Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-01-02
A DEMOCRATIC PROFESSOR.

The Hlgh-Tonod scorners of Common
Toll Will Have an Opportunity to Put
Their Theories In Praoticc--A Bad Out
look for tho Toiicrs.
That ultra, thick-and-thin free-trader,
Prof. A. L. Perry, of Williams College,
boastfully declares that "the Republic
an party is as dead as Julius Caesar"
and predicts great hopes of ultimate
success for his economical theories in
consequence. He sees in Imagination
glorious future in which the doctrines
of the British Golden Club will be prac-
tically applied to the trade and pro-
ductive industries of the United States,
foreign manufacturers placed in full
possession of our markets, and the
wages of labor in this country reduced
to European standards. 1t is only
necessary now, the Professor thinks,
that the Democratic party set about the
business of ''revonue reform in order
to realize his anticipations. To this end
he recommends the abrogation of GUS
toms duties on ''raw materials" and cor
responding reductions of duties on man
ufactured articles, so as to give stimu-
luS W lOEelRu coiulucTCes
This must be an interesting pro-
gramme for workingmen who voted the
Democratic ticket at the recent election
through the beguiling assurance that
nothing hostile to their interests was in
tended. Either they or Prof. Perry and
his fellew-theorists are destined to ex-
perience a woful disappointment. One
class or tho other has evidently been
cheated. Democratic workingmen were
referred to one portion of their party's
platform for proof that their leaders
meant protection to domestic enter
prises of productive character Mean
while, Prof. Perry and those who took
counsel with him fixed their eyes in
tently on that portion of the same plat
form which indicated hostility to such
protection. The workingmen ought to
have detected the fraud intended against
them when Democratic newspaper or
gans, like the Albany Arg,ts, began
to print garbled extracts from the
platform, leaving out everything that
squinted toward free trade. They might
also have taken warning from the uni
form record of the Democracy in Con-
gress, and especially the attempt to
pass the Morrison Horizontal-Red
bill last winter. But thousands of them
would take heed of nothing but parti-
san prejudice, and deliberately voted
for their own impoverishment and deg
radiation. Men of Prof. Perry's stamp
plete Democratic triumph meant. They
understood very well what suppressions
of platform declarations by the Demo-
cratic press We're intended to accom-
plish, and held their peace for the time
being They had no fault to find with
the deception practiced on their less
sophisticated fellow-citizens, because it
tended to realization of their hopes.
Probably they indulged in some quiet
merriment over the simplicity of Dem
cratic workingmen, and made sarcastic
illusions among themselves to the
boasted intelligence of the masses.
But these high-toned free trade scorn-
ers of common toll have vet some OBJ
stacles to overcome before they can
reach the goal of their desires. A Re-
publican Senate still stands in the way,
and though the majority in favor OF
protection 10 home labor is small in that
body, it will probably be sufficient for
two years to come in order to defeat any
serious assault upon the tariff. Prof.
Perry is, therefore, rather premature in
suggesting active Democratic aggres-
sion upon the industrial interests of the
| country. That can be successful only
III the event that the Fiftieth Congress,
to begin its existence March A, 1887
shall be Democratic in both branches
But the margin in the Forty-Ninth. Con
gress will be n narrow one, and the
Democratic workingmen have cause tc
thank fortune that their folly fell shor
of full consummation. AS it is, they
have succeeded only in perpetuating fol
while longer the paralysis of enter
| prise and consequent depression in th'
labor market With Democratic
President and House of Representative
nothing efiectual can be done to reliev
stagnation, though Republican Senat
will serve for the present as an obstacle
to the consummation of fresh scheme
antagonistic to restoration of pros
perity.-lroy Times.