Montgomery County sentinel., 1888-06-08
BLALNE's SECOND EP1STLE.

Reluctance to positively accept or posi-
lively decline the Republican nomination
for President has been Blaines private con-
dtion of mind ever since he left for Europe
and for some time before.
Between hot and cold, between longing
and disgust, now on the crest Of wave of
confidence and now in the trough, sht1s out
from all sights except patch of eaden sky
overhead, now ready to boom out his sails,
wing and wing, and run fast before the
wind toward the golden, sparkling, fruitful
isles of his waking and sleeping dreams
and now in spritless apprehension of rocks
at the harbor's mouth preparing to abandon
the quest; these alterations have been
Blaine's.
What American statesman can be named
whose utterances were not always taken
fairly and in their proper meaning? And
yet such has been Mr. Blaine's devious and
indirect ways, that even his friends refused
to believe that he actually meant what he
said, either in his Florence letter or his
Crawford interview Now comes the Paris
letter, intended to clear up all antiquities
and take him positively out of the race. 1t
remains to be seen whether his friends will
so treat it,
In his Florence letter Mr. Blaine dis
tinctly and definitely expressed his refusal
to stand as the nominee of the National
Republican party. But such was his known
character that his ntimates and well wishers
regarded the Florence letter as political
move to gain for the writer sympathy where
more direct effort would precipitate hostile
action. This view of BIaine's personal honor
agreed with public sentiment Blame, if he
were anything, was political strategst.
He has never been candid or honest in his
utterances. 1t was idle tor him, in 1888, to
set up any new standard of morals.
Mr.. Blaine, of course, could not close his
letter without some reference to protection
and what il does for the American laborer,
and how it gives him such good wages. OF
all unkillable lies this seems to be the most
immortal, that high tariff makes high
wages, and low tariff low wages. 1t might
as well be claimed that Il high tariff makes
good crops. Wages are regulated by their
own law, that Of supply and demand, and
the protected manufacturer pays no more To
his workmen than he is obliged to pay.
II is this delusion that has so long kept
the tariff where it is. 1t the manufacturers
would only divide fair and give the Ameri.
can aborer, whom they so fondly love, his
share Of the taxes they exact, we might be
willing to bear the burdens of excessive tax
alton Longer, but they never do this and never
have done it. They keep it in their own
pockets. Talk about the condition of the
European laborer Pennsylvania is full OF
European laborers, imported by the coal
and iron barons expressly to compete with
the American laborer, and if TO day these
same barons could reduce wages here to the
same level they are in Europe they would
do it. Why would they not, and why should
they not? 1t is the way of the world-it is
human nature. All wage -earners get no more
for their labor than market price, and the
| man who will work the cheapest gets the
work to do
| Under the low tariff of 1916 wages were good
and the people were prosperous, and if the
present tariff is reduced it may cut down
manufacturers profits a little, but it will not
reduce wages one cent. Not only so, but
it will give wages much greater purchas-
ing power than they have now. 1t will not
then take working man week to earn a
pair of blankets, nor month to earn suit
of clothes. The necessares of life will be
made cheaper and wages will buy more of
them
man. all admit that. He declined because
his purity is defeated-he should have so
stated in his episte