The daily gazette., 1881-11-30
From the N. Y. World.
The Tariff COnvention.

Every New Yorker who understands
the true interest of bis city and Of bis
country will almost feel like welcoming
the delegates to the tariff convention
which is to meet in New FORK TO day -
Thomas Corwin recommended the Mex.
leans 10 welcome our troops, "with
bloody hands to hospitable graves" The
delegates may be very estimable indi>
viduals, but they are about to assemble
as delegates for the purpose OF doing .
public mischief.
1t must not be forgotten that the dol
egates to the National Tariff Conven-
tion-every one of whom, excepting two
or three fgureheads, attends IL - IN
advocate of his own personal lnterests-
are necessarily interested in increasing
the public burdens. Every "tarif man"
is concerned to see that no abuse BY
which the public money is wasted v
redressed. The most alarming Of these
abuses at present is the operation OF the
Arrears of Pensions bill. That that bill
| Is resulting In plain swindle upon the
taxpayers of the country is sufficiently
shown by the single fact that last year,
fifteen years after the close Of the war,
and therefore fifteen years after the last
just claim for pension had accarued,
S,057 new names were added to the PEN
sion list. 1t would not perhaps be ab.
solutely just to say that these 6,Obf
| names represented precisely 8,051
swindling claims, bat it is quite out of
the question that so many as one tenth
of them are just claims. Every man,
however, who is interested In the con-
tinuance of the present monstrous tariff
is also interested in the allowance Of
these monstrous claims, and In the sue
cess Of all other schemes to swinile the
Government.
This assertion carries its own proof
| to those who are familiar with the
facts of current politics. It may BE-
necessary to remind those who are not
that the sole pretext upon which the
tariff has been defended since the close
of the war has been the necessity to
the Treasury of the revenue produced
| by it, and the impossibility Of provide
ing a new method of raising the same
amount without dislocating the whole
industrial system OF the county,
Now, it has become evident that there
is no necessity for the revenue thus
raised. The revenue is many times
too great for the legitimate expenses
of the Government, and all of it that
can proftably be applied to the re-
ductlon of the public debt has already
been SO applied. If the Administra-
ton and Congress are only tolerably
scrupulous in expenditures the ''reve-
Eue" pretext will no longer sustain
the swindles of the tariff. Unless
some friendly thieves devote them-
selves to committing unheard OF
frauds in the various departments We
shall presently be confronted with the
problem whether or not the present
tariff, shall be retained simply ~ .
, system not of "incide ntal' but Of
, professed and exclusive protection. II
!. is true that very much lower tarih
than we now suffer might be made, II
it were judiciously adjusted, to produce
more revenue than the present tariff
but the protectionists, who are con,
tinuaily verifying John Bright's IA
nous characterization of them, insist
: that protective tariff which keeps out
foreign articles is a ia riff for revenue
! which let's them in, and we must
hold them to their own idiotic doc.
. trine,