Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-06-14
THE .CoRRECTNTERPRETATION.'

The CORRECT TINTERPRETATI
Cleveland Leader.
\ Democratic organ which begins to
realize that the adoption of free trade
plank by the Democratic National Con-
vention is likely to result in the most
complete Bourbon rout ever witnessed
in this country, is already beginning to
hedge. Referring to the citation by the
Convention of the Presidents free trade
message as the correct Interpretation"
of Democratic doctrines on this subject,
the distressed organ says
President Cleveland's only public de-
claratiOns on the tariff question are con-
tanned in his message to Congress, and in
no message that he ever sent to Congress
did he propose policy of free trade.
The Presidents message was in set
terms, in the argumentative bearing of
its alleged facts, in spirit and purpose,
an elaborate, carefully considered, and
determined attack upon the policy of
protection. 1t was, in its terms and in
its general effect, complete repudia-
ton of the principle of protection. No
one denies that, not even the Democrat
ic editors whose intellectual legs, so to
speak, have become so adjusted to the
straddling position that they cannot
readily adapt themselves to the present
out-and-out, straight up-and-down, free
trade Democratic situation. 1t is bold
ly affirmed by the leading Democratic
managers and organs, and joyfully pro-
claimed throughout Europe. There is
not even the shadow of doubt in the
mind of any intelligent person on that
point.
Whoever attacks the principle and
practice of protection is a free trader.
Any message that attacks protection is
free trade message. The Presidents
message did that with the utmost de-
liberation and earneStnesS the adminiS-
tration could bring to bear upon the
subject. In adopting it as the correct
Interpretation" of Democratic tariff doc
trine and purpose the Democratic Con-
ventiOn unequivocally committed the
party to the principle of free trade.
The Presidents message denounced
the protective tariff as 'vicious, inequit-
able, and illogical"
1t declared that the people were taxed
not only to pay the tarff on imported
articles but also an equal rate on all like
goods produced at home; and this it said
in spite of the well known fact that most
articles under home competition are
cheaper through protection than they
ever were under free trade or tariff for
revenue only.
1t sneered at our great manufacturing
interests as ''infant industries, still need
ing the greatest degree of favor and fOS-
tering care that can be wrung from fed
eral legislation"
1t went into elaborate statistics to
prove that only 2,623,099 persons were
"claimed to be benefited by a high tar
iff, whereas the facts and logic of every
protection argument show substantially
the whole people are benefited by the
protective tariff.
1t sought to break down protection by
a cunning appeal to the selfshness of
those who are not as directly, or, per-
haps, as much benefited by the tariff as
others.
1t openly advocated free trade in wool
and other "raw materials" that are, in
fact, as much the production of labor as
watch or a steam. engine.
1t asserted that the benefits claimed
for protection are ''illuSory."
1t insisted that the only way to reduce
the revenues was to reduce the protect
i've tariff, whereas the whole people have
demanded the reduction of the internal
revenue taxes.
1t took no notice whatever of the tar
iff on sugar, which produces $60,000D00
of revenue annually, dollar for every
man, woman, and child in the nation,
whereas we cannot produce this sugar
and the tariff is, therefore, a tax that
home competition in prices cannot re-
duce.
1t threatened Financial panic and col
lapse" unless the protective tariff was
subjected to radical reductions"
All this, and much more of the same
kind, is to be found in the Presidents
message, and the free traders in the con-
vention knew very well what they were
about when they referred to it as the
correct Interpretation" of Democratic
tariff policy; and the convention clinch-
ed it by endorsing the Mills bill, which
merely expresses the spirit and purpose
of the message in legislative form.
Free trade does not contemplate the
abolition of all tariff duties. 1t propos-
es absolute free trade in many articles
of home production and the reduction
of the tariff on others until it is no long
er protective. This is the doctrine of
the Presidents message and the Mills
bill, and they are the correct interpre-
tation" of the Democratic tariff plank.
PROBATE JUDGE GAsTON, issued the
following licenses during the week end
ing Tuesday.
Allen Burns and Grace Tucker.
James Marlin and Mary McGraw.
James Watson and Katie ComefOrd.
Arthur L. Walling and Geneva NJ.
Baggs
Andrew K Knox and Estella Ault
Henry Brown and Myrtle Anderson
Jos. Beran and Eva Duto.
Grant Morton and Carrie E. Ruper.
ChaS' f. Boston SuSannah E. Douglass
John II. McGrew and Mary \. Cole
man,
NEWS ABOUT TOWN.
1t is the current report about town
that kemp's Balsam for the throat and |
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