The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-20

hPOA ohllb VIIo propositions ub issue were
the intense interest already OK
cited by the pending measure
on two continents, bore the strongest wit
nesSes that could be borne by men Those
who, living on this side of the ocean, grew
and made the articles which were necessary
Tor the comfort and happiness of the peo-
pie OF the United States were on one side of
the question, while the foreign mauufac-
turers, foreign political economists and
foreign statesmen were all on the other.
This, however, should not prejudice the
question.
FAIR TO HEAR.
Ii it be true that by having their goods
manufactured abroad the people of the
United States whole would become
richer and more prosperous, would have
their houses better furnished, their tables
spread with finer linen, and covered with
more healthful food, il their bodies would
be protected by warmer woolens from the
cold of Maine and by finer clothing from
the burning sun of Texas; if they would
on the whole, and from generation to gen
GRAFTON, enjoy more of the comforts and
luNurles of life, and would themselves be
more intelligent, more indepenuent and
| better fitted to be citizens of the republic,
already great and destined TO bs mighty be-
yond all former dreams of empire, then by all
means sink national prejudice, burst the
| barriers OF provincial narrowness and with
| one accord adopt not merely the present
bill, but such legislation as would surely
treble the spindles of Europe and destroy
our own, such measures as would put out
our furnaces and illumine those beyond the
| sea. Ii of every 50 in our pocket the one
alone was sufficient if spent in England
to give us all we had now, and
we we're sure of still having in our pockets
the same 81 which we now had, surely the
problem was too easy for dispute, too sim
| pie for discussion. We had only to pass a
bill which gave free course to what the
free trade professors, with the glib secular
| lzation of the deity, Gale the heinternational
law of the almighty; and if the learned
economists on the other side were true to
their logic and did not falter with both
their language and their convictions, they
could propose no other course.
COssACK OR REPUBLICAN,
Napoleon was right when he said that
Europe must be Cossack or Republican;
Lincoln was right when he said the United
States must be either free or slave The
House divided against itself had to unite or
fall. The revenue reform argument was
either false pretense or covers the whole
ground. Protection was either in its essence
benefit or a curse. Incidental protection
was sham. "a tariff for revenue only"
went down before the same argu-
InentS which were used against protection
If protection be a tax for the manufac
| turerS' benefit, then it was the same tax
if it be the result of even q revenue tariff
| Incidental protection was of all the most
lnexcusable. 1t was an accident which
ought to be avoided like railway disaster
| The President was the leader of the
| democracy. He was also the dispenser of
| patronage, and as he was rapidly shaking
| the dust of civil service reform off his feet,
he was assuming control over his party.
| There was but one free trade, and the
President was its prophet. Whoever fell
| in battle in the service of this now Allah
and its prophet, for him shall open the
shining gates of the heaven of foreign mis-
sions and Federal offices. If the President
was right, and the gentleman did not dare
| doubt him, an annual tribute was paid the
| protected manufacturers out of the proceeds
of the people, impoverishing them, greater
than ever was exacted by an oriental despot.
HAGGLING ABOUT THE AMOUNT.
In the face of the duty to free the people
| from this iron yoke the gentlemen stood
| hagglirg about the amount of tribute In
stead Of SAT for every hundred they pro-
| posed to give $40 of the peoples money and
throw into the trade the markets of the
world. If it were tribute, be bold and
sweep it away. He did not propose to de-
| fend protection. Its vast growth within
the last quarter of century defended it
better even than eloquent oratiOns. 1t was
born with the republic, it was the
faith and practice of every civilized nation
| under the sun save one. 1t had survived
the assaults of all the professors of the
''dismal science" called political economy.
1t had stood up against all the half
| knowledge of learned men who never had
sense enough to transmit their learning into
wisdom On the face of the earth to-day
| there were but two sets OF people who be-
lieved in free trade, whether pure and
| simple or disguised as revenue reform, and
those two are the masked majority Of the
committee on ways and means ard their
| followers, and the United Kingdom of
| Great Britain and Ireland, with Ireland sup
pressed.
Mr. Reed quoted from Bastiat, the French
political economist, that ''in free trade the
richest country gives the most; in fact, it
| levels itself down and levels the other coun-
! tries up"
He declared that America was richer than
| Europe, and we meant to keep the wealth
! here. We meant to do it even if we built
Chinese wall of tariff taxes around this
country.
HOW THE DOG LOST HIS BONE.
He ridculed the talk of monopoly" and
''trusts," which he called idiotic raving and
pessiferous rant, and illustrated what would
| happen to those who reached out for the
| markets OF the world, by quoblGg LESopS
fable of the dog passing over a bridge with
| a bone in his mouth and saw his own rehec-
! tion in the water and let go his own bone,
| to leap for that of the reflected dog, and so
| had none, and was wet beside. We have
| now, he said, spent twenty days on the dis
cussion of the Mills bill Have you noticed
what has been the most utterly insgnifi-
cant thing in the discussions The most
utterly insignificant thing in the discussion
| has been the Mills bill. How do you
account for iti will tell you. If the prin-
cipes you have enunciated are true it is an
unworthy compromise with Satan. If the
principles we have stated are true it is an
unworthy ambuscade, and you know it.
! You mean this merely for one step You
mean e. cut deeper the next time You
| mean the destruction of the system which
now exists Mr. Reed completed his speech,
amidst great applause, just before 2o'clock.
CHEERS FOR CARLISLE.
| Sneaker Carlisle took the 1oor, and as he was
recognized there was an out burst of hand
clapping and cheering from the floor and
the galleries He began by replying to Mr.
Reeds charge of insincerity. He said that
| he might retort that il protection was sound
doctrine it should be carried to its logical
conclusion, totally prohibitive duties. In
| China the doctrine carried out produced its
| logical effects. With every resource Of nat
ural wealth, and frugal industrious peo-
nle. the arts and manufactures were in
/ tLoi. i,focv We wantad no China nerA,