are exchanged in commercial intercourse.
Labor is not a commodity. The laborer does not strictly sell his labor. What he sells is the products of his labor. As he sells these usually in advance of their production the transaction takes on the appearance of a sale of labor. But what really takes place when a laborer hires himself in this: The laborer wants commodities; to procure them he is willing to produce other commodities and exchange them; but as access to natural opportunities for production is practically denied him, he must make terms with some one who is able to get access to natural op portunities; this he does by agreeing that if permitted to produce commodities he will divide the result for the privilege; the commodities he then produces are added to the common stock, and part of their value is paid to him in money with which he buys the commodities he really desires; ultimately the commodities he produced reach the persons who desire them and who, to get them, have produced other commodities; and then the exchange is complete. Numerous laborers have produced different commodities, which through a variety of exchanges have been distributed according to the desires of each, and every laborer has relinquished part of his product for the privilege of producing. Complexity of industrial methods obscures but does not alter this process.
The Difference.
MURIETTA, Cal.—(1) Please state the difference between taxing land and taxing land values.
- It has been urged that under the single tax a person may have large wealth and escape taxation if he has no land or uses no land. I would like to know how that is.
STANFIELD ROSS.
A tax on land merely would be by area. The valueless would be taxed as high as the most valuable. Such a tax would promote monopoly of land. No one could use any land, even the poorest, without paying as high a tax as would be paid by the owner of the most desirable city lot or the richest mine. There would be no free land, and the tax would be shifted from the land owner to the laborer.
A tax on land values, on the contrary, would be graduated according to the value of the land on which it falls. Land having a great value would pay a high tax; land of less value would pay a lower tax, and land of no value would pay no tax. It would make it unprofitable to hold land except for use, and land not used would be free. And as labor could resort to free land to produce, the tax on land that had a value could not be shifted to the laborer. Laborers, for example, would not work on land where they could produce 10, but must pay a tax of 2, if they could go for nothing on land where they could produce more than 8.
Under the single tax a man having large wealth might escape taxation. To do so, however, he would have to live upon land lying below the margin of production and which would have no value. If he lived on better land he would be taxed according to its value. His wealth too would have to consist exclusively of pro
p. 7, col. 2 ducts of labor, for if he owned interests in land anywhere he would be taxed according to the value of those interests. And if his wealth consisted exclusively of labor products and he lived on land having no value, why should he not escape taxation? The greater his wealth, the better it would be for everybody. But whether that were true or not, what right would you have to tax part of his wealth away from him? If he earned it honestly, by his own labor, it belongs to him, and it is confiscation if the community forces him to surrender any part of it. If he did not earn it honestly his case belongs to the criminal and not to the fiscal department of sic.
Who Pays the Duty?
PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—I have had several discussions as to who pays the tariff duty on importations, the foreign producer or the domestic consumer. Will you be kind enough to fully explain this point, telling when the producer pays and when the consumer pays, and greatly oblige
A REGULAR READER.
The domestic consumer pays the tariff duty on all importations of competitive commodities. Duties on monopolized commodities may be paid by the foreign producer. On this point Mr. George says at page 97 of “Protection or Free sic?” “It is only where prices are fixed by the will of the producer that increase or decrease in supply does not result in increase or decrease of price. Thus, while the newspaper business is not a monopoly, the publication of each individual paper is, and its price is fixed by the publisher. A publisher may, and in most cases will, prefer increased circulation to increased prices. And if competition were to be lessened or even cut off, as, for instance, by imposing a stamp duty on, or prohibiting the publication of all the newspapers of New York save one, it would not necessarily follow that the price of that paper would be increased. But the prices of the great mass of commodities, and especially the great mass of commodities which are exported and imported, are regulated by competition. They are not fixed by the will of the producers, but by the relative intensity of supply and demand which are brought to an equation in price by what Adam Smith called ‘the higgling of the market,’ and hence any lessening in supply caused by the shutting out of importations will at once increase prices.”
LOUIS F. POST.
Duties on Raw Materials.
MECHANICSVILLE, Md.—Will you kindly let me know what duties are levied on salt, sugar, wool, iron, etc, six or eight leading articles.
L. J. ATWATER.
In 1887 the duty on salt in bags, sacks and barrels, was 12 cents per 100 pounds, averaging 39 per cent ad valorem; on salt in bulk, 8 cents per 100 pounds, averaging 79 per cent ad valorem. On wools the duty averaged 36 per cent. On iron ores, 40 per cent; pig iron, 43 per cent; bar iron, 51 per cent; on copper ore, 49 per cent; on pig and bar copper, 41 per cent; on lead ore, 59 per cent; on pig lead, 69 per cent; on zinc, 46 per cent; on china clay, 45 per cent; on nickel, 31 per cent; on alcohol, 171 per cent; on unmanufactured tobacco, 71 to 113 per cent; on timber, 20 per cent; on plaster of paris, 20 per cent; on bituminous coal, 24 per cent.
Subsidized Steamships.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.—Please answer the following questions through THE STANDARD: (1) Does England now, or did she lately, subsidize any of her steamship lines? (2) If so, why?
EDWARD FERGUSON.
Yes.
Mainly, if not wholly, because she wants to have the privilege of using their vessels for transportation of troops in case of war.
Monopoly of Patents.
NEWPORT, R. I.—If you think it of sufficient interest to the readers of THE STANDARD, I would like to see explained the “Gilchrist-Thomas process,” as pertaining to the manufacture of rails, and the means which were resorted to to suppress the use of the invention in this country; also if free trade would have prevented such suppression, and any remarks you may think pertinent to the subject.
J. M. HEARD.
The Thomas-Gilchrist process was invented by two chemists named Thomas and Gilchrist, of London, England, about ten years ago. It is an improvement on the old Bessemer process of making steel, which, according to Chambers’ encyclopedia, consists in blowing air through molten pig iron, till the whole of the carbon and silicon is removed by oxidation, and then introducing into the melted iron a given quantity of spiegeleisen (a peculiar kind of cast iron) containing a known percentage of carbon, for recarbonizing. This process is unavailable for making steel from pig iron containing much phosphorus, and this is the cheapest iron made. The Thomas-Gilchrist invention consists in a so-called basic lining to the converter in which the molten iron is held, which lining absorbs the phosphoric acid and permits the use of the cheap phosphoric iron in the Bessemer process. “The Thomas-Gilchrist invention,” says James M. Swank, in his special census report (census of 1880) on iron and steel manufacture, “is now practiced with success in Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Russia. It has not yet been introduced in this country. The entire control in the United States of the Thomas-Gilchrist patents has been purchased by the Bessemer steel company, limited.”
Whether it is because the phosphoric pig iron is not abundant here, or because it would cost too much to adopt the Thomas-Gilchrist process, for one reason or another the great combination which controls all the patents relating to the Bessemer process in this country does not see fit to use the Thomas improvement, nor to allow anyone else to use it. The abolition of the tariff on steel would force our steel manufacturers to use whatever process was cheapest, but there will also have to be some reform in our patent laws before cases like this can be effectively dealt with. It is said that the Western Union telegraph company have also bought up scores of patents, some of them of great value, which they hold unused, probably because it would force them to over-water their already diluted stock to pay for the new plant necessary to use the inventions.
W. B. SCOTT.
p. 7, col. 3
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PROGRESS AND POVERTY.
An Inquiry Into the Cause of Industrial Depression and of Increase of Want With Increase of Wealth—The Remedy.
BY HENRY GEORGE.
[250?] pages.
CONTENTS:
Introductory.—THE PROBLEM.
Book I.—WAGES AND CAPITAL.
Chap. 1. The current doctrine—its insufficiency. 2. The meaning of the terms. 3. Wages not drawn from capital, but produced by the labor. 4. The maintenance of laborers not drawn from capital. 5. The real functions of capital.
Book II.—POPULATION AND SUBSISTENCE.
Chap. 1. The Malthusian theory—its genesis and support. 2. Inferences from fact. 3. Inferences from analogy. 4. Disproof of the Malthusian theory.
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Chap. 1. The primary cause of recurring paroxysms of industrial depression. 2. The persistence of poverty amid advancing wealth.
Book VI.—THE REMEDY.
Chap. 1. Insufficiency of remedies currently advocated. 2. The true remedy.
Book VII.—JUSTICE OF THE REMEDY.
Chap. 1. Injustice of private property in land. 2. Enslavement of laborers the ultimate result of private property in land. 3. Claim of land owners to compensation. 4. Property in land historically considered. 5. Property in land in the United States.
Book VIII.—APPLICATION OF THE REMEDY.
Chap. 1. Private property in land inconsistent with the best use of land. 2. How equal rights to the land may be asserted and secured. 3. The proposition tried by the canons of taxation. 4. Indorsements and objections.
Book IX.—EFFECTS OF THE REMEDY.
Chap. 1. Of the effect upon the production of wealth. 2. Of the effect upon distribution and thence upon production. 3. Of the effect upon individuals and classes. 4. Of the changes that would be wrought in social organization and social life.
Book X.—THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS.
Chap. 1. The current theory of human progress—its insufficiency. 2. Differences in civilization—to what due. 3. The law of human progress. 4. How modern civilization may decline. 5. The central truth.
Conclusion.—THE PROBLEM OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE.
The new Land and labor library paper edition of “Progress and Poverty” is now ready, price thirty-five cents. This is printed on better paper, in larger type, is better bound and a considerably larger book than the previous twenty cent edition.
PROTECTION OR FREE TRADE?
An Examination of the Tariff Question with Especial Regard to the Interests of Labor.
BY HENRY GEORGE.
CONTENTS:
I. Introductory. II. Clearing ground. III. Of method. IV. Protection as a universa sic. V. The protective unit. VI. Trade. VII. Production and producers. VIII. Tariffs for revenue. IX. Tariffs for protection. X. The encouragement of industry. XI. The home market and home trade. XII. Exports and imports. XIII. Confusions arising from the use of money. XIV. Do high wages necessitate protection XV. Of advantages and disadvantages as reasons for protection. XVI. The Development of manufactures. XVII. Protection and producers. XVIII. Effect of protection on American industry. XIX. Protection and wages. XX. The abolition of protection. XXI. Inadequacy of the free trade argument. XXII. The Real Weakness of Free Trade. XXIII. The Real Strength of Protection. XXIV. The Paradox. XXV. The Robber that Takes All that is Left. XXVI. True Free Trade. XXVII. The Lion in the Way. XXVIII. Free Trade and Socialism. XXIX. Practical Politics. XXX. Conclusion.
THE LAND QUESTION.
What It Involves, and How Alone It Can Be Settled.
BY HENRY GEORGE.
87 pages.
PROPERTY IN LAND.
A Passage-at-Arms Between the Duke of Argyll and Henry George.
77 pages.
FORTSCHRITT AND sic.
(Progress and Poverty in German.)
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430 pages.
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Progress and Poverty, paper …….. $ 35 ” ” cloth …….. 1 00 ” ” half calf or half morocco…. 2 50 Social Problems, paper …….. 20 ” ” cloth …….. 1 00 ” ” half calf or half morocco…….. 2 50 Protection or Free Trade? paper …….. 35 ” ” cloth …….. 1 50 ” ” half calf or half morocco 3 00 Property in Land, paper …….. 15 The Land Question, paper …….. 10 Progress and Poverty, German, paper …….. 35
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HENRY GEORGE, 12 Union square, New York.
p. 7, col. 4
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The following Tracts on the Tariff Question are published in the Land and Labor Library:
No. 57. “Protection as a Universal Need.” Henry George. 4 pages.
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No. 63. “American Protection and British Free Trade.” Henry George. 4 pages.
No. 69. “Protection and Wages.” Henry George. 8 pages.
No. 70. “The Common Sense of the Tariff Question.” Thomas G. Shearman. 8 pages.
No. 72. “Protection the Friend of Labor?” Thomas G. Shearman. 8 pages.
No. 75. “A Short Tariff History.” Thomas G. Shearman. 2 pages.
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[Advertisement] MRS. AGATHA MUNIER ATKINS
MRS. AGATHA MUNIER ATKINS WILL continue to receive pupils in solo singing and vocal sight reading at her residence. 223 E. 32d street, New York.
SINGLE TAX CLUB MEETINGS.
TO THE SINGLE TAX MEN OF WEST VIRGINIA: Will the single tax men in West Virginia please send their addresses to me at this point. Send the names of all the George men you know of in your neighborhood and be particular to give post office address. A state organization is proposed and any suggestions or information will be carefully considered. W. I. BOREMAN, Parkersburg, Wood county, West Virginia.
THE ST. LOUIS SINGLE TAX LEAGUE meets every Sunday evening at 7:30 p. m., at Ninth street and Franklin avenue. Secretary, B. E. Bloom, [3925?] Lucky street.
ALL SINGLE TAX MEN IN THE 22D assembly district will please meet next Monday evening, (Sept. 24) at Michelson’s cigar store, 1621 2d avenue, to form a Cleveland and Thurman club.
Arthur Fiegel, August Schulz, S. Ettinger.
p. 7, col. 5
[Advertisement] NEW PUBLICATIONS.
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BELFORD’S MAGAZINE, published monthly, is devoted to politics, fiction, poetry, general literature, science and art.
In politics the new magazine will give an independent support to the democratic party and to the present sic. It will advocate the extinguishment of the surplus by a reform of the present iniquitous and burdensome tariff in the direction of free trade, or of a tariff for revenue only.
The department of fiction will be exceptionally full. Instead of a serial story, dragging its length through several months, and exhausting the patience of the reader, a complete novel will be published in each number; and each issue will also contain one or more short stories complete.
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SPECIALLY SELECTED FROM BOTH SIDES.
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The following is a list of the names of the honorable gentlemen whose speeches are printed in the work: Hon. Mr. Mills of Texas. Hon. Mr. Kelley of Pennsylvania. Hon. Mr. Scott of Pennsylvania. Hon. Mr. Wilson of West Virginia. Hon. Mr. McKinley of Ohio. Hon. Mr. McMillin of Tennessee. Hon. Mr. Butterworth of Ohio. Hon. Mr. Cox of New York. Hon. Mr. Burrows of Michigan. Hon. Mr. Reed of Maine. Hon. Mr. Carlisle of Kentucky.
Special editions of not less than 2,000 copies for campaign purposes made at greatly reduced prices. If required, all the republican speeches can be had in a separate volume, or all the democratic ones likewise.
THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF: WHAT IT DOES FOR US.
BY GENERAL HERMANN sic.
Fourth edition, with revisions and additions. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00.
THE PRESS UNANIMOUS IN ITS PRAISE.
This book shows the practical effect of the protective system upon the country. Perhaps the most conspicuous feature of the book is its exact alignment with the message of President Cleveland. But for the fact that the General’s work was in print before the message was made public, it might be supposed he had written it to defend the president’s position on the tariff.
The position of Mr. Blaine’s “Twenty Years in sic” is taken up, his assertions upon the tariff are analyzed, criticised and made to furnish their own refutation.
The arrangement of the subject is in a most convenient form, and renders what is usually considered a most sic subject easy of comprehension. It would serve as a tariff primer for the learner as well as a text book for the learned.
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OLD MAN GILBERT.
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p. 7, col. 6
[Advertisement] NEW PUBLICATIONS. THE LAND AND LABOR LIBRARY.
THE LAND AND LABOR LIBRARY.—We are now publishing under the title of “The Land and Labor Library” a series of short tracts on various phases of the social problem. These pamphlets contain facts, figures and arguments expressed in concise, vigorous language easily understood. As a means of propaganda we recommend them to all who desire to help on the movement for social reform. Those who wish to have these tracts placed where they will do good but who are unable personally to attend to their distribution, can remit the price to us, as we have every facility for sending them where they are needed and will be read.
The following have already appeared:
No. 1. “First Principles.” By Henry George. 4 pages.
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No. 16. “The Anti-Poverty Society.” Dr. McGlynn’s address at the first meeting. 8 pages.
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No. 18. “It is the Law of Christ.” By Rev. S. H. Spencer of Henry, Ill. 4 pages.
No. 19. “My Landlord. By John Jones. 4 pages.
No. 20. “Thou Shalt Not Steal.” An address by Henry George before the Anti-Poverty Society. 8 pages.
No. 21. “Christianity and Poverty.” An address by Father Huntington before the Anti-poverty society. 4 pages.
No. 22. “Poverty and Christianity.” An address by Rev. Hugh O. Pentecost before the Anti-poverty society. 8 pages.
No. 23. “The Single Tax.” By Thomas G. Shearman. 8 pages.
No. 24. “Hymns of the New Crusade”—No. 1. 4 pages.
No. 25. “Hymns of the New Crusade”—No. 2. 4 pages.
No. 26. “Religion vs. Robbery.” Address by Rev. Dr McGlynn before the New York Anti-poverty society, June 12, 1887. 8 pages.
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No. 30. “The Case Plainly Stated.” A speech by H. F. Ring before the Knights of Labor at Houston, Texas. 8 pages.
No. 31. “Questions and Answers.” Questions by Rev. Howard Henderson of the Sixty-first street M. E. church of New York; with answers by Henry George. 2 pages.
No. 32. “Objections to the Land Tax.” By Thomas G. Shearman. 4 pages.
No. 33. “Socialism—Its Truth and Its Error.” Henry George. 4 pages.
No. 34. “Horse Sense.” W. C. Woods. 2 pages.
No. 35. The Syracuse Platform. 2 pages.
No. 36. “[Citycus?] and Rusticus.” Tudor S. Jenks. 4 pages.
No. 37. “Taxing Land Values.” Henry George. 8 pp.
No. 38. “God Wills It.” Henry George. 4 pages.
No. 39. “What We Want.” Everett Glackin, president Typographical Union No. 6. 2 pages.
No. 40. “Protection or Free Trade.” Henry George. Price, 35 cents.
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No. 44. “How John’s Father Saw the Light.” W. C. Woods, M. D. 2 pages.
- Platform of the United Labor Party. 2 pages.
No. 46. “Taxing Land Values.” (German.) Henry George. [8?] pages.
No. 47. “It is the Law of Christ.” (German.) Rev. S. H. Spencer. 4 pages.
No. 48. “The Case Plainly Stated.” (German). H. F. Ring. 8 pages.
No. 49. “The Distribution of Wealth.” Thomas G. Shearman. 16 pages.
No. 50. “Progress and Poverty.” (German.) Henry George.
No. 51. “Ten Thoughts for Christian Thinkers.” Rev. John W. Kramer. 4 pages.
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No. 53. “Sailors’ Snug Harbor.” (German.) Wm. T. Croasdale. 12 pages.
No. 54. “What the United Labor Party Want.” Henry George. 2 pages.
No. 55. “Stories for Farmers.” 4 pages.
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No. 57. “Protection as a Universal Need.” Henry George. 4 pages.
No. 58. “To a College Professor.” Bartholomew Appleby. 4 pages.
No. 59. “Before a Royal Commission.” W. A. Douglass. 4 pages.
No. 60. “The Tariff Question.” Henry George. 4 pages.
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No. 67. “A Piece of Land” By the late Francis G. Shaw. 2 pages.
No. 68. “The Tax on Buildings.” William T. Croasdale. 8 pages.
No. 69. “Protection and Wages.” Henry George. 8 pages.
No. 70. “The Common Sense of the Tariff Question. Thomas G. Shearman. 8 pages.
No. 71. “My Butcher Woman and My Grocery Man. William McCabe. 4 pages.
No. 72. “Protection the Friend of Labor?” Thomas G. Shearman. 8 pages.
No. 73. “Property in Land.” Henry George. Price, 15 cents.
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No. 75. “A Short Tariff History.” Thomas G. Shearman. 2 pages.
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No. 77. An Address to Workingmen on the Tariff Question. Henry George. 4 pages.
No. 78. “Election Reform.” Louis F. Post. 10 pages.
No. 79. “A Republican’s Reasons for Supporting Cleveland.” Judge Frank T. Reid. 2 pages.
GERMAN TRACTS.
No. 41. The Syracuse Platform. 2 pages. No. 42. “First Principles.” Henry George. 4 pages. No. 43. “Socialism—Its Truth and Its Error.” Henry George. 4 pages. No. 46. “Taxing Land Values.” Henry George. 8 pages. No. 47. “It is the Law of Christ.” Rev. S. H. Spencer of Henry, Ill. 4 pages. No. 48. “The Case Plainly Stated.” H. F. Ring. 8 pages. No. 50. “Progress and Poverty.” Henry George. No. 52. “The Case Plainly Stated.” (Swedish.) H. F. Ring. 8 pages. No. 53. “Sailors’ Snug Harbor.” Wm. T. Croasdale. 12 pages.
SWEDISH.
No. 52. “The Case Plainly Stated.” H. F. Ring. 8 pages.
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THE NEW CHRISTIANITY.—A bi-weekly independent journal, recognizing the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man as the essentials of religion, and Emanuel Swedenborg as the illumined instrument of the new dispensation and era now so manifestly beginning.
In sympathy with every movement toward the realization of the Lord’s kingdom on earth, and having no desire to build up a sect or to interfere with any one’s church relation, it opens its columns to all religious, moral and social questions, guided by one principle alone—the thought and love of USE.
Editors, B. F. Barrett and S. H. Spencer. Price, $2 a year. Sample copies free. Address NEW CHRISTIANITY, Germantown, Pa.
[Advertisement] ANTI-POVERTY DOCTRINES IN A NUTSHELL.
ANTI-POVERTY DOCTRINES IN A NUTSHELL.
Thirty pamphlets on various phases of the social problem. The question of the hour. All should understand it. Will be sent post paid on receipt of fifteen cents in stamps, or will be sent free to any one sending twenty-five cents for six months’ subscription to the Tax Reformer, a sixteen page journal. Address, ANTI-POVERTY PRESS, 1791 Lexington ave., N. Y.
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Page 8 of 8contents
p. 8, col. 1
CURRENT THOUGHT.
“Belford’s Magazine” for September.
Under Donn Piatt’s management Belford’s is rapidly forcing its way to the front rank of periodicals. Unlike most of its contemporaries, Belford’s has decided opinions in politics and economics, for whose advocacy it enlists the service of the ablest and best known pens. A sufficient supply of fiction and poetry is provided for the general reader, and a complete original novel forms a part—and thus far in the life of the magazine, a very attractive part—of each issue. Altogether Belford’s shows an intention to shun the well-worn ruts in which its contemporaries travel, and moves boldly along a new and hitherto untried road, which ought to lead to success.
William T. Croasdale’s article in the September issue, on “The Democratic Party and the Tariff,” is something more than an excellent campaign document. It is an important chapter of political history, valuable to every student of American institutions and polity. Admitting candidly that Jefferson and the other leaders of the old national republican party, from which the present democratic party is descended, had a scarcely formulated belief in the desirability of “incidental protection,” Mr. Croasdale nevertheless makes it clear that Jefferson and his political successors have, on every necessary occasion, with the single exception of the Greeley campaign, consistently affirmed the doctrine that the taxing powers of the government should be employed for the raising of the necessary revenue only. To men who have learned to see the economic beauty of the single tax, it need scarcely be pointed out that such a doctrine, in its legitimate conclusion, will no more justify incidental than absolute protection; and in reaffirming this important principle as the foundation of their economic faith, the present leaders of the democracy have really turned their faces squarely toward the rising sun of freedom.
The scope and purpose of Mr. Croasdale’s contribution are well set forth in its concluding paragraphs:
Thus it appears that from the birth of the democratic party down to the present time its every official utterance save one has been against the policy of a tariff for the sake of protection, and that one exception, made by the convention that nominated Horace Greeley, was a mere evasion of the question which the convention remitted to the people of the various congressional districts. Such differences as existed among democrats before the civil war afford no evidence that during that period a single member of the party could have been found to countenance or defend such a tariff as now exists—one that levies duties higher than Henry Clay ever dared to suggest, and yields a surplus more than twice as large as the whole revenue of the government after the close of the Mexican war. There is no longer any pretense that our custom house taxation has for its primary object the raising of revenue, and its advocates practically admit that protection is its object and revenue the incident. Throughout its whole existence the democratic party has never, through legislation shaped by it, or in its official utterances, failed to indicate its settled hostility to such a scheme of taxation. The pretended democrats who aid the republican party in the maintenance of such a tariff seek to justify their conduct by false statements as to the past attitude of the party, and by quoting the tariff plank of 1884. Unsatisfactory and un-democratic as is their interpretation of that plank, it does not justify such a position. The experience of the past four years has shown how preposterous is the pretense that the wages of labor are maintained by such a system. The chief beneficiaries of protection, many of whom have amassed enormous fortunes, unblushingly hire Pinkerton detectives to drive American workmen from their mills to make way for that “pauper foreign labor” against which they impudently pretend that the tariff protects American workmen. The other false pretense, that protection eventually cheapens the products of domestic manufacturers, is effectually disposed of by the formation of trusts to prevent the reduction of prices through home competition.
These startling demonstrations of the untruthfulness of every claim ever made in behalf of the protective system, as a means of promoting the general welfare, justify the position of the party in the past, and effectually dispose of the claim of the small knot of obstructionists on the democratic side of the house that they are seeking to promote the public interests by their course. The question of protection is to-day, as it has been for more than half a century, one of those dividing the two great political parties, and no one having any real knowledge of our political history will attempt to deny that the traditional attitude of the democratic party has been one of irreconcilable hostility to such a tariff as now exists. The division is, as Mr. Butterworth asserts and as Mr. Cartisle admits, not one of mere detail, but a radical and irreconcilable difference as to the justice, the wisdom and the constitutionality of the protective system. No fact in history is better established than this, and it is an evidence of either dishonesty or gross ignorance [in?] any defender of the present tariff to pretend that he is in accord with democratic opinion either now or in the past. Such a man may have the right to claim that he is serving what appears to him to be the best interests of the country, but he has no right to call himself a democrat.
If justification were wanting of Mr. Croasdale’s claim that the true principles of the democracy are opposed to protectionism, it might be found in Speaker Carlisle’s brief essay on “The tariff and the evils thereof,” in which he laughs to scorn the protectionist idea of creating wealth by taxation, shows how taxation for protective purposes has resulted in a continuous waste of capital and labor, and avows that taxation should have no other object than the raising of the necessary revenue for the support of the government:
In the households of the poor, in the fields and forests, in the mines and factories, in the
p. 8, col. 2 stores and shops, on the railroads and canals and rivers, on the high seas—everywhere there are American industries struggling with the mighty forces of nature, and subduing, combining and utilizing the elements of the earth and the air; and any view of our industrial system which fails to comprehend all these necessarily leads to partial and erroneous conclusions. Taking that view of these various industries which comprehends the smallest as well as the greatest, and appreciates the interests of the whole instead of a part only, it is impossible to understand how their growth and prosperity can be promoted by taxation in any form.
. . . With a fertile soil and a friendly climate; with inexhaustible stores of coal and iron—the two most powerful material agencies in modern civilization; with a vast extent of unoccupied and [underveloped?] territory; with free institutions, and an intelligent, industrious and enterprising population, we ought to be exempt from the social and political diseases, which afflict the crowded nations of the old world, and we will be exempt from them when we tax all alike and protect all alike. Living in such a country, and surrounded by the marvellous achievements of the most wonderful half century in the annals of the human race, if the people continue unprosperous and discontented, if wealth continues to accumulate rapidly in the hands of the idle few, while hunger and nakedness increase in the very homes of industry, and if invested capital remains uneasy and insecure, and labor dissatisfied, it will be a burning disgrace to the statesmanship of the age; and a terrible weight of responsibility will rest upon those who reject all measures of relief, and cling with stubborn tenacity to the worst features of the system under which these evils have originated and attained their present proportions.
But, no matter who may desert or who may falter, the great fight for reform will go on. This country does not belong to either the monopolists or the communists, and the people will save it from both. Between the two there stands a great and powerful body of enlightened, conservative and patriotic citizens, who respect equally the rights of capital and labor, who obey the laws and preserve the public peace, and who, in spite of all combinations and conspiracies, will ultimately see that the true principles of justice and equality prevail in the legislation of the country. Even to prevent the continuance of long-existing and constantly increasing evils, they will not rush from one extreme to another, but will proceed carefully, deliberately and resolutely to correct inequalities, remove unnecessary burdens, and open the paths that lead to peace and prosperity. While free trade is impracticable, industrial and commercial emancipation can and will be accomplished by wise and moderate measures of reform, without interfering with any private enterprise or injuring any public interest. To this policy some of us, at least, are irrevocably pledged, not only by the traditions and repeated declarations of the political party to which we belong, but by a sense of personal and official duty which cannot be disregarded without betraying the confidence reposed in us by the people. Whether in public or in private life, I shall stand by that pledge, and, to the extent of my abilities and opportunities, contribute in every honorable way to the early and complete triumph of revenue reform.
These are manly words, and full of hope. And Mr. Carlisle himself will some day come to appreciate their full and perfect meaning. When once the truth shall flash upon him that the mighty forces of nature, the elements of the earth and the air, the fertile soil and friendly climate, the inexhaustible stores of coal and iron, the vast extent of unoccupied and undeveloped territory, of which he speaks, are the rightful heritage of all men and not of some men; and that in their control by individuals are bedded the foundation stones of that mighty monopoly of which the protective system is but a part—when once he shall understand this, his own words will have new significance for him, and he will see that absolute free trade is practicable and is a necessary condition of “industrial and commercial emancipation.” Mr. Carlisle is not yet an advocate of the single tax. But if he reads his own writings thoughtfully, he soon will be.
An Australian Lesson.
Protectionists love facts and figures, and in the September issue of the Nineteenth Century Mr. Edward sic, a well known Australian journalist, sets forth a few which they will find decidedly interesting. He tells the story of two colonies, lying side by side, having the same natural resources, the same climate, and peopled by the same race; the only difference between them being that for two-thirds of a generation one has been developing her infant industries by a protective tariff, while the other has been content to levy duties only upon such things as are not produced within her own borders.
The colonies in question are Victoria and New South Wales; and how they stood at the beginning of the remarkable experiment they have been jointly trying may be judged from the following figures, which Mr. Pulsford quotes from official sources:
| Victoria. | New South Wales. | |
|---|---|---|
| Population (1866)……………. | 636,982. | [431,412.?] |
| Revenue (1866)……………. | £3,079,160. | [£2,012,079.?] |
| Letters received and dispatched (1866)……………. | [8,631,188.?] | [6,678,371.?] |
| Telegrams (1866)……………. | [277,778.?] | 148,523. |
| Imports and exports, average of three years, [1869?]-70-71……………. | [£26,399,644.?] | [£18,309,351.?] |
In general terms it may be said that Victoria was fifty per cent better off than New South Wales. On protectionist principles, New South Wales’s only chance to defend herself against her powerful neighbor was to build a tariff wall, high and strong, around her territory. On the same principles, if Victoria wanted to maintain and increase her supremacy, what she had to do was to build a tariff wall around her territory, and poor New South Wales would stand no show at all.
Well, Victoria built the tariff wall, and New South Wales maintained her policy of approximate free trade. And the result
TO SINGLE TAX CLEVELAND VOTERS.
The conference of single tax men held at Cooper union, New York, on Monday, August 6, decided to make an enrollment of all single tax men who propose to support Cleveland and Thurman. All who desire to have their names added to this roll can do so by signing the blank given below and forwarding it to this office. One blank can be made to serve for a number of signatures by clipping it out and pasting it on a sheet of paper.
I authorize the enrollment of my name on the list of voters who propose to support Cleveland and Thurman in the coming election, on the ground that any step toward tariff reduction tends toward the abolition of all taxes on the products of labor, and the final transfer of such taxes to land values.
NAME,…………………………………………………………
ADDRESS,…………………………………………………………
Send this blank when signed to THE STANDARD office, 12 Union square, New York.
p. 8, col. 3 was that after twenty years the two colonies stood as follows:
| Victoria. | New South Wales. | |
|---|---|---|
| Population (1886)……………. | [1,033,052?] | 1,030,762 |
| Revenue (1885)……………. | 6,230,361 | 7,584,593 |
| Imports and exports, average of three years, [1883-84-85?]……………. | [£34,380,890?] | 40,610,536 |
| Manufacturing establishments(1886) | 2,813 | 3,612 |
| Males employed in manufacturing (1886)……………. | [41,543?] | [42,239?] |
| Females employed in manufacturing (1886)……………. | 7,755 | [8,404?] |
| Value of plant and machinery (1886) | [£4,645,693?] | [£5,801,757?] |
| Horse power of machinery (1886)… | 20,160 | [25,192?] |
| Value of wool exported (1886)…….. | [2,750,000?] | [7,260,000?] |
| Acres under cultivation (1886)……. | [2,405,000?] | [868,000?] |
| Grain product (1886)……………. | 16,500,000 | [7,800,000?] |
| Average number of bushels of grain to each acre under cultivation…. | 6 | [8.6?] |
| Insolvencies, eighteen years, [1868?] to [1885?]……………. | 18,001 | [11,592?] |
| Deficiencies in insolvencies………. | [£5,366,890?] | [£4,486,658?] |
| Tea consumed per head, ounces, (1886)……………. | 110 | 117 |
| Coffee consumed per head, ounces (1886)……………. | 16 | 11 |
| Sugar consumed per head, pounds, (1886)……………. | [92 1-2?] | 102 |
| Currants, etc., consumed per head, ounces, (1886)……………. | [86?] | 111 |
| Spirits consumed per head, gills, (1886)……………. | [18 1-3?] | 20 2-3 |
| Beer consumed per head, gallons. (1886)……………. | 16 | 16 1-2 |
| Tobacco consumed per head, ounces (1886)……………. | [35 1-2?] | [46?] |
| Railway laborers wages per day (1886)……………. | 5s. | 7s. |
Alas! alas! for the great protective system! Alas! for the facts and figures! In utter defiance of the Pennsylvano-Chinese political economy, the free trade colony has caught and passed her protected rival. Deluged with foreign made pauper goods, with her home market abandoned to the mercy of the world, she has yet somehow managed to develop her manufactures, to keep up the wages of her unskilled labor, to increase her population 130 per cent, to allow her people more luxuries than Victoria can afford, to have fewer bankruptcies than her protected neighbor.
These figures tell the story, but not the whole story. Mr. Pulsford reinforces them with additional statistical facts. Here, for example, is an item concerning population:
In 1871 the Victorian census showed a total population of 731,528. During the following decade the excess of births over deaths amounted to 145,903 and the immigration to 53,000. When the census of 1881 was taken it was found that the population was 68,000 short of the total of these numbers. In other words, Victoria has lost a number equal to her entire immigration and 15,000 also of her own natural increase. Practically, therefore, Victoria was, like the old countries of Europe, parting with her surplus population. Strange position to be occupied by the colony that had made such boasts of its power to give employment! More significant still, perhaps, are the figures relating to the change in the quality of the Victorian population. The “soldier’s age” is from twenty to forty; yet, spite of her then much larger total population, Victoria was in the census year found to possess about 18,000 fewer men of this desirable range of age than New South Wales. On this point the following was written by Mr. Hayter, the Victorian government statistician, in his “General Report” on the census:
“It will be noticed that the contingent available from this colony (Victoria) is smaller by 18,000 than that from New South Wales, and a simple calculation will show that, relatively to the total population, males at the soldier’s age are fewer in Victoria than in any of the other Australian colonies. In fact, it may be stated that the deficiency of males at this important period of life is the weakest point in the Victorian population.”
Probably what may be described as the cream of the working population are the males between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five. The changes in this portion of the people in the two colonies, during the decade, were simply extraordinary, as the following table will show:
MALES. Ages 25 to 45.
| 1871 | 1881 | |
|---|---|---|
| Victoria……………. | 135,413 | 99,497 |
| New South Wales……… | 83,275 | 115,991 |
New South Wales showed a gain of 32,716, whilst Victoria showed a positive loss of 35,916. In 1871 Victoria was 52,138 ahead; in 1881 she was 16,494 behind, a change against Victoria in the relative position of no less than 68,632! The manufacturers of Victoria pleaded hard for the power to tax the people, and pledged themselves that if this power were granted to them none should go unemployed nor lack adequate remuneration for honest work. How have those pledges been redeemed? The official figures just quoted show that silently and almost as regularly as the fall of the sand in the glass of time there has been a flow of labor from protected Victoria to free trade New South Wales. The Victorians took the money but did not give the employment. Thousand after thousand stalwart fellows had to leave Victoria to find homes and bread for themselves and families elsewhere.
Fancy an Australian colony, with a population of less than twelve to the square mile, parting with her surplus population! Fancy her driving out, not the feeble and the lazy, but the able bodied men in life’s prime, whose only reason for going is that they are denied the privilege of work. Fancy them going to a free trade country to find the employment that protection denied them at home. And while the able bodied men are thus exiled, nearly 8,000 women remain behind to work in protected manufactories!
And, withal, the protected manufacturers of Victoria are not happy. Their infant industries have been nursed for twenty years, but are still too tender to be weaned. They want more protection. Of course they do. Their plaintive wail sounds like an echo from our own be-tariffed land:
It is not twenty-one years since Victoria inaugurated the system of protection. Is not a period of twenty-one years sufficient for the infancy of any industry? At the close of such a period ought not maturity to be reached, and power to stand and to walk alone be achieved? Are there signs of this growth in Victoria? Happily we can come to a sound conclusion, for we have abundant evidence ready to our hands. In the Victorian budget of last year several changes in duties were made and certain industries obtained an increase of protection. The consequence was that the Victorian government were besieged by applications for similar favors. After the lapse of a few weeks the commissioner of trade and customs informed the assembly that he had received three hundred applications for new duties. Perhaps he spoke from a rough guess only, but it is certain that the number was something remarkable. In the midst of this deluge of applications for the imposition of duties which the applicants desired to collect for their own benefit, there was not one for the canceling, or even for the reduction, of a duty. Are we to gather from these facts that Victorian manufacturers are becoming independent, or are we to conclude that they have entered prematurely upon industries when the conditions of legitimate success were wanting? After twenty years of protection no one saying enough, but hundreds crying for more. Is this a sign of strength or weakness? Twenty years pass, the original percentage of protection has been increased in the interval, and now a clamor greater than ever! “We had some protection, you gave us more, and now we shall die if you don’t give us more than ever;”—this, almost literally, was the cry of certain of the Victorian manufacturers, and as a rule those who already enjoyed the biggest protection were the most
p. 8, col. 4
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clamorous of all. Perhaps the woolen manufacturers were the most urgent of all. “We have the wool,” say the protectionists; “what a shame that we should let it go to Europe to be made into woolens and then returned!” Well, this industry has been a petted one; but the position of it had become so serious that a great agitation was got up with a view to induce the government to make an enormous increase in the protective duty. It was affirmed that the existing fifteen per cent protective duty was utterly insufficient to save the industry from ruin and that many thousands of pounds capital had already been lost. An advance in the rate was ultimately made to 20 per cent, but this year the cries of distress are as great as ever. It is difficult to say how large an advance would have been granted last year but for an opposing element. This opposing element ought to have convinced the Victorians of the character of a protective policy. The demands made by the woolen mills for a big advance in the duty aroused most intense excitement in the clothing factories, and certainly free traders never said anything more severe of protectionists than did the protected clothing makers of the protected cloth makers.
. . . Looking over this picture of the protected industries of Victoria, noticing the eager cry for more protection, as well as the angry charges brought by protectionists against protectionists, remembering also the degradation that has been proved to accompany the customs system, it is not possible to think that the position of the manufacturing industry in that colony is at all satisfactory. If more evidence were wanted, the following extract from the speech of Mr. Mount, the president of the Melbourne chamber of manufactures, at the recent annual meeting of that body, would be useful:
“As regards protection for this colony, I think it incumbent on its manufacturers to lose no time in impressing upon the government the urgent necessity of revising the tariff so as to afford adequate protection to such waning industries as are threatened with extinction by the inundation of cheap stock from Europe.”
The same old deluge! It does duty at the antipodes as well as here. Able-bodied men are driven from the country. Women are forced into the factories to toil for daily bread. Commerce languishes, bankruptcies increase, the consumption of minor luxuries—the poor man’s luxuries—falls off. And the manufacturer mounts the tariff rampart and shouts to the people who are suffering for want of shoes and clothing, “Take care! Look out, for God’s sake! They’re going to deluge you with shoes and drown you out with coats and trousers!” Why, Blaine himself, with his thirty-two trunks, twenty boxes and four baskets safely through the custom house, couldn’t do it better.
The experiment has been tried. Protection and approximate free trade have labored side by side for twenty years. And in these telling words Mr. Pulsford sums up the result:
To sum up, the protective colony is behind in growth of population; behind in wealth; behind in revenue; behind in imports and exports; behind in shipping; behind in number of manufactories; behind in horse power of machinery; behind in value of plant and machinery; behind in number of letters, telegrams and newspapers conveyed through the post; behind in wages; behind in consumption of luxuries; has more insolvencies and a greater pressure of taxation; and, finally, nearly the whole body of Victorian manufacturers are dissatisfied with their personal position and are eagerly looking for an increase in the amount of the protective duties.
To which it may not be amiss to add, that in New South Wales the doctrine of the single tax on land values has stuck its roots deep and strong.
Life in a Great City.
New York Herald.
> A dingy looking box on wheels drove up to the Chambers street entrance of the court of general sessions building about twelve o’clock yesterday.
“De black maria,” whispered a newsboy.
As he spoke a curious group of people suddenly gathered near the winding iron stairs watching for the prisoners to come out. There were five or six street boys, a few of the loungers who seem to spend all their days in the neighborhood of the county court house, two or three passers by who had stopped for a moment to see something new, but the majority of those gathered on the sidewalk were women.
On the faces of two were traces of tears and their mobile lips trembled. Beside these two shrinking girls stood a big, burly, carelessly dressed creature, her swollen and flushed features betraying a fondness for the whisky bottle. Behind her was a pale faced young woman in faded mourning, who patiently made way for three bold eyed girls with exaggerated bangs falling over their eyes. A policeman remained in the background, passive and almost indifferent.
“Here they comes!” said one of the newsboys, as a man descended the steps, followed by two others, shackled together by the wrists. One was an undersized, sallow-faced young man, his companion a broad-shouldered negro. As the first caught sight of the red-faced woman an ugly scowl came into his eyes and he hurried on to the vehicle.
“Oh, Jimmie, won’t ye speak to me?” cried the woman.
“No, I want no more to do with yer,” was the ungracious response.
Next came a couple who afforded a sharp contrast. One was rather well dressed and fresh shaven, and his linen was clean, but there was a glitter in his eyes and an indefinable air of the jailbird about him. He peered quickly around, as if looking for somebody, and a queer smile crossed his lips as he exchanged meaning glances with a man in the background. His companion was white haired and seedy, and appeared bowed down with shame. He looked neither to the right nor the left, but as the pair reached the sidewalk a slender hand was slipped into his own by the pale faced woman, whose face had now some color in it as she thus silently greeted the prisoner. He returned the clasp, gazed into her tearful eyes for a moment and then disappeared in the wagon. A tall, athletic looking man came next, handcuffed to a mere boy in years, though he tried to look manly and brave.
“Robbie!” whispered the two girls together, and their hands went out to seize his. The boy’s eyes glistened with evident pleasure for a moment, and it was easy to see that they were his sisters. But there were no greetings allowed, for the prisoners now came more rapidly and the keepers drove the crowd back coarsely and rudely. When all had been placed in the vehicle the boy’s face appeared nearest the door, and on a sudden impulse one of the pretty girls sprang forward and emptied the contents of her slender purse into his hand,
p. 8, col. 5 > “Is that all?” shouted a keeper to another on the steps.
“Yes,” replied the other; “there’s a couple of women, but I’ll take them down on the cars.”
The heavy door of the prison omnibus closed with an ominous clang, and the spring lock shot its steel bolt. In a moment after the wagon was gone.
“Move on; don’t be loitering here,” cried the policeman, showing by his manner that his brusqueness was assumed. The little group dispersed leaving the two girls all alone at the foot of the steps.
“Why, Mamie,” exclaimed one, as she wiped away an unbidden tear, “you have given Robbie all our money. How are we to get up town?”
“We’ll walk,” was the brief reply.
“So we can. I’m glad you gave him the money.”
It was a common, almost every day scene in that neighborhood, but there was love and hate and hope and despair to be read on those faces in those few fleeting moments. The prisoners had gone to spend years in prison. The women were left behind to suffer and struggle as best they could. It is not all sunshine in the life of a great city like New York.
All Declined With Thanks.
The Philadelphia Justice publishes the following in its most recent issue:
The Henry George club of Philadelphia, in behalf of Henry George, challenges the Hon. James G. Blaine. Declined.
The Henry George club also challenges Ex-Governor Hoyt to meet Henry George. Declined on the ground that “free trade is not an issue in this campaign.”
The Free trade club of New York challenges Robert Ingersoll to meet Henry George in debate. Declined.
The Henry George club challenges the Young republican club. Declined.
The Henry George club challenges the Anti-Cobden club to debate “Protection vs. Free Trade.” Declined.
The Henry George club challenges Mr. Charles H. Litchman to meet a Philadelphia workman in debate. Declined.
The Henry George club challenges any political organization favoring a “protective tariff” to a public discussion.
All of these challenges are open until election day. Are all protectionists cowards?
To Help Single Tax Strangers.
The following list contains the names and addresses of men active in the single tax cause in their respective localities, with whom believers wishing to join in the movement may communicate:
Denver, Col—Charles G Buck, chairman State executive committee National tax reform association, new Fritch block.
Washington, D C—Dr. William Geddes, 221 E street, N W, secretary anti-poverty society.
Braceville, Ill—William Matthews, secretary Tariff reform club.
Chicago, Ill—Frank Pearson, secretary Land and labor club No 1, 45 La Salle street.
Peoria, Ill—J W Avery.
Woodstock, Ill—A W Currins.
Arkansas City, Kas—James B Hassett.
Hutchinson, Kas—J G Malcolm, M D.
Newport, Ky—Joseph L Schraer, secretary Single tax league, 247 Southgate street.
Boston, Mass—Edwin M White, 45 Eliot street; J R Roche, president Anti-poverty society, 15 Bowdoin street.
Minneapolis, Minn.—C J Buell, president Anti-poverty society, 402 W Franklin avenue.
St. Louis, Mo—Benj E Bloom, Single tax league, 3925 Lucky street.
Albany, N Y—Robert Baker, 178 Madison avenue; also J C Roshirt, 22 Third avenue.
Trenton, N J—H R Mathews, 9 Howell street.
Brooklyn, N Y—J Hickling, 41 Sidney place, president Single tax club.
Cleveland, O—Frank L Carter, 132 Chestnut street.
Youngstown, O—Billy Radcliffe, Radcliffe house.
Philadelphia, Pa—Wm J Atkinson, [926?] Chestnut street; or A. H. Stephenson, 214 Chestnut street, secretary Henry George club.
Memphis, Tenn—R G Brown, secretary Tariff reform club, Cotton exchange.
Nashville, Tenn—P H Carroll, 235 N High street, secretary American land league.
Houston, Tex—H F Ring, corporation attorney.
Weatherford, Tex—William M Buell.
Bradford, Pa—J C De Forest, secretary Land and labor club, 26 Newell place.
Vincennes, Ind—Hon Samuel W Williams, rooms 2 and 3 Opera block.
Grand View-on-the-Hudson, N Y—Henry L Hinton.
Binghampton, N Y—L S Hinman, [47?] Prospect ave.
Yonkers, N Y—Joseph Sutherland.
Tuckahoe, N Y—Albert O Young.
Kingston, N Y—Theodore M Romeyn.
Bayside, Long Island, N Y—Antonio M Molina.
San Francisco, Cal—Judge James G Maguire, Superior court.
Cornwall, Cal—Jeff A Bailey.
Pawtucket, R I—Edward Barker, 23 Gooding street.
Lonsdale, R I—Dr Garvin.
Piermont, N Y—Charles R Hood, P O box 13.
Murrayville, Ill—William Camm, president Democratic club.
San Luis Obispo, Cal—Mrs Frances M Milne.
Middletown, N Y—Chas H Fuller, P O box 115.
Amsterdam, N Y—Harvey Book.
Elmira, N Y—William Bergman, 712 East Market street.
Avon, N Y—Homer Sabin.
Syracuse, N Y—Charles S Hopkins, 9 Seymour street; A R Perry, 149 South Clinton street; or F A Paul, 4 Walton street; or James K McGuire, secretary Single tax club, 59 Greene street.
Pulaski, N Y—C V Harbottle.
Utica, N Y—Thomas Sweeney, 136 Elizabeth street, or Daniel M Buckley, grocer, southwest corner First and Catharine.
Gloversville, N Y—Wm C Wood, M D.
Hornellsville, N Y—George H Van Winkle.
Glen Cove, Long Island, N Y—Herbert Doromer.
Whitestone, Long Island, N Y—George Harnwell.
Seneca Falls, N Y—Wm H Atkinson, P O box 56.
West New Brighton, Staten Island, N Y—A B Stoddard.
Troy, N Y—B B [Martis?].
Ridgeway, Orleans County, N Y—D C Sullivan
Newark, N J—Rev Hugh O Pentecost, 56 Oriental street.
Elizabeth, N J—Benjamin Urner.
Paterson, N J—E W Nellis.
Roselle, N J—Read Gordon.
Passaic, N J—J J Barnard, P O box 181.
Nickel Plate, Lorain Co, O—Edw B Haskell.
Massillon, O—Samuel T Wright, 68 West Main street.
Indianapolis, Ind—Herman Kuehn, 14 Talbot block.
Worcester, Mass.—E K Page, Lake View.
Cincinnati, O—Charles H Fitch, care Henry George club.
Dayton, O—W W Kile, 33 E Fifth street; J G Galloway, 263 Samuel street.
Baltimore, Md—John W Jones, sec Single tax league of Maryland, 125 N Bond street; John Salmon, Pres Henry George club, 415 N Eutaw street; Dr Wm N Hill, [1438?] E Baltimore street.
Manistee, Mich—Rev Albert Walkley.
East Cambridge, Mass—J F Harrington, St John’s Literary Institute.
Ravenswood, Ill—W H Van Ornum.
Gardner, Ill—T S Cumming.
Unionville, Conn—John McAuliffe.
Thomaston, Conn—Andrew Leary, sec Land and labor club, P O box [298?]
Plymouth, Mass—C E Marks, box 51.
Chamberlain, Dak—James Brown.
Farmington, Iowa—F. W. Rockwell.
Diamond Springs, Eldorado county, Cal—[J V Lanston?].
Los Angeles, Cal—W H Dodge, 30 North Alameda street; W A Cole, 149 South Hill; or A Vinette, P O box 452.
Portland, Ore—S B Riggen, 48 Stark street, or James P Kohler, [154?] Grand street.
Hot Springs, Ark—W Albert Chapman.
Zanesville, Ohio—W H Longhead, 27 Van Buren street.
Parkersburg, W Va—W I Boreman.
Anacostia, D C—Carroll W Smith, office Anacostia tea company, Harrison and Monroe streets.
Ilion, N Y—George Smith, P O box 502.
Ridgeway, N Y—D C Sullivan.
Sparrow Bush, Orange county, N Y—C L Dedrick, president Progressive association; John Sheehan, secretary.
Glens Falls, N Y—John H Quinlan.
Haverhill, Mass—Arthur F Brock.
Home Again.
Mr. George Wilson has just returned from London, where he has been making large purchases of the latest novelties. His splendid stock of the finest productions of foreign looms may now be seen at his establishment, and the most fastidious cannot fail to be suited after making a visit to Mr. Wilson’s place. The success attending Mr. Wilson’s tailoring business is truly phenomenal and is not more due to his skill in conducting it than the genial manner with which he greets all persons who favor him with a call. . . .
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CONTENTS: