New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-10-02
CFPr4INTy or EXPERIMENT..

Only five weeks more of discussion and work
and then the people will decide. For veal or
woe they will determine the future history OF
The country, perhaps for many years. bare
and scanty success for either party might IN
deed leave the issue 20 be fought out once more
on the same lines A decided victory for Mr..
Cleveland and his policy would throw all in
dustries into the whirlpool of experimental re-
construction, and for some years at least the
country would be compelled to try progress
toward free trade and to see how it works
But decisive victory for Mr.. Harrison would
probably settle the policy of the Nation Tor
many years to come, because it would warn
politicians Of both parties that the people Will
not tolerate an abandonment or undermining
Of the protective system.
This state Of facts brings home to voters OF
every party two questions: Is it wise TO Tor
sake policy which has brought uneXampled
prosperity for the sake of an untred expert
ment? Is it not wise to stop free-trade agita-
ton, which does unreasonable harm every
year to industry, by a verdict so decisive thai
it will last These questions will dominate
the last month of the campaign, and decision
for Mr.. Cleveland is inevitably decision for
experimental change, and for frce-trade agita-
ton continued indefinitely. A decision for Mr..
Harrison means that certainty shall not be sud
denly exchanged for the experiments Of the
orists 4; it gives industries firm land to build
upon for four years at least, and if sufficiently
emphatic and complete, for many years to come.
These things are obvious, and yet to prac-
teal men they mean great deal. For such
men do not like to venture their millions in the
erection of costly works which, in case of
change of national policy, might become worth
less What can be done under the protective
tariff they know; twenty-seven years OF eX-
perence demonstrate that even if industry Is
developed in any direction too rapidly, 1t can
count with certainty upon ultimate success ana
profit if the home market with its wonderfully
rapid growth is secured. But they cannot cal.
culate with certainty that the home market
will be secured, or that it will grow with equal
rapidly, or even that it will grow at ALL II the
Nations policy is to be changed.
That way lies the destructive whirlpool OF
utter uncertainty. Possibly theorists may be
mistaken. Changes supposed to be harmless
may surrender the entire home market to for
cigners. Nobody can be sure: the change IN
that direction is change from certainty TO I'M
certainty, and that means arrest Of develop
ment Win sixty millions of Americans earn
ing such wages as workers now earn, and add
ing every year million and quarter by
natural increase Of population and hail mill
ion by immigration, the home market Is by
far the best in all the world. To hold 1t for
home industries means certain and rapid growth
fer them But to surrender part of it and al
WAYS an unknown part, for the effect Of
change toward lower duties can never be ac-
curaiely foreseen-takes away the only sure
foundation for every industry.
Those practical men in both parties who feel
that continued agitation brings disaster have
the issue in their hands. They can stop the
agitation if they please. True, it is impossible
to stop or even to limit agitation by verdict
in favor of Mr.. Cleveands policy. For the
very essence of that policy Is tentative but
continued and persistent change toward the
complete adoption OF free-trado theories II
the people say "yes'' to the Mills bill, every
Free Trader in the land will then have faith
that more agitation will make further ana lar
greater changes easy. vote for Mr.. Cieve-
land therefore, is Of necessity vote Tor con
tinucd free-trade agitation, with the prospect
Of some unknown change toward abandonment
Of the home market by new legislation every
wear. But decisive verdict for General Har-
rison would give the death-blow to free-trade
hopes. and then the work of tariff revision
would be intrusted only to those who would
uphold the protective system, while making
such notifications as the industries of the coun-
try from time to time require