Iron County register., 1888-09-20

neglect the grave interests that are involved
for them. The assault upon protective
system is open and defiant. Protection is as
sailed 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 princi-
pie of protection. The Mills bill is only step,
but 1t is toward an object that the leaders of
Democratic thought and legislation have clear
ly in mind. The important question is not so
much the length of the step as the direction of
it, Judged by the Executive message of De-
cember 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 banner may
not be Free Trade"-it may be the
more obscure motto, 'Tarif Reform" but
neither the banner nor the inscription Is
conclusive. or, indeed, very important. The
assault itself Is the important fact. Those
who teach that the import duty upon foreign
goods sold in our market is paid by the con-
sumer, and that the price of the domestic
competing article is enhanced to the amount OF
the duty on the imported article; that every
million Of dollars collected for customs duties
represents many millions more which do not
reach the treasury, but are paid by our citizens
as the increased cost of domes tic productions
resulting from the tariff laws, may not intend
to discredit in the minds of others our system
of levying duties on competing for
ready discredited in their own. We
can not doubt, without impu gning their
integrity that, II free to act upon their convic-
tions, they would so revise our laws as to lay
the burdens Of the customs revenue upon arti-
cles that are not produced in this country, and
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
advance it are students of maxims and not OK
the markets. They may be safely allowed to
call their project Tariff Reform If the people
understand that in the end the argument COM
pels free trade in all competing products.
This end may not be reached abruptly, and its
approach may be accompanied with some ex-
pressions Of sympathy for our protected indus
tries and our working people, but 1t will GER
tainly come, If these early steps do not arouse
the people to effective resistance.
The Republican party holds that protective
tariff is constitutional wholesome and neces-
sary We do not offer a fixed schedule, but a
principle. We will revise the schedule, modi-
fy rates, but always with an intelligent provi-
sion as to the effect upon domestic production
and the wages of our working people. We be-
heve 1t to be one of the worthy objects Of tariff
legislation to preserve the American market
for American producers, and to maintain the
American scale of wages by adequate discrim-
mating duties upon foreign competing prod
ucts The effect of lower rates and larger i'm
portations upon the public revenue is contin-
gent and doubtful; but not the effect upon
American production and American wages.
Less work and lower wages must be accepted
as the inevitable result of the increased Offer
ing OF foreign goods in our market. BY way Of
recompense for this reduction in his wages and
the loss of the American market, it is suggest
ed that the diminished wages OF the working
man will have undiminished purchasing
power, and that he will be able to make up for
the loss OF the home market by an enlarged
foreign market.
Our workingmen have the settlement Of the
question in their own hands. They now OBJ
tain higher wages and live more comfortably
than those of any other country. They will
make choice between the substantial advan-
tages they have in hand and the deceptive
promises and forecasts of these theorizing re-
formers. They will decide for themselves and
for the country whether the protective system
shall be continued or destroyed. The fact of q
treasury surplus, the amount OF which is va
riously stated has directed public attention to
o consideration Of the methods by which the
National income may best be reduced to the
level of o wise and necessary expenditure.
This condition has been seized upon by those
who are hostile to protective customs duties as
an advantageous base of attack upon our tariff
laws. They have magnffied and nursed the
surplus, which they affect to deprecate, seem
| ingly for the purpose OF exaggerating the evil,
in order to reconcile the people to the extreme
remedy they propose. A proper reduction OF
| the revenues does not necessitate, and should
not suggest, the abandonment or impair
ment of the protective system. The methods
suggested by our convention will not need to
| be exhausted IN order to effect the necessary
reduction. We are not likely to be called
tween the surrender OF the protective system
and the entire repeal of the internal taxes.
Such . contingency, in view of the present re-
lation Of expenditures to revenues, is remote
I'm taxxr. ~,