River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1888-08-09
SURPLUS AND TABLE,.
The Democratic sTarif REFORM" Pole
and What IL Means.

aud What Ii Means.
1t is self-evident to every considerate
man that the Administration hue and
cry about the surplus is intended to be
and is cover for some Interior pur-
pose
At any time during the present Con-
gress the Accommodations in the Treas
ury would have ceased hSd the leaders
of the majority so desired. Asid. from
taking the duties off alcohol used in
the tHeeha ale arts. and from domestic
grown to 5acco, giving reduction of
twenty-tiv millions, the lowering the
tariff on sugar would decrease it
thirty, and canceling it over fifty mill
ions additional. The poor man uses as
much sugar as the rien. Wealth would
not induce its owner To cram himself
with sweets. The tariff taken off sugar
alone would lessen family's expendit-
ures dollar. where the tariff off wool
would help it only cent.
The Mills bill lowers the duty on AK
Minister carpets, and cancels II on
statuary and on pictures. purchased
by the wealthy and never by the work
ing-man. 1t gives the Standard Oil
Company and the great meat-canning
monopolies tim goods free, puts North
ern salt on the free list, ard still pro-
tects Louisiana sugar sixty and Caro-
lima rice one hundred per cent.
The purpose is not to diminish the
revenue but to lower the tariff. Less
ened duties stimulate importation ten
fold. and will increase, as they have
done, the income from customs. The
surplus growing b. this, instead of
lessening. win call for still further and
further reduction and successive pro-
gressive steps toward free trade
The whole course of the Administra-
ton has been a series of experiments
and hedgings. The cant decisions of
Civil-Service were displaced by the ac-
ceptable demands of political heelers
The protective element Of the Demo-
cratic party has been ordered to the
rear. Its opponents have been humil-
lated. and its leaders degraded to the
ranks. Mr. Randall too honest to
apostatize for the Speakership-s stand ;
denounced and disgraced Even "a re-
cruited mugwump free trader, recently
pollywogging himself with obsequ.ous
wriggling into the Democratic mud, is
of more influence and weight.
For fifty years free trade mas been a
political faith and inspire Jon with an
active section of the Democratic party.
The cataclysm of the rebellion pre-
vented its control Now with peace
inertia, and forgetfulness, this faction
growing dominant, the long hidden
dynamite of its purpose menaces by
its presence and its possible explosion.
Parties can not stand still The repcl-
lent elements gain detiniteness and
strength and urge them further and
wider apart. The protective policy
and its opposite will contend to the ex-
tinguishment of one or the other. The
destructive fire will win, or the pro-
tective water put it out.
1t is unfortunate that such import
ant questions of National policy should
be submitted to a jury largely unintel-
ligent, and moved more largely by
party allegiance and prejudice while
labor is standing idle, capital is wait
ing, industry is aghast and enterprise
folds its hands for the verdict. The
hazard is that specious and delusive
pleadings, intentional warnings of the
evidence by the Administration attor-
neys, whose retention depends upon
success, may win.
Yet it does not seem possible that
the people of the United States can be
forgetful that the tried Republican
pOlicy-not an experiment, but an ex-
perience given it so unequaled a
prosperity. Notwithstanding war and
debt, and personal National expendi-
ture, it stands peerless in wealth and
vigor, and unparalleled among the ma
tions of the world. Judge