The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-04-18
THE FOURTH PEAL.
Another Open Letter From Mr..
Fishback to Mr.. Peelle.
The More Republican "Protection" We
Have the Less We Get to Eat.
Senator Sherman Charged With Aiding
and Abetting the Iron Monop-
olists, Etc, Etc.

In his History of the Intellectual Devel
opment of Europe" Professor Draper says
"All men are liable to come into that con
dition in which, while aware of the fallac,
of their opinions, they are yet angry that an
other should remind them thereof" Con
gressmen and plste-glass editors Iho are no
afflicted with the "malady of thought" ant
are thus enabled to preserve the adolescen
complexion so much in favor with part,
roustabouts, are prone to get into that con
dition. 1t is sad state for any ae to com,
TO. Condemned TO die for doing his owl
thinking, and for expressing his thoughts
Socrates could say that mo greater evil car
happen to any one than to hate reasoning.
Efforts to repress reasoning by means of tn,
caucus or any sort of party machinery, art
futile. was a boy when the Wings re
solved in National Convention that they
would "discountenance" the agitation o.
the slavery question, and the Democrats
who were bigger fools, resolved that they
would resist all attempts to agitate it
This party hatred of reasoning is again crop
ping out in the determination to silence the
expression of
FREE THOUGHT ABOUT THE TARIFF.
The slavery question was agitated in spite oil
adverse resolutions and showers of rotten
eggs, and the tariff question is now getting
into a promising state of agitation. Poll
ticians whose thinking faculties have be-
come rusty for lack of use should Turkish Ut
their intellectual machinery without delay
So much by way Of prelude.
In your speech on the Chinese question
delivered in Congress March %. 1882, a copy
OF which you were kind enough to send me-
you quote the following from the Repub.
lican National platform of 1880:
1--WE reaffirm the belief avowed in 1876
that the duties levied for the purpose OF
American labor"
After this you go on to say, Whatever
support to restrictive legislation 1 give will
be upon the ground of protection 10 our
American laborers." By some strange per.
version, when you came to vote on the new
tariff law,you construed the phrase "Ameri-
can laborers' to mean American million
aires like Mr.. DePauw, of Indiana, and
Henry B. Payne, of Ohio, American bank
ers, American salt and iron monopolists,
and the like. You vote millions every year
10 pay Custom House officials and to main.
tain revenue cutters that Mr.. DePauw may
get into his pocket the last cent of the
bounty You so generously bestow upon him;
and you also
ARM THE MILITIA TO SHOOT DOWN
Mr.. DePauw's workmen if they shall strike
too vigorously for an increase of wages. If
the caucus had not instilled into you such a
hatred OF reasoning, you would stop and
think a moment before casting such votes.
The Republican party can not thrive on
hypocrisy. Its victories and laurels were
WOE on great clear-cut issues and not by vir-
tue of the juggling of phrase makers who
are experts in the art of giving the same
word two opposite meanings. You vote
bounties to the rich on the plea of protect
ing American labor" when intelligent la
borers see that the more they have of such
protection the less they have to eat. Your
pretence that the law you passed was
measure in the interest of party expedieDcy
is easily exposed. 1t was enacted under the
threats and domineering insolence of men
like Senator Sherman, of Ohio, and Mr..
Kelley, of Pennsylvania, who deied public
opinion and declared purpose to defeat all
legislation on the subject unless Congress
should make an ignominious surrender to
the demands of the monopolists.
You will remember when the Tariff Com
mission went the rounds of the country last
summer, srnd had heard the plaintive wall
ings of the infant pig iron industries, ETC., it
was reported that they found the country
happy and prosperous. and on the whole
very proud of its orphans. The friends of
the infant industries predicted that the Com
mission would recommend the retention of
most of the existing duties upon imports.
BUT THE ELECTION CAME,
and in hot haste the Commission prepared
the report which was the basis of the law
you enacted. 1t is full of confusion and in
consisteDcies, and when it came before Con-
gress, little could be made Of it, A bill was
framed in the Senate, and after thorough
discussion in Committee of the Whole. the
Senate agreed that Sc per ton was a sufficient
duty on pig iron and scrap iron. After that
was done. three gentlemen of Cleveland, o.,
]. H. Wade, Henry B. Payne and Joseph
Perkins, two of whom are prominent Demo
Gratis. sent telegram to Senator Sherman,
W hich he read in the Senate, and in which
they say:
I'VE deem it very important to our iron
and steel interests that the Senate bill in its
present form do not pass"
Senator Sherman then and there threat
ened that unless the bill was amended to
suit these three gentlemen and other iron
lords, he would oppose the whole tariff
clauses of the bill" am ashamed to say
that under this insolent threat, the Senate
increased the duty to $3.50 per ton.
EMBoLDENED BY THIS SUCCESS,
another effort was made to advance the rate
before the Committee of Conference and
the Committee put it at So ~, an increase of
twenty-five cents a ton above the highest
figure the Senate had been driven to adopt
under the lash of Senator Sherman, applied
to his brother Senators at the dictation of
the iron monopOlIsts, who ordered him 20
defeat all tariff legislation unless it was |
framed to suit their interests. And both |
Houses meekly did as they were COM
and ratified the report of the Con-
ference Committee. The performance OF the |
Three tailors of Tooley street" was simply |
and their resolution beginning |
1--WE, the people of England" was harm |
less, but when three pig-iron men can mold
the laws of a Nation of so, 000, 900 of people |
by Geographic threat of their displeasure,
things assume serious look. And yet it is |
pretended that party necessity required q
Congress To enact an oppressive |
law TO avoid giving offense to Democratic