Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-07-24
The Farmers and the Democracy.

by covering the free trade plank in its
platform with varnish that in some
lights takes on the appearance of Incl
dental protection. will not succeed. The
Democratic free traders have been pro-
fuse in their expressions of friendship
for the farmers and with promises to
defend their interests against those who
protected themselves and left the far
meis unprotected" The action of the
party at Chicago has opened the eyes of
the farmers to the hypocrisy of those
professions.
The Ohio Farmer is strictly nom
political journal. but zealously labors
fer the political and material prosperity
of the agriculturalists. In its issue of
this week it departs from the usual Gus
tom of ignoring party politics by making
a comparison of the position of the two
parties on a question that deeply inter-
ests the farming community. 1t says:
Approaching that The Ohio Farmer
1 ~
journal and is taken by readers of all
political views, we firmly abstain from
faVoring any party in political sense
in our columns. Bus as the elective
franchise is the one great and only ele-
ment of power in the hands Of the Amer
icaH citizen, and as the agricultural class
-Outnumbering all other classes CONT
binad-bCth from financial and social
standpoint, in the future as in the past,
must be the foundation upon which the
stability of our Government rests, and
their products the one great source of
prosperity, we consider it our duty to
urge upon our readers the Importance
of infor ming themselves thoroughly as
to the real sentiments and intentions of
the different political organizations
seeking their support, and to calmly and
resolutely give it to the one that most
honestly promises to conduct our Gov
ernment for the best interests of the
American people, for our independence
before the world, for our intellectual
progress and the fostering of our legitir
mate industries. In eur opinien the
tariff question is destined to be the i'm
portant issue during this campaign be-
tween the Republican and Democratic
parties. As to the candidates, James q.
Blaine has, during his twenty-five years
of active public service, boldly favored
tariff for protection to American indus
tries. Grover Cleveland has no political
record upon this question, but is repre-
sented as favoring substantial reduc
tion of the present tariff. and free trade
on raw material of all kinds.
At the recent National Wool Grow
ers' Convention, held in Chicago, the
following resolutions were unanimously
adopted:
Resolved, That we will, without ref
erence to former political affiliations, re-
cOgnize eur friends whenever and
wherever We find them, and at the polls
will sustain only such men and such
party organizations as are in favor of
protecting and encouraging and sus
tanning sheep husbandry in these United
States by restoring the wool tariff of
1867 or its equivalent.
Resolved, That we repudiate the doc
trine of free trade as a fallacious and
1 1impracticable theory, sustained largely
by the money of foreign capitalists who
desire the control of our markets for the
sale and consumption of goods produced
where labor is cheap and money abund-
ant, and we regard as unworthy respect
full consideration the theory of those
manufacturers who claim that raw ma
terial shall be free while their fabrics
are protected.
The Republican National Convention
adopted platform that not only de-
clared for system of tariff duties 80
levied as to afford security to our diver
sified industries and protection to the
rights and wages of the laborer." but al
so specifically favored "a readjustment
of the duty on foreign wool" in order
that the wool industry "shall have full
and adequate protection" The Demo
cratic National Convention completely
ignored the wool industry, though there
was promise given in the committee
to mention it in the platform" and re-
pudiated wholly the principle of "secu-
rity to our diversified industries and
protection to the rights and wages of
the laborer' by demanding that the tar
! iff "shall be exclusively for public pur
poses" that is to say "for revenue only"
The Ohio Farmer, after presenting the
full tariff planks of the two parties,
says:
This tariff question is an important
one, and no intelligent man can believe
in free trade and protection both nor
should any party try to preach both doc
trines. That we must have q revenue
from tariff is usually agreed, but shall
the tariff for that revenue be levied so
as to foster and protect our manufac-
turing and productive interests? Or
shall it be levied solely upon luxuries
and articles that we do not produce or
manufacturer. e., Exclusively" for
revenue? This is the question, plainly
stated, upon which intelligent men diff
fer-and may honestly, too-but it is a
question, we claim, that no great party
should try to dodge or "straddle."
So far as the interests of the farmers
are concerned there is in the Democrat
ic platform not even pretense to
"straddle." Those interests are treated
with contemptuous indifference. The
, farmers of Ohio have now learned to
their cost how much dependence can be
placed on the promises of professed
, Democratic friends. Cleveland Herald
A Long Service.