Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-09-21
HARRISON'S LETTER.
He Declares His Intention to
Stand by the Platform.
THE POINTS AT ISSUE.
Hts Views on Pensions, Chinese Immigra-
ton, Protection, Civil Service Reform,
Contract Labor and Foreign Relations

Hts Views on Pensions, Chinese ImmiRra-
ton, Protection, Civil Service Reform,
Contract Labor and Foreign Relations
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, Sept. 1.-THE follow
ing is Gen. Harrison's letter accepting the
Republican presidential nomination:
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, Sept. II.
Hon. M. H. Estee and Others, Committee:
Gentlemen .-When your committee 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, I promised as soon
as practicable to communicate to you a more
formal acceptance of the nomination. Since
that time, 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 a
medium of communicating TO the public my
views upon the questions involved in the cam
paign.
l appreciate very highly the confidence and
respect manifested by the convention, and ac-
cept the nomination with a feeling OF graf
itude and a full sense Of the responsibility
which accompanies it. II Is a matter Of con-
graduation that the declarations of the Chi
ny UNIV tiO uBoh Nv 1utSeAOhS sa0
attract the interest of our people are so clear
and emphatic. There is further cause OF
congratulation in the fact that the convention
utterances of the Democratic party, il in any
degree uncertain or contradictory, can now
be judged and interpreted by executive acts
and messages, and by definite propositions in
legislation. This is especially true of what is
popularity known as the tariff question.
Tariff Legislation.
The issue cannot now be obscured- 1t is
not a contest between schedules, but between
~wide-apart principles. The foreign COM
petitors of our market have with quick in
stinct seen how one issue of this contest may
bring them advantage, and our own people
are not SO dull as to miss or neglect the grave
interests that are involved for them. The as
sault upon our protective system is open and
defiant. Protection is assailed as unconsti-
~tutional in law, or as vicious in principle, and
those who heed such views sincerely cannot
stop short of ar absolute elimination from
our tariff laws of the principle of protection.
The Mills bill is only a step, but it is toward
an object that the leaders Of Democratic
thought and legislation have clearly in mind.
The important question is not SO much the
length of the step as the direction of it. Judge
by the executive message of December last,
by the Mills bill, by the debates in congress
and by the st. Louis platform, the Demo
cratic 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 con-
elusive, or, indeed, very important. The
assault itself is the imDOrtant fart
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 do
nestle competing article is enhanced to the
amount of the duty on imported articles; that
every million of dollars collected for Gus
toms duties, represents many millions more
which do not reach the treasury, but are paid
by our citizens as the increased cost of do
nestle productions resulting from the tariff
laws-may not intend to discredit In the
minds of others our system of levying dutiei
on competing foreign products, but it IL
clearly already discredited in their own. We
cannot doubt, without i%mpugning their in
tegrity, that if free to act upon their convic
tions, they would SO revise our laws as to lay
the burden of the customs revenue upon ar
ticles that are not produced in this country
and to place upon the free list all competing
foreign products.
l do not wish to stop to refute this theory
as to the effect on tariff duties. Those VIII
advance it are students of maxims and not o.
the markets. They may be safely allowed t.
call their project tariff REFORM" if thu
people understand that in the end the r
ment compels free trade in all competing pro
ducts. This end may not be reached abrupt
ly, and its approach may be accompanied
with some expressions of sympathy for oul
protected industries and our working people
but it will certainly come If these early step
do not arouse the people to effective resist
ance. The Republican party holds that
protective tariff is constitutional, wholesome
and necessary. We do not offer a fxet
schedule, but a principle. We will revise tn
schedule, and modify it, but always with al
intelligent provision as to the effect upon do
nestle production and the wages of GU
, working people.
We believe it to be one Of the worthy OBJ
jects Of tariff legislation to preserve tn
= American market for American producer
and to maintain the American scale Of wage
by adequate discriminating duties upon for
eign competing products. The effect Of lowe
? rates and larger importations upon the pub
lie revenue is contingent and doubtful, bu
not 20 the effect upon American production
oA0 hic WoSOS' 81 "a aho AONc
. wages must be accepted as the inevitable re
suit of the increased offering of foreign good
, In our market.
. By way of recompense for this reductio
: In his wages, and the loss of the American
market, it is suggested that the diminishe-
wages Of the workingman will have an vi
diminished purchasing power, and that b
: will be able to make up for the loss of th
!, home market by an enlarged foreign market
: Our workingmen have the settlement of tn
I question in their own hands. They now OF
!, tain higher wages and live more comfortabl,
= than those of any other country. They wi
make choice between the substantial advar
tages they have in hand and the deceptiv
! promises and forecasts of those theorizing n
formers They will decide for themselve
and for the country whether the p~rotectiv
system shall be condemned or destroyed.
4 The Treasury Surplus
Q The fact of a treasury surplus, the amour
q of which is variously stated, has directe
0 public attention to a consideration Of I'll
methods by which the national income ma