Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-16
TIE TARIFF coMmrss1or ELL.

Oh proIeCISnlsls. IL IS very unlikely thaL
any appointments TO be made by the Presi-
dent will materially alter the prospects OF
the new scheme. 1t was almost a fore
gone conclusion that he would appoint a
majority of protectionists, inasmuch as the
project for commission has been from the
first essentially protectionist project, and
inasmuch as he himself is not supposed to
hold any convictions on the subject. The
real purpose Of the measure is thoroughly
understood. It device by which the
protectionists have secured postponement
Of tariff revision, and by which Congress
has made confession of incapacity to per-
form some of the duties for which it is
organized. No good is to be expected from
the Commission. The sole practical result
will probably be delay in the reform which
is being demanded more and more posi-
lively by the people. The protectionists
have obtained reprieve by passing the
new bill, and the politicians think that
they have contrived to stave off remedial
action and at tine same time satisfy public
sentiment. In this conclusion We think
they are mistaken. The Republican party
has put itself in bad position by it's
course in the premises, and unless the
Democrats once more exhibit that curious
incapacity to take advantage of their oppo-
nents' blunders which has served the latter
SO often during the past ten years, the
political outcome may be serious.
The Republican party cannot rid itself
of its responsibility for the existence of
the tariff. The latter was distinctly a Re-
publican measure. Nor can it venture to
assert that the time has not yet come for
tariff revision ard reduction. The warmest
friends OF protection have been compelled
to acknowledge that the tariff needed re.
vision, and it is, moreover, so oppressive
| and .mischievous in many of its effects
that it would be difficult to name an Issue
which could be made more damaging in a
campaign. Now since the necessity of re-
vision is undisputed, and since the worst
evils of the tariff are so glazing and plain
as scarcely to require examination, and
since the surplus revenue is at present so
great that 500, 900, 900 could be Topped off
with eminent benefit to the people, it is
certain that the Republican pretense of the
need for protracted investigation before
doing anything towards tariff reduction,
will not satisfy the public. The fact is
that there was no necessity for Tariff
Commission. The work to be done was
work which Congress could and ought to
! have undertaken itself. The resort to out
side assistance is confession of incompe-
tence on the part of legislators which the
people will not be slow to mark. Here is
a party whose representatives never hest
tated at imposing the most crushing bur-
dens upon the taxpayers Of the country,
yet which is by its own acknowledgment
incompetent to take the first step toward
reducing these burdens.
II Congressman could SO confidently
frame tariff covering over three thousand
articles, how is it that they are too ignor-
ant Of the wants Of commerce to revise
it? This is question which the Repub-
lican Congressman will find very hard to
answer, yet which the people are certain to
ask with increasing emphasis. If the
Democrats had not already shown that
they have not the courage of their con-
victions; if they were not become mere
party of time.sergerE, waiting upon
expediency, and afraid to take any clearly
defined position lest they should lose
votes they would find in this Republican
bluader the largest opportunity that has
occurred since the close of the rebellion,
and they might by judicious management
drive their opponents to the wall upon it,
What will injure the Republicans most
in this connection is the suspicion that
they have made a compact with the
protectionist interests which are reaping the
greatest advantages from the continuance
| Oh Inc IdTlu, anu tnat III 81 uOluS bneJ
have sacrificed the people. And it must
be admitted that there is ground for just
that suspicion, for the urgent need Of
revision is not any longer denied even
| by the organs of the protectionists, and
therefore there was no possible justification
for the course which has been followed.
The free trade element of course under
stands that it has been completely thrown
over, and it will not for a moment be
deceived by the thin pretense of a serious
investigation. It knows that if Congress
had really desired to reform the tariff it
could have done so without any Com.
mission, but that the Commission is
neither more nor less than a device for
preventing action.
We now learn that the Commission is
to be packed one That should surprise
no one, however, for anything else than
packed Commission would not have
suited the men who arranged the job.
But the stupidity of the whole affair is re-
markable, for there is really no conceal
ment about it, and yet the Republicans
seem to think that it will serve their pur-
pose. The West already realizes the
hypocrisy of the policy, and resents it,
and as time goes by, and the fact becomes
clearer that evasion was the only object
sought, this sentiment will grow stronger.
OF late the Protectionists have tried to com.
fort themselves with the idea that the
South is coming over to their views, but
they have failed to see that the West is
rapidly leaving them, and it is the West,
not the South, which will control the
National policy in the future. The evils
and wrongs of the tariff are at last becom
ing familiar to the masses beyond the
Mississippi, and the facts and figures
which are now being disseminated among
them by the Free Trade League and kim
dred organizations are not of character to
be met by the usual kind of party platform
" taffy." This is the great issue of the i'm.
mediate future, and the party that has not
the aagacity and the patriotism to meet it
frankly and definitely will lose the conf
dence of the American people. The Re-
publican party has made a bad beginning
in committing itself to this insincere
Tariff Commission scheme, and this its
leaders will discover to their cost before
long.
THE M'GARRAHAN CLAIM.