Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-08-10

amounts to. What has England ever
done for Ireland? She has ruined the
once prosperous industries of that coun-
try, filled the streets of Irish cities with |
beggars and reduced the laboring classes
to the most abject poverty. The policy |
of England has beggared every country |
upon which she has been able to fasten |
her clutches. She has reduced them to
the condition of having no industries and
no markets. She fired opium into China
with cannon, and the industries of Spain,
Portugal and Turkey were overthrown
by her. Canada, even, found herself
compelled to adopt policy of protection
as against the mother country.
The tariff question is really only a
question of wages, The ocean is but
stream, crossed in a few days; so that
the situation is practically this: Suppose
that here where we are was manufac-
tory paying its operatives Sl.50 day
and that across the street was one EN-
ploying Cinnamon at 20 cents a day.
What would result? Why, the owner
of the former establishment would be
obliged either to lower wages to the
level of what the other man paid or to
give up business. a man may buy a
coat more cheaply abroad than here, so
far as money cost Is concerned; yet it
the coat there than it would require here
to purchase an equally good garment,
though the money price of the latter
might be greater. So the whole thing
resolves itself into the question of days
works; and that is all there is of it. In
Italy, for instance, the same class of la
Dor is paid rs cents day for which ex-
Gov. Proctor pays $3.50. 1t is said that
men who would be thrown out of em-
ployment by free trade could 20 to farm
ing. But what is to become of farm pro-
ducts then, when there are no wage-earn-
ers to buy them?
AS to the internal revenue, | must say
that | am opposed to it, as contrary to
the principles of our government. The
Democrats were against it up to 1880,
when they declared for it in their plat
form. Historically, the internal revenue
is of little account. Twice only before
the rebellion was it resorted to. The
first time was after the revolution, when
the country was burdened with debt; but
Jefferson denounced it as inquisitorial
and un-Amercan, and after being in
force for eleven years the system was
abolished. a second use of the system
was made in 1913, to help pay the debts
contracted in the prosecution of the war
with England, but in 1917 the act was
repealed. | am amused to notice how
some Republicans (though not very good
ones) are distressed about that por-
ton of the Republican platform re-
lating to the internal taxes. The plat
form doesn't mean free whiskey.
and the man who says it does
either doesn't know what he is talking
about or wilfully misleads. am opposed
to the internal taxes chiefly, however,
| q hnv nla ha yi-t
of the whiskey trust. This is mon
strous organization that always has at its
command at least S300,000 900. 1t is the
most powerful foe of good morals in the
country; and is solidly Democratic.
Whiskey costs l5 cents gallon to make.
The tax is 80 cents gallon. But this
tax is not payable till the end of three
years. Meantime the whiskey is carefully
taken care of by the government in its
bonded warehouses. At the end of that
period the barrel of whiskey, which cost
the owner $3.50, has come to be worth
S43 after the payment of the tax; so that
the practical working of the law is to
make the government the banker for this
concern, for all this time the government
has had over $40 (the unpaid tax invest
ed in the barrel of whiskey, while the
owner has had but $50. This is the
system which the whiskey trust wants
kept up and which it strives in every way
to maintain by work in the courts and
even in Congress. 1t is one of the great
evils of the country and ought to be
wiped out. The third-party people are
in error, though, in assuming that gov
ernment license is in the nature of a per-
nit. 1t is, in truth, merely mode of
restraint. 1t is wrong to treat practical
question, like this of restraining the
liquor traffic, in sentimental way. Ifyou
cannot successfully cope with the drink
evil by prohibition, then 60 at it by IL
cense. The Prohibitionists say they
want to tear down the Republican party
in order, evidently, to build up their
own. This is strange method of pro-
cedure. If | were on the way to tenn
perance meeting and should learn that
my neighbor's barn was on fire and my
own premises in danger, l should turn
back and help put the fire out rather than
go on and let it take its course. The
temperance meeting could wait. but the
fire wouldn't. That is exactly our case
at present. The tariff question won't
wait, and isn't it wise to attend to that
now and the temperance reform later !?
The ProhibitiOnists acknowledge that
they don't expect to accomplish anything
except cripple the Republican party.
Let US not mix up this tariff issue with
other things. What has this administra-
ton done that Prohbitionists or any one
else should wish to keep it in power? {?
Nothing worthy of commentator. Has
it reduced the surplus? No; though it
might have done it by cutting off the du-
ty on sugar. But that happens to be u
Southern industry; and so with rice. A
more thoroughly sectional bill than
the Mills bill was never proposed.
Congress passed an act authorizing
the purchase Of bonds, and yet they
have not been bought because the
President claims that the validity of the
act is questionable for the reason that it
formed part of an appropriation bill. Yet
he draws his salary-nor does he hesitate
about 1t, either-under an act passed in
exactly the same way. The education
bill, which has twice passed the Senate,
is hot allowed to come up in the House.
Why? Because the ring OF Southern
Democrats who practically run this gov