The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-07-11
An Old Trick.

The democrats are resortlng to a
trick sometimes employed by attorneys
who have weak case and are con-
scious of the fact. A false issue is
raised, something that is not in the
case is thrust into it, and great hue
and cry is raised to divert attention
from the real question. The demo-
cratic cry of free whiskey" raised
against the tariff plank in the repub-
lican platform has no other purpose
than to draw off public attention from
the real question at issue-protection to
American industry. If the republican
party had, indeed, declared for free
whskey the fact would hardly receive
so much free advertising from the
journalists and statesmen of the
" hungry and thirsty" school of poll
tics, and CONSERVATION would reign in
their camps. Their course would not
argue well for their discretion or for
their hope of maintaining the COM
pactness of the party ranks. The
democracy having always solidly and
consistently opposed sumptuary
legislation, the presumption is fair
one that in raising this free whiskey
cry the Devil is at his old caper of
masquerading as monk.
But what does the Chicago platform
say that can, even by satanic ingenuity,
be tortured into the semblance of adj
vocacy of free whiskey?
The republican party would effect all
needed reduction of the national revenue
by repeating the taxes upon tobacco, which
are an annoyance and burden to agrcul-
ture, and the tax upon spirits used in the
arts and for mechanical purposes, and by
such revision of the tariff laws as will tend
to check imports of such articles as are
produced by our people, the production of
which gives employment to our laborer,
and release from import duties those ar
tcles of foreign production Except lux
uries) the like of which can not be pro-
duced at home.
Is declaration of a willingness, in
view of the fact that the government
does not need the revenue, to relieve
from taxation spirits used in the arts
and manufactures declaration for
"free whiskey?" The removal of the
internal revenue tax on matches alone
effected a great reduction in the price
of this article of household necessity
Now will the housewife construe a
measure that shall greatly reduce the
price of domestic preparations, pre-
served by spirits, as a crime against
temperance? Will the physician, the
uses spirits in thousand legitimate
ways, {" in the arts and manufactures, !"
and will the people at large, condemn
the party that seeks to make cheaper
the medicines, the necessaries of life,
the articles of industry, into which
spirits enter as a legitimate and indis-
pensable ingredient? In a policy of
this kind is there anything that smacks
of " free whiskey?"
But the republican platform says
further that if, after removing the tax
on spirits used in the arts and manu-
features, there shall still remain a
larger revenue than is requisite for the
wants of the government, it will favor
the entire repeal of the internal reve-
nue. system rather than the surrender
of any part of the protective system al
the joint behests of whiskey trusts and
foreign manufacturers. Only despera.
ton or political pettifogging of the
most transparent character could ex-
tort from these words declaration fol-
free whiskey. The New York Inde.
pendent, journal whose name and re-
ligious character entities it to high con.
sideration, in an extract published
elsewhere, very effectually disposes Of
the attempt to make political capital
out of this clause of the republican
platform and shows how the internal
revenue system is regarded, even by
ultra temperance advocates-and the
Independents answer is quite conclu.
sive. The Christian Union'S position
that "the regulation of the liquor
traffic must, in self-governed nation
be left to state and local action" ano
that protection is the paramount issue
is sound as nut and shows, further
how these questions are regarded, no
by red-hot partisan political papers, bu
by some of the leaders of religious
thought and the teachers of goot
morals, political as well as personal
We commend to our readers the eX
tracts from these papers published
elsewhere in this issue.