Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-09-28
GEN HARRlsOU's LETTEROs ACCEPTANCE


tial nomination:
To the Hon n NJ Estee and others,
Gentlemen: When your
committee visited me on the 4th of July
last, and presented the official announce
ment of my nomination for the presI-
dency of the United States by the re-
publican national convention, L prom
ised as soon as practicable to communi-
cate to you a more formal acceptance of
the nomination. Since that time the
work of receiving and addressing, al
most daily, large delegations of my fel-
low citizens, has fully occupied all Of
my time, bat has in some measure rem
dered it unnecessary to use this letter
rs n medium of communicating to the
public my views upon the questions IN
vOlYed In the campaign. [ appreciate
very highly the confidence and respect
manifested by the convention, and ac-
cept the nomination with n feeling of
gratitude and a full sense of the respOn-
sibilities which accompany it.
1t is a matter of cOngratulat1On that
the declarations Of the Chicago cOnven-
ton upon the questions that now attract
the interest of our people are so clear
and emphatic There is Il further cause
of cOngTatulatiOn IN the fact that the
convention utterances of the democratic
party, if In any degree uncertain or con
Trajectory, can now be judged and in
terDreted by executive acts and mes
sages, and by definite propositions in
legislation. This is especially true of
what is popularity known as the tariff
question. The issue cannot now be OBJ
scured. 1t is not q contest between
schedules, but between wide apart prin-
clples. The foreign competitors of our
market have, with quick instinct, seen
how one Issue of this contest may bring
them advantage, and our own people
are not so dull as to miss or neglect the
grave interests that are involved for
them. The assault upon our protective
system is open and defiant. Protection
Is assalled as unconstitutional In the law
or rs vicious in principle, and those who
hold such views sincerely, cannot stop
short Of an absolute elimination from
our tariff laws of the principle of pro
lection. The Mills bill is only n step,
but is toward an object that the leaders Of
democratic thought and legislation have
clearly in mind. The important ques-
ton is not so much the length of the
step as the direction of it. Judged by
the executive message of Decem Der last,
by the Mills bill, by the debates in con
gross and by the st. Louis platform. the
democratic party WILL If supported by
the country, place the tariff laws upon Il
purely revenue basis. Is this practical free
trade, free trade in the English sense?
The legend upon the banner may not be
Free trade. =" IT may be the more OBJ
scure motto, '"Iariff reform, " but
neither the banner nor the inscription
is conclusive or, indeed, very import
ant. Those who teach that the import
duty on foreign goods sold in our mar
kets Is paid by the consumer, and that the
price of the domestic competing goods
IS enhanced to the amount of the duty
on imported articles; that every million
of dollars collected for custom duties
represents many millions more which do
not reach the treasury, but are paid by
our citizens as the increased cost of do
nestle productions resulting from the
tariff laws, may not intend to discredit
IN the minds of others Our system of
IeVylng duties on competing foreign
products; but it is clearly already dis
credited in their own. We cannot
doubt, without impugning their integri-
ty, that if free to to act upon their con-
victiOns they would so revise our laws
as to lay the burdens of the customs rev
enue upon articles that are not produced
in this country, and to place upon the
free list all competing foreign products.
/ do not stop to refute this theory as to
the effect of our tariff duties. Those
who advance 1t are students of maxims
and not of the markets. They may be
safely allowed to call their project
''taTif reform" If the people under
stand that In the end the argument
cOmpels free trade in all competing
products. This end may not be reached
abruptly, and its approach may be ac-
cOmpanied with some expressions of
sympathy for our protected industries
and our working people, but it will GER
tainly come if these early steps do not
arouse the people to effective resistance.
The republican party holds that pro-
tectIve tariff is constitutional, whole
some and necessary. We do not offer a
fixed schedule but n principle. We Will
revise the schedule. modify rates. but al
wavs with an intelligent provision as to
the effect upon domestic production and
the wages of our working people. We
believe 1t to be one Of the worthy OBJ
jects of tariff legislation to preserve the
American markets for American prOduc-
ers. and to maintain adequate discrimi-
mating duties upon foreign competing
products. The effect of lower rates and
larger impOrtatiOns upon the public rev
enue Is contingent and doubtful, hut not
so the effect upon American production
and American wages. Less work and
lower wages must be accepted as the in
evitable result of the increased offering
of foreign goods In our market. BY
wav of recOmpense for this reduction In
his wages. and the loss of the American
market, 1t is suggested that the dimin-
ished wages of the wOrlzinGman viii have
IN undiminished purchasing power, and
that he viii be able to make mp for the
loss of the home market by an enlarged
foreign market.
Our workingmen have the settlement
of the question IN their own hands.
They now obtain higher wages and live
other country. They viii make a choice
between the substantial advantages they
have In hand and the deceptive prom