Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-30
NOT A GOOD REPUBLICAN wAs.cRY.

! and that it involves the elimination OF
$50, 900, 600 of revenue. Among the most
important reductions contemplated IS that
on whisky, which is to be cut down to 30
cents on the gallon, and a similar reduction
| is to be male in the tobacco excise. Be-
fore the Republican party is committed by
its representatives at Washington to any
such programme, it is to be hoped that due
account will be taken of it's Implications
1t is question to be answered first, whether
the Republican party can go before the
country as the champion Of cheap whisky.
This is what ia embodied in the new plan
The favor of the American people is to be
sought on the ground that the ''home in.
dustry of drunkard making will be fos.
tered and encouraged by reducing the tax
on whisky. The Republican party will
then be in the attitude of soliciting support
on the strength of its open alliance with
the worst and most demoralizing agencies
IN the country. It is of no use to make
any pretense about the matter. To cheaper
whisky is to encourage drunkenness, and
the long train of ills which follows tina.
vice. Certainly it will look we'll for the
historic party of "great moral ideas " to
be declaring itself the champion OF cheap
i! intoxication "the only party that ia
pledged to enable the poor man to fill his
"skin with rotgut for FIVE cents"
How the people will "enthuse when the
Republican orators take the stump and re-
late with what noble and patriotic per.
sistency the grand old party has laborea to
put cheap gin within the reach of every
man How forcibly these speakers will
appeal to the elements which have hereto
fore voted the Democratic ticket With
what cheers for the Republican party every
doggery and slum and jail and penitentiary
will ring, when it becomes known that it
has crowned its immortal work by relieving
the poor mans bottle of its burdens
Cheap Whisky as Republican war.ery,
however, does rot seem exactly the right
thing in the right place. 1t is indeed I'M
fortunately true that the party which for
the last seventeen years has maintained
war tariff in time of peace, and which has
fieeced the working classes in order to
build up privileged class of protected /"
parasites, might by some be thought in the
line of its natural tendencies in completing
the ruin of the poor by proffering them
cheap whisky. But the Republican party
has erred ignorantly, not mischievously, in
the matter of the tariff, and it would be un-
fair to charge it with any sinister designs
against the masses. In the matter Of the |
internal revenue taxes, however, it is very
necessary to point out that the party which |
becomes the champion of cheap whisky, |
and which inhcts that injury upon the |
country deliberately in order to avoid the
necessity of relieving the people from the
burdens of the tariff, will be buried for |
ever beneath the scorn and contempt of an
outraged nation. The politicians at Wash
lngton are continually laundering because
they only take counsel from interested
parties, and that is what they are doing in
this case. The whisky manufacturers and |
the protected manufacturers are those who |
are striving to get the internal revenue re- |
duced. The, whisky men have the one ob.
ject in view Of increasing their GALES by |
lowering tbs price of their staple. They
do not care low much ruin and desolation |
their trade produces, but at least they are |
not hypocrites. The protected classes, on |
the other hard, are impostors. They pre-
tend that'tbey want the import duties re.
tanned beca use otherwise they cannot as
ford to pay high wages to their men.
This is fraudulent pretense, for they
do not pay high wages as it is, and they
avail themselves of every opportunity to
reduce the pay of their employees. These
two classes are the only ones at present de-
handing reduction in the tax on whisky.
The Protectionists hope to be able to stsve
off tariff reform altogether by cutting
down the Internal revenue taxes, and they
are quite willing that the country should
be supplied. with cheap whisky if only
they can maintain their monopoly. It was
said some time ago that the Democratic
party could always be trusted to blunder
At this time it looks as if the Republican
party had shanged places with its oppo.
nents in that respect. We can think of no
conceivable blunder SO certainly disastrous
and fatal as the proposed fiscal plan of the
Republicans in Congress will prove. 1t
would most assuredly drive from the
party forever the last remnants of its
decent elements. The moral, the edu.
Gated, the patriotic, the intelligent, the re-
ligious elements, would at once leave il.
The war-cry of "cheap whisky" would
instantly degrade it to the very lowest
depth of political abasement. And yet
that war'cry in inevitably linked with the
serious adoption of the programme which
was outlined in our dispatches yesterday.
The truth is that the tax on whisky is
one of the most equitable and profitable of
imposts, and if it could be increased with.
out leading to illicit distillation it would
be sound policy to increase it. No party
or Government can afford to become re.
sponsib!e for = reduction of taxation, the
only possible consequence of which can be
to make more drunkards. Prohibition has
not indeed been Endorsed by the people to
any considerable extent, but this proposi-
ton is at the opposite extreme from Pro.
hibition. 1t would indeed be a mad re.
spouse to the rebuke of Ohio.
The Republicans at Washington will no.
adopt the new programme unless they
really wish to destroy their party utterly.
If they do adopt it no gift of prophecy will
be needed to predict sweeping Demo.
cratic victory in 1854. In such case the
Democracy would only have to manifest
the courage of its convictions on the tariff
question, and it could make any one Presi.
dent. II the, Republican partv IL n h.