Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-09-12
HARRISoN'S LETTER.
STRONG REVIEW OF THE ISSUES
OF THE CAMPAIGN.
The Tariff and Labor Questions
Handled in Mastery Man
ner-Ciyii Sery;ce-Etc.

tasEeIAL DISPATCHES 70 THE azooa1-uNIoNl
INDIANAPOLIS, September 11th-Follow-
iag is General Harrison's letter accepting
the Republican Presidential nomination
INp1ASAroLIs Qnd.) September II, 1885
Hon. VI. VI. Estee aud Others, Committee GIN
TLEiEN: When your committee visited me on
the 18th OF July last and presented the official au
nouncement of my nomination for the Presi-
dency of the United States by the Republican
National Convention, promised to, as soon as
practicable, communicate to you a more formal
acceptance Of the nomination. Since that time
the work OF receiving and addressing, almost
qally, large delegations OF my fellow citizens,
has not only occupied all of my time but has in
some measure rendered it unnecessary for me to
use this letter as the medium of communicating
TO the public my views on the questions in
Volyed in the campaign. l appreciate very
highly the confidence and respect mani
tested by the Convention, and accept the
and a full sense of the responsibilities
which accompany 1t. Il is matter of congrat-
ulat on that the declarations of the Chicago
convention upon the questions that now attract
the Interest OF orr people are so clear and en-
phatic There is further cause of congratula-
tion III the fact that the Convention utterances
OF the Democratic party-it in any degree un-
certain ana cOntradictory-can now be Judged
and interpreted by the Executives acts and
messages, and BY definite propositions in legisla-
ton. This Is especially true of what is popu-
larly known as
THE TARIFF QUESTION.
The issue cannot be obscured. II is not con-
test between schedules, but between Wide-apart
principles. Foreign competitors in our market
have. with quick instinct seen how one issue
OF this contest may bring them advantage, and
our own people are not SO dull as to nisa ar ne
glect the grave interests that are involved for
them. The assault upon our protective system
Is open and defiant; Protection is Gssailed as
unconstitutional III law, and those who hold
such views sincerely cannot stop short OF an alb.
solute elimination from our tariff laws of the
principle of protection. The Mills bill is only a
step but IT is toward an object that the leaders
OF the Democratic party, through the aid of leg.
islation, have clearly in mind. The important
question is not so much the length of the step as
the direction OF 1t.
PRACTICAL FREE TRADE.
Judged by the Executives message of De-
cember last. by the Mills bill, by the debates in
Cong ress, and by the ST. Louis platform the
Democratic party will, if supported by the ooun-
try, place the tariff Jaws upon purely revenue
basis. This is practical free trade in the English
sense. The legend upon their banner may not
be Free Trade'-it may be the more obScure
motto, Tariff RefoIIn; but neither the banner
nor the inscription is conclusive, nor indeed
very important. The assault itself is the i'm
portant fact. Those who teach th6t an impOrt
duty upon all foreign goods sold in our market
is paid by the consumer, and that the prices of
domestic competing articles are enhanced to
that every million of dollars collected for Gus
tom duties represent many millions more
which do not reach the Treasury, but are paid
by our citizens as The increased cost of domestic
productions resulting from the tariff laws
may not intend to discredit IN the minds of
others our system OF levying duties on COM
petipg foreign products, but il is clearly already
discrcdited in their own. We cannot doubt.
without impugning their integrity that If free
to act upon their convictions they would SO re-
wise our laws as to lay the burden of customs
revenues articles IN q i,,s s1,;-
country and to place upon the free list com
peting foreign articles i do not stop to refute
this theory as to the effect of our duties. Those
who advance II are students of mRxinls and
not markets. They may be safely allowed to
call their project tariff refoIm,'' il people un-
derstand that in the end the argument compels
free trade in all competing products. This end
may not be reached abruptly, and ITS approach
may be accompanied with sJme expressions OF
sympathy for our protected industries and our
working people but il VIII certainly come If
these early steps DO not arouse the people to ef.
fectiVe resistance. The Republican party holds
that protective tariff is
CONSTITUTIONAL, WHOLESOME AND NECESSARY
We DO not offer fixed schedule, but a princi-
pie. We will revise the schedule and modify
the rates but always with an intelligent provis-
ion Us 10 the effect upon domestic production
and the wages of our working people. We be-
neYe IT TO be one Of the worthy objects Of tariff
legislation to preserve the American market for
American producers and to maintain the amer
lean scale of wages by adequate discriminating
duties upon foreign competing products. The
effect OF lower rates and larger impOrtations
upon public revenue is contingent and doubt
full, but not SO The effect upon American pro-
ductiOn and American wages. Less work and
lower wages must be accepted as the inevitable
result of an increased offering of foreign goods
il cur market.
IMPORTANT TO woRKINGMEN
By way OF reeompeDse for this reduction in
his wages and the loss OF the American market
II is suggested that the diminished wages of
WoIkingmen viii have an undiminished pur-
chasing power. and that he VIII be able to make
up for the loss of the home market By an en-
leTged foreign market. Our workiGgmen have
the settlement of the question in their own
hands. They now obtain higher wages and
live more comfortably than those of any other
country. They viii make their choice between
the substantial advantages they have in hand
and the detective promises and forecasts of
those theorizing reiormers They will decide
for themselves and for the country whether the
protective system shall be continued or de-
stroyed
The fact OF Treasury surplus-the amount
of which is variously stated-has directed pub
lie attention TO the consideration of methods by
which the national income may best be reduced
10 the level Of wise aid necessary exp6ndi-
taTe. This condition has been seized upon by
those who are hostile to the protective custom
duties as an advantageous case of attack upon
our tariff laws They have magnified and
nursed the surplus (which they affect to depre-
cdte) seemingly for the purpose of exaggerating
an evil in order to reconcile the people to the
extreme remedy tney propose.
PROPER REDUCTION OF REVENUE
Does not necessitate. ana should not suggest,
the abandonment or impairment OF the pro-
tective system. The methods suggested by our
Convention viii not need to be exhausted in
order to effect the necessary reductions We
are not likely TO be called, think, to make at
present a cnoice between the surrender of our
protective system and the entire repeal of
the internal taxes. Such contingency, in
view of the present relation of expenditures to
he nd
lation of the manufacture and sale of oleo-
margarine Is important, and the revenue de-
rived from it is not SO great that the repeal of
the law need enter into any plan of revenue re-
duction. The surplus row in the Treasury
should be used in the purchase of bonds. The
law authorizes this use of it, and if it is not
needed for current or deficiency appropriations,
the people-and not the banks in which 1t has
been deposited-should have the advantage of
It's use by stopping the interest upon the public
should not be allowed to use 1t 10 increase the
fear OF monetary stringeney thus produced TO
coerce public sentiment upon other questions.
CHEAP FOREIGN LABOR.
Closely connected with the subject of the
tariff, is that of the importation of foreign
laborers under contracts for services to be per
formed here. The law now in force prohibiting
such contracts received my cordial support in
the Senate, and such amendments as may be
found necessary effectively to deliver our work
1ngmen and women from the most inequitablc
form of competition viii have my sincere advo-
cacY. Legislation prohibiting the importation
OF iab0rers under contract TO serve here will
however. afford very inadequate relief to our
working people If the system OF protective
duties is broken down. If the produces of
American industries must compete in the Amer
ican markets without favoring duties with the
products of cheap foreign labor, the effect will
be different II at all, only in degree. Whether
cheap labor is accessible on the street or over.
the sea, such competition will soon reduce
wages here to the level of those abroad and
when that condition is reached we will not need
any laws forbidding the importation of labor
under contract. They win have no inducement
to come and the employer no ilducement to
send for them.
No GREAT NEED OF IsiMIGIASIs.
In the earlier Years OF cur history public ageii-
eles TO promote immigration were commen
The pioneer wanted neighbors with more
friendly instincts than the Indian Labor was
scsrcer and fully employed, but the day OF the
Immigration Bureau has gone by. While our
doors VIII continue open TO proper immigration,
We do not need to issue special invitations to
the inhabitants of other countries to come To
our sho-es or to share our citizenship Indeed,
the necessity of some inspection and limitation
Is obvious. We should resolutely refuse to per
init foreign Governments to send their paupers
ole