Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-01-06

compels free trade IN all competing pro.
ducts. This end may not be reached
abruptly. and its approach may be accom-
panied with some expressions of sympathy
for our protected industries and our work
ing people, but it will certainly come if
those early steps do not arouse the people
to effective resistance.
The Republican party holds that a pro-
tectiye tariff is constitutional, wholesome
and necessary, We do not offer a fixed
schedule, but "a principle. We will revise
the schedule and modify rates, but always
with an intelligent provision as to the eff
feet upon domestic production and the
wages of our working people. We believe
it to be one of the worthy objects of tariff
legislation to preserve the American mar
ket for American producers, and to main
tain the American scale of wages by ade-
quate discriminating duties upon foreign
competing products. The effect OF lower
rates and larger importation upon the pub
lie revenue is contingent and doubtful. but
not so the effect upon American production
and American wages. Less work and
lower wages must be accepted as the lnev-
liable result of the increased offering of
foreign goods in our market. BY way of
recOmpense for this reduction in his
wages and the loss of the American mar
ket. it is suggested that the diminished
wages of the workingman will have an
undiminlshed purchasing power. and that
he will be able to make up for the loss of
the home market by an enlarged foreign
market. Our worklngmen have the settle
ment of the question in their own hands.
They now obtain higher wages and live
more comfortably than those of any other
country. They will make choice between
the substantial advantages they have in
hov, 4 md f1n1 iooc md
casts of those theOriZing retOrmers. They
will decide for themselves and for the
country whether the protective system
shall be continued or destroyed.
The fact of treasury surplus, the
amount of which is variously stated. has
directed public attention to a consiGera
tion of the methods by which the national
income may best be reduced to the level OF
wise and necessary expenditure. This
condition has been seized upon by those
who are hostile to protective customs du-
ties as an advantageous base of attack
upon our tariff laws. They have magni
fed and nursed the surplus, which they
affect to deprecate, seemingly for the pur
pose of exaggerating the evil IN order to
reconcile the people to the extreme remedy
they propose. A proper reduction of the
revenue does not necessitaJe, and should
not suggest. the abandonment or impair
ment of the protective system. The
methods suggested by our convention will
not need to be exhausted in order to effect
the necessary reduction. We are not likely
to be called upon, I think. to make a pres
emit choice between the surrender of our
protective system and the entire repeal of
the internal taxes. Such contingency,
in view of tie present relations of expen-
ditures to revenues. is remote. The in
spection and regulation of the manufac-
ture and sale of oleomargarine is impor
tant, and the revenue derived from it is
not so great that the repeal Of the law
need enter into any plan of revenue reduc
ton. The surplus now in the treasury
should be used in the purchase of bonds.
The law authorizes this use of it. and if it
is not needed for current or deficiency ap-
propriatiOns, the people, and not the banks
in which it has been deposited, should
have the advantage of its use by stopping
interest upon the public debt. At least
those who needlessly hoard it should not
be allowed to use the fear of a monetary
stringency thus produced to coerce public
sentiment upon other questions.
Closely connected with the subject of the
tariff is that of the Importation of foreign