Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-09-12
TIED!
Benny HarrisOn's Scatter
ing of Bird Shot.
HISBLUNDERS ARE PAINFUL
he Has Heard Of the Tariff, but Evidently Is
Not Well Acquainted With 1t.
BOTH SIDES OF fHE FENCE At ONCE
He Endorses the Clear and Emphatic"
Cnlcago Stfaddle
and TRIES TO EXPLAIN 1T.
Blnrdsr in Political Economy Which a
School Boy Ought to ba
Ashamed Of
THINKS THE TARIFF is NOT 4 TAX,
And If It Is a Tax II Comes
Of Of the Blarstsd Foreign
Importer.
A TARIFF ON A "REYENUE BASIS" ="
~ N II ...4
He Declares Is Free Trade and He Won't
Have It but Doesn't Say What He
Does WanE-Hs Lauds Protection
but Doesn't Speak Of Starving
Pennsylvania Miners
he ADMITS DEMOCRATIC CLAIMS,
In Promising Tariff Revision AMI Repu-
dates His Party PlatfOrm-Flnally
Compelled to Grant That theTarif
Canbe Reduced Without In-
jury to the PrOtec-
tive System.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND, September H.
The following is Gen. Hsrrison's letter ac-
eeptiDg the Republican Presidential nom
ination:
INDIANAPOLIS, IND, September IL.
Hon. N M Esies, and Others, Committee:
GENTLEMEN: When your committee
visited me on the Fourth of July last and
presented the official announcement OF my
nomination for the Presidency Of the
United States by the Republican Conven-
tiCu, promised rs coon as practicable to
communicate to you q more formal accept
ance of the nomination. Since that time
the work of receiving and addressing al
most daily large delegations of my fellow
citizens has not only occupied all my time,
bat has in some measure rendered it unnec-
esqsary for me to use this letter as medium
of communicating to the rublic my views
upon the questions involved in the cam
prigu. appreciate very highly the coz
tidenee and respect manifested by the
Convention and accept the nomination
with feeling of gratitude and q full sense
of the responsibilities which accompany it,
A CLEAR AND EMPHATIC" CHICAGO
STRADDLE.
II is matter Of coDgratulatiop that the
declarations of the Chicago Convention
upon the questions that now attract the
interest OF our people are so clear and en-
phatic. There is further cause OF congrat-
ulatiou in the fact that the convention ut
terances of the Dsmoccatic party, if in any
degree uncertain or contradictiug, can now
be Judged and interpreted by executive
acts and messages. and nv definite PROPOSE
tions in legislation. This is especially
true of what is popularity known rs the
tariff question. The issue cannot be OBJ
scured. 1t is not contest between
schedules, but between wide apart princi-
ples. The foreign competitors of our mar
ket 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 inter
ests that are involved for them. The as
sault upon our protective system Is open
and defiant Protection is assailed
as Unconstitutional in law or as vicious
in principle, aud those who hold
such views sincerely cannot stop short OF
an absolute elimination from our tariff
laws of the principle Of protection. The
Mills bill is only q step, but 1t is toward
an object that the leaders Of Democratic
thought and legislation have clearly IN
mind.
IS A REVENUE TARIFF FREE TRADE? MR.
HARRISON SAYS so.
The important question is not so much
the length Of the step as the direction OF 1t.
Judged By the Executive message OF
December last, by the Mills bill, by the
debates in Congress, and by the St Louis
platform, the Democratic party will, If sup
ported by the country, place the tariff laws
upon q purely revenue basis This Ii
practical free trade-free trade in the
English sense. The legend upon the ban
ner may not be Free Trade" it may be
| the more Obscure motto Tariff Reform" ;
but neither the banner nor the inscription
is conclusive, or indeed, very important.
HE HAD BETTER STUDY A PoLITIoAL
ECONOMY PRIMER.
The assault itself is the important fact.
Those who teach that the import duty
upon foreign goods sold in our market is
paid by the consumer, and that the price
of the domestic computing article ia en-
hanced to the amount of the duty on the
imported article-thst every million OF
dollars collected for customs duties, repre-
seuts many millions more which do not
reach the Treasury, but are paid by our
citizens ss the increased cost Of domestic
productions, resulting from the tariff laws
NAV not intend to discredit in the
minds of Others our system Of levylng
duties on competing foreign products, but
il is clearly, already discredited In
their own. We cannot doubt
without impugning their integrity,
that if free to act upon their convictions
they would 30 revise our laws As to lay the
burdena Of the customs revenue upon srti-
eles that are not produced in this country,
and TO place upon the free list all compe-
ting foreign products.
HE HURRIEs ALONG QUITE ANSIoUsLS.
I do not stop to refute this theory as to
the effect of our tariff duties. Those who
advance it are students OF maxms and not
of the markets. They may be safely al
lowed 10 cali their project. "FsriE re-
form," if the people understand that in the
end, the argument compels free trade in
ali competing products. This end may
not be reached abruptly, and its approach
NAV be accompanied with some express
siOns of sympathy for our pro-
tected industries, and our working peo-
pie; but it will certainly come, IL
these early steps do not arouse the people
to effective resistance. The Republican
party holds that q protective tariff Is con-
stitutionally wholesome and necessary.