Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1883-02-08
COMING EVENTS.

anu uHtll lutTe Sldl not ne u L.
bond left unpaid to be used as secu
rity for national bank paper, and th
presumption raised by the action O
the republican committee and th
tendency of the tariff contentious a
Washington is that protection TO
the sake Of protection" Will be tn
presidential issue of the republica,
party in coming campaigns. Th
bosses seem to have acted upon th,
idea that taxation will not be materi
ally reduced this winter, and tha
with republican senate and Presi
dent to antagonize their efforts, the
democratic house will not he able te
satisfactorily reform the tariff previ.
ously to the next presidential election
and that the late elections will resul,
in nothing.
( On the other hand, what the dem.
cracy demands, and will insist on. is
not absolute and general free trade,
but such an enlargement of the free
list as will include the raw materials
used in manufacturing and such a re-
duction of taxation IS will make the
national revenue correspond to an
honest and economical administration
OF government. The democracy does
not resist the payments through Gus
tom houses by importers of what is
necessary to meet such national dis
bursements, but collections of super.
abundant revenues to be in part mis-
appropriated and applied and contri-
buttons paid through merchants in
the daily transactions of life and for
its commonest necessities by con-
sumers to iron mongers, cotton and
wool manufacturers, chemists, sugar
refiners, wood pulp patentees, lumber
men and other favored monopolists.
In the contentious of the tariff de-
bate at Washington the important
fact has been prominently brought
forward that the key to much local
prosperity is the successful applica-
tion Of machinery to the conversion
the products of soils and forests into
desirable articles, and that with
cheap material obtained, either at
home or abroad, many manufactures
can be carried on profitably and with
hope of expectation under very slight
protection. After cotton and cereals.
the most important Of our soil pro-
ducts are the minerals, and as many
sections are without them, low-priced
Goals and metals are essential to the
conduct of manufacturing establish
ments in their midst. This is partic-
ularly the case with New England,
the most noted among our States for
its industries. Without cheap fuel
and iron, its enterprises must cease
and its populations emigrate. The
real enemies, therefore, of New Eng
land and other manufacturing dis
tricts are those that sustain heavy
taxes on raw materials, which cannot
be paid without increasing their cost.
The industry that has thus far oc-
casloned most strife is the iron ore
interest. This arose from a PROPOSE.
ton to increase the duty on it. The
ground put forward to justify such a
procedure was that 1t would enable
those engaged in digging it to obtain
higher wages. This was the pre-.
tense. The real object was to raise
the price of ore and increase the gains
of the owners of ore banks. The la
Dor employed at the iron mines is Of
the rudest sort and of character
whose output rarely obtains, any
where for its efforts, more than tn,
commonest necessaries of life, ant
were it true that increase in the dut!
on ore would add to its receipts, n,
just cause exists for making it NOR
dependent on taxation than that EN-
ployed in grading roads, or engages
in the cultivation of corn, wheat, to
bacco, cotton, or in mining gold o
silver, or in raising any other sol
products that seek a distant marke
unaided by government and in tn
face of foreign competition. The re
suit of the debate thus far Is me
tion to place iron ore on the free lis
and if that course were pursued as t
raw materials generally, 1t would lea
to an equitable tariff revision an
break up that union and consolids
ton Of protected and favored intel
ests which constitutes the basis of r,
publican strength. Against such at
ton, however, there is great oppos
ton, not only from those that crow
|, the hotels and congressional receI
ton rooms, but from senators an
representatives anxious to keep IL
republican party together and gi,
the machine another trial. With sue
the late elections go for nothin;
What matters it to them wheth,
re northern States are as anxious to repl
diate their senators as they were the
representatives! That few of the,
could undergo successfully, at tn
'e time, the ordeal of popular election
II or that those recently chosen secure
81 position through unscrupulous met
4 DDS, gives the bosses little concern,
'e long as by any means they can no
III the fort.
=, ''Sambo, me by" exclaimed Pa