The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-09-14
FROM BEN'S PEN.
Full Text Of General Harrison.s
Letter OF Acceptance.
He TAKES ISSUE Win Mn. CLEVELAND,
And Declares the Campaign to Be Bat
tie Between Free Trade and Protec-
tion-He Would Enforce the Anti.
Chinese Laws-Otner Topics.
MR.. HARRisoN's LETTER.

tich-de would Enforce the Anti.
Chinese Laws-Otl.er Topics:
MR.. HARRisoN's LETTER
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, Sept. IL Following
Is General Harrison's letter Of acceptance:
Hon. H. IL Estes and Others, Committee. etc.
-GENTLEMEN: When your committee visited
me on the 4th OF July last and presented the
official announcement of my nomination for
the Presidency Of the United States by the Re-
publican convention I promised as soon as
practicable to communicate to you a more
formal acceptance of the nomination. Since
that time the work CT receiving and address,
ing, almost daily, large delegations OF my fell
low-citizens, has not only occupied all Of my
time but has in some measure rendered it I'M
necessary for me to use this letter as q medium
OF communicating to the public my views on
the questions involved in the campaign.
He ACCEPTS.
II appreciate very highly the confidence and
respect manifested by the convention; and ae.
eept the nomination with feeling Of gratituds
and full sense OF the responsibilities which
accompany it.
1T is matter OF congratu1ation that the
declarations OF the Chicago convention upon
the questions that now attract the interest of
our people are SO clear and emphatic. There
is further cause OF congratulation in the fact
that the convention utterances of the Demo-
cratic party, if in any degree uncertain or con-
Trajectory. can now be judged and interpreted
by Executive acts and messages and definite
propositions in legislation.
THE TARIFF
''This is especially true OF what is popularity
known as the tariff question. The issue can
not now be obscured. 1t is not contest be-
tween schedules, but between wide apart prin-
ciples. The foreign competitors for our mar
inc h
issue OF this contest may bring them adj
vantage, and our own people are not SO dull as
to miss or neglect the grave interests that are
involved for them. The assault upon orr nro
tective system is open and defiant Protection
is assailed as unconstitutional in law. or az
vicious in principle, and those who hold such
views sincerely can not stop short OF an abse-
lutte elimination from our tariff laws of the
principle OF projection. The Mills bin
is only step, but it is toward an OBJ
ject that the leaders of Democratic
thought and legislation have clearly in
mind. The important question Is not SO much
the length of the step as the direction of 1t.
Judged by the Executive message OF December
las, by the Mills bill, by the debates in Con-
gress and byl the St; Louis platform, the Dem
ocratic party will, If supported by the country,
place the tariff laws upon q purely revenue
basis. This is practical free trade-free trade in
the English sense. The legend upon the ban
more obscure motto, tariff Reform but
neither the banner nor the inscription is con-
elusive, or, indeed, very Important. The as
sault 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 Compel
ing domestic article is enhanced to the
that every million 81 dollars coected or GUS
toms duties represents many millions more
which do not reach the Treasury, but are paid
by our citizens as the increased cost of domes-
tic productions resulting from the tariff laws
may net tend TO discredit in the minds of
others our system OF levying duties on compet.]
Ing foreign products, but it is clearly already
ulscredted IN their own. We can not doubt
without impunging their integrity that il free
to act upon their convictions, they would SO
revise our laws as to lay the burden of the
customs revenue upon articles that are not
Tree list all competing foreign products
II do not stop to refute this theory as to the
effect OF our tariff duties. Those who advance
it are students OF maxims and not of the mar
kets: They may De safely allowed to cali their
stand that in the end the argument compels free
trade in all competing products. This end NAV
not be reached abruptly, and it's approach may
pathy for our protected industries and our
working people, but it will certainly come il
these early steps do not arouse the people TO
effective resistance.
PROTECTION NECESSITY.
" The Republican party holds that protect
I've tariff is constitutional, wholesome and
necessary. We do not offer schedule, but a
principle. We will revise the schedule, mod
lry rates, but always with an intelligent pre-
vision as to the effect upon domestic pro-
auction and the wages OF our working people
we believe 1t to be one of the worthy objects
OF tariff legislation to preserve the American
market for American producers, and to main
tain the American scale of wages by ADEQUATE
duties upon foreign competing
products. The effect of lower rates and larger
upon the public revenue is con-
tingent and doubtful. but not so the effect upon
American production and American wages.
Less work and lower wages must be accepted as
the inevitable result OF the increased offering
OF foreign goods in ourmarket. By way of rec
the loss OF the American market, it is suggest
ed that the diminished wages of the working.
man Will have an undimniShed purchasing
power, and that he will be able to make up for
the loss OF the home market by an enlarged
foreign market. Our working-men have the
settlement 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 hand and the decent.
I've promises and forecasts of these 4theorizing
reformers. They will decide for themselves
and for the country whether the protective sys-
tenn shall be continued or destroyed
THE SURPLUS.
The fact OF Treasury surplus, the amount
OF which is variously stated, has directed pub
Tic attention to consideration of the methods
duced to the level of wise and necessary ex-
penditure. This condition has been seized
upon by those who are hostile to protective
custom duties as an advantageous base of at.
tack upon our tariff laws. They have magni-
fed and nursed the surplus, which they affect
to deprecate, seemingly for the purpose OF ex-
the evil in order to reconcile the
people to the extreme remedy they propose A
proper reduction Of the revenues does not
necessitate, and should not suggest the
abandonment or impairment of the protective
system The methods suggested by our con-
vention will not need to be exhausted in order to
effect the necessary reduction. We are not
likely to be called upon, think, to make a
present choice between the protective system
and entire repeal OF the internal taxes. Such
contingency, in view of the present relat' on
OF expenditures to revenues, is remote. The
inspection and regulation of the sale Of oleo-
margarine is important and the revenue de-
rived from it is not so great that the repeal of
the law need enter into any plan of revenue re-
auction. The surplus now in the Treasury
should be used in the purchase of bonds. The
law authorizes this use of it, and il it is not need
ed for current or deficiency appropriations,
the people. and not the banks in which it has
been deposited, should have the ad vantage of its
At least, those who needessly hoard it should
not be allowed to use the fear of monetary
strngency, thus produced, to coerce public
sentiment upon other questions.
CONTRACT LABOR.
CLOSELY connected with the subject of the
laborers under contracts OF service to be per-
formed here. The law now in force prohibit
ing such contracts received my cordial sup
port in the Senate, and such amendments as
may be found necessary effectively to deliver
our working-men and women from this most in
equitable form OF competition will have my sim
cere advocacy Legislation prohibiting the
importation of laborers under contracts to serve
here will, however, afford very inadequate re-
lief to our working people if the system of pro-
tective duties is broken down. If the products
OF American shops must compete in the Ameri-
can market, without favoring Duties with the
products OF cheap foreign labor, the effect will
be different, II at all, only in degree, whether
the cheap laborer is across the street or over
the sea. Such competition will soon reduce
wages here to the level of those abroad, and
when that condition is reached we will not need
any laws forbidding the importation of laborers
under contract-they will have no inducement
to come and the employer no inducement to
send for them.
THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM
In the earlier years of our history public
agencies to promote immigration were COM
mon. The pioneer wanted q neighbor with
more friendly instincts than the Indian. Labor