Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-06-15

II the surplus-the Mills bill.
5 pretty even party straddle when
senator German gets20 votes for chairman
of the Committee on Resolutions. and Hen
~ Watterson gets %. A platform that
under such circumstances did not straddle
the theories and set square down on the
fact, would have justified the now worn
out charge that you might always rely on
the Democratic party to make a blunder
at the right time.
There is not now, nor has there been any
fight in the Democratic party as to wheth-
er there shall be any protection or not
Every Democrat knows that as long as
there is government to be supported and
a debt to be paid, there must be a tariff,
and that as long as there is tariff at all
there must be protection. The question
is, and has been, the amount of protection
The Mills bill has been settled upon by the
National Convention as the composition
of these differences. No Virginia Democrat
can object to it on the score that Virginia
is not protected. The bill as it stands be-
fore Congress to-day is no echo of the Pres
ident's message. He recommended free
raw material, but the bill ignores the rec
ommendation. Coal and iron are kept at
the same duty, steel at the same, kaolln,
marble-all the raw material under the soil
of Virginia is protected in the Mills bill.
Now as to the protection of manufac-
lures in the country. The st. Louis plat
form says:
''The Democratic party of the United States
in National Convention assembled, renews
the pledge of fidelity to the Democratic faith
and reaffirms the platform adopted by its rep
resentatives in the convention of 1884, and
endorses the views expressed by President
Cleveland in his last earnest message to Con-
gress as correct Interpretation of that plat
form upon the question of the tariff reduc-
tion, and also endorses the efforts of our Dem
ocratic representatives in Congress to secure
q reduction of excessive taxation"
What is the platform of 1884, relative
to manufactures, which is correctly inter-
preted by President CleveIand's last mes
sage? Here it is:
1.-THE necessary reduction in taxation can
and must be effected without depriving Ame-
rican labor of the ability to compete success
fully with foreign labor, and without impos-
ing lower rates of duty than will be ample to
cover any increased cost of production which
may exist in consequence of the higher rate
of wages prevailing in this country"
And what's President Cleveland's s'cor-
rect Interpretation" of this, in his slast
earnest message to Congress ?' Here it is:
SIT is not proposed to entirely relieve the
country of this (tarif) taxation. 1t must be
extensively continued as the source of the
governments incomes and in q reimbursement
of our tariff the interests of American labor
engaged in manufacture should be carefully
considered, as well as the preservation of our
manufacturers. 1t may be called protection,
or by any other name, but relief from the
hardships and dangers of our present tariff
laws should be devised with especial precau-
eion against imperiling the existence of our
manufacturing interest,"
What Protection Democrat, what man
interested in the manufactures of the
country is there (who is not an advocate
of monopolies) who is not satisfied with
this declaration
Well ii this is all go, and all is so salts
factory. what was the twenty-three hours
struggle in the committee over the tariff
plank at st. Louis. about? 1t was
just this: Mr.. Watterson is an extreme
Tariff Reformer. He wanted the Commit
tee on Resolutions to just substitute any
preamble to the platform with "a simple
endorsement of the Presidents MESSAGE
Now that message as whole, as we have
already seen, was not acceptable to the
Democrats of tie country. Their repre-
X.