Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-12-13
THE END NOT YET.

1. Beneath thy skies, November,
Thy skies OF wind and rain,
Around our blazing camp-nrea
We close our ranks aGaia."
So wrote John G. Whittier after the
defeat OF Fremont in 1856; defeat
more decisive than that which the
friends of tariff reform received this
year. the sixth Of November.
In the memorable conflict between
freedom and slavery, 24O, 900 slavehold-
ers succeeded for many years in con-
vincing many millions OF their fellow
cOuutrymen that the whole interest of
the Nation depended upon the per-
petuation of q relic of barbarism, and
that the cornerstone Of true freedom
was the right to hold men in bondage.
When, in 1860, the slave-holding
oligarcy refused to accept defeat at
the polls and took up arms to destroy
the Union rather than submit to the
verdict Of the majority. they succeeded
in making millions of poor whites,
who were systematically degraded and
oppressed by the shareholders and by
the slave labor with which they were
compelled to compete. actually take
up arms and fight fercely to perpetuate
a system which was their worst enemy,
they hazarded their lives on Il thou
sand hard-fought fields to ,rivet on
themselves the chains of a system of
tyranny and inhumanity.
The times have changed; but the
ssirrepressible conflict" has now as
sumed a new form. The tyrants of to-
day are the chartered monopolists who
are upheld by our present tariff laws.
They are less in proportion than were
the shareholders of the South. They
are equally INSCRIPTIONS as to the
means which they use to perpetuate
the period of their own domination.
They arc as regardless of the princi-
pies of political economy and of liberty
as were the 'tslave barons" of the
South. They ignore with equal indif-
ference the wisdom of their own early
statesmen. Jefferson denounced the
system; Clay urged emancipation, and
nearly carried it through the Legis-
lature Of his own State; but those who
swore by Jefferson and Clay forgot
their words when they saw fit to urge
the perpetuity of what the fathers of
our country hoped would be transient
rather than permanent. In exactly
the same spirit. and with equal incon-
sistency, the ''tariff barons" of to-day
forget the principles that Clay and
Greeley advocated, and seek to per-
petuate what the authors of modern
protection believed and expected
would be temporary. By unscrupu-
lous efforts, and by prodigal expend-
iture of money. aided by old prejudices
against the South and England, they
have achieved a victory at the polls;
not by the votes of the laborers who
work for them and know them, but by
the votes Of the farmers, who, as
usual. pay most Of the taxes. and get
less than nothing out of them.
But in this victory they have not laid
the spirit of reform. It will not down
at their bidding. Even while they
won their victory, they were sowing
the seeds of future retribution. They
have awakened a spirit of inquiry
which will continue to work. They
have made men observant of their
means and plans. They have failed to
brighten their own workmen with their
threats and predictions; and the next
time they will have even less effect.
Tariff-reform clubs should keep up
their organizations. They should lose
no opportunity of maintaining their
principles. They have learned in the
past campaign what arguments have
counted most on either side. They
know what to urge and what to refute.
They should keep the issues steadily
before the public. 1t is not true that
the public is so weary of the tariff
question as to wish it laid aside On
the contrary, since the election, men
who in the excitement of the con-
test looked at every thing from a party
standpoint, are now willing to in
vestigate more fully and more
fairly the great economic principles
that underlie all sound legislation
upon financial matters Those who
are interested in public libraries and
reading-rooms should see that they
are supplied with the best literature
on the tariff question:; particularly
that which is strictly non-partisan.
They should endeavor to discuss the
questions involved in the papers
which reach the farming commune
ties, where, as the past election clear
ly shows, there is most need of light.
In two years there will be Con-
gressional election. There will be no
Presidential contest then to awaken
the enthusiasm of office-holders- The
fight will have to be made in the sey-
eral Congressional districts, and it
will be comparatively easy to concen-
trate effort and to carry the close dis
tricts for reform. Meanwhile, let the
work of education go on. AS surely
as the slow-moving conscience of the
Nation at last awoke to the evils and
the perils of slavery. SO surely will the