Nevada County picayune., 1888-02-15
THE REFORM ISSUE.
Dispassionate View of the Most important
 Question of the Day.

Hueston of the Day.
 The more carefully and dispassion- ately President Cleveland's s message is studied, leaving partisan consider ations on one side, the more surely convinced will any honest critic be- come that its opinion and suggestions are in line with the best interests of the country from every material point of view The threatened congestion of the National Treasury has made the matter plain. It is generally conceded that the government reve- nucs must be reduced. and the only question is whether they shall be reduced in the inter ests of farmers. worlling-men and the on-manufacturing class or sole lv in the interests of mill and factory bosses. We are confronted with huge surplus in the Treasury con stantly growing. The tariff alone during last fiscal year yielded s2l7,- GOO, ,000 whereas ten years ago it pro- duced but S130, ,000, ,0O0. One-half of the present customs taxes would be amply sufficient with the revenue from outher sources to meet the nec- essary expenses of government. And what more natural and reasonable plan of reduction can there be than to cut the present tariff receipts in half (make due selection of the arti- cles to be reduced), thereby taking off half the present taxation on the necessaries of life. with the added results of luther cheapening indirect ly their cost to the consumers! For every dollar so taken off from the customs revenues five or six dol lars are remitted from the bounty profits of the home bosses and facto- " lords. A reduction of S100. .O0O.- GOO in direct tariff taxes would in volve a total lessening of the bur dens now sustained by the people of the United States amounting to S600- 900, ,000 or S700, ,000. .000 per annum, With tariff income vastly beyond the necessities of protection to the so-called infant industries the mill baron still persists in their right to overcharoe for these necessities by keeping up the old war taxes.
 The farmers and the laboring class es themselves have found that the promises of protection are illusory, and that the only persons who derive any advantage from it are the mill bosses and trusts. They have also found that a reduction of the reven- ue by cutting down the oppressive tariff taxes will result to their own advantage. and that the high tariff results in the increased price of all manufactured products which the.' need for their use. The farmers have long been bled for the benefit of the bosses. but they are waking up to the fact that it is time to cheapen the cost of their implements lumber. clothing. sugar, salt, iron, and other articles in common use, and they will not consent to be vic timized any longer for the benefit of protected monopoles.
 At this point the advocates of pro- tcction repeat their old gabble that to reduce the tariff will be to cut American laborers down to the paup- CT wages of Europe. The statement not only is false but absurd upon it's face. The pauper wages of Europe are paid by the high tariff European countries. like France, Germany and Austria. England pays one and half times higher wages than any European country. Her unemploy- ed surplus of working-men is not due to tariff arrangements. but to other causes: but taking her work ing-men who are regulary employed. and they are paid better wages and more comfortably fed, clothed and housed than those of any other Flu ropean country. The profits which will remain to the mill bosses after the tariff reduction will still be suflic- tent to remunerate the employees and that remuneration will be all the more valuable by reason of the de- ceased price of the articles which they have to buy for themselves and families.
 The President makes an addition al point which is of special interest to them-namely: that manufac- urers would have better chance of of competing in foreign markets if