Show 1HEIH J3IPODENCE What bad prophets protectionists are They cannot even guess closely Those who read the Republican papers lat year and followed the Republican speeches in Congress on the McKINLEY bill will recall that tho burden of all that was said in favor of the measure was that it would increase in-crease the wages of American workingmen and provide labor for the Idle This was to be accomplished by stimulating manufacture manu-facture to the extent that foreign goods I were shut out Wo were told that the protection afforded by the bill would induce our own citi ct zens to build new factories while foreigners could not come here with their goods and successfully compete The argu meat bad WPifJit with thA iinthinUinir And not a few workingmen really believed that the condition of their class would be improved im-proved when the bill went into operation Wo wonder what they think now The law has been in effect more than twothird of a year and its friends have exerted themselves to the utmost to sustain their arguments in its favor But what is the result I wages in any American factory have been increased the fact is carefully hidden from tit press and public We frequently read accounts of wagereduc tions and tho strikes this year have been more numerous and involved more hands than for any like period in the history his-tory of the country We dont think that ucnixLEY uimseii would nave the enront I cry to assert that the number of idle men i less today than it was last Sep tember I he were to do this a multitude of men eagerly seeking employment Iud hailing from every state and city in the union would rise up and declare that he falsified the facts BUt the amusing part of this business is i the radical change of front which tho pro tectionist sheets now present as to another promised effect of the bill Wo were told by them that the law would re duco tho importation of foreign competitive goods indeed this must necessarily be the result i our own working people were to be given employ ment to supply tne homa market It would not be reasonable to say that the csumuption would be greater at the necessarily increased in-creased prices for patriotic as the people arc they will not use more of a highpriced home made article than of an equally good foreign made article costing less Kow these same Republican Republcan papers which ap plauded the bill because it was going to shut out foreign competitors and leave the home market to be supplied by American manufacturers are joyfully publish ing the custom house returns to show that importations have not decreased thus defending the MclviXLEY bill from the charge that it wouid interfere with our foreign trade the thing which the papers wanted it to do We have lately seen several tables of figures showing the imports are actually larger under the new law than for the correspond ing period under tho old and these tables are presented in refutation of the assertion that our foreign trade would bo asserton by the bill when the destruction of that trade next to the providing of work for idle Americans was the chief argument in favor of tho passage of the McKiXLEY monstrosity The impudence of your pro tectionist editor is equaled only by his disregard dis-regard of the interests of the masses of his countrymen |