SOME INCONSISTENCIES

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, September 21, 1888.

PAGE TWO/EDITORIALS.

   The New York Chinamen are said to be contributing liberally to the Republican campaign fund.
   The editor of the Cortland Standard claims to have issued 6,011 copies of that paper last week. Jim Belden of Canal Ring fame was renominated for Congress the week previous.
   HARRISON on a free whisky plank, MILLER on a high license straddle, BLAINE defending Trusts and FOSTER demanding that the fat be fried out of pampered manufacturers, furnish an edifying spectacle of Republicanism for the American people, in the opinion of the Albany Argus. 
   Two or three weeks since the Standard hotly asserted that the tariff tax of 15 cents had been taken off potatoes. Now that the editor has been convinced that he made a grand mistake, would it not be fair to his readers, who may have been misled by his statements, to give the same prominence to a correction of the statement that he gave to the assertion?

Some Inconsistencies.

   MR. EDITOR:—The Cortland Standard of September 15 contains more than a column and a half of detailed, painstaking, deliberate lies, following each other in close succession under the title "Are Farmers Fools", the purpose of which is to induce farmers and other consumers of manufactured goods, to believe that the long list of articles therein mentioned, most of which are necessaries of life, cost the consumer no more in consequence of the tariff duties placed on them to protect or increase the profits of the manufacturers of these articles.

   If the tariff does not increase the prices of these articles, how does it protect or benefit the manufacturer, or "American Industry" as he is fondly called? Why retain a tariff which affords no protection and brings no money into the producer's pocket? The very fact that the manufacturers of these articles and their advocates like the Cortland Standard strenuously oppose the reduction or removal of any part of this tariff is sufficient to prove to any reasonable mind the falsehood of the statements contained in this article.

   It bears the stamp of falsehood and inconsistency upon the face and is its own complete refutation. Manufacturers are not fools enough to contribute money to perpetuate a tariff which don't increase their profits.

   A FARMER.

Protection and Labor.

Congressman Ford of Michigan.

   Protection to American labor? Is that the reason why this tariff is maintained? This is about the way it protects the laborer:

   Here comes a shipload of goods. The Custom House officer says to the importer, "Pay to the Government of the United States forty-seven percent of their value." "What for" says the importer. "To protect American labor against the pauper labor of Europe," replies the Custom House officer. The importer pays the tax and adds it to the cost of the goods, and the tax is ultimately paid by the consumer.

   By and by there comes another ship to our shores. "What have you got there?" is asked the captain. "Two thousand pauper immigrants.'' "Bring them ashore," says the Custom House officer. "Right over here in Pennsylvania we have 10,000 men on a strike because they cannot make wages enough to keep body and soul together; take your men over there and help us protect American labor."

Englishmen and the Tariff.

   MR. EDITOR:—I was recently reading a lecture delivered by an eminent English scientist and Member of Parliament, before an audience of English merchants and manufacturers, in which he allowed by very strong and convincing arguments that the manufacturers of England were in great danger of losing their hold upon the markets of the world if ever, or as soon as, the United States should give their manufacturers free raw material.

   He told them that such was the inventive genius of this country, or to use his own words, that the people of this country "had such skill in taking the advantage of the powers of nature and making them do the work of human hands, that if their (our) manufacturers were not handicapped with a heavy tariff upon the raw material used they would at once become the strongest competitors of the English in the markets of the world. He told them very emphatically that it was a fortunate thing for them "that the American manufacturers were so burdened and hindered by the tariff."

   And now I see that this idea is held by other Englishmen of eminence and extended information upon the subject. Mr. Chauncey M. Depew tells us that he met an English nobleman "who had traveled the world and was well acquainted with our country, who wished to see Mr. Harrison elected because the lower tariff as Mr. Cleveland advocates it would bring the American manufactures into serious competition with the English in the markets of the world."

   So much for the humbuggery of the idea that English capitalists are anxious to see our nation adopt "free trade," and are sending over here large sums of money to be used for the Democratic party and the furtherance of a free trade policy. The English merchants and manufacturers would give a hundred times more to-day, for the election of Mr. Harrison and the continuance of the present tariff than could be raised there among all other classes for the election of Mr. Cleveland and the reduction of the tariff which he advocates.

   And the falsehood and deception of the pretense that all the benefits of our high protection duties go to the laborer and are needed to secure him his present "good" wages, is readily seen when it is known that labor represents, on the average, only about 20 per cent of the cost of the manufactured article. That is to say, that of every $100 worth of the products of our manufactories, $20 represents, and on the average, rather more than represents, the cost of wages in producing the goods. Now if farmers and mechanics and day laborers, and all who are not engaged in producing the protected articles, could only compromise the matter with our highest protected manufacturers and pay a 30 per cent tax on the goods purchased of them, and pay it directly to the workingmen themselves, they could pay the operatives in all those factories as good wages as they now receive and give the capitalists their labor free of cost, and then be largely the gainers, if the rest of the tariff for the protection of labor was removed.

   Of course this could not be done, for it would leave our national government without a sufficient income, and no one advocates such a measure. But it shows the absurdity of the extreme high protective tariff pretense. Yours Truly,

   INDEPENDENT VOTER.

FROM EVERYWHERE.

   John L. Sullivan is critically ill with gastric fever.

   Doctor Cone William, formerly of Syracuse, was one of the recent yellow fever victims at Jacksonville, Florida.

   A colt in Georgetown, Kentucky possesses three heads. One of them is that of a donkey, and the other that of a goat, and the third is an ordinary colt's head.

   Charles A. Percy attempted to go through Niagara rapids last Sunday in a boat. The boat came to grief and he had to swim three miles when he was picked up in an exhausted condition.

   A fire in Syracuse early last Thursday morning destroyed the Grand Opera House block and heavily damaged adjacent buildings. The total loss is estimated at $200,000; partially insured.

HERE AND THERE.

   There are 725 children of school age in Homer village.

   Justice Vann of Syracuse has decided that a parsonage is taxable property.

   The Republican meeting advertised to take place here on Saturday evening, has been indefinitely postponed for the reason that good speakers could not be secured.

   Pathmasters will do well in note the requirements of the new road law, one of which provides that this official shall go over the roads in his district once a month front April to November inclusive, and clear the road of loose stones.

   A wonderful two wheeled chaise, driven into town Monday by Peter Muller, of Truxton, excited much curiosity and attention. It formerly belonged to Mr. Muller’s father-in-law, the late Alva Risley, and was imported from England in 1803.—DeRuyter Gleaner.

   A shrewd Yankee has invented an apparatus for timing horses. A clock with three hands—minutes, second, and quarter-second, is started by the official. When the winning horse touches the wire the clock is topped by electricity. The same instant the current opens a camera, which photographs the horse and the clock face.—Exchange.