Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-01-27


eminent can accomplish. All else must de
pend upon the natural conditions capnbili.
ties, conduct and opportunities Of men, as
in the same way all else depends upon the
same conditions among fellow citizens in
the smallest communities on any part Of the
earth
That the income of the government from
customs and internal revenue has been very
much too great for long time, Mr.. Ed
munds says, is as well known to every pro
tectionst as it can be to any free-trader.
The practical and important question is,
how this income shall be reduced IF the
diminution of the duties should be followed
by largely increased importations, all the
markets of the country would be overstock
ed with nearly everything that enters into
consumption, and this would inevitably be
followed by diminution of home produc
ton, which simply means a diminution in
all the employments of American labor, as
well as a diminution in the prices paid for
that which continued to be employed Such
a disaster we ought not to run the risk of
if there be any other way of diminishing
the revenues"
Had the great and arreaching policy of
the administration of President Arthur
been SUPPORTED by the Senate and by Con
gress, Mr.. Edmunds says, the treasury &C
cumulations could have been kept down by
wise and economical expenditures for OBJ
iects beneficial to every interest in the
United States, and our country would have
assumed a commanding place in the trade
of the world. Mr.. Arthur negotiated
treaty with the republic of Nicaragua which
gave our government the right to build and
control the only practicable canal between
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans but the
President elect (Mr. Cleveland did not APP
prove the project, and the treaty therefore
failed of ratification when it came before
the Senate after the presidential election Of
1884, and after Mr.. Cleveland became Pres
ident he withdrew it, and the canal was
left to resort to private enterprise Owe
cry aloud" Mr.. Edmunds incisively says,
''for new avenues and consumers for the
productions of our industry, and at the
same time decline, with fabulous persist
ence, to take any step to obtain the one or
to reach the other"
The path to a radical reduction is plain,
easy, and the result certain 1t lies, in the
Senator's view, in the abolition of the whole
internal revenue system. 1t is true that
many politicians, "who look with just and
natural eye to the temper and sentiment Of
the people in their respective states, fear
to advocate the reduction or abolition of
the tax on whiskey. But such abolition
Mr. Edmunds argues, would meet with no
opposition from the real friends of prohibi-
ton. The laws of Congress have had no
tendency to diminish either the production
or the consumption of liquors, and they do
recognize their manufacture and sale as II
lawful and tolerable occupation, even in
states which denounce this traffic as a crime
Apart from the sentiment of deriving n
revenue from an occupation or a commodi-
ty injurious to the public welfare, neither
the cause of prohibition nor that of repres-
sion has been in any manner advanced by
the internal tax on whiskey and on moral
grounds the prohbitonist would hardly fe-
licitate himself upon sharing in the profits
of business he believed to be totally wrong
and deserving sof determination. No in
dustrial interest, whether agricultural, man
ufacturing or commercial can be injured
/ by the abolition of our internal taxes, "and
| if the income of the government should
| thus fall somewhat below its present rate
| of expenditure, there would be very
wholesome incentive TO a rigid economy in
all branches of the public service, and per
| haps an introduction of that real reform
which has recently been so much preached
about and so little practiced.'
Mr.. Edmunds holds that the adoption of
free trade would not increase our trade
with foreign countries, and in connection
+ with his reasons for this belief he quotes
figures showing that the wages of American
workingmen are from % per cent greater
than those of Europe for wooden workers
to almost 100 per cent greater in the man
ufactures of iron, while the food, clothing
and shelter of the wage workers of the
United States, from the humblest laborer
| up through the whole SCALE are so immeas-
urably superior to those of the European in
the same calling that comparison is scarcely
adequate to illustrate it.
The senator's closing paragraph is the
following
IF one of the great objects of good gov
eminent be to promote the comfort, pros
| perity and happiness of the whole body of
the people. why should we reduce the cost
of our manufactures to the foreigners min
mum, at the expense of reducing the price
| of labor or the price Of any production into
which labor enters, as the wool and the
wheat of the farmer, as well as the fabrics
of the loom and the Shop The encourage
ment of American lines of communication
and the general superiority of our goods
will, in the not far away future, give us a
fair share of the sales in foreign markets
but to try to obtain it now by the means
! proposed by the free-traders, even if such
means would have that effect, would be the
opposite both of justice and good policy.
The supposed evils of our protective
system so wildly seen by the free traders
and the statesmen of rival nations, have
gone hand in hand, as mother leads her
child, with blessings greatly ouGweighing all
hardships and Inconvenience, if any there
are, and far greater than those of any 9th
er people our population and wealth have
increased and become more and more de
centralized; our public schools have in
creased comfortable homes, owned by
their occupants, have increased chains OF
busy villages and cities, not built like Mr.
Henry Georges theatre at Jamaica-sC
much admired by Mr. Watterson-but from
the wages and by the hand of free, intelli
gent and thrifty labor, have overspread our
part of the continent from the rock bound
coast on which the Puritans made theil
homes to the gate of gold that opens the
shores of the Tranquil Sea.
Such has been our progress. VIII the
peoples representatives be wise enough t.
allow it to continue -
1t is needless to say that Mr.. Edmunds',
article furnishes one of the most cogent ar
guments yet presented in defence of the
Republican principle of protection and
against the Democratic idea of free trade
which it is now so fashionable in certain
quarters to uphold 1t is of interest tC
note that the editor of Harper's Magazin,
states in foot-note that this article was in
the hands of the printer before the Presi
dents message was sent TO Congress on the
9Th of December. 1t was therefore in
hand, of course, before Mr. Blaine's views
were promulgated in a special cable mes
sage.
MINOR NOTES.
The Florida sub tropical exposition was
opened at Jacksonville, Jan. ~, with the
] most irnprassiva pprannnias and damongtra