New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-04


on woolen goods from 60 TO 40 per cent,
though wages paid in the woollen manufacture
in this country are SO per cent higher than the
wages paid IN the woollen manufacture III
Great Britain, and 90 per cent higher IMAM IN
Germany; this is the radical proposition whlch
has arrested public attention, and on winch
there is going to be verdict. The Democrats
will find that they have got to justify TINS
proposition, no matter what everybody else
proposes, or they will be defeated. Every at
tempt by them to dodge discussion of the issue
on which the President himself siaked his
future in his message, and on which the Demo
cratic party in Congress and in National Con-
vention has staked its fortunes, will be rightly
regarded by the people as a confession OF wrong
and of defeat.
Whatever else the Senate may do, wisely
or unwisely, it is certain to meet this PROPOSE
ton with uncompromiSing resistance But if
the Senate should adopt every other line CT
the Mills bill, as it will not. the main issue
would still be Just what the President made 1t
whether free trade in wool, and duties that
will not protect for woollens, should be sub
stituted for existing duties, as the beginning
Of general tariff revision in the
same Free Trade direction. Or if the Senate
should propose anything else, or nothing else,
the main issue in the minds Of voters would
still be the same, because this is so simple
and direct that it will be generally understood
The question may then be asked what good the
Senators can accomplish by formulating their
idea alb out what they would do if they could
do anything THE TRIBUNE does not imagine
that they can do any good But some Senators
do, and it is their right and duty to ac' upon
their own convictions. The one thing certain
is that they cannot change the issue before the
people if they would that issue the President
and his party have made. Even if the President
and every Democrat in the country, being at
last convinced that defeat would follow ad-
herence to their deliberate proposal, should now
attempt to back out of the position TAKEN ana
to persuade the people that they did not mean
It, and would never propose any such thing
again. the issue would still remain just the
same for the people would rightly believe that
the party had neither changed its convictions
nor its purposes.
A great many other features of the Mills
bill are important. Many others will be very
effective in certain localities, where the condl-
But the character Of the proposed tariff az a
whole is determined, for nine-tenths OF the
voters, by the one change which the President
himself selected, as the best Illustration OF his
free-trade theories for the popular comprehen-
sion. If those theories are right, then free
trade in wool and duties for revenue only on
woollens ought to be adopted at once, because,
according to the Presidents theory, the people
pay heavier tax to domestic growers OF wool
and manufacturers cf woOllenS than to those
interested in any other branch of industry.
Also, if his theories are wrong, if duties do not
enhance domestic products to the full extent oil
those duties, as the President asserts; II, III
fact, wool and woolens are cheaper for con-
sumers now than they would be with free trade
in wool and revenue duty on woollens, then
the Democratic proposition is outrageously
hurtful to home industry, contrary to the IN
tercss and welfare of the people, and essential
" disoyal in tendency, because calculated to
benefit other nations at the expense OF the
United States