Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-08-22
HIS ADVANTAGE.

Mr. Cleveland Is His Own Platform-His
Clear anu Ringing Utterances on the
Tarif-The Battle Cry of His Party.
Mr.. Cleveland has one great advantage
In this canvass, and that is that upon the
question which his opponents declare to be
the paramount issue he is his own platform.
he stands for reducing the surplus by
nghtenlng the taxes on necessaries, and
leaving them upon luxuries. He proposes
freer clothing; his opponents propose freer
whisky. The Republican cry against him
is free trade. If it could be shown, says
HdTper's Hcchlv, that he has proposed free
trade or contemplated free trade, SO sudden
subversion of the long settled policy of
raising the revenue by customs duties
would be startling. But the President fore
saw the effort that would be made to raise
false issue, and to secure the benefit Of
a scare" and he quietly baffled it in ad-
vance. The customs revenue, he says,
must be extensively continued as the
source of the Governments income, and in
a readjustment of our tariff the interests of
American labor engaged in manufactures
should be carefully considered, as well as
the preservation of our manufacturers :"
and he adds, "the question of free trade is
absolutely irrelevant, and the persistent
claim made in certain quarters that all ef-
forts to relieve the people from unjust and
unnecessary taxation are schemes of so
called free-traders, is mischevious, and far
removed from any consideration for the
public good"
The tariff must be readjusted in order to
reduce the surplus. A hundred million of
dollars which are not wanted by the Govern
ment are paid every year in taxes by the
people. 1t is so much necessary money
Withdrawn from circulation. The surplus
must be reduced, because it is a constant
threat TO business and a constant tempta-
tion to demoralizing extravaganza. Last
september very serious panic was averted
by the prompt action of the President and
the Secretary of the Treasury. But the
stability of business should not be depend
ent upon them. The causes that threaten
panic should be removed, and as the wages
of labor are menaced by panic, every man
who lives by wages is interested in a wise
reduction of the surplus. The President is
in another sense his own platform, because
his course has shown every business and
labor interest in the country that he is
safe, sound and conservative man. Nobody
can feel that his continuance in Office and at
the head of the Administration will disturb
business during the next four years, as it has
not been disturbed during the four that are
ending. If he were wholly untried man.
the cry that he means total change of the
tariff system might be alarming. But his
course and his recommendations show moth
ing Of the kind. He proposes to try simple
and reasonable remedy to adangerous situa-
ton.
The Republican party acknowledged in
1884 that something should be done. 1t de-
clared in its platform that year:
The Democratic party has failed COM
pletely to relieve the people of the burden
of unnecessary taxation by wise reduction
of the surplus. The Republican party
pledges itself to correct the inequalities of
the tariff, and to reduce the surplus"
1t now proposes to take off the tax on
whisky rather than to surrender any part of
our protective system. Yet the Republican
Tariff Commissioner recommended an aver
age reduction of the tariff of twenty to
twenty-five per cent. The bill prepared in
pursuance of President Cleveland's recon-
mendations, and now pending in the House,
provides an average reduction of very much
less. The Chicago Tribune, Republican
journal, which is opposed to the chief plank
of the platform upon which the Republican
candidate stands, asked, last December:
" Is tariff of 6S115 per cent. on clothing
protective tariff while go per cent. or so
per cent. is free tradel Is 10 per cent. on
cotton protection and 371z per cent. free
tradel Shall we stultify the intelligence of
the party by declaring that 80 per cent. ON
iron and steel is protection and 81, or any
lower percentage, free trade! What furious
misrepresentation is this 1t can not be sup
posed by wise party men that for a whole
year the American people can be blinded by
such shallow sophistry and unadorned false
hood as this"
This expresses a strong Republican senti-
mAnt in the NOrfhxvoct Tho Mipnnoota
State convention last year favored revis-
ion OF the tariff, with simpli fication and
reduction of customs duties" The Iowa
platform said: "We believe the tariff should
be revised and reduced.n The Nebraska
platform said that "the business of the
country now demands a revision of the
tariff" Many Republican journals of SINH
lar convictions warmly approved the Presi-
dents recommendations. Mr.. McCulloch,
President Arthur's Secretary of the Treas
ury, says of the present war tariff: 1t is
anti-Republisan in its character and it's in
fiuences, it fosters monopolies, and it en-
riches the few at the expense of the many"
He holds it TO be imperative that the tasiff
should be made "a tariff for revenue with
incidental protection, tariff by which
the highest duties consistent with rev.
enue will be imposed upon the articles
that come into competition with our own
manufactures" He thinks that the pres
ent tariff is unconstitutional so far as it i'm
poses duties for protection and not for rev.
enue. President Cleveland is free trader
precisely as all these Republicans are
free traders, and the Republican journals
which commend the general policy indicated
in his message will find it very hard to act
in harmony with those who hold, as the
Chicago Tribune says, that the tariff is q
sacred white elephant.