St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-10
CONGRESS AND THE TARIFF.

CONGRESS AND THE TARIFF.
In less than four weeks congress will as
semble, and, naturally enough, public at
tention is being directed toward the org an
ization of the next house of representatives.
Some surprise is being manifested in GER
tain quarters that Mr.. CARLISLE is to have
q walkOver for the speakership. The pro-
lection organs have already commenced to
lash themselves into a fury that the So
called acknowledgements wing of the
Democratic party is to have undisputed con-
troll of the organization of the lower house
of congress, and to that extent to shape the
tariff legislation of the country. AS the Dem
ocrats have majority Of upwards of forty
in the house, 1t goes without saying that the
nominee of the Democratic caucus will be the
speaker and will have the power to form
the committees so as to secure legislation in
the line of Democratic sentiment. That
eX-Speaker CARLISLE has the grip on the
speakerShip is also a determined fact.
There is only one other Democratic men,
Der of the house who is in position to
contest this honor with the Kentucky con-
gresham, and that is Mr.. RANDALL of
Pennsylvania. That gentleman has sur
prised the protectionists by announcing that
he will not be a candidate for speaker, nor
will he support or countenance any candi-
date in opposition to Mr.. CARLISLE.
The lying down together of the
protection lion and the tariff-re-
form lamb is condition of af-
fairs which cannot be comprehended by
the protectionists Of the country. They
seem to overlook the fact that the Demo-
cratic party is pledged by its platform to
tariff reform and that if Mr.. RANDALL eX-
poets to train with the Democratic party,
he must stand in line with it. More than
that Mr.. RANDALL has given decided in
dications of having modified his views very
considerably in respect to the tariff. And
what is more, the people of Pennsylvania,
who have heretofore been such extreme pro-
tectionists, have likewise undergone ton
ing-dOWn process in this respect. The prin-
cipal Pennsylvania industry which conceived
that it needed protection was the iron man
ufacturing interest. Recent experiences
have demonstrated to the iron workers that
protection does not protect. They have
learned from very sad experience that the
prop upon which they relied to build up
their peculiar interest was very rotten
support. Great Britain is our principal
competitor in iron production, and under
the false and specious arguments that it
was necessary to exclude British COMPETE
ton the Pennsylvanians have been ardent
Of iOb 3arntaotiyyn r,oliou
They now discover that, while the tariff,
which has been SO long maintained upon
iron to prevent the people from exchang
ing their products for British iron,
has materially lessened our trade with
Great Britain, the effect upon this
country has been much more injurious than
the effect upon Great Britain. While it
has lessened our trade absolut ely, it has
Iessened the trade of Great Britain only
with us. And, in fact, the same may be said
in respect to the effect OF the tariff upon any
or all of our products. Our tariff laws are
only operative within the territorial limits
of the nation, and their direct effect is to
restrain our own people and to compel them
to pay for more than they get. So far as
foreign nations are concerned it only indi-
rectly affects their freedom to trade
with this country, while, to our
own people, it is direct curtailment of the
freedom to trade with all the world. And
just so, that while the tariff on iron has re-
stricted Great Britain in her trade with US,
she has largely made up for it in the eonse-
quent extension of her trade elsewhere.
The Pennsylvania people have at last
learned that while they were protecting
their iron and iron ore against British COM
petition they have been handing over to that
country the carrying trade of the world.
What trade Great Britain has lost with the
United States because of the effects of our
tariff system she has fully made up by Sc
curing the trade of South America and other
countries-a trade which naturally belongs
to u.s. but which we have lost by our
dog-in-the-manger tariff policy. 1t is not
a matter of surprise, then, that Mr.. RAN
DALI and other protective champions in
Pennsylvania should be brought to reali-
cation of their folly. They have discovered,
as the whole country is rapidly awakening
to the fact, that the Democratic policy is the
only sound one, and if our producing inter
ests are to be protected the tariff must be
reduced to strict revenue basis. The re-
cent publications of Mr.. HENRY GEORGE
have so completely exposed the fallacy
that protection was essential to labor and
wages that the advocates of high tariff
are left without standing room. The hui
initiating spectacle this nation presents to-
day of our commerce driven from the seas
and our trade with other countries at an
end, is due entirely to the selfish and tyran-
nical eXactions of the protectionists. Conse-
quently reaction has set in. The country
demands revision of the tariff laws and
looks to the Democratic party to accom-
plish it. This is the explanation of the
harmonious feeling upon this subject which
prevails among the Democratic congress-
men. Mr.. CARLISLE possesses the conf
dence of the country in an eminent degree,
and he will be trust ed to carry into execu-
ton the will of the people.
AN OvERWORKED BRAIN.