Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-09-14
General Harrison's Letter.

General Harrison's Letter.
Gen. HarrisOn's letter, accepting the
Republican Presidential nomination, was
made public, Wednesday morning, and the
following are the most important parts OF
it. 1t speaks for itself.
THE TARIFF QUESTION.
The issue cannot now be obscured. 1t
is not contest between schedules, but be-
tween wide apart principles. The foreign
competitors of our market have, with
quick instinct, seen how one issue OF TINS
contest may bring them advantage, and
our own people are not SO dull as to miss
or neglect the grave interests that are IN
volyed for them The assault upon our
protective system is open and dehant.
Protection is assailed as unconstitutional
in law, or as vicious in principle, and 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 step, but it Is TO-
wards an object that the leaders of Demo
cratic thought and legislation have clearly
in mind.
The important question is not so much
the length of the step as the direction Oh IL.
Judged by The Executive message OF De-
cember last. by the Mills bill, by the de-
bates in Congress and by the st. LOUIS
platform, the Democratic party Will, III
supported by the country place the tariff
laws upon purely revenue basis. This Is
practical free trade-free trade in the Eng
lish sense. The legend upon the banner
NAV 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 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 competing article ID en-
hanced to the amount of the duty on the
imported article-that every million of dol
lars collected for customs duties represents
many millions more which do not reach
the treasury, but are paid by our citizens
as the increased cost of domestic prOduc-
tions resulting from the tariff laws-may
not intend to discredit in the minds oi
others our system of levying duties on COM
peting foreign products, but it is clearly al
ready discredited in their own. We cannot
doubt, without impugning 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 artl-
cles that are not produced in this country,
and to place upon the free list all compet-
ing foreign products.
/ 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 markets. They may be safely allow
ed to call their project Tariff Reform" If
the people understand that in the end the
argument compels free trade in all compet-
ing products. This end may not be reach
ed abruptly, and its approach may be ac-
companied with some expressions OF SYM
pathy for our protected industries and our
working people, but it will certainly come,
if these early steps do not arouse the peo-
pie to effective resistance.
REPUBLICAN DOCTRINE.
The Republican party holds that pro-
tective tariff is constitutional, wholesome
and necessary. We do not offer nxed
suhedulc, but principle. We will revise
the schedule, modify rates, but always
with an intelligent provision as to the
effect npon domestic production and the
wages Of our working people. We believe
il to be one Of the worthy objects OF tarih
legislation to preserve the American mar
kets for American producers, and to MAIN
tain the American scale Of wages by ade-
quate discriminating duties upon foreign
competing products. The effect OF lower
rates and larger importations upon the pub
revenue is contingent and doubtful, but not
70 the effect upon American production
and American wages. Less work and
lower wages must be accepted IA the inev-
table result of the increased oferingof for
eign goods in our market. By way oil re-
compense for this reduction in his wages
and the loss Of the American market, 1t IL
suggested that the diminished wages OF the
| workingman will have an undiminished
purchasing power, and that he will be able
to make up for the loss Of the home market
by an enlarged foreign market. Our work
ingmen have the settlement of the ques-
| ton in their own hands. They now OBJ
tain higher wages and live more comforta-
bly than those Of any other country. They
| will make choice between the substantial
advantages they have in hand and the de-
ceptive promises and forecasts of these
theorizing reformcrs. They will decide Tor
themselves and for the country whether
the protective system shall be continued or
destroyed.
THR TREASURY SURPLUS.
The fact of a treasury surplus, the amount
of which is variously stated, has directed
| public attention to consideration Of the
methods by which the National income
may best be reduced to the level of wise
| anu UtttrSuf1 tApchuituiO- A'A"
has been seized upon by those who are hos
tile 10 protective custom duties as an ed
yantageous base Of attack upon our tariff
laws. They have magnincd and nursed
the surplus, which they affect to deprecate,
seemingly for the purpose of exaggerating
the evil in order to reconcile the people to
the extreme remedy they propose. A
proper reduction Of the revenue docs not
necessitate, and should not suggest, the
abandonment or impairment of the pro-
tective system. The methods suggested
by our convention will not nsad to DO ex-
hausted in order to effect the necessary re-
duction. We are not likely to be called
upon, think, to make n present choice be-
tween the surrender Of our protective sys-
tenn and the entire repeal Of the internal
taxes Such contingency, in view OF the
present relation Of expenditures to reve-