Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-12-08
THE MESSAGE.


The interest in President Cleveland's
message will center about his tariff
recommendations. The presidents posi-
tIon on the silver question Is one OF an
taeonIsm to the major portion Of his
party, but since coinage goes on and
cannot be suspended without congress
sional action, Democrats can well afford
10 ignore his recommendations on this
one subject, while they lend hearty In
dorsement 10 his views and recommends
lions In all else. The country Will sus-
tain Mr.. Cleveland's action and his party
will indorse his recommendations In the
main, and his utterances on the tariff
will be welcomed as an emphasis of the
growing Democratic desire to make
the battle for tariff reform
sharp, aggressive and well-de1ned. The
president directs public attention TO the
treasury surplus and declares that "a
continuation of our present revenue oys-
tenn would soon result in the receipt OF
an annual income much greater than
necessary to meet government expenses,
with no Indebtedness upon which 1t could
be applied, and we should then be con
fronted with vast quantity OF money,
the circulating medium Of the people
boarded in the treasury, when 1t
should be in their hands or we
should be drawn into wasteful pub
lie extravaganza with all the corruptiDg
national decentralization which follows in
It's train" But Mr. Cleveland Is not sat
isaed with this warning, and goes to the
bedrock Of Democratic principle In his
discussion Of the tariff, In these words:
"But 1t Is not the simple existence Of
this surplus and its thousand attendant
evils which furnish the strongest argu-
ment against our present scale OF federal
taxation. It's worse phase is the ex-
perversion of the relations be-
tween the people and their gov
eminent, and dangerous departure
from the rules which limit the right of
federal taxation. Good government, and
especially the government Of which every
American citizen boas s, has for its object
the protection of every person within its
care with the greatest liberty consistent
with the good order of society and his
perfect security in the enjoyment of his
earnings with the least possible dimnu-
H., e., 10 ~ n
peoples substance is eXacted through
this form of taxation than IS necessary
to meet the just obligations of the gov
eminent and the expense OF economical
administration, such exacting becomes
ruthless eXtortion and violation of the
fundamental principles of free govern
ment, The indirect manner in which
these eXactions are made has tendency
to conceal their true character and their
extent, but we have arrived at a stage of
superluous revenue which has aroused
the people to realization of the fact that
the amount raised professedly for the sup
port of the government is paid by them,
and is absolutely added to the price Of the
things which supply their daily wants as
II 1t was paid at fixed periods into the
hands Of the tax-gatherer"
Mr., Cleveland recognizes the class leg
islation IN a tariff that looks to more than
revenue for the support of the govern
ment, aud the Democracy, as the party OF
the many against the few, should grid Its
loins for relentless war on protection I'M
der the leadership of the man who was
the FIRST to lead it out of the wilderness
where II had fingered for a quarter of q
century.