The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-05-05

The savage and persistent assaults o.
free traders OF the Iroquois Club and Henry
Watterson type have not been without
their good effect. The tariff having beer
revised after considerable embarrassment
to trade, and the business OF the countr,
NV being forced to accommodate Itself te
the new conditions, there are among tht
revenue reformers some cool.headed mer
who think 1t better to await the results O
this reform, rather than keep hammerinl
away for some other reform. In this view
is a sensible article in the New York Public
which has been a leader Of revenue re
formers:
The general direction OF our industrial de
yelopment can no longer be changed without
disasters so vast aud far.reaohing that no
body will sariously propose 10 run the risk
OF them. What we have now to do Is to save
improve aud develop wha. we have and thai
r,qui es, and for o long time 70 come vii
require, some form OF defensive legislation
Hence we have passed quite beyond the
age at which consideration OF the theoretit
merits OF Protection and Free Trade wa,
profitable. The only question OF practical
value Is how we can best save and
strengthen the industry that we have
Every sane man, therefore, become
In some sense = Pro1ectionist; he IL
compelled to realize that defensive legisla'
ton Of some kind has now become a neces
SHY, IN order TO save from disaster the won
defful develop -ient which has taken shape
undsr the Influence OF such legislation.
Hence II may bs safely predicted that, from
this time forward, Ms party will dare 70 At
tempt an abolition OF defensive legislation,
except AS the growth Of this or that branch
OF industry may fit It for independence. On
the old lines of division. then, both parties
must be for years TO come in favor OF Pro
lection.
There are men reputed sane on other
subjects who are not in any sense pretec'
tiuuists, II we may believe what they say
and V Q can not agree with the Public that
no party will dare 10 attempt to wreck our
system OF industrial defense. But this
u%tterance by u late revenue reformer we
take to mean that We have laid our lines
and are prosperous within them, and that
no attempt ought to be made to change
'the general direction OF our industrial de.
ye!opment." And this w understand to
be thu platform on which the country
stands now and on which it will stand no
less firmly when the question shall next be
voted on at the polls. That the tariff will be
an issue in 1884, as it is now, we
see no room to doubt. The two parties are
on opposing sides Of the question, by tradi.
ton and by choice. The Democratic party
insists that we ought to have a tariff for
revenue only and the Republican party Is
for a tariff for protection. Here is a differ
ence which goes to the root Of our industrial
policy. There car be no compromise
without disaster.
There are Democrts who fear to face
the county on this issue, and there are
Democrats who stand up manly for pro-
lection, but they are not enough to mold
the party policy; aud they are not the az
gressive element OF the party. These
Democrats are in the same case as those
Republicans who would bring the tariff
down to the revenue level. The Issue is
already joined, We shall have to tishtit
out, and the Republican party is ready on
the right side. There will be an effort in the
Democratic convention to drop this cruel
folly out Of the platform, but it will not
succeed. The most that can be looked fer
in this direction lisa lodging declaration,
framed as a vote catcher, but not out Of
line with the general policy OF the party.
II the Republican convention be wise it
will make It's Tariff plank so plain and
direct that it will mean protection to home
industry against the world, and can not be
construed to mean anything else. We
want no diplomacy in that plank. We can
afford to say to the country-Behold our
industrial system! Let us protect and i'm
prove ii!