The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-10-08
AMERICAN POLITICS.

The Presidential election in the United
States, which takes place on Tuesday
the 9th of November (four weeks from
next Tuesday,, seems likely to be a
political campaign more hotly contested
than any since the eve of the civil war,
some twenty-five years ago. Both the
Democratic and Republican candidates
have published their letters of accept
ance, which are of course too lengthy to
reprint in full. Bradstreet's," of Sept.
Is, which is one of the most conservative
journals on our exchange list, gives the
following summary of these important
documents:
"The week has been marked by the
appearance of the letters of acceptance
of the candidates of the two great politi-
cal parties for the Presidency. The first
to appear, Mr.. Cleveland's, was pub
lished OH Monday, and General Harri-
sons followed on Wednesday following.
Mr.. Cleveland's letter is in the main de-
voted to discussion of the question of
tariff revision. He declares that the
Democratic party has entered on no
crusade of free trade, that the revision
which it seeks to bring about is predi-
Gated upoR the utmost care for estab-
lished industries and enterprises, and a
jealous regard for the interests of Ameri-
can labor Abrupt and radical changes
which might endanger domestic indus
trial enterprises and injuriously affectthe
interests of labor dependent upon their
success or continuance are, he says, not
contemplated or intended. The chief
objects of the revision proposed by the
Democratic party are, he says, to reduce
the tariff rates on necessaries of life, and
to stimulate domestic industrial enter
prises by freeing from duty the imported
raw materials which are used in our
home manufactures, conceding at the
same time such encouragement and adj
vantage to the employers of domestic
labor as will compensate for any differ
ence that may exist between the stand
ard of wages which should be paid to the
laboring men of the United States and
the rate allowed in other countries.
General Harrison, of course, takes a
different view of the matter in his letter.
He contends that the issue is essentially
one between the principles of protection
and free trade. 1t is not, he says, a con-
test beween schedules, but between wide
apart principles. The Mills bill itself is,
u0 says OlIJ d SI6p, DuG IL Is q SG6p To-
ward practical free trade, and the impor-
tant question is not so much the length
of the step as the direction of it. The
Republican party, he says, does not offer
a fixed schedule, but principle 1t will
revise the schedules and modify rates,
but always with an intelligent provision
as to the effect upon American produc-
ton and the wages of our working peo-
pie. He does not think that proper re-
sduction of the revenue, such as is de-
manded by the existence of the surplus,
necessitates the abandonment or impair
ment of the protective system, or that
present choice will have to be made be-
tween the surrender of the protective
system and the entire repeal OF the in
ternal taxes. No repeal of the oleomar-
garine law, he says, need enter into any
plan of revenue reduction. Regarding
the surplus now in the Treasury, Gen
eral Harrison suggests that it be used in
the purchase of bonds"