SOMETHING WORTH READING AND VIRGIL'S STOUT LOT OF DEMOCRATS

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, August 31, 1888.

Something Worth Reading.

(From the New York Times.)

   It is very easy for workingmen to reach their own conclusions as to the effect of the proposed changes in the tariff law. They know, or they may easily ascertain, the market rates of the articles that they produce, and they know what they receive as their share of the product. They should not be deceived by the efforts of the protectionists to distort facts.

   We will revert to a statement that we have already made and which has been questioned by some ardent protectionists who are evidently startled by the striking illustration of the iniquity of their system. The statement was that in a certain [train] car wheel the loss of labor was 85 cents and the amount of protection was $12.50. Naturally this was astonishing to protectionists who have taken the word of the men who are chiefly benefited by the tariff tax, and who do not realize that protected manufacturers cover up and misrepresent the real workings of the tariff law, just as a dishonest merchant deceives his hoped-for customer as to the quality of his goods.

   The business of obtaining higher rates of duty has become a fine art and is practiced by as skillful a set of lobbyists as Washington ever saw. One of their latest dodges is the attempt to convince the voters that when the cost of labor on a specified article is to be estimated the cost of all the labor in all the elements that go to the making of that article is to be enumerated. For example, in the case of a [train] car wheel, we are asked to count the cost of labor in the ore, the pig. the ingots or blooms, and the wheel itself. But this is essentially a dishonest proposition. It ignores the fact that a tariff tax has "protected" every step in the process of manufacture.

   The ore is protected by a duty of 75 cents a ton, the pig by a duty of $6.72, and the immediate raw material by a duty of 2 1/2 cents a pound. The wheel weighs 500 pounds so that the protective duty on it is $12.50 and we take the cost of labor only 85 cents from the figures that were worked out for the Ways and Means committee by Government experts. It is only necessary to add that when this statement was made on the floor of the House in the course of the debate no protectionist questioned it.

   This is an illustration of how deceitful the protectionists are. Their success in maintaining the tariff depends upon their ability to keep the truth from the knowledge of those whose votes they want. They are now in position where they must justify themselves to the country. They have stated that they desire only a sufficient rate of duty on the foreign articles that comes into competition with them to make up for the higher wages which they pay to their workingmen. We have shown that the tariff tax is larger than their whole wages list. In 1887, for example, the steel rail makers received for their rails at least $8 more than a wholesome state of trade would permit. That is, paying for their labor at their own rates, they might have enjoyed a profit of 10 per cent, if they had sold their rails at $8 a ton less than the average price of the year.

   There are other articles of which a similar showing may be made. A keg of steel nails cost $2.34; the cost of labor in them is 67 cents; the duty is $1.35. The manufacture of steel beams is in the hands of a trust. The cost of foreign beams is $26.88 a ton, and the duty is $28.88. The cost of production in this country is about $28, but the price last year was $66. Iron ore is protected by a duty of 73 cents a ton. The average cost of mining iron in Pennsylvania is 69 cents the ton. In one county, Lebanon, it is mined at a cost of 17 cents. The labor in a ton of pig iron when it was valued at $23.55 per ton was $2.46, and the rate of duty is $6.72.

   These are the figures which must be answered. The pretense that the duty on iron is needed to enable the iron masters to pay high wages has been exposed. It is misrepresentation. It is as false as the statement that the growth of the business of making pig iron is due to the protective tariff.

VIRGIL, N. Y.

   With the Firemen's convention over, items will again appear, perhaps.

   Louis Sweet, one day last week shot a blue heron, which measured six feet two inches from tip to tip.

   William Seamans, while scuffling with his brother Fred, put his left shoulder out of joint. A very poor plan to scuffle, boys.

   The Virgil brass band have been engaged to play at the Grangers' picnic, held at the trout ponds on September 5.

   Mr. Andrew Whipple and wife, of Boston, are visiting Mrs. Whipple's uncle, Jerry Tyler.

   A good number of Chicago Grangers visited the Virgil Grangers on Tuesday evening, August 21st. Refreshments were served and a grand time reported.

   School meeting was held August 28, and resulted in the choice of Rodolph Price, for trustee, on the sixth ballot. Women were present to vote, which showed the prohibition element proudly; one maiden lady, Miss Jennie Hutchings, received several votes on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th ballots—The electors present, of whom a majority were Republicans, saw that if she was elected that the prohibition party would gain a point in the school district, worked so vigorously, that the fight ended with only one vote for her. Woman's rights was well exemplified, there being three present and two of them were not legal voters.

   Our little hamlet is very quiet as there were fourteen or sixteen of our lively young people [who] started hop picking on Monday last.

   Talk of people gaining in size, I think Virgil excels all other towns. Our heavy-weight blacksmith the forepart of the season could get along with one horse to draw him back and forth from home to his shop, but now has to have two horses to perform the same work, a distance of one half mile.

   We must not overlook our [hotel] landlord F. D. Freer, in his efforts to make everything pleasant at the [Democratic] pole raising, in his decorating. We can but say that it was splendid. At his dance he reports one hundred and eighty couples; in fact we must say that Virgil has a stout lot of Democrats this fall.

   Ditching to bring water to their buildings seems to be in order. On Dutch hill, John Bays is fetching water fifty five rods to his barn. Jake Shults is ditching to fetch by wind mill water to his buildings. He intends to pump the water to a reservoir, then run the water from the reservoir to the house and barn, which will make it very convenient.

   John Bays and family attend the Johnson picnic at Willow Glen today.

   John Bloomer and wife are in town visiting relatives. A white hat looks well with John under it.

   Farmers say that since the rain potatoes are resetting in this locality.

   CUMMIN. [pen name]

PAGE TWO/EDITORIALS.

   The Democratic Stale Convention will be held in Buffalo. Sept. 12th, 1888.

   The Republican State Convention held in Saratoga this week, nominated Warner Miller for Governor; S. C. V. Cruger of Brooklyn for Lieut. Governor, and Judge William Rumsey of Bath for judge of the Court of Appeals. Governor Hill will be renominated at Buffalo, and it is not necessary to say that he will have a walk over.

   The high protective tariff is nothing more or less than a bounty given to manufacturers. The farmers are taxed to pay the bounty and the manufacturer becomes immensely rich and lives like a nabob, while the farmer works hard the year round to obtain a living. No one has ever thought of paying the farmer a bounty, but the idea isn't a bad one by any means. Why not make the manufacturer pay the farmer a bounty of say 40 cents per bushel on all the grain raised, and the same amount on every pound of butter and cheese produced? If there is an "infant industry" in the United States that needs fostering at the present time, it is that of agriculture. The manufacturers have had the bounty long enough, let the farmer have a chance.

   The Syracuse Herald is supporting Harrison this year, but where it will be next year no one can tell and no one cares. It gravely announces that Chancellor Sims of the Syracuse University supports Harrison, and seems to think that it has discovered something worthy of note. When did Chancellor Sims ever support any ticket but a dyed-in-the-wool republican ticket? He happens to be one of those political priests, that believe in republicanism first and religion when the interests of the republican party have been first attended to. No one ever suspected that Chancellor Sims would support any other than the republican ticket and the Herald's announcement that he proposes to keep in line with his political performances for years past, occasions no surprise. Had he intimated that he proposed to place himself alongside the farmers and laboring men of this country and vote for Cleveland and reform, instead of following in the wake of the Belden's, Gale's, and men of that class, there would have been some occasion for reference to his political movements. The fact that New York city is located on Manhattan Island is news to no one, but if, in the twinkling of an eye that great city should be transported to Onondaga county, the event would be a matter of news well worth chronicling. Always print the news, but be sure it is news before you put it in type.

   The Syracuse Standard and the Herald, of the same city, announce with a wonderful blare of trumpets, that one Thomas Gale, a large salt manufacturer of that city, has come out for Harrison and Morton. The last named paper gives much space to a description of his immense salt works, and says that his yearly profits in that business amounts to $45,000 to $50,000. Of course it wouldn't be proper to take the tariff off salt for the benefit of the farmer, who works fourteen hours per day to make a scanty living, because it might result in reducing Mr. Gale's immense profits. This country was undoubtedly made for the sole use and benefit of the Beldens and Gales, and men of their class, and they ought to be allowed to live in luxury, while the thousands and thousands of farmers and laboring men must toil day and night that these may roll in wealth and take their ease.

   But the announcement that Gale has come out for Harrison and Morton and a high tariff was intended for quite another purpose. That purpose was to have every republican paper in the land publish the statement, with the further statement that Gale was a new convert from the Democrats. The editor of the Herald purposely so worded the announcement, that it would convey this impression, well knowing that there was no foundation for it. Tommy Gale hasn't voted the Democratic ticket in years. He hasn't voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate since 1872. In 1875 one Samuel J. Tilden, then Governor of the State, discovered that there was a ring of canal thieves, composed of men of both parties, that had banded themselves together for the sole and only purpose of robbing the State Treasury of the money collected there by taxing the farmers, and he immediately moved upon their works causing great consternation among them. The largest, wealthiest and boldest combination of this sort was the firm of Belden, Deanison & Co., of Syracuse, and Tommy Gale was the practical member of the firm. From the time Governor Tilden broke up the Canal Ring and stopped the stealing, Mr. Gale has been a bitter opponent of the Democratic party. No one knows this better than the Syracuse Herald.

Shot While Stealing Chickens.

   ED. DEM.—Saturday night last, Jacob Osmun shot and killed John Gallagher at North Lansing, Tompkins County. Osmun surmised some one was taking his hens. So Osmun got a friend to go to the barn with him and help him watch. About half past eleven they discovered some one at the hens. They got out of the barn and took after Gallagher, and ordered him to stop, which he refused to do, when Osmun shot both barrels of a double-barreled shot gun, one barrel taking effect in Gallagher's left ankle, the other taking effect in the left shoulder penetrating the heart and lungs. Gallagher died almost instantly. Coroner Brown of Ithaca, summoned a jury, who decided after hearing the evidence that John Gallagher came to his death from the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of Jacob Osmun. Osmun is a well-to-do farmer, living in the town of Lansing, Tompkins Co., N. Y. John Gallagher was a day laborer, and leaves a wife and six children,.

   WILLIAM  PIERCE.

   August 20, 1888.