Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-10-11
The Trnth Ahout the Tariff.


With all the pirate of Radical organs
aud orators about the friendship of their
party for the work ngmsn, they are care
full to conceal, or at least not to state, the
fact that the Morrill, tariff, when first
concocted TO meet the exigencies
of war, was a revenue and not pro-
tective tariff. In its provisions every
regard was paid to the dictum of Robert
J. Walker, that no duty. be imposed
higher than the lowest scale conducive
to revenue. Under the tariff thus framed,
together with the receipts from internal
taxes, the government derived the vast
revenue which. with its loans, enabled it
to prosecute the war successfully. 1t
was not until its war record grew thread
bare that the Radical party grew solicit
Gus about the workingmen. Indeed,
during the war labor was actively en-.
ployed in meeting the extraordinary
demands made upon it, and tariff for
labor protection would then have been
superfuous as well as ridiculous.
When Radicalism saw its war-record
hold upon the people weakening,
its leaders bethought themselves
of an alliance with the "barons, .
and accordingly the tariff was revised"
in the interest of the latter, and, in many
of its features, was made virtual
prohibitory. This was done professedly
in the interests of the workingmen, but
really for the benefit of the mauufactu-
rers, and by these tactics the Radical
leaders managed both to dupe the toilers
ard conciliate their employers.
So matters have gone since. Every
year the Radical platforms have rung the
changes on the dignity and rights of
American labor, and the ''barons" have
responded with hard cash, and bulldozed
their employees for the benefit of the
grand old party" Thus the only bene-
ficiaries of the protective system are
the barons and the Radical party.
Certain classes of wOrkingmen are
deceived into the belief that high tariff
protects their wages, but the truth is
they are forced to take what it may
please their employers to give them for
their services, while every one of them
is unduly taxed on every article he con-
sumes. The farmer, the clerk, the pro
fessional man and all classes of labor
ers not in the barons' employ
derive not the remotest benefit
from the protective system, and the very
men whom it is alleged to protect, con-
stsntly run the risk of being supplanted
by the "pauper labor" of Europe, which
is held up to them as their greatest bug
bear whenever it may suit the purposes
of their employers 10 do so. For spe
ciousness and sophistry, the deliverances
of Radiealism and the few favored pro-
tected sons of fortune on the subject of
the tariff have never been exceIled.
The party has profted by its alliance
with the "barons," but the signs are
multiplying that it is not now
altogether unwilling to cut loose from its
former allies and consent to a revision of
the tariff in the interest of the people, in
the hope thereby of peIpetuating its
power. The Democrats, meanwhile, are
displaying a wretched faulty in not
earnestly tsking hold of the subject of
tariff reform in the interest of
justice, and insisting upon a
legitimate scale of duties such as is alone
permitted by the Constitution. Radi-
calism has profitcd by disregf ding That
instrument in the past, and now that it
is no longer profitable to ignore it, is
maniresting some disposition to recognize
its existence, at least so far as tariff re
form is concerned. If the Democrats
are not veIy way and careful their enc
mics will yet cunninglY outgeneral them
and Cal y off their thunder.