Morning journal and courier., 1884-10-30
THE REAL ISSUES OF THE HOUR.

a presidential campaign many seem to lose sight of the most vital issues involved.
 To one who has taken no active part in the pending campaign the leading issues seem to relate to the tariff and the civil service. Upon these questions the two great parties are to be judged by their public utterance in their platforms and by their antecedent rec ord In relation to the tariff question the Republican party occupies no uncertain posi- tion. It favors a tariff not Gas charged by MT. Horatio Seymour) for the sole purpose of protection, but primarily for raising an ade- ouate revenue for legitimate governmental expenditure, not losing sight of the proprie- ty of applying part to the gradual redue- tion of the public debt. But the Republican party also believes that in raising such ade- quate revenue by levying duties upon i'm ported articles, the incidental but sure pro teetion of American industries and Ameri- can labor should by no means be lost sight of We do not raise tea and coffee. Let them come in free of duty. We do manu- facture thousands of articles, many of which are also made in foreign countries, and to a greater or less extent seek to compete with our own products in our home market. We know that ten millions of people in this country are directly dependent for support upon the labor employed in the production of these articles, and that these people are better paid and better fed than the same class abroad, our laborers receiving in many cases more than twice as much as like classes of foreign laborers We know that millions
 more of our agriculturists are dependent for their best market upon those so employed in manufacturing, and upon large numbers who in various ways are engaged ill catering to their varied wants.
 So for the upbuilding and maintenance of our diversified industries both agricultural and manufacturing, and not less that the oreat army of laborers in all these fields may, with their families, enjoy a larger share of the comforts of life than would otherwise be possible, the Republican party stands com mitted to the policy of incidental but certain protection We have heard the free trade cry that the "world's market" is barred to us on account of our protective policy, so far as our manufactures are concerned. The seworld's market is a sounding term. For tunately the recent publication of reliable statistics by the chief of the Bureau of Sta tistics' at Washington helps us in some sort to measure the ''world's market" as 1t might be for us if the alleged barrier of protection were removed. From these statistics It ap- pears that our home market IS the largest and best market that the world presents us. Thanks to protection we largely control that market It appears that that part of our
 manufactures which now finds @ home mar ket amounts to about four times the export of manufactured articles from all those great manufacturing countries, Great Britain, Ire land and France combined. Probably even a free trade professor would hardly expect us to send coals to Newcastle or silks to France, 4o RTifo alth0I1Qh through protection we are now able to buy the latter of our own product hundred dol lars or more a ton less than when we relied upon foreign supply. Certainly we cannot compete with those countries 1n supplying them with the large list of manufactured products in which labor figures as the princi- pal part of the cost unless we reduce the price of labor to correspond to that paid abroad And when that point should be reached (which would mean practical starva- tion to our now weIl-fed mechan1cs) in the further contest that would come-in the still lower depths that would be reached-we should be at terrible disadvantage, the dis advantage which hitherto well-fed men would have in a long -cont tinued effort to live upon half 8 slice day in competition with those accustomed to existing on crust
 In Q few instances we admit that American ingenuity might devise means for the slmpll- fication of processes and a consequent reduc- tion of the cost of production to us, but these improved processes would soon be used abroad. The same reduction in the price of labor which would be necessary to enable us to enter largely into competition with the manufactured products of Great Britain, Ire land and France upon their own soil would be necessary to enable us successfully to compete with those countries in supplying the comparatively limited foreign market which they now enjoy. If we should thus wrest from them tithe of that market, what could prevent our being obliged to concede to them large portion of the home market which we now supply!
 In view of such certain loss may well exelaim, FsWhat shall it profit us if we gain the worlds market and lose our own?" E'We legislate," said Mr. Garfield, ''not for the whole world, but for the United States"
 The position of the Republican party, therefore, upon this great question seems to be that of the consistent friend of labor. Whst can, be said. of that of the Democratic par. It claims to desire 8 tariff for reve- nue only, and that means, if it means any thing, that it will never seek to so adjust the eariff as to carefully furnish requisite incl dental protection to labor. It is plain that a& large 6 revenue may be obtained from a tssss fl of five cents.a yard on silk as from one eff five cents, provided the reduced rate WI induce the importation of five times as much tahd this may readily be if our own mills are closed through the operation of such cut.) Now it is well known that there is a considerable faction in the Democratic party which favors the shaping of the tariff to furnish the least possible protection. There is another faction therein which favors absolute free trade, the abolition of custom duties and, as a necessary consequence, the most odious form of (direct governmentaD taxation.
 Again, the Democratic leaders indulge in a great deal of what seems to us unreasoning talk about surplus revenue as the result of protective tariff They profess to believe that we ought largely to reduce our revenue, and their nearly successful attempt to pass the Morrison bill, making radical but 1nd1s- eliminating cut upon duties, shows how they think that result should be accomplished (al- though it is probable that the closing of some of our factories as the result of the passage of such a bill, and the consequent increase of importations, might augment rather than di- minish the revenue.)
 But aside from all that, if there is any bal anee remaining after the expenditure of the considerable sums requisite to provide for current governmental expenses, there can be no surplus which may not properly be ap- piled to the gradual payment of the national debt. But are all the great interests of the country properly conserved by means of the present annual appropriationss Trained en- gineers in the employment of the government have called attention to the shamefully neg lected condition Of our coast defense. The outlay of many millions is required to make it defense in fact as well as in name Are we certain that we shall never have use for suitable defensive works? Doubtless the best way to avert attack is to be prepared for it.
 Our harbor Improvements drag for want of proper appropriations Such great works as the Improvements at Hell Gate have been conducted at disadvantage for lack of funds. If ten millions or twenty millions are to be expended in needed improvement, there is, we are assured by competent authority, no true economy, but waste rather, in eking it out so that fifteen or twenty years may be consumed in doing what might be better done in two or three. The figures which show the magnitude of our internal com merce are so large as to be almost incom- prehensible. But that great commerce is still fettered through lack of cheap trans portation facilities. Horatio Seymour in sists that we owe the balance of trade, so largely in our favor in recent years, to the abolition of tolls on the Erie canal. But the Erie canal is only limited and artif- eial waterway. The great natural water ways of the country-the chief of which is the Mississippi-a receiving appropriations of 8 most meager character compared with their merits. Representative men of both hoxa baay1 in accord fo tho ,o-3