The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1888-09-26
COUNTY.
Assembly,
CHARLES A. RANDALL.
District Attorney,
p. NJ. CLARK.
GEN. HARRlsoN's LETTER.
A Clear Interpretation of the Repub.
Iican Party's Principles.

uVoH dTtJ TTIHCtplSS'
Hon. NJ. N. Estee and others, Committee, etc.
GENTLEMEN when your Committee
visited me on the 4th of July last and pre-
sented the official announcement of nv
nomination for the Presidency of the
United States by the Republican Conven-
ton promised s,soon as practicable to
communicate to you more formal accept
ance of the nomination. Since that time
the work of receiving and addressing, al
most 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
medium of communicating to the public
my views on the questions involved in
the campaign. 1 appreciate very highly
the confidence and respect manifested by
the Convention, and accept the nomina-
tion with feeling of gratitude and a full
sense of the esponsibilities.which accom-
pany it.
1t is 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 en-
phatic. There is further cause of congrat-
ulation in the fact that the Convention ut
terances of the Democratic party, if in
any degree uncertain or contradictory,
can now be judged and interpreted by
Executive acts and messages, and by def
mite propositions in legislation. This is
especially true Of what is popularly known
as the tariff question. The issue can not
now be obscured. 1t is not a contest be-
tween schedules, but between wide apart
principles. The foreign competitors for
our market have, with quick instinct, 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
assault upon our Protective system is
open and defiant Protection is assailed
as unconstitutional in law, or as vicious
in principle, and those who hold such
views sincerely, can not stop short of an
absolute elimination from our tariff laws
OF the principle of Protection. The Mills
bill is only step, but it is toward an OBJ
ject 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
1t. Judged by the executive message of
December 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 purely revenue basis. This
is practical Free Trade-Free Trade in the
English sense. The legend upon the ban
ner may not be Free Trade" it may be
the more obscure motto '"rariff Reform"
but neither the banner nor the inscription
is conclusive, or, indeed, very important.
The assault itself is the important fact
FREE TRADE STUDENTS OF MAxIMs.
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 domestic competing article is en-
HANGED to the amount of the duty on the
imported article-that every million of
dollars collected for customs duties repre-
sents many millions more which do not
reach the Treasury, but are paid by our
citizens as the increased cost of domestic
productions resulting from the tariff laws
of others our system of levying duties on
competing foreign products, but it is
clearly already discredited in their own.
We can not 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 pro-
duced in this country and TO place upon
the free list all competing foreign products
do not stop to refute this theory as to the
effect of our tariff duties. Those who ad-
vance it are students of maxims and not
Of the markets. They may be safely al
lowed to call their project "Tariff Re-
FORM" if the people understand that in
the end the argument compels Free Trade
in all competing products. This end may
not be reached abruptly and its approach
may be accompanied with some express
ions of sympathy for our protected indus
tries and our working people, but it will
certainly come, IL these early steps do not
arouse the people to effective resistance.
The Republican party holds that Pro
tective 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 proviso as to the effect
upon domestic production and the wages
of our working people. We believe it to
be one Of the worthy objects of tariff leg
islation to preserve the American market
tor American producers, and TO maintain