The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-10-04
SCALING DOWN FOR REVENUE

For more than three years the Presi-
dent has been an agitator, He has done
more to disturb the settled order of in
dustries than any other Chief Magistrate
in the last quarter of a century. He is
still at the work, and expects to win, if
at all, by creating antagonism among
different business classes of certain
Northern States. There were the Inter
nal Revenue taxes levied as a war meas
ure, which might have been modified in
part or remodeed 80 as to reduce any
excess of revenue; but Mr.. Cleveland
was averse to that, because in his view
that step would take away the force OF
any reason for an essential modification
OF the Tariff in the interest of free trade.
The rock ON which this Administration
will strike is, that logically the revenue
doctrine, which has been brought for
ward, tends directly to cheap labor and
cheap men. The country does not want
either. That was speCious and taking
doctrine some years ago. 1t was strenu-
ously advocated in this State by those in
favor of the unlimited admission of the
Chinese. If only cheap labor and cheap
men could be secured, it was asserted
the State would enter upon o new era of
prosperity, The cheap men came in
like flood. Cheap servile labor was
found to have in it no element of prospe-
rty. The present Administration framed
treaty, by means of which as many
Chinese could have reached the country
as formerly. Then, when driven to the
wall by the sheer force of public senti-
ment, it finds itself forced to legislate
independently of the treaty.
Cheap men and cheap labor has not
been a winning doctrine with reference
to the Chinese. 1t will not be a winning
doctrine with reference to a Tariff for
Revenue. There is the usual prattle
about incidental Protection. Every in
telllgent citizen knows that the vast sys-
tenn of manufacturing industries in this
country has not been built up under a
Tariff for revenue, and that it never
could have been built up t. its present
extent under any other than the PrO,ec
tive System that has prevailed. II goes
without saying, too. that this vast man
ufacturing interest has been built up.
not with cheap men and cheap labor,
but by the payment Of better wages than
have been paid in any country where
Free Trade prevails. The wages have
not been too high nor the men too dei
The industrial forces Of the country have
secured homes to a great extent, and
more Of the comforts of life than could
have possibly been secured under the
ruling of low wages, The operatives
have shared in the prosperity Of the
manufacturers. Under Tariff for Rev.
enue they will as certainly share in his
adversely. The benefits Of Protection
have never counted on the side of cheap
men and cheap labor. That is certain.
Neither the industrial forces of the
country nor the manufacturers, to any
great extent, were asking for any change
in the Tariff. They were all opposed to
any weakening of the principle Of Pro-
lection. They were content with what
they hoped was the settled order of
things. Neither have the great body of
consumers, independent Of partisan asso-
Citations, asked for any change. None
of the great producing interests OF the
country are clamoring for cheap men
and cheap labor. That is the logical out
come of the Cleveland policy. There is
no special pleading and no cunning in
terpretalion that can make anything
else out of it. That is the drift which.
if the President and his advisers did not
see, the thinking men Of the country are
seeing. francisco Bulletin,