The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1888-09-13

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. II, 1888.
To Hon. NJ. M. Estee and others, COM
nltttee-Ge'lttenle7l: When your COM
mittee 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 Republican
| convention, l promised as soon as practi-
cable to communicate to you a more
formal acceptance of the nomination..
Since that time the work of receiving
and addressing almost daily large dele
cations of my fellow citizens, has not
only occupied all my time, but has in
some measure rendered it unnecessary to
use this letter as medium of communi-
eating to the public my views on the
questions involved in the campaign. |
appreciate very highly the confidence
and respect manifested by the conven-
| ton and accept the nomination with
feeling of gratitude and full sense of the
responsibility which accompanies it. 1t
is matter of congratulation that the
declarations of the Chicago convention
on the questions that now attract the in
| terest of our people are SO clear and en-
phatic. There is further cause for con-
graduation, in the fact that the conven-
tion utterances of the Democratic party,
which are in any degree uncertain or
contradictory, can now be judged and in
terpreted by executive acts and messages
and by definite propositions in legislation.
This is especially true of what is popu-
larly known as the tariff question. The
issue cannot now be obscUred. 1t is not
a contest between schedules, but between
wide apart principles. The foreign COM
petitors for our market have with quick
instinct seen how one issue of this con-
test may bring them advantage and our
own people are not so dull as to miss or
neglect the grave interests tnat are IN
! volved for them. The assault upon our
protective system is open and defiant.
Protection is assailed as unconstitutional
in law as well as in principle, and those
who hold such views secretly Cannot.stop
short of absolute elimination from our
tariff laws of the principle of protection.
; The Mills bill is only step, but it is
toward an object that the leaders of
democratic thought and legislation have
clearly in mind. The Importance of the
question is not so much the length of the
step, as the direction of it. Judging by
the executive message of December last,
r by the Mills bill, the delegates i'll con-
gress and by the st. Louis platform, the
Democratic party will, if supported by
the country, place the tariff laws upon a
purely revenue basis. This is practical
free trade; free trade in an English
. sense. The motto upon the banner may
not be "Free Traden 1t may be the
more obscure motto, Tariff Reform" :"
= but neither the banner nor the inscrip-
I ton is conclusive or indeed very import
ant. The assault itself is the important
fact Those who teach that import duty
on foreign goods sold in our market is
paid by the consumer, and that the price
of the domestic competing article is en-
N<Nf4 4tsa.l .lrrf.v tlNa
imported article, that every million dol
; lars collected for customs duty repre-
!, sents many millions which do not reach
Z the treasury but are paid by our citizens
: as the increased cost of domestic pro-
l ductions resulting from tariff laws, may
o not intend to discredit in the minds of
others our system of levying duties on
competing foreign products, but it is
e clearly already discredited in their own.
!, We cannot doubt, without impugning
their integrity, that if free to act on their
D convictions, they would so revise our laws
, as to lay the burden of customs revenue
upon articles that are not produced IN
this country, and to place upon the free
list all competing foreign products.
, don't stop to refute this theory as to the
effect of tariff duties. Those who ad-
s vance it are students of maxims and not
markets, They may be safely allowed to
call their project tariff reform, rs the
: people understand that in the end the ar
, gument compels free trade III all COM
peting products. This end may not be
reached abruptly, and its approach may
. be accompanied with some expression OF
sympathy for our protected industries
and our working people, but 1t will GER
tainly come, if the hearty steps do not
arouse the people to effect resistance.
ID hTxlI flC
! tective tariff is constitutional, wholesome
and necessary. We don't offer Il fixed
schedule, but as q principle We will re-
wise the schedule and modify rates, but
{ always with intelligence.
As to the effect upon domestic produc-
ton and the wages of working people,
= we believe it has been one of the worthy
objects of tariff legislation TO preserve
the American market for American p ro-
ducers, and maintain the American scale
of wages by adequate discrimination of
duties on foreign competitive products
, Tho effect of lower rates and larger i'm
. portations upon the public revenue, is
contingent and doubtful, but not SO the
: effect upon the American productions
: and American wages. Less work and
lower wages must be accepted, or the in
S evitable result of the.increased offering of
p foreign labor IN our markets. BY way of
recompense for this reduction in his
wages, and the loss of the American, 1t is
: suggested the diminished wages of the
workingman will have an undiminished
purchasing power and that he will be
J able to make up for the loss from the
: home markets by an exchanged foreign
, market. Our workingmen have the set
i Element of the question in their own
i hands. They now obtain higher wages
| and live more comfortably than those
> of any other country. They will make a
r choice between the substantial advan-
9 tages they have In hand and the decep-
tive promises and forecasts Of these the
o orizing reformers. They will decide for
9 themselves and for the country whether
the protective system shall be continued
II or destroyed.
The fact of q treasury surplus, the
L amount of which is variously stated, has
u drawn public attention to the methods
e by which the national income may best
. be reduced to the level of wise and
necessary expenditure. This condition
/ has been seized upon by those who are
n hostile to protective custom entries as
an advantageous base of attack upon our
J. tariff laws. They have magnified and
r nursed the surplus, which they effect to
depreciate seemingly for the purpose OF
exaggerating evil in order to reconcile
V the people to the remedy they propose.
y A proper reduction of the revenues does
not necessitate and should not suggest