The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1888-12-07
CIeyeland's Last Message.

PRESIDENT Ctev6ldnOS s last annual
message to Congress is a calm, dignified,
straightforward document, In which
there is not trace of the dIsappoint-
ment of defeat. IL is an elaborate pa
per. embracing summaries of the
various departments OF the government
along with his views OF general public
policy, and we give in tull his sugges-
tions on the national revenue and finan-
ces, emitting the department details
which are given in the regular reports.
The President presents the tax issue
with its inseperable relations to central
lied wealth and the oppression of :n-
dustry, as the supreme question of the
day, and enforces his convictions with
facts and arguments which are un-
answerable. It will be easy TO brush
them aside at present, with the flush
OF party victory that is held to be the
answer of the nation TO his policy but
the message delivered 20 Congress yes
terday will be turned to aud re-read
with quickened interest in the near
future, when its predictions i'll ap-
proach realization. The slave power of
the Republic never was so defiant as in
1857. when Buchanan entered the Pres
idency by the first defeat of the Re-
publicans and with the Dred Scott de>
eision, Just delivered, nationalizing
human bondage. What followed is too
fresh in the nations history to need
r-cspitulation. One brief admiuistra-
tion sealed the doom OF slavery, and it
was simply a colossal suicide. Ii could
have saved itself, but 1t would De Ce.
sar or nothing, and it died unlamented.
That was great battle for the eman
cipation of slaves from the chains aud
and lash of the master; the present
battle is for the emancipation of free
labor from the chains and lash OF the
monopolist :: and the struggle Is possibly
accelerated by the now common assump-
tion that centralized wealth has won
the victory by its money and that tax
reduction upon the necessaries of life
and the restraint of monopoly oppression
OF industry, have been postponed indefi-
Ditely by the solemn verdict of the
people. Nov as in 1857. The legitimate
rights nf the victors can be fully Iealiz I'd
with the cordial assent OF the nation !:
and now, as then, any attempt to give
absolute mastery TO oppression, must re-
suit in absolute disaster. No msu has
more need to study with intelligent care
the suggestions and admonitions than
President-elect Harrison, for he is the
man who must grspple with the issue
when the echoes Of party victory shall
have perished-
The people Of the Union desire a ju-
dicious protective policy. They want
the labor OF our general productive in
dustries protected to the full extent of
the difference between the wages of
foreign and American workiDgmen but
they 90 not want, and they will not
long tolerate, the prostitution OF a ben
eficent protective policy for labor to the
creation and protection of exacting
monopoly. And they Will be quickened
to discrimination between the protection
OF labor and the protection of monopoly
by the ostentatious contributions to
political corruption funds. which come
from those who are amassing wealth by
a restrictive tariff policy that gives only
high taxes and low wages 10 labor. If
IL shall be assumed that the late ma
tional verdict means immunity to cen
traliZso wealth ard the surrender of the
power of the government TO the few
who oppress the many, it will be only a
repetition of the madness of the slave
victors of 1856. whose crowniDg tri-
umph, as they then boasted, was but
the opening of their sepulchre.
There is safety to the protection os
labor only in the prompt reduc ion of
the government the reduction ot pro-
tec.ive tariff duties to the standard of
honest projection of labor the adoption
of the policy of free raw materials to
protect our own mill and workingmen,
and the repeal OF all needless taxes OF
the necessities of life. With this stand
ard OF protection, the protective policy
would be without assailants in any party
or section except by a few dreaming
theorists. 1t is the standard of pro-
lection adopted by the honest protec-
tionis;s of 1912 and of 1861 iL is the
standard of protection IN every protec-
tive country of the world except our
own, and it must soon become the ac-
capted standard of protection in the
United States, unless protectionists in
sist upon selfdestructicn. The present
tariff and tax policy of the nation can
not stand, and The party that refuses
honest and thorough tax revision in the
interest of the whole people will be
broken Sy the retrIbutive stroke OF pop
ular condemnation. President Cleve-
land is right, he dares to declare his
faith. and the party that is nearest in
accord with the revenue policy Of his
message will be the ruling parcy of the
future.-Pkild. Times.