The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1882-01-19

UOr becks Oh h0uCucky, leu On Will
mastery and exhaustive speech in OPP |
position to the doctrine of protection. !
He fayors q I" tariff for revenue only"
making the government and its needs
the first consideration, instead of few
special interests that seek to enrich
themselves at the expense of the mass
of the people. He would not strive
for absolute free trade, but would al
low only such protection as would be
incidental to well arranged tariff for
revenue purposes. The speech is bold
and aggressive, showing no disposition
to compromise with speculations of
expediency, and desiring no delay, but
desiring the present Congress to act
upon the matter and settle 1t without
shifting the responsibility to commit
tees. This question is coming conspic-
uousiy to the front, and promises to be
in the immediate future the leading
question in the politics of this country.
The speech of Mr.. Beck Is manly, able
aud eloquent, aud throws much light
upon the great question but its ex-
treme length will preclude its publ
cation entire even In the largest of city
dailies. We give few significant ex-
tracts, and may hereafter make farther
quotations therefrom.
After citing the published statements
showing that the MOnopolists are al
ready bOasting that il would be an easy
matter for the manufacturers to pre-
vent any legislation. that they have
secured the committee of ways and
| means, and that the average member
of Congress Is easily alarmed by threats
of defeat by the protective organiza-
tions, Mr.. Beck said: There is moth.
ing either novel, revolutionary, or
mysterious in our efforts to reform the
tariff. 1t has been debated in and out
of congress for years. 1t is not u ques-
ton Of framing u system of taxation
or of establishing new policy. No
body asks or expects this congress to
establish free trade or tear down GUS
tom houses. We are not free tO select
what as All original proposition might
he considered the best mode of raising
revenue; we have to deal with exist
ing conditions, and see to it that no
great industrial interest of the country
is destroyed or paralyzed by our action.
The great party to which l have the
honor to belong has spoken upon this
subject with most pronounced emplla-
sis. The most prominent and impor-
tant plank in the platform at st. Louis
in 1876, upon which we carried the
country for Mr.. Tillen, supported by
the states of New York, Indiana, New
Jersey and Connecticut, reads thus:
"We denOunce the present tariff lev
| led upon nearly 4, 900 articles as q mas
terpiece of injustice, iniquity and false
preIenses- 1t yields a dwindling, not
a yearly rising revenue. 1t has inn
pOverished many industries to subsi-
die few. 1t prohibits imports that
might purchase the products of Amer
lean labor. 1t has degraded American
commerce from the first to an inferior
rank on the high seas. 1t has cut down
the sales of American manufactures at
home and abroad, and depleted the re-
| turns of American agriculture, an in
dustry followed by half our people. 1t
costs the people five times more than
it produces to the treasury, obstructs
the processes of production. and wastes
the fruits of labor. 1t promotes fraud,
fosters smuggling. enrfches dishonest
| officials, and bankrupts honest mer-
chants. We demand that all custom
house taxation shall be only for rev.
enue."
In 1880, at Cincinnati, we reaffirmed
all the Specifications of 1876, and epit-
omized the resolution have read by
demand that all custom house taxation
should be for revenue only.
HOW THE MASSES ARE ROBBED BY So
CALLED PROTECTION.
Every charge and specification in the
resolution of 1876 against the present
tariff was absolutely true, aud all but
one are as true now as then. The rev.
euues which from 1875 till 1877 had
dwindled $29, ,OOO, 900, although 10 per
on many leading articles under pre-
tense of Increasing revenue to provide
for the sinking fund in 1875, have in
creased in the last few years, not be-
cause of protecution, but in spite of it,
in consequence of a series of seasons of
scarcity in Europe and of abundant
harvests here, stimulated to immense
proportions by railroad extensions and
land grants to them and the settlers,
gifts far exceeding in extent the terri
tOrial area Of many of the largest and
most powerful nations in the world.
To-day, as in 1876. the farmer who
furnishes nine-tenths of our vast ex-
ports, and is compelled to sell them in
unprotected markets or at their prices,
cannot buy with the money he gets in
the market where he sells, the things
he must have without paying 45 per
cent, at least, more than they are
worth, or than the man who has them |
for sale asks for them. l never could |
see how that protected American labor.
The foreign seller can sell, in spite of
us, at the price he asks, to any of the |
l. 400 900 600 in the world outside of the |
United States. Congress cannot pre-
vent that. All it can do or does do is |
to rob our own people by requiring
them to pay for what they must have |
As per cent. more than anybody else
pays. The protection $50 called is q
congressional license to few infiuen-
Uial corporations or wealthy cOmbina- |
tiOns to extOIt from the American far
mers, laborers, professional men and |
their families, a large per centage of
their earnings, not to support the gov
ernment, but to enrich people who |
have no right to- take anything from |
them, and call that protection. 1t is |
the protection the wolf gave the lamb.
WAGES NOT REDUCED BY THE ABoLI-
TION OF TARIFFS.
After other evidence from history |
showing up the failure Of the misera-
BILE protective system which the En-
glish aristocracy had maintained so
long and had forced the mass of the
people to submit to, to enable them to |
collect enormous rents from their inn |
poverished tenants, whose labor they
so patriotically professed they were
protecting against foreign competition,
Mr.. Beck continued:
I know the ready answer of Senator |
Morrell and all the supporters of his
high protective tariff; it runs all |
through his elaborate speech, and will |
be the text for thousands of campaign |
speeches. They assert that England |
underselIs US because she works iil-fed, !
ill-olad, ill-paid paupers, and that
American freemen must not be degra-
ded by working at the prices they are
compelled to accept. Fortunately for
the truth las any statement of mine
x,x1,,I<y - Gaorof. ~, DIo;., |