Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-09-12
THE OTHER SIDE.
Gen. Harrison Submits His Let
 ter to the People.
STANDS BY THE PLATFORM.
He Accepts the Nomination
 with Gratitude.
STATEMENT OF PARTY PRINCIPLES

He Says It Is Matter for Congratula- tion That the Chicago TariT Declara- tions Were So Clear and Plain-How
 His Views on Chinese Exclusion, Free dom of the Ballot, Admission of Terri tories, Pensions, Trusts and the Fisher ies Difficulty-He Especially Comments the Temperance Plank and Heartily In dorses the Entire Chicago Platform. INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 12-Fonowing is Ben, Harrison's letter of acceptance.
 INDIANAPOLIS, Sept II, lSSS
 Hon. NJ. NJ. EStee and others, committee, etc:
 COMPREHENSIVE hen your committee visited Ae on the Fourth 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 practicable to communicate to you more formal acceptance of the nomination. Since that the work of receiving and address ing, almost daily, large delegations of my fellow citizens has not only occupied all of my time, but has in some measure rendered It unnecessary for me to use this letter as q medium of communication to the public my views on the questions involved ill the cam paign.
 I appreciate very highly the confidence and respect manifested by the convention, and ac- cept the nomination with feeling of grati- tude and full sense of the responsibilities which accompany it.
 It is a matter of CongratulatiOn 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 ill the fact that the convention ut frances of the Democratic party, if 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 popularly known as the tariff question. The issue can not now be obscured It is not contest be tween schedules, but between wide apart principles. The foreign competitors for our market have, with quick instinct, sean how one issue of this contest may bring them ad- vantage and our own people are not so dull as to miss neglect the grave interests that are involved for them.
 The assault upon our protective system is open and defiant Protection is aSsailed as unconstitutional in law as vicious in prin-
 
 cannot stop short of an absolute elimination from our tariff laws of the principle of pro tection The Mills bill is only step. but it Is toward an obi 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 of it. Judged by the executive message of De cember last, by the Mills bill, by the debates In congress 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 the English sense. The legend upon the banner may 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 ill our market is paid by the consumer and that the price of the do mestic competing article is enhanced to the amount of the duty on the imported article that every million of dollars collected for customs duties represents many millions more which do not reach the treasury, but are paid by our citizens the increased cost of dOmes- tic productions resulting from the tariff laws may not intend to discredit in the minds of others our system of levying duties on com S1eting foreign products, but it is clearly al ready discredited in their own We cannot doubt without impugning their integrity that if 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 produced in this country, and to place upon the free list all competing foreign products. do not stop to refute this theory to the effect of our tariff duties Those who advance it are students of maXims and not of the markets.
 They may be safely allowed to call their project tariff reform if the people under stand that in the end the argument compes free trade in all competing products. This end may not be reached abruptly, and its approach may be accompanied with some ex- pressions of sympathy for our protected in ,dustries and our working people, but it will certainly come if these early steps do not arouse the people to effective resistance
 The Republican party holds that a protect I've tariff is constitutional, wholesome and necessary We do not offer a fixed schedule but principle We will revise the schedule. modify rates, but always with an intelligent provision as to the effect upon domestic pro- sduction and the wages of our working people We believe it to be one of the worthy objects uf tariff legislation to preserve the American market for American producers and to main
 
 discriminating duties upon foreign competing products The effect of lower rates and larger importations upon the public revenue is contingent and doubtful, but not so the effect upon American production and Ameri- can wages. Less work and lower wages must be accepted as the inevitable result of the in creased offering of foreign goods in our mar ket. By way of recompense for this reduction in his wages and the loss of the American market it is suggested that the diminished wages of the workingman will have an un- diminished purchasing power, and that he will be able to make up for the loss of the home market by an enlarged foreign market.
 Our workingmen will have the settlement of the question in their own hands. They now obtain higher wages and live more com fortably than those of any other country. They will make choice between the substantial advantages they have in hand and the decep- tive promises and forecasts of these theorizing reformers. They will decide for themselves and for the country whether the protective system shall be continued or destroyed.
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