National Republican., 1883-08-04
Another Model Tariff.
Evening Post.


The Pennsylvania democrats, if their an
swer to the Wharton Barker plank of the
republican platform be correctly reported,
have produced q deliverance on the tariff to
which none but the really perverse or stupid
can take exception. 1t proposes as a final
settlement of the tariff controversy that "im-
port duties should be so adjusted in their
application as to prevent unequal burdens,
encourage productive industries at home, and
afford just compensation to labor, but not
create or foster monopolies." This is, in
fact, the kind of tariff for which the W orld
has been longing for centuries but, if it can
be provided, we do not think its operation
need be or ought to be conf ned
to the prevention of unequal burdens,
tho encouragement of productive industries
at home, and the provision of just compensa-
tion to the laborer. tariff like that is
clearly kind of power" like steam, which
could be used for all sorts of good purposes.
Why not make it put down drunkenness,
build model lodging houses raise the salaries
of ministers and professors, and enrich poor
colleges, and purify politics generally? All
these things are really easier than the task
which tartfmongers usually set before them
selves After twenty years control of the
tariff, and with full power to make it
produce any particular blessing they set
their hearts on, it is very odd to
find protectionist conventions all over the
country telling us the kind of things the
tariff ought TO do. If the tariff we have had
since 1851 has not prevented unequal burdens,
or sufficiently fostered home industry or
given the laborer his due and has led to the
growth of monopolIes, their duty now is to
stop drawing resolutions about tariff and
give us n specimen of the kind of tariff that
wi n
tion of modern society, that is-give capital
just enough profits, give labor just enough
wages, ditluse wealth equally, prevent monop-
olies strikes, and commercial and manufac-
turing crises.
What kind of tariff is ,this2 Who knows
how to frame it2 Where can n specimen of
it be seen at work? Everybody longs for IL
not protectonists only, but freetraders,
and in fact all men who care for The good of
their species.
The convention also asks that the govern
ment shall redeem all its express and implied
obligations rs to coinage, and shall maintain
aud defend the dignity of American labor and
the rights of American citizens at home and
abroad. The express obligations of the gov
ernment as to coinage are set down in the
statutes, and consist in convertingall gold that
is brought to il into coins of certain
weight.and flneness, and in purchasing and
coming o certain amount of silver per
lnonln, Wnclner any ID DrOuBnU 10 III OF nOU.
Further than this, it is bound to receive gold
and silver in payment of taxes and other
dues. Is 1t evading these duties? We think
not What the implied obligations" of the
government as to coinage are ii would be
hard TO say. We doubt II anybody knows.
The only thing of the kind we can think of
is the obligation to prohibit pitch and toss or
other games of chance with coins in govern
ment offices during Office hours. The steal
ing, or clipping, or counterieiting, or sweat
ing of coins by government officers is eX-
pressly forbidden by law
On the whole, the help that any Pennsyl-
vanian who does not like the republican plat
form gets from the democratic platform is not
easily seen, beyond tho denunciation of the
Wharton Barker scheme of raising redundant
revenue as unconstitutional and unsound."
But on the other hand tho effect of this is
destroyed by the large function ascribed TO
the tariff. Whoever makes the tariff u phi
lanthropic agency, or thinks of anything in
framing it except the supply of money for
the government expenses, cannot help having
a redundant revenue aeery frequently, if not
constantly. For, if after raising enough reve-
nue. to carry on the government, he finds
burdens are still unequal, home industries
languishing laborers dissatisfied, and capital
lists bloated, what can he do to cure these
evils but raise more revenue? And thus he
soon finds himself with redundancy on his
hands. Does it not occur to these democratic
publicists that II may he unconstitutional
and unsound to try to do anything with
the tariff except to raise the money appropri-
ated by congress for the objects designated by
the constitution as lying within its legitimate
sphere of authority ?