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"Mr. Reed's party tinkered the tariff in 1883. In that year there were 9,184 business failures, involving $172,874,000. In 1884 there were 10,968 failures, involving $226,343,000. In the next year, still under the Republican tariff and currency laws, there was a general business depression. More than 1,000,000 men were out of employment. "In 1890 the McKinley bill was passed, and there were 10,673 failures in that year, and 12,394 the next, with liabilities in each year amounting to nearly $200,000,000. The tariff was raised to nearly fifty per cent, but wages either stood still or declined, while the prices of necessaries advanced. The protected manufacturers kept all their 'bonus' as usual.

"Tramps and trusts, the twin products of a monopolists' tariff, were practically unknown in this country until we had endured uninterrupted Republican rule for a dozen years.

"The worst labor troubles, the bloodiest riots, the most destructive strikes, the most brutal lockouts ever known in any country have occurred here under the high tariffs, bought, made and paid for by the contributors of the Republican campaign funds."

MR HARRISON PREPARED THE BOND.

It is a fact that during the closing hours of the Harrison Administration in 1893, the Republican Secretary of the Treasury caused to be prepared the plates for a bond issue. This issue was by the hardest kind of effort postponed, and it was finally made by the Cleveland Administration. Sometimes Republican politicians deny that the Harrison Administration contemplated a bond issue, but they do this only when there is no one present prepared to show the truth. The records at Washington show that Secretary of the Treasury Charles Foster issued an order February 20, 1893, directing the chief of the United States bureau of engraving and printing to prepare plates for these bonds. The story is told very briefly in "Thirty Years of American Finance," a volume written by Alexander Dana Noyes, financial editor of the New York Evening Post. This volume may be found in almost any public library On page 183 the following appears:

"By the close of January, 1893, the Treasury's gold reserve had fallen to a figure barely eight millions over the legal minimum. With February's early withdrawals even larger, Secretary Foster so far lost hope of warding off the crisis that he gave orders to prepare the engraved plates for a bond issue under the Resumption Act. As a last resort, however, he bethought himself of Secretary Manning's gold borrowing operation of 1885. In February Mr. Foster came in person to New York to urge the banks to give up gold voluntarily in exchange for the Treasury's legal tender surplus. (See New York Financial Chronicle, February 11 and February 18, 1893.) From a strict commercial point of view, there was good reason why the banks should not make any such exchange. But the plea that a panic must at all hazards be averted, combined with the argument of patriotic support of the Government, at length prevailed. The New York banks turned over to the Treasury, in exchange' for notes, six to eight million dollars in gold. (See New York Tribune, February 9, 10 and 11, 1893; New York Financial Chronicle, February 11, 1893.)"

HARRISON BOND PLATE ORDER.

When any one denies that plates for bonds were ordered under the Harrison administration, show him this letter written by Lyman J. Gage, when he was Secretary of the Treasury, to Representative Gaines of Tennessee:

Treasury Department, Office of the Secretary,
Washington, D. C., March 25, 1897.

Sir I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, requesting the original letter, or a certified copy thereof, written by Mr. Secretary Foster, February 20, 1893, addressed to the Chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, authorizing the preparation of certain plates. In compliance with said request I submit below a correct copy of the letter in question, also a copy of the text of the proposed bond.

[Copy of letter.]

Treasury Department, Office of the Secretary,

Washington, D. C., February 20, 1893. Sir-You are hereby authorized and directed to prepare designs for the 3 per cent. bonds provided in a Senate amendment to the sundry civil bill now pending. The denominations which should first receive attention are 100s and 1,000s of the coupon bonds, and 100s, 1,000s and 10,000s of the registered bonds. This authority is given in advance of the enactment, in view of pressing contingencies, and you

are directed to hasten the preparation of the designs and plates in every possible manner. I inclose a memorandum for your guidance in preparing the script, for the body of the bond.

Respectfully, yours,

(Signed) CHARLES FOSTER, Secretary.

The Chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Text of the Bond.

Washington, April 1, 1893. This bond is issued in accordance with the provisions of section of an act entitled "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1893, and is redeemable at the pleasure of the United States after the 1st day of April, A. D., 1898, in coin of the standard value of the United States on said March 3, 1893, with interest in such coin from the day of the date hereof at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually on the 1st days of October and April in each year. The principal and interest are exempt from the payment of all taxes or duties. of the United States, as well as from taxation in any form, by or under State, municipal, or local authority.

Respectfully, yours,

HON. JOHN W. GAINES,

House of Representatives.

L. J. GAGE, Secretary.

WHEN SENATORS SNEERED.

The New York Press is a Republican paper. During the month of May, 1906, it printed, from the pen of its Washington correspondent, a dispatch showing how Mr. Roosevelt's message, relating to the Standard Oil, was received in the United States Senate:

"What the American people have to expect in the regulation of the trusts was disclosed today in Congress when the President sent to the Senate and the House the report of the Bureau of Corporations, showing that the Standard Oil corporation not only violates the law, but is a partner with many railroad corporations in preventing competition and raising prices of all Standard Oil products throughout the country. The report of the Bureau of Corporations was accompanied by a strong message from the President. In the House of Representatives the closest attention was paid to the reading of the message and the report, and there was generous applause which proved that party lines were broken. The situation in the Senate suggested plainly that there would have to be a great change in that body before any good results can come from the President's campaign. Not two-thirds of the Senators had the courtesy to listen to the message. Many of the pronounced corporation Senators were in their seats, and, as the reading progressed, cracked jokes or sneered audibly at the expression of Mr. Roosevelt.

"It may be said, moderately, that the President's message had no effect upon the men that control the Senate. Several of them regarded it with contempt and a few of them insisted that the President was beginning his campaign for another term. It was clear to old observers of the Senate that the message had no special effect and would not accomplish any practical result.

"Senator Kean of New Jersey snickered audibly at the announcement that the Standard Oil trust had profited to the extent of threequarters of a million a year from unlawful and unfair railroad rebates.

"When the clerk read that much of these rebates had been done away with, Mr. Kean grinned back to Mr. Aldrich and made a laughing comment to Mr. Dryden, his colleague.

"The reference to pooling provoked a hearty laugh from Mr. Aldrich, but when the recommendation for prompt action on the free alcohol bill was read there was a great explosion of mirth. Mr. Kean threw back his head in sheer enjoyment, and Mr. Aldrich grew red with laughter. Messrs. Foraker, Lodge, Burrows, Scott and Wetmore joined in the chorus.

"Whatever apprehension was felt at the outset regarding the teeth in the message was quickly dispelled, and at the conclusion of the reading of the document the Senate was in rare good humor.

"Senator Foraker moved that the message be printed and laid on the table, the parliamentary method of shelving a measure. Noticing that only a part of the Garfield report had been submitted, Senator Culberson of Texas hastily wrote with a pencil a resolution calling for the full document. This resolution was adopted."

The President of the United States sends to the Senate a report showing that a gigantic trust conspiring with the railroads has repeatedly and persistently violated the law. He accompanies that report with a message inviting serious attention to this deplorable condition. And, according to this Republican paper, "many Senators cracked jokes or sneered audibly;" also "several of them regarded it with contempt;" also "Senator Kean of New Jersey snickered audibly:" also "when the recommendation for prompt action on the free alcohol bill was read there was a great explosion of mirth. Mr. Kean threw back his head in sheer enjoyment, and Mr. Aldrich grew red with laughter. Messrs. Foraker, Lodge, Burrows, Scott and Wetmore joined in the chorus;" also "at the conclusion of the reading of the document the Senate was in rare good humor."

"Four Years More of the Full

Dinner-Pail!"

The following appeared in the New York World of June 14, 1908:

According to statistics compiled by the relief department of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, the number of families in need of charitable aid now is three times greater than it was at this time last year. The books of the department show that, whereas only 1,848 families needed and were given aid on June 1 last year, 4,295 families were receiving assistance from the association on June 1 this year.

To carry on this increased relief work which has been steadily mounting up since last October, the association has already been compelled to withdraw $25,000 from its reserve fund. But even this appropriation, in addition to current contributions aggregating $70,944, has been found to be insufficient to continue the work throughout the summer because of the many special calls for heavy summer relief.

As a result, when the board of directors of the association meets to-morrow it will be requested to approve an additional withdrawal of $30,000 from the reserve fund, so that the work of the relief department may not be impeded during the hot months.

Robert W. Bruere, general agent of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, said last night that dearth of employment was largely responsible for the extra burdens which the charitable associations will have to bear this summer. Continuing, he said:

"When men are out of work it means that we have to feed their families, clothe them, pay their rent, furnish medical attendance and do virtually everything else which the worker or workers in a family usually attend to. Our total cash disbursements since October 1, 1907, have amounted to $64,855, an increase of $26,678 over the same period last year. We estimate that it will cost about $45,000 to carry on our relief work during the months of July, August and September this year. For the same period last year we were able to give relief to all who applied on an appropriation of $11,582. Any outside_contributions which we may receive this summer will be welcomed, for unless conditions improve we shall have to depend largely upon our reserve fund to carry on our work."

REPUBLICAN "PROSPERITY."

The following is taken from the New York Sun, Republican, issue of June 22:

A committee of residents of the University Settlement, through Dr. Charles S. Bernheimer, assistant head worker, Issued yesterday a report of a special investigation giving details as to destitution in the lower East Side and discussing the situation from the point of view of the small dealers. These include the grocerymen, the bakers, the butchers and other merchants. The report shows that the burden of supporting the unemployed and their families rests upon that class in the community which can least afford to bear it and pays a warm tribute to the small dealers, who, it says, have set a heroic example of self-denial and genuine charity in extending the credits, with little hope that the bills will be paid in time to save the dealers themselves from want.

"The unemployed," the report says, "have practically exhausted their savings, as it has been now nearly nine months since the general period of unemployment for most of them set in * They are now rapidly exhausting their credit, which is a last resource.

There is a population of more than 300,000 people in the district known as the lower East Side and the investigators had to limit themselves to a small area. It was finally decided that they should confine their efforts to school district No. 2, lying east of Catharine street and the Bowery and bounded also by Grand, Orchard, Canal and Rutgers streets and the East river. This district contains about forty blocks, thickly populated by Jewish, Irish and Italian races, the Jews predominating. The report goes on:

Fifteen druggists interviewed in the Second school district say that within the last year their business has fallen from one-half to one-third of its normal volume, which they attribute to the hard times, people not having the money to purchase the medicines. They all state that there is less sickness among the children this summer than there has been in the past, one reason being that purer foods and vegetables are sold at the present time on the East Side as one of the results of the campaign of the board of health. The destitution, however, is very marked. Many of the people to-day, especially of the unemployed, subsist entirely on bread and herring, and one Italian druggist on Market street said that the Italians in the districts surrounding his store found it impossible to buy properly pasteurized milk for their babies. The grocers say they are compelled to give more credit, people buy things by the pennyworth, and they sell the very cheapest groceries, of which they have a much larger sale than

they ever had before. An Italian minister, associated with the Church of the Sea and Land, said that the destitution among the Italians in that district is even greater than among the Hebrews.

The report says that the sales in all the groceries have greatly decreased, and that the average grocery bill for a medium-sized family is $3 per week. There are starving children, not in the sense that they get nothing to eat, but that they habitually do not get enough to eat. A Forsyth street grocer says that he has been induced to give credit to persons he knows cannot pay, but he cannot see them go hungry.

A number of sample accounts are given, selected at random from the books of the grocers of this district. The two-cent entries are the most numerous, and entries as high as twenty-five cents happen only on feast days. One entry by a grocer was twenty-five cents in cash given to a man to buy a piece of meat in a case where it was known that the family had no funds. For economy's sake families buy no coffee, but buy tea because they can steep it three or four times.

A grocer in Broome street, who has been in business for about a year, says that in the building over his store, three-quarters of the people are unemployed. He has on his books $150, which he offered to sell for $10 in cash. A grocer on Rutgers street, whose sales a month ago were $450 a week, says that the sales now amount to $300. Some are so poor as to be unable to purchase his cheapest goods, and buy decayed potatoes and vegetables and stale bread. Many instances are given to show that the falling off in sales is continuing, indicating that the poverty is increasing rather than diminishing.

SAMPLE OF "PROSPERITY."
(Omaha World-Herald.)

Modestly tucked away in an obscure corner of our valued contemporary, the New York Sun, the World-Herald discovers the following bit of interesting and important information:

Pittsburg, July 18.-The Republic Iron and Steel company has signed an agreement with its union workmen to hold for the coming year. The scale which was signed last night, provides for an average reduction of 10 per cent. It is announced that the eleven plants of the Republic company scattered throughout the country will start on Monday morning. The mills have been closed since June 30 owing to the expiration of the wage scale and the need of repairs. The scale is substantially the same as that adopted by the Western Bar Iron association.

Lest the significance of this item be missed, it might be mentioned that the Republic Iron and Steel Company is one of the numerous great corporations and trusts of which George Rumsey Sheldon, the Republican treasurer, is a director.

IT IS ONE OF THE CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS OF THE STEEL TRUST, UNDER THE DOMINATION OF SUCH POWERFUL SUPPORTRS OF JUDGE TAFT AS ANDREW CARNEGIE, J. PIERPONT MORGAN AND JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER.

IT WAS MR. MORGAN WHO EJACULATED "BULLY! BULLY!" WHEN INFORMED OF TAFT'S NOMINATION.

IT WAS MR. CARNEGIE WHO ASSURED US BLANDLY THAT TAFT'S NOMINATION WOULD SURELY BE FOLLOWED BY HIS ELECTION, AND THAT THIS ASSURANCE WAS ALL THAT WAS NEEDED TO "RESTORE PROSPERITY."

IT WAS MR. ROCKEFELLER WHO, WHEN THE TAFT FORTUNES HUNG IN THE BALANCE, MADE HIS NOMINATION CERTAIN BY TURNING THE VAST INFLUENCE OF THE STANDARD OIL MONOPOLY IN HIS FAVOR.

All these interesting and amiable gentlemen have been telling us a great many things about the panic. They have told us there is no panic. They have said it doesn't amount to much anyhow. They have added that the certainty of Taft's election would promptly cure it, and restore us a prosperity more marvelous and abounding than any that has gone before.

Yet they shut down the mills and furnaces of the great Republic Iron and Steel Company, and kept them shut down, until their employes consented to go back to work for the coming year at a 10 per cent reduction in their wage scale!

Is this just a taste of the "prosperity" Mr. Taft's friends, and Mr. Taft's treasurer, are going to give the laboring men after Taft is elected?

DISTRESS IN NEW YORK.

[New York Commercial (Rep.) of June 24, 1908.]

Quite apart from the investigations that recently led to sensational reports about starving school children on the East Side and along different lines-reports that officers of the Charity Organization Society and the Board of Education were inclined to take rather lightly than otherwise—are the results of an investigation just com

pleted by a committee of residents of the University Settlement. The work covered, as a sort of test, only one section of the "lower East Side," so called-school district No. 2, lying east of Catharine street and the Bowery and bounded also by Grand, Orchard, Canal and Rutgers streets and the East river. This district contains about forty blocks, thickly populated by Jewish, Irish and Italian races, the Jews predominating. The destitution and suffering there are genuine-not the imaginative work of notoriety seekers and space writers; the savings of the vast hordes of the unemployed are practically exhausted, the limit of their credit already reached in most instances; fifteen druggists in the district report business shrunk to a half or a third of its normal volume; the cash trade of the small grocers is almost at the vanishing point; on their account books 2-cent entries predominate; coffee is only rarely bought now, and the teas substituted for it are steeped over and over three or four times; some of the people are so poor that they cannot buy even the cheapest "straight" goods, but are forced to purchase decayed potatoes and vegetables and stale bread. Many instances are given to show that the falling off in sales is continuing, indicating that the poverty is increasing rather than diminishing.

It

There are starving children, not in the sense that they get nothing to eat, but that they habitually do not get enough to eat. Such conditions in this sample section-only one in many that hold in the aggregate over three hundred thousand people, most of whose workers are now unemployed and moneyless-do not, at first blush, reflect creditably on the splendidly organized charity systems of which we New Yorkers are wont to boast; it would seem as if really effective organization could have discovered in the situation some months ago features that threatened to develop into the present conditions and have applied preventive measures in season. should be reflected, however, that the great majority of these people are not alms-askers, but are sturdy, hard-working, economical. thrifty, independent men and women, and are endowed with a measure of personal pride that moves them to hide the truth until biting want compels a disclosure of it. They are, for the most part, especially deserving people, and now that their real condition is known, it ought not to take twenty-four hours for the great heart of New York to set its abounding charity machinery in motion on the East Side.

THE IDLE will be SEEKING WORK.

A railroad president in a Republican panic.

In its issue of August 17th the Philadelphia Public Ledger (Rep.) printed from its Washington correspondent a dispatch, from which the following is taken:

B. F. Yoakum, chairman of the executive committee, Frisco lines, gave this interview:

"Hard times are now costing railroad employes $25,000,000 a month, or $1,000,000 for each working day. This decrease of the employes' payroll is approximately the same amount as the Government daily deficit at Washington. The Government's deficit of $1,000,000 is shared by the entire population of 85,000,000 people, while the other $1,000,000 daily loss is borne by the railroad employes.

"This loss in wages indicates that the means of living for 400,000 railroad men has been cut off, and that not only themselves, but the 1,500,000 persons comprising their dependent families are living out of their savings of better days.

"I have been asked how the railroad men will vote in November. Frankly, I do not know, but I believe I know of what they are thinking. They are thinking of the next winter's fuel, clothing bills, and keeping their children in school. They are wondering what will be done to remedy the present industrial conditions and stop the appalling loss from enforced idleness.

"Railroad workers are thrifty and they help one another. Their savings and mutual bearing of the burdens of adversity have prevented much suffering up to this time, but they have greatly reduced their surplus bank accounts, and when winter comes the story will be different unless business conditions materially improve.

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