Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??, 1888-09-22
;s4ARatSDN'S LETTER.


Tho Repuslicsn Candidate Announces
Els Acceptasace-His v3exsss on Lesaslir,p r
Issues-The Campaign a Brittle Between
Free Trade and Prote8tion-He Would
Enforce Anti-Chfnese a4aws-The Sur
{ plus, Immigration ana Other Topics.
INDIANAPoLIs, Ind. Sept. 12-Follo wing
lis General .Harrison's letter of acceptance !:
" Hon. al. III. Estee dn+aotlaers, Committee, ETC..
-GENTLEMEN: When your committee visited
me on the 4th of July slast and presented the
official announcement Of my nomination for
the Presidency Of the United States by the Re-
publican convention I promised as soon as
practicable to communicate to you o more
formal acceptance Of the nomination. Since
that time the work of receiving and address
ing, almost daily, large delegations of my fell
-loW-citiZens, has not only occupied all of my
time but has in some measure rendered it I'M
necessary for me to use this letter as a medium
of communicating to the public my views on
the questions involved in the campaign.
HE ACCEPTS.
ST appreciate very highly the confidence and
respect manifested by the convention, and ac-
cept the nomination with a feeling of gratitude
and q full sense of the responsibilities which
accompany it.
Ut is u matter OF con graduation that the
declarations of the Chicago conventionupon
the quest ons that now attract the interest of
our people are so clear and emphatic There
is further cause of congratulaton in the'fact
That the convention utterances Of the Demo-
cratic party, if in any degree uncertain or con-
Trajectory, can now be judged and interpreted
by Executive acts and messages and definite
propositions in legislation.
THE TARIFF.
This is especially true of what is peculiarly
known as the tariff quests The issue can
not now be obscured. 1t is not contest be-
tween schedules, but between wide apart prjn-
fnr5 o,,,.,,
ket have, with quick instinct, seen how one
issue OF this contest may bring them adj
vantage, and our own people are not so dull as
10 miss or neglect the grave interests that are
involved for them. The assault upon oar pro-
tectlVc system is open ard defiant. Protection
IS assalled us unconstitutional in law, or as
vicious IN principle, and those who hold such
views sincerely can not stop short of an abso-
lutte elimination from our tariff laws of the
is only step, but it is toward an OBJ
]ect that the leaders of Democratic
thought and legislation have clearly in
mind. The important question is not so much
the length of the step the direction of It,
Judged by the Executive message of December
ias1, by the Mills bin, by the debates in Con-
ocratic party will, if supported by the country
place the tariff laws upon purely revenue
pa! PASS rms is practical free trade-free trade in
ner may not be Free Trade It may he the
more obscure motto, Tariff Reform but
nellher the banner nor the inscr ption is con-
elusive Or lndeed, very important. The as
Sault itself is the important fact,
Those who teach that the import duty upon
1orelgn goods SOLD in our market is paid by the
ing domestic article is enhanced TO the
amount of the duty on the imported article
that every million Of dollars collected for GUS
TOMS duties represents many millions more
which do not reach the Treasury, but are paid
by our cltZens as the increased cost of domes-
Tic productions resulting from the tariff laws
may not tend 10 discredt in the minds of
IF lew
ing foreign products, but it is clearly alreadv
ulscredlted IN their own. We can not doubt
without impungng their integrity, that if fres
TO act upon their convictions they would so
revise our laws as to lay the burden of the
customs revenue upon art cles that are not
produced in this country and to place upon the
Tree list all competing foreign products
II do not stop to refute this theory as to the
effect OF our tariff duties. Those who advance
u are students OF maXims and not of the mar
kets. They may be safely allowed to call their
project Tariff Reform if the people UNDER
stand that in the end the argument compels free
traoe IN all competing products This end may
not De reached abruptly, and its approach NAV
be accompanied with some expression of sym.
pathy for our protected industries and our
working people, but it will certainly come if
these early steps do not arouse the peonle to
effective resistance.
PROTECTION NECESSITY.
The Republican party holds that protect
I'VE tariff is constitutional. wholesome and
necessary. We do not offer a schedule but n
principle. We will revise the schedule, mod
ify rates, but always with an intelligent pre-
VISION as to the effect upon domestic pro-
q IM ana the wages OF our working people.
We believe it to be one of the worthy objects
or tarlH legislation to preserve the American
market for American producers, and TO main
tain the American scale of wages bv adeouate
discriminating duties upon foreign connecting
products. The effect OF lower rates and larger
1mportations upon the public revenue is con-
tingent and doubtful. but not so the effect upon
American production and American wages
Less work and lower wages must be accepted as
the inevitable result OF the increased Offering
of foreign goods in our market. BY way of rec.
ompense for this reduction in his wages. and
the loss OF the American market, it is suggest
ed that the diminished wages of the work ing-
power ana that nc viii be abe to make un fo
the loss of the home market by an enlarged
foreign market Our working-men have the
settlement of the question in their own hands
They now obtain higher wages and live more
comfortably than those of any other country.
They will make choice between the substantial i
i've promises and forecasts Of these theorizing
retormers. They will decide for Themselves
and for the country whether the protective sys-
tenn shall be continued or destroyed.
THE SURPLUS.
"The fact of Treasury surplus, the amount
OF which is variously stated, has directed pub
lie attention to consideration of the methods
by which the National income may best be re-
duced to the level of q wise and necessary ex-
penditure This condition has been seized
upon by those who are hostile to protective
custom duties as an advantageous base of at
tack upon our tariff laws. They have magni-
fled and nursed the Surplus. which they affect
to deprecate, seemingly for the purpose Of ex-
people to the extreme remedy they propose. A
proper reduction Of the revenues does not
necessitate, and should not suggest, the
abandonment or impairment of the protective
system. The methods suggested by our con-
ventlon will not need to be exhausted in order to
effect the necessary reduction. We are not
likely to be called upon, I think, to make
and entire repeal of the internal taxes. Such
q contingency, in view of the present relat on
OF expenditures to revenues, is remote. The
inspection and regulation of the sale of oleo-
margarine is important, and the revenue de-
rived from it is not so great that the repeal of
the law need enter into any plan of revenue re-
should be used in the purchase of bonds The
law authorizes this of it, and if it not need
ed for current or deficiency appropriations,
the people. and not the banks in which it has
been deposited should have the advantage of it's
use by stopping interest upon the public debt
At least those who needlessly hoard it should
mus produeea to coeree pnpiy
sentiment upon other questions.
CONTRACT LABOR.
CLOSELY connected with the subject of the
tariff is that Of the importation of foreign
laborers under contracts Of service to be per.
formed here. The law now in force prohibit
ing such contracts received my cordial sup
port in the Senate, and such amendments as
may pe lounu necessary eHectlYely TO deliver
our worlling-men and women from this most in
equitable form OF competition will have my sim
cere advocacy. Legislation prohibiting the
importation of laborers under contracts to serve
here will, however, afford very inadequate re-
lief to our WORKING people II the system OF pro-
tective duties is broken down. If the products
OF American shops must compete in the Ameri-
can market, without favoring duties, with the
products OF cheap foreign labor, the effect will
be different, if at all, only in degree, whether
the cheap laborer is across the Street or over
the sea. Such competition will soon reduce
wages here to the level of those abroad, and
when that condition is reached we Will not need
any laws forbdding the importation of laborers
under contract-they will have no inducement