The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-10-18


Ex-Secretary Carl Schurz, now in Eur
ope. in letter published recently in New
York, reviews the merits and shortcom-
ings OF the present administration and
then declares, under all circumstances,
that he considers it his duty to vote for
Mr.. Cleveland if able to reach home In
time for the election.
The letter was called forth by a COM
munication from friend of his dated IN
Washington, July /, 1888, in which was
the following: mo man can do more to
promote the success of the republican
ticket than you. May [ promise your
speedy return and earnest cooperation"
Mr. Schurz's reply is dated Forsteck,
Kiel, Sept. Is, and in it he makes the
following strong points:
Concerning administrative reform, we
have seen enough political life to know
that, as devotion to the spoils system,
there is no difference between the work
ing politicians in the republican and
those in the democratic party.
rs it reasonable to expect that Mr..
Harrison if elected, would oppose such a
clean sweep with greater courage and
frmness than was shown by Mr.. Cleve-
land? Mr.. Harrison is, in point of per-
sonal character, no doubt vastly prefer
able to Mr.. Blaine. But neither his profess
sion nor his antecedents stamp him as
man who would resist the demands of the
influential politicians of his party. The
cause of civil service reform would there
fore, have to hope rather less from Mr..
Harrison than from Mr.. Cleveland
But if I rightly understand the atti-
tude of the republican party, it is really
Mr. Blaine, not Mr.. Harrison, whom we
invited to put into power. Mr.. Blaine is
vociferously proclaimed, not only as the
greatest statesman as the real leader OF
the republican party but also as the
premier the head of the republican adj
ministration' that is to be. What Mr..
Harrison's administration shall be under
Mr.. Blaines control seems to be taken
for granted without any conspicuous dis
sent. Mr.. Harrison is SO pointedly con-
signed to the role of second man that his
position as a candidate appears grotesque
in the extreme. 1t IS an entirely new
thing in our constitutional history that
one person is to be elected president of
the United States for the very purpose OF
permitting the presidential power to be
welded By another.
Those who acted with us in 1884 upon
sincere motives can hardly deem it safe
or creditable to the American people now
to invest with the power of head of the
administration the same man whom they
repudiated four years ago, and whom this
year the prudent men of hrs party would
have feared to nominate under his own
name.
Il am not frightened by the republican
campaign cry that, if Mr.. Cleveland be
l. IL e H..
will surely be ruined and general distress
follow. The tariff policy of the repub-
lican in 1884 wos professedly not what 1t
is now. It freely admitted that the tariff,
intended to meet the financial needs of
the war periods, was full of unjust and
offensive lectures, and that it must be
revised and reduced in its rates. One re-
publican platform after another joined in
this admission.
But now. when the democrats attempt
to do in very moderate way what the
republicans had for years beA-., promising
to do, we are told t.ihat, unless this at
Tempt be stopped, this country will go to
rum. The very men who constantly de-
claim about the magnificent past Of the
republican party give US to understand
that if the policy of tariff reduction adj
NOSuoSNt tIldt DdSU
by republican platforms and statesmen
had been carried out, distress and misery
would have been the lot of the American
people.
1T was the custom of the republican
party to pledge itself in its platforms
that the government should be admins
tered with strict economy. The platform
of this year omits this pledge, and recon-
mends the spending of the public money
for a variety of objects. What this
means is easily understood.
when I thus see the republican party
sacrifice the professions and pledges OF
its better days = | am forced to
the conclusion that the republican party
has fallen completely under control of
selfish. grasping interests, in which the
spirit OF monopoly is running mad.
How in the world can anybody have
the face to say that the Mills bill would
destroy the protective system and there
DO the industries of the country?
Equally astonishing is the argument
that, if the danger Is not in the Mills bill
itself it is In the spirit animating it in
the principles embodied In President
Cleveland's tariff message. What are
those principles? That the necessaries
of life used and consumed by all the peo-
pie, the duty on which adds to the cost of
living in every home, should be greatly
and the duties on raw ma
terial used In manufactures should be
radically reduced or abolished. Against
the second part of this proposition the
republican party makes its open war.
According to them, the free importation |
of raw material is to destroy the protec- |
tive system, and with it our industries. |
No more self-evidently fallacious asser- |
ton has ever been advanced.
1t is in great measure owing to the |
artificial enhancement OF the price of the |
raw material that the products of Ameri- |
can manufacturers have not been more |
successful In competing with those Of |
nj hor nations in the markets. of tIa world