The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-17
TALK OF THE POLITICIANS.
Views of Charles A. Dana as to the
Programme Of the Free-Trader.
No Chance for Free-Trade Presidential
Candidate-A Boom for Payne
Other Political Gossip.
New York Special.

aggressive advocacy of free trade, as illustrated
in tariff for revenue only.
sit is impossible at present to tell, said Mr.
Dana what the programme is, and according
ly, what its chances of success are. Mr.. Car
Isle was made Speaker on the ground that he
was a man of decided tendencies, and his policy
would be in the direction of free trade, on the
basis of a tariff for revenue only, without any
protection in it. In appointing the ways and
means committee he put at its head three free
traders Messls Morrison Hurd and Mills.
'.If the committee should carry out the pro-
gramme they would bring in bill providing for
revenue and excluding all protection. This
would make square issue, with free trade on
the one side and protection on the other But so
far as can be judged from the recent outgivings
OF 8Ir. Carlisle and the committee they do not
now propose to do this. What they tell us we
are to have seems like a deliberate abandonment
of principle on their part. They will cut down
duties, but keep protection.
.'For the Democratic party this is lamenta-
BILE result 1t indicates that the men who have
been put at the head of affairs are either not men
of decided convictions or lack intelligence and
courage If the leaders of the free-t trade branch
of the Democratic party actually commit thom-
selves to the recognition of protection as prin-
ciple and embody it in their tariff bill, while they
have the power to shape that bill one way or the
other, what confidence canmen have in their judg
ment or their sincerity! These gentlemen won
the preliminary skirmsh on the tariff question
under the cry of free trade and tariff for reve-
nue. only If, after that success, they would go
forward on the same line and make a tariff
which should really be for revenue only, and
cdental protection, as something logically in
volved in any tariff devised to raise large reve
nue. then we should have the question brought
before the Democratic party first and the coun-
try afterward, and it could be debated and de-
cided first within the party and then at the pres
idential election.
THAT would be a useful thing both for the
Democratic party and the country; but if they
are going to shirk it and evade the issue if our
free traders are TO make protectiOnist tariff,
then we have all the inconvenience which the
agitation produces in business affairs and none
of the benefits of n settlement The question re-
mains to be stirred up next year, or some other
year and to work mischief both in politics and
trade"
This assumes that the ultra free-traders have
given up the fight what signs are there of that"
''rhe signs are the recent protection utterances
from journals like the Courier Journal. Buffalo
Courier and Kansas City Times and the decla-
ratiOns attributed to Messrs. Carlisle and Nor
risOn, who are reported as saying that they are
going to scale the rates of duty, but leave pro
lection intact
What effect would such stoppage of the
free trade agitation in the Democratic party and
the country havelp
AS for the party it is difficult to tell The
thing has gone on so far that no man can be sure
that harmony can be perfectly restored. As for
the effect upon the independent voters. it can
not be predicted. No doubt the agitation has
already done much to keep business at a stand
still and prevent recovery from the prevailing
depression. Now no business enterprise
can be set on foot during any uncertainty about
The action of Congress upon the tariff. | sup
pose this must have had a good deal to do
in protracting the universal want of confidence
With the immense sums of money lying in all
our large cities and the extremely low prices of
6ividend-paying securities reaction ought to
set in. The liquidation of former years has been
complete but the revival of business, which is
due, does not appear Whether justly orunjust-
w. this will be attributed by business men to the
fact that the free traders have got the control of
the House of Representatives, after having
threatened to establish a tariff for revenue only.
Whether this impression can be removed, and
whether the great body of independent voters,
whose natural tendency in the political circum-
6tances of the country would have been toward
the Dem ocratic party, can now be brought back
to it, is a problem which cannot vet be positively
determined But if the free traders should go
on and make their revenue only tariff the ques-
ton would be settled and there would be no
doubt on the subject at all"
lis it not possible that there will be a compro-
mise between the Carlisle and Randall Demo
Gratis on this question: to meet the eXigencies of
presidential PLATFORM
Il don't know. / don't see that there can be
any compromise; there is no middle ground be-
tween them. AS l said before, there are indica-
tions that some compromise may be attempted,
but it is doubtful whether by such means they
can lay the spirits that have been raised
''Will not the Democratic party be placed in
an Inconsistent position, if it should modify its
tendency toward free trade, to which it has com
lnitted itself in the national platform of 1876
and $780, and later in some States, like Ohi02"
las for Ohio, all free traders and free-trade
tendencies were entirely abandoned in the plat
form of this year The general declaration of
that platform was protetionist and the clause
respecting wool was decidedly So As for the
Democratic platforms of 1876 and 1880, the de-
claration on the subject of the tariff was of no
practical Importance. That subject played
very remote and vague part in the canvass. In
1880 the revenue-o only plank of the platform was
thought to be of so little consequence in itself
that General Hancock did not hesitate, under a
stress of danger in New Jersey Connecticut and
New York, to repudiate and denounce it some
time before the election. The Democratic party
has always been comprehensive and tolerant in
regard to the question. Among its leaders there
has always been pretty equal number of free
traders and protectionists, and neither class
of thinkers have had any idea of making their
doctrine the subject the exclusive standard
of party orthodoxy. Accordingly, they have
lived and worked together in unity and har-
mony.
But, when Mr.. Carlisle was elected Speaker
because he was free-t trader, and Mr.. Randall
rejected, because he was protectionist, this
question forced into the front rank and
harmony and liberation were declared to be no
longer possible. Nevertheless free trade is Just
as much an impossibility in 1884 as it has been
since the civil war began"
SLOW has the free trade agitation affected
presidential candidates.
st knocks out every aspirant of free trade
proclivities, and leaves chance only for those
who will be regarded by business men and labor
ing men entirely sound and conservative in
regard to this subject. By this I mean men
whose predominant purpose in politics is to
Form the government and eschew all revolution
airy and radical interference with the relations of
business and labor To run any other sort of
candidate than this would simply be to get him
and the party overwhelmingly beaten"