The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-01-25


is a tax paid by the consumer" What
wonder that they hailed Mr.. Cleveland as
their champion? They saw MIN promise
to open to them participation in the
American market; and they knew that
that participation would start their halt
ing looms and feed their hungry unem.
ployed men and women. What wonder
that the approval of the Presidents mes.
sage went wringing over the worldP Bat,
the attitude of the Democratic party of
this country was OF more importance,
practically, than the attitude Of Great
Britain.
Would the Democratic party of the
United States, he asked, indorse their new
chief? He was strongly inclined 10 think
that it would. He knew that members OF
that party had been masqusrading for years
as reformers, favoring a tariff for revenue
only, with incidental protection" or
''tariff for revenue exclusively" and that,
in manufacturing districts OF New Jersey
and elsewhere, they masqueraded as mild
hammered protectionists. In the South
they had had more boldness and less diver
sity Of industry, but, even there. within
the last year or two, blinded probably by
the smoke of newly built furnaces, there
was to be found here and there friend Of
protection. The Senator from Missouri,
Vest had declared the other day that he
Endorsed every line, word and letter in the
AnCccoSCs
Indiana (Voorhees) had In an deliberately
prt pared speech, in perfect GOODNESS, with
no excitement whatever, declared that the
doctrines enunciated by the President in
his recent message had been the doctrines
of the Democratic party for eighty-seven
years, and that he Endorsed them.
THE SOUTHERN ATTITUDE.
The Senator from Tennessee (Harris)
had also, in speech made elsewhere, de-
clared that his voice or his vote would
never be for the protection or encourage
ment of any American industry. So that he
| (Frye) was inclined to think that the Dem.
ocratic party of the country really shared
| in the Presidents convictions, and really
believed that the tariff was vicious, illogi-
| cal and fneduitable, and that a duty was q
tax paid by the consumer. Aud why
should not the party so think? The con-
trolling element of The Democratic party
had been always in the South, and the
Southern wing of the Democratic party
controlled it to-day as powerfully and COM
| pletely as il did before the rebellion, when
| 1t compelled the party into championship
| of slavery. There was not the slightest
doubt as to the attitude of the South on
this question. When the South went into
| rebellion, il declared, in the confederate
constitution, that no bounty should ever
be granted from the treasury, nor any law
be enacted to foster or encourage any
branch of industry whatever. That had
| been the solemn declaration of Southern
| Democrats. and they believed now as they
had believed then. These Southern gen.
tlemen learned very slowly, and forgot as
slowly. and they were blind to-day to the
marvels which were being wrought in their
midst, under a protective tariff.
POSITION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY,
The Democratic party has come into
power in the House OF Representatives in
the Forty. eighth Congress, and had held
power in that House ever since, except In
the Forty-seventh Congress; and il had
illustrated its promotion to power by de.
handing that the tariff be revised and
the whole business of the country dis
tuIbed. The Democratic chairman of the
Committee on Ways aud Means since then
bad been Fernando Wood, with Randolph
/ Tucker IS assistant, aud William r. Nor
risoD, sll three of them out-and out theo-
ratical free traders; and to-day Mr.. Mills,
of Texas, was chairman OF that committee,
and Mr.. Mills was ever crank in his de-
| votion to free trade, and Endorsed the mes
sage of the President. The distinguished
Speaker of the House, for whom he had
a profound esteem, in his devotion
to the principles of free trade had dared
in the last Congress to arrogate to himself
almost despotic power, and to declare from
his high place that he would recognize no
member Of the House tomake any motion
to cut down the surplus unless it was first
submitted to Democratic caucus. The
| Democratic Secretary of the Treasury had
also Joined in the choral song of the free
traders, apparently with all his heart. In
fine. he was satisfied that all the Demo
| cratic leaders agreed with the President
/ except that they had not the Presidents
boldness or honesty. II, however, by
cheating the people in the next election as
/ TO their position, they could get a new lease
OF power and obtain control of the United
| States Senate, then the people might bid
farewell to every principle of protection.
REPUBLICANS ACCEPT THE ISSUE.
The Republicans took up the Presidents
gauntlet of free trade with great pleasure
and joined issue with the Democrats, The
republicans declared that, instead of the
tariff being vicious, illogical and In
equitable, it increased marvellously the
prosperity of this country, and that in
stead of duty being tax paid by the
consumer, no instance could be found in
which the duty had decreased to the con-
sumner the cost OF the article consumed.
The Republicans further declared that the
future prosperity OF this country, for
twenty-five years at any rate, depended
absolutely on the benign influences of a
protective tariff. He admitted that thir
country possessed many advantages over
competing nations but he declared thai, with
all those advantages, it could not compete
In manufacture with the European nations,
because it was handicapped in the matter
OF wages. On this point, and on the ad-
ditioDal point that the price on all
manufactured articles had diminished
under the protective system, Mr.. FRYE
supported his argument with numerous
illustrations. many of them drawn from
his own observations in Europe.
WHAT TO DO WITH THE SURPLUS.
As to the surplus, it was Democratic in
capacity, he said, which caused il. and
now the country had to look out to see
that the same Democratic incapacity in
administering medicine did not give pois-
on and kill the patient. He was as much
against the surplus as the President was,
but he was not frightened at it. He would
rather have surplus than a deficit. II
there was any honest purpose to get rid OF
the surplus it could be done without the
slightest difficulty. In the first place, some
OF 1T ought to be expended wisely in coast
defenses, in increasing the navy, in build
ing up the merchant marine. aud in edu-
eating the people as proposed in the bill of
the Senator from New Hampshire,
(Blair)
ON REDUCING THE REVENUE,
The Senator from North Carolina (Vance)
had indicated a Wav Tn nYavanf q an rDInS.