Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-08-16
VIEWS OF REPUBLICANS.

the electoral vote of the State as
assured.-M 7. Cor. Chicago Herald.
VIEWS OF REPUBLICANS.
Grant, Garfield. Arthur, Seward AID Will
Revenue Reformers.
Upon what meat doth the latter-day
Republican Caesar of high protection
feed, that his unreasoning and uncom-
promising attitude should bring re-
proach upon the moderation OF the
wise elders and grand old pillars of the
partyP
Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Seward,
Sumner and Wilson are great names,
and numerous lesser ones could be
protection, and yet every one is on
record as either actively advocating or
emphatically supporting changes in
| the existing tariff, which Henry Cabto
Lodge now declares ''would break
down the entire protective system
within two years.
The Mills bill cuts off less than one
eighth of our present customs revenue.
Had it been introduced by some Re-
tlHuCI L ICSluChU al Giui . IN
ministration it would have been re-
garded by safe and cautious Republic
| ans as measure containing substan-
TALLY the recommendations of the
President in his repeated messages to
Congress. To-day it is met with deris-
| ion and dread as a threatening over
ture to free trade by the same Re-
! lC h r 1,roico6 Apfh 11r c
| message of December 4, 1882, in which
he used these words:
The present tariff system is in many respects
| unjust. 1t makes unequal distributions. both
! of it's burdens and its benefits. This fact was
| practically recognized by a majority of each
House Of Congress in the passage of the act
| creating the tariff comm ssion. The report OF
| that commiss on will be placed before you at
the beginning of this session, and Will, trust,
| afford you such information to the condition
! and prospects of the various commercial, agr
| cultual, manufacturing, mining and other in
| terests of the country, and contain such sug-
gestions for statutory revision as will practi-
| cally aid your action upon this important SUD-
! ject.
! Without entering into minute detail, which.
/ under present circumstances, is quite unneccs-
| sary, I recommend an enlargement OF the free
| list SO to include within it the numerous
| article, which y ED inconsiderable revenue, a
| simplifcation of the complex and inconsistent
| schedule of duties upon certain manu- lectures.
| particularly those of cotton, iron and STEEL
and a substantial reduction of the duty upon
| those articles, and upon Sugar, molasses, silk,
| wool and WOODEN goods.
| Eighty years previously President
Grant, in his annual message to Con-
gress, had advocated the very idea in
relation to free. wool which is now en-
| bodied in the wool clause of the Mills
| bill, and which we are told would
break down the entire protective sys-
| tenn within two years. In his message
| of December Z, 1874. we read:
i The introduction, free of duty, of such woods
! as do not produce would slim the
| manufacture of goods requiring the use of
| those we do produce, and therefore would be q
| benefit to home production.
| AS far back as 1857 Senator Wilson,
| speaking on tariff bill under discus
| sion in that year. said:
The manufacturers, Mr. President, make no
! war upon the wool-growers. They assume that
the reduction of the duty on wool, or the repeal
! of the duty altogether, will infuse vigor into
that dropping interest, stimulate home pro-
| duction. diminish the importation of foreign
| WOODEN manufactures and afford q steady AMI
| increased demand for Amer can WOOL
Since the reduction OF duties in England,
|
| ufactures have SO increased, SO prospered, that
the production of native wool has increased
more than one hundred per cent. The expe-
renee of England, France and Belgium dem
onstrates the wisdom OF that policy which
makes the raw materials duty free. Let US
profit by the examples
Senator Seward and Sumner spoke
on the same bill, and heartily in
dorsed the views of Mr.. Wilson. 1t
| II, fhic affnr hot rr
lived eleven years under a low tariff,
that Congress voted to make it still
lower, and every Massachusetts mem
Der voted to support the reduction.
There is hardly single recommen-
dation in President Cleveland's last
message but could be backed up, line
upon line, by the most unimpeachable
Republican authority. He who should
undertake to prove this from the rec
ords of the Congressional debates
since Grants first term would have
an easy contract on his hands. Sim
liar bills to Mr.. Mills have time and
time again been offered as, Republican
measures, and John Sherman is on
record as having within a year advo-
Gated most of the very tariff revisions
which are all of a sudden held to be
so awful and SO dangerously tinged
with g free trade"
Why has the high protectionist skin
become so raw all at once? The Mills
bill is essentially a moderate and tenn
perate measure of tariff revision, such
as Grant, Garfield, Arthur and long
| list of Republican COnpreSsmen have
repeatedly advocated. So strongly is
this bill backed by. recorded Republic
an authority that many incline to the
belief that the party leaders are chief
ly distressed because Mr.. Mills has
taken the wind out of their sails. This
theory would be more plausible were
the truculent protected interests and
their party allies even willing to admit
that they were in sympathy with the
moderate provisions of his bill, under
any manner of qualification.
No, the exigency of the times has
drivenrthe war tariff extremists to lock
horns squarely with any attempt to re-
duce the existing rates of taxation.
Growing upon what they have so long
fed without challenge, the over-pro-
tected interests are determined to save
all or go under on that line To con-
cede any thing, as Air. Lodge intimates.
would slacken the grip of a principle
which ultra protection intends to fasten