OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 7860, 18 March 1889, Page 4

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Keokuk (lowa, U.S.A.), Februarys. THE SENATE AND THE TARIFF. The passage by the United States Senate of a tariff, offered as a substitute for the Mills Tariff Bill, passed by the Lower House of Congress just before the election, marks another stage in the remarkable controversy which has raged for over a year as to the principle of Protection and its practical application. The Senate's Bill has been greatly changed sinco it was first reported last October, and as a rule the changes have been in the direction of higher duties. The Republican Senators have stuck to the doctrine of maintaining high wages for workmen rather than cheapen goods or lower the wage rate. A curious contradiction, however, appoars in the wool schedule, which has been advancod 20 per cent., with a corresponding increase on articles of woollen wear, including carpets and blankets. This change was not favored by the American operatives in woollen factories. From San Francisco to Philadelphia and Boston thoso classes voted stroncly for free wool, and, with the aid of protected city workmen, reduced the Republican majorities in all tho textile manufacturing districts. The city workmen, as shown by their votes, wanted cheaper woollen goods; and the woollen operatives wanted freo wool in order that they might get foroign mixing fleeces, make better articles, reduce the prices, and enlargo their market, as well as the demand for their labor. But to satisfy the clamor of the wool growers, chiefly of tho South-west, the Republican Senate insists on a higher rate of duty on wool and woollens. The wool manufacturers and their employes claim that this will increase the cost of woollen goods so materially that the demand will fall off, and that the people will buy less woollen goods and use substitutes, so that the effect will be that the wool growers must kill and eat their own sheep, and reduce the annual clip to correspond with tho reduced consumption of dear fabrics. Tariff taxation has never brought prosperity to tho wool growers; and tho manufacturers and operatives are almost a unit in opposing higher duties on mixed wools.

The Senate Bill proposes the payment of a direct bounty on sugar, which, like the increase of duties on wool, will obtain very reluctant support from many Republicans who arc not personally interested in the change. The payment of bounties from the Federal Treasury is regarded as a questionable practice both in law and policy, and if once adopted every other interest which becomes unprofitable will have a claim upon the Treasury. On the other hand, it would be a great triumph to promote succesfully the development of new processes of sugar-making from sorghum and beet, and enable the country to supply its own demand.

The Senate propoaea an increase of the duty upon tin plate that will increase the cost of tin ware. The effect will undoubtedly be to bring British manufacturers engaged in that industry to this country, and by reducing the importation still further lessen the balance of trade against the United States. To reduce this balance has become a matter of Buch importance that it will be attained at the cost of increasing the price of many articles of Home production. Another marked difference between the Senate and the House Bills is that the former favors specific and the House Bill ad valorem duties—another illustrution of the radical difference between Republican and Democratic doctrines. Every turn of the tariff question makes it plainer that Republican Congressmen favor high wageß, even if they create high-priced goods ; while the Democrats want cheap goods, no matter what may be the reduction in the wages paid to labor. The one party is inconsistent in claiming it can at once give workmen high wages and consumers goods at European prices, while the other is equally contradictory in claiming that it can supply the public with low-priced articles, for the production of which high wages are to be paid. Both parties oscillate at times, but the fundamental difference is clear: the one party is for high wages and firm prices, and the other is for low wages and cheap goods. City workmen generally and employe's in protected industries at the late election inclined to the latter, while the farmers and urban population adhered to the former. But why they did no it is difficult to explain. Both Bills are now beforo the Lower House Committee on " Ways and Means," and there is no probability of an agreement beiDg arrived at by this Congress.

OUR FOREIGN AFFAIRS. In about four weeks a Republican Admin istration will demonstrate its capacity to straighten out the snarls of diplomacy in which we are involved on all aides. The Press of our country very generally complain of weakness in our State department. Our Minister at the Court of Great Britain is practically recalled, because.the British Government send no representative to replace Lord Sackville West. The fishery trouble with Cenada remains unsettled. A question has arisen with France relative to the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine in the Isthmus of Panama. The aggression of Germany in Samoa demands immediate and prompt attention. Hay tians are still fighting each other, and a portion of our navy must remain there to give protection to American interests. The American Senate has made an appropriation of LIOO.OOO, te be expended under the direction of the President in the execution of our obligations to Samoa, and for the purchase and fitting the harbor of Pagopago as a coaling station for the American Navy. Two steam frigates are ordered to Samoa to reinforce the vessels already there. Just what their orders are no one but the President and Secretary of the Navy know. So it is quite certain that the incoming Administration will have their hands full at the very start, and, with Mr Blaine in office as Secretary of State, the country expects a vigorous !' jingo " policy,

As the inside facts come out as to the management of the Samoan affair by the present Administration, they do not appear edifying to the average American. Samoa made its first and earliest treaty with the United States, and our Government promised her protection, Germany of late has been trying to steal those islands. Mr Greenbaum, the American Consul—himself a German, but one of the American sort—ran up the American flag over the capital when threeGermanwarshipscameto complete their subjugation of it. During a diplomatic hagglo over the matter, Bismarck sent four warships to take whatever he wanted in the blood and iron fashion. King Malietoa placed himself under American protection. The Germans tore down the American flag, arrested the King, and sent him a prisoner to Berlin. The letter of the deposed King to tho representative of the American Government is pathetic and dignified, and should cause a blister upon the cheek of the true American patriot:—"l shall now obey, and put myself to-morrow in the I hands of the German forces, to prevent the I blood of my people being spilled, and because I love my country. I desire to remind you of the promises so frequently made by your Government, and trust that you will cause these assurances to come to pass, in order that the Jives and liberties of my people may be respected." Bismarck is foolish to court a quarrel with the United States. Americans do not forget that when France and Russia helped the Americans to independence and freedom Germany sent hired Hessians to lay America waste. The United States can pay back that debt with interest, and in all fairness and manliness may enter into relations with Prance and Russia by which the United States can hold Germany by the throat; while France on the west, and Russia on the east, attack united Germany. TIIE ROMAN CATHOLIC CnUKCH AND DR M'GLYNN. The Roman Catholic Church is still hunting its excommunicated priest, Rev. Dr M'Glynn. Archbishop Corrigan, of New York, has issued a circular letter to all the priests of the diocese notifying them that hereafter attendance at meetings of the Anti-Poverty Society will constitute a " reserved case" ; that is to say, those Roman Catholics who attend those meetings cannot receive absolution upon confession from their priest, but will be reserved for the consideration of the Archbishop himself. The Bißhop's authority to issue such a letter is unquestionable, but he would have been wiser to have given reasons for his decision. The logic of the Archbishop is sadly at fault. He affirms rightfully that the Universal Church teaches that the " right of property is sanctioned by the law of Nature," but wrongfully that " the founder of the Anti-Poverty Society proclaims the opposite." The Universal Church has not decreed that water, air, light, or land are proper subjects of private property, and the founder of the Anti-Poverty Society no more pronounces against the rights of property in declaring that land is the property of all the people than Moses did when he declared that it was the property of God. With the correctness of the theories I have no concern. The condemnation of the Bishop is an affirmation of a new doctrine rather than a reaffirmation of its ancient teaching. The decree will be judged from the standpoint of tho critic. The Roman Catholic Church regards the priest as a father, and the men and women of his parish as his children, for whose safe keeping he is responsible. The Pope is father of a large family. From that point of view the Bishop was quite right to forbid his children attending meetings which he believed to be morally and spiritually pernicious. From the Protestant view the minister is the counsellor and adviser of his people—they are men and women who must themselves give account to God, and any dictation such as Archbishop Corrigan's would be regarded as an impertinence. My opinion is that the Protestant theory of life so pervades the American community that the Bishop's order will have the effect of increasing rather than decreasing tho attendance of Dr M'Glynn's audiences, and cripple the power of the priest rather than the influence of the man against whom it was aimed. SUCCESSFUL SOBGHCM SUGAR MAKING. Experiments have been made in the State of Kansas for aome yeare in growing sorghum, and makiDg sugar therefrom. A new process has at last been discovered, which makes the expectation of successful sugar making a certainty. It seems clear, from the report of the State Commissioner, that sugar can be made from the sorghum cane at prices that will give the farmer a fair profit on his crop, and also the manufacturer on his sugar and syrups. This being so, this country will be on the high road to independence so far as sweets are concerned. The sugar consumed in the United States costs the consumers about L 40,000,000 annually. There is no one article of which we import so much. In spite of the persistent efforts of a century Louisiana has been unable to produce more than an insignificant fraction of the million and a-half tons of sugar we consume. We havo been paying the planters for many years a bounty in the form of an 85 per cent, tariff duty to stimulate them, but with all that fostering they are now making only one-half the amount of sugar which they did before "the war." Some of the land redeemed from the Florida Everglades is suitable for the raising of sugar-cane, but the quantity would be but as a drop in the bucket compared with our immense consumption.

Sorghum sugar and syrups, coarse and rank in flavor, have been made in this country for the last thirty years. There have been until quite recently two difficulties to contend with. Under the oldfashioned process of crushing the cane to extract the juice, not more than 65 per cent, of the saccharine matter could be obtained. Nor was it possible to crystallise the sugar into glucose. Even when this was not the case the crystals could not be freed from the waxy envelope which held them. Both of these difficulties seem to have been overcome now. The use of what is called the " diffusion process," by which the cane is boiled instead of ground, gets out all the saccharine matter. A man named Swanson, by adding precipitated carbonate of lime to the chips into which the cane is cut up while still boiling, has been able to free the crystals from their waxy coating, and get a really fine article of merchantable sugar. The factory at Fort Scott (Kansas), where the successful experiment was made, took the crop from 1,200 acres of cane, paying the farmers about 10s per ton. An acre averaged about ten tons of green stalks. This was not all they made, however, as an acre produced from twenty to twenty-five bushels of seed worth Is per bushel. The entire product of the factory is over 500,0001b of good yellow sugar and 100,000 gal of syrup. The profit to each ton of cane handled, without including the State bounty, is LI Is, which indicates that neither the farmer nor the manufacturer has any roason to bo dissatisfied with the results of his year's labor. The business of sorghum making in Kansas has already got an impetus. Hundreds of mills will be erected and a million of acres devoted to raising cane. Capitalists are reluctant to risk much money in uncertain enterprises. In this case there is the experience of three years, each of which has shown better results than the preceding one. hy not try it in New Zealand ? I will send some of the seed to anyone who would like to experiment with it, THE STERN LOGIC OF FACTS.

The Stockholders' Committee of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company have just published a report which touches on the progress of Prohibition in the State of Kansas. This report refers to the effects of prohibitory legislation, merely as a matter of financial interest, without considering directly its moral, religious, or political significance. It shows plainly that Prohibition has been of great value to financial investments, and the facts submitted by this Committee are confirmed by the authority of the Attorney-General of the State. Amongst other statements the report contains the following.—" In Leavenworth county the saloons were closed in Mar oh, 1887, and commitments to the Penitentiary sank from thirty-six in 1866 to thirteen in 1887, and five during the first half of 1888; in Aitcheson county the ssloods were closed in 1886, and sentences to the penitentiary decreased from twenty-three in 1865 to thirteen in 1886, to

six in 1887, and but one during the first half of 1888. The penitentiary has 104 less inmates than one year ago, and the gaols of the State are practically empty." The Committee find that pauperism has decreased under the new regime as rapidly and as manifestly as crime, and concludes with an expression of assurance that the advance in moral and material interests under this aggressive temperance movement has added, and will continue to add, largely to the lands and the security of investments. If these statements and conclusions were published by a religious or temperance organisamight be said that being made by interested parties tbey must be taken with considerable allowance. But these investigations have been conducted by agents of a business corporation, and the report is made i in the interest of secular business.

No argument touches so sensitive a spot in the average American as that which appeals to his pocket. Make it plain to him that the banishment of the saloon will result in the immediate financial improvement of the oondition of the State, and the saloon must go. Facts similar to the above are multiplying everywhere in proportion to the opportunity given for the operation of the Prohibitory system. In the State of Georgia, one county reports that t\ie negroes acquired almost as much land in a single year under Prohibition as they had done in twenty when the saloons were open. ' The Nation,' quoting these facts, attempts to explain with some force that Kansas and Georgia are agricultural States, and have no large cities. But Topeka, the capital of Kansas, is a city of 50,000 people, and yet there ia no part of Kansas whers Prohibition has wrought greater financial, commercial, and social improvement than in this same city of Topeka. The people will soon learn that what is good for the country and farm villages is good for the metropolis as well. The curse of the saloon is tenfold greater in the teeming city than in the rural regions, and the blessings which follow its banishment from the city will be proportionately greater. Pennsylvania will vote upon the question of Prohibition next June, The contest will be hot, sharp, and possibly close. The whole strength of both forces will then meet.

THE SAMOAN AFFAIR. It would seem from recent despatches transmitted to Congress by the President and the Secretary of State that the discussion has advanced a step, and that Germany will recede from its position. You rray be very sure that two great nations like America and Germany will not go to war, but will settle all their differences peacefully, I am really glad of the incident, howerer, I do not want America to appear as a bully and a fighter. War is a horrible trade. Germany has gained mightily in recent years by becoming a nation and taking on national aims and consciousness. America will be greater and nobler for the same thing. It is greater and nobler than it was a week ago greater and nobler because of the inspiration of the national spirit which this incident awakened. North, Bouth, east, and west, all sectional differences, all political differences, and all bitterness of personal feeling, were lost out of eight, and all stood together for the vindication of national honor with a national Bpirit. Ulysses.