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Show A REMINDER OF OTHER DAYS. Q RESIDENT WILSON'S recent declaration to Congress that "we were content to abide the rivalries of manufacture, science and commerce that were involved for us in her (Germany's) success," has aroused considerable discussion throughout the country. The comments com-ments are critical for the most part and go to show that, while the President may be "content to abide" such a situation, the American people think different about the matter. Ex-Senator Jonathan Bourne of Washington reviews the nature of this rivalry and its effect upon America in the following picturesque fashion : " 'Content to abide.' Why, the rivalries were encouraged with a tariff law so low there's nothing 'twixt it and free trade. German scissors scis-sors cut our Red Cross bandages, and the German workmen who made the scissors got one-half the American wage. German razors cut the , throat of the American industry with a wage-scale in the Germanin dustry of from $2.50 to $7 a week. From 1897 to 1913, under protection, protec-tion, the American production of pocketknives increased to $4,000,000 annually. During that period German interests came over to our country and established three factories representing an investment of $500,000 and adding 650 men to the payroll of American labor. That showed their appreciation of protection. But in 1914 our pocket-knife pocket-knife industry went bingo ! because Democratic duty rates had turned our market back to the Hun exactly as did the Wilson-Gorman law of 1893-97. "There was a German mark on this, and a German brand on that, and a German label on the other, until a man didn't know whether he was in Buffalo or Bavaria. If he could raise enough loose change to buy his wife and kids some stockings, they came back with a package from Chemnitz. If he ate at home at all, he polished a German plate with the aid of a German fork. Or ir he was down to the soup-cart and wanted to see how long before it came around he found himself stared at through the jeweler's window by a German clock. Finally, if in despair he took thccarbolic acid route, he swallowed the German 'dope' and they carted him off to the potters' field in a coffin with German silver handles. " 'Content to abide?' Not by a German jugful ! This country will agree to do its utn jst to help win the war, but the next administration that tries to betray industrial America to Germany, or any other nation, na-tion, is going to find that the American people believe in 'America first' " The sugar situation doesn't put a sweet taste in the mouth. |
