Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-07-31
He Fails to See It-Some Home
Thrukta.

=
The Republican leaders are encounter
ing some unexpected difficulties in their
attempt to make the people believe that
the Democratic party has pronounced for
free trade and embodied it in the Mills
bill. The Chairman of the Finance
Committee of the Holyoke Republican
Club recently addressed communication
to Mr.. Arthur 7. Lyman, Treasurer OF
the Hadley Thread Company, OF
Holyoke, as well as of the Lowell
Manufacturing Company, of Lowell, ask
ing a contribution from that gentleman
towards the expenses Of the Harrison
and Morton campaign. Mr.. Lyman
utterly failed to see the necessity of his
impoverishiug himself in this man
ner and wrote a long and
luminous letter exposing the false
hood of the Republican plan OF
campaign. In the course Of his missive
he asserts that the Home Market Club
and the Woman's Manufacturer Asso.
ciation Of Massachusetts have done great
injury to the cause of true protection. He
also severely arraigns the Republican
members of the House from Massa-
chusetts for their obstructive and unpat-
riotic failure to cooperate with Mr..
Mills in framing his bill, and winds up
with the following striking and unan-
swerable remarks:
The Democratic members OF the Ways
and Means Committee take broad, and
on the whole, reasonable, views of the
tariff question, and while, of course, they
look at the interest of the United States
as whole, they do not ignore the fact
that many great industries have grown
up in this country under the high duties
made necessary by the War Of the Re-
bellion, and that it is only fair and
proper that consideration should be paid
to their existence and condition. Neither
do they ignore the fact that the working
people in the protected industries are
very largely members of the Democratic
party.
Besides the consideration that my man
ufacturing interests have been put at
needless risk by the partisan action of
the Republicans, must also take into
consideration the interests of the whole
country, in which we are all involved,
and cannot feel it to be right to vote for
anyone who can honestly stand on the
Republican platform. Most of the Re-
publicans with whom l have spoken
about it have told me that they have not
read it. 1 can readily believe that it
would be disagreeable reading to. Repub-
licans, who in the past have in all hon
esty desired to have raw materials and
food products on the free list. But the
exigencies of practical politics have forced
the party into false position as regards
the tariff, and into many unwise and
dangerous relations in regard to the do
mestic and foreign affairs of the
country. There is practically no party
in this country in favor of free trade
in any reasonable sense of the term, and
it is as unfair to call the Mills bill free
trade bill as it is to say that the Repub-
licans are in favor of free drinking Of
whisky because the manufacturers of
protected articles have several years :in-
sisted that all internal taxes should be
taken off in order that it should be i'm
possible to alter the duties on imports.
While the Mills bill is not a bill that
wholly commends itself to me, it is cor
rect, and for the interest of Massachu-
sets in many particulars, notably in the
matter of free wool. Every manufactnr-
ing country in the world of any conse
quence, except the United States, has wool
on the free list. The position which the
Republican party has taken makes it
we'll for the country, as it seems to me,
that it should not have the control of the
Government for the rext four years.