The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-09-13
IL 1T FREE TRAnE7

Is 1T FREE TRADE7
The incisive and conclusive presentation of
the issue of protection versus free trade, in
General Harrisons letter of acceptance, has
started the whole Democratic chorus to yelp-
ing. Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart. every
cur of high and low degree alike, is repeating
parrot-like, the assertion of Grover Cleveland
that the Democratic party does not mean free
trade. Abraham Lincoln said you could fool
all the people some of the time, some of the
people all the time but not all of the people
all the time. The Democratic party will not
be able to do what Mr.. Lincoln declared to be
an impossibility. The Democratic party is
for free trade, always has been for free trade,
and is for free trade now despite these Shrek
ing protests. They meant free trade in the
Cleveland message of last December, and in
the Mills bill, and they mean free trade in
the Cleveland letter of acceptance. We pro-
pose to submit some evidence on this ques-
ton, reproducing good deal which the jour
assertion made by Hon. VIM. III. English, in
his speech at the Tomlinson Hall ratification
meeting, in this city, in July last:
The Democratic national convention of
1856. in Cincinnati, resolved
THAT the time has come for the people of
the United States to declare themselves in
favor of progressive free trade throughout the
world"
The Democratic national conventions Of
1860, held at Baltimore and Charleston,
adopted a resolution declaring our affirm
ance7 of the above declaration. OF the his
toric record Of the Democratic party, Mr..
Henry Watterson, the author of the st. Louis
national platform, said only this year:
'It any man doubts what has been the po-
sition of the Democratic party, let him read
the official utterances made continuously from
1900 TO 1884. This record, begun in $500 by
demanding free commerce with all nations, is
followed in 1856 by a pledge of progressive
free trade, and closes in 1884 by the declara-
ton that unnecessary taxation is unjust taxa
ton. towards and traitors we have
had from the beginning, but the party has on
Declaration of Independence which was as
much an insistance on mans right to ex-
change freely as it was demand for freedom
of political action. By this record the Demo
cratic party must stand or fall.
The New York World said. while under the
editorial control of Mr.. Manton Marble, whom
President Cleveland appointed to trusted
and confidential mission almost as soon as he
was inaugurated:
mo protectionist can be Democrat Our
hope is IN making the Democracy an out and.
out, thick-and-thin. aggressive, intolerant.
free-trade party, subordinating all issues TO
this. and thereby drawing to itself ali citizens
who have a true appreciation of this grand
principle
Senator Mcdonald, leading and honored
Democrat, in his speech, In the courthouse
| in this city, only few days ago, said:
81 am opposed to the so-caled protective
system upon the ground that it is a violation
of the spirit and meaning of the Constitution
comforting the taxing power. l be-
lieve that free trade between nations as
between individuals, is the foundation upon
which commerce should rest"
Mr.. Cleveland, in his letter of acceptance,
speaks of the tariff laws under which the
present revenues are collected, as Gan utter
perversion of the power" of the government,
| just as he spoke of the tariff system in his
December message as vicious, inequitable
and illogical
Mr.. Roger Q. Mills, author Of the Mills bill,
said in Congress four years ago:
Wealth. prosperity and power will bless
the land that is dedicated to free men, free
labor and free trade"
This year Mr. Mills said to delegation Of
Philadelphia wool merchants:
| THE more confusion the tariff works To
| business the better like it, because it will
the sooner be done away with. desire free
trade, and will not help to perfect any Law
that stands in the way Of free trade
| On the Sis. of March. 1882. Mr. Henry
| Watterson said:
| "The Democratic party, except in the per
sons of imbeciles hardly worth mentioning
is not on the fence. 1t is a free trade party
or it Ia nothing
On the Goth day of March, 1882, Mr.. Wat.
terson said:
'The Democrat who is not free trader
| should go elsewhere. He should Join tne Re
publicans. The Democratic party
will make free-trade fight in 1884 If i
loses, it will make another in 1885, The con
| fiict between trade and protection is ir
repressible, and must be fought out to tn,
bitter end. We spit upon compromises, ant
propose neither to ask nor give quarter"
Grover Cleveland said to Attorney genera
Cassaday, of Pennsylvania:
II believe in free trade as / believe in tn
Protestant religion"
Allen G.. Thurman said in his Port Huro,
speech last month:
''Of all the humbugs by which men wer
attempted to be deceived, this humbug of tn
laboring man being benefited by high pro
tective tariff ia the greatest"
Speaker Carlisle said:
"All trade should be as free as possible
| Secretary Fairchild said:
add to the free list as many articles a
possible. Reduce duties upon every dutiabl
article to the lowest point possible"
Hon. S. s. Cox said:
ut would be a glorious contamination o
this debate could we only have gentlemen o.
the other side ioiu in this invocation to pane