New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-13
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COT1EDS. As USUAL.

J,st as we expected The Presidential cam
nocn. on the issue deliberately selected by
President Cleveland. has barely begun, ana the
organs OF his policy are already lying about
tbo issue with as little shame and as much
cowardice as they lied four years ago. Then
"The Nev-YorS Times impudently asserted
day after day that the tariff was not an issue
Of the campaign at all. Now it as impudently
asserts that 1.-THE question before the American
people'' is not 4" that of free trade against pro-
tection,r but Of "a very moderate reduction
of cxorbitant duties by which capitalists proht
and the workingmen of the country suiier
The issue was made by President Cleveands
message advocating free wool and reduced
duties on wOollens 1t was put into dehnNc
shape by a Democratic House, which passed
bill. of which free trade in wool and reduc-
ton Of 40 per cent in the rate OF duties on
woollen goods were the characteristic features
4 newspaper with shred of character lett 10
lose would not so discredit itself as to say that
the proposed abolition Of duties on wool does
moi involve the issue of free trade, or that the
proposed reduction Of 20 per cent IN the rate
Of duties on goods is a every moderate re-
duction.v So of $50 other articles on which
the same bill would abolish duties altogcther
each Of these clauses puts before the American
pcople the distinct and naked issue OF free
trade. And so of many hundred reductions OF
duties which are now inadequate or barely
adequate to protect these put before the PEG
pie the issue Of protection, or the defeat ana
uprooting of protection in the most DEFINITE
form. -,
Who arc the capitalists who profit by the
rrcsept duty on wool? The millions Of small
farmers, who have each a little interest IN the
protection Of wool growing know that theif
proits are at all events not cXorbitant," ana
vet for q host of them these duties make all the
difference between a scanty gain and an actual
loss on their farming operations as whole
These men were forgotten in the bad attack
OF cowardice which prompted the assertion
that "a very moderate reduction of exorbtant
duties by which capitalists proilt' was the only
issuc. This very feature Of the pending bill
affects more people than any other and the
President took pains TO make 1t more prominent
than any other in his message and ye' at TINS
late day Free Traders assert that nobody pro-
poses free trade in wool or anything else, but
only ga very moderate reduction of exorbitant
dutes.'
Who are the capitalists that profit by eX-
b orbitant dutiosp on woollen goods? The
same paper has been asserting for months
mast that the woolen manufacturers OF this
country were virtually ruined and bankruptec
by the existing tariff. II is the fact that be-
cause of the inadeQuacy of protection al ordec
| under this Administration great many OF thei
works are idle and cannot be operated W;hou
= loss 4 mercantile agency, in its report on th'
e manufacture not long ago said that It's condi
I ton had not been so depressed before for man.
1 wears. Scarcely any of these works have beer
!, able to realize fair returns for capital and out
a Law: multitude are, in fact, forced to stop b.
I the want of adequate protection. Yet Il G own
G ers are the manufacturers who have to face tn
every moderate reduction of 4 0 per cent -.ror
j. the present rate of duties, if the pending bill
:. should be sustained by the people in comm
I; elections and finally passed
A heavy reduction in wages, and nothn
else can make possible the continuance q
! woollen manufacture in great number
r establishments in that event. The bill, there
. fore. means. for thousands of workers. no wor
l. at all or British wages instead Of American
8 Not daring to face that issue, the coward
IS creatures who have been begging and bulyln
for wears to get it raised now assert that tn
issue "has nothing to do with wages" and
y, "not one of free trade against protection"
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