Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-06-21

the neeessaries of life. It is this under
standing among workingmen that has
made the tariff issue very different
campaign factor in 1888 than it has
been at any time during the last quar-
ter of a century.
The theory of industrial independ-
ence in the United States is not disput-
ed by any party. But what Is indus
trial independence? What is necessary
TO industrial independence: The plat
form on which Cleveland and Thur
man are presented to the country de-
fines industrial independence to be the
full protection of the wages of our labor
against the cheaper labor of Europe.
That was the industrial independence
or the protective policy devised and
adopted under Washington's admins
tration in .791 and he and the founders
of the protection of American industry
imposed tariff taxes of about eight per
cent. The average rate of tariff duties
under Washington and Adams when
our diversified industries were literally
in their infancy was about twelve per
cent. That was fixed as the rate of
| taxation to give ample protection when
the country was incensed against
foreign policies and foreign products
and when Jefferson signalized his pur-
pose to maintain our industrial indie
pendence, or what is called protective
policy for our industries, by appearing
in suit of home-spun to take the oath
of office as President of the United
States. Under his administration the
tariff duties were increased, and the
average of ad valorem duties went up
under Madison, in the last year of the
second war with England, to about the
present tariff taxes, but they were
speedily reduced after the war until
| they fell as low as they were under
Washington. Four years after the war
of 1872 our tariff taxes were reduced to
less than seventeen per cent, while to-
day, twenty-three years after the civil
war and when the Treasury is over
flowing with surplus, our tariff taxes
are over forty-seven per cent, most of
which are upon raw materials needed
i'm our manufacturing Industries or up
on the common necessarieS of life. 1t
is this oppressive taxation of from forty
six to fifty per cent. upon our Industries
and on consumers for years after the
revenue was no longer needed that has
made monopoly stalk forth throughout
the land in the insolence of power, that
has made the rich the richer and the
poor the poorer, and that is rapidly
multiplying the damnable curse of mill
lionaires and tramps.
This is the issue that the st. Louis
Convention has presented with a dis
tinction and candor that challenges the
intelligent consideration of every friend
of labor in the country. Do the defend
ers of oppressive war taxes assume that
the people can be deceived by the cry
of danger of protection? Do they as
sumo that the people will not be told
and fully understand that the Mills
bill maintains higher protection to our
industries than were fixed by Clay the
father of protection, in the tariff of 1912,
or by Morrill, and Kelley, the present
fathers of protection, in the tariff of
1861? The tariffs of 1912 and of 1861
were distinctly protective tariffs; they
were made by protectionists for protec-
ton; there was no hindrance to the
ample measure of protection, and yet
the official records show that the tariff
of 1912 taxed the people thirty-three
per cent, that the tariff of 1861 taxed
them thirty-four per cent, that the
present tariff taxes them over forty
seven per cent, and that the Mills bill
reduces tariff taxes only about seven
per cent, leaving higher taxes and
higher protection than were fixed by
any distinctively protective tariff in
the whole century of our government.
What answer can be made to these
indisputable facts? Is it surprising
that such wise and sagacious Republi-
can journals as the Chicago Tribune
and the Minneapolis Press warn the
Republicans of the danger of political
revolution in the West and Northwest,
and that the Providence Journal, the
Republican organ of the manufacturers
of New England, warns them of the
danger of political revolution in the
very cradle of Republicanism? Who
can doubt that both Massachusetts, and
Illinois will be as doubtful as New
York, Indiana, New Jersey and Con-
necticut on the great issue now clearly
defined and accepted for 1888? 1t will
be great battle. It will be fought. as
Chairman Hensel expressed it, on the
cinder banks. in the mines, the shops,
the mills, the fields and the homes of
the country; and the Republicans
will fight for the monopoly protection
that has prostituted wise policy
to arbitrary and extortionate combines.
just as the Democrats fought in 1850
for the monopoly of slavery, that had
prostituted constitutional rights to the
positive subversion of freedom.
Such is the great issue of 1888. Will
monopoly and oppression or will the
people win?-IhitIdell Times.