The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1888-09-27
DEFER RID MATTER.
The People Win Answer.

Inc feOple VIII Answer.
The President, in his letter of accept
ahce, referring to the Republican platfrom
adopted AT Chicago, says:
| They declare also that there should be
Sucn revision Ut our tariff laws as shall
Tend TO check the Importation of such ar.
Ilcies rs are produced here. Thus propos
Ing to increase the duties upon such arti
cies to nearly or quite the prohibitory
point, they coufess themselves willing t.
tIavel backward IN the road of civilization
ana 10 deprive our people of markets for
Ihelr goods, which Can only be gained and
Kept 10y the mblance al least OF inter.
change OF business, while they abandon our
consumers TO Tie linreStralntd oppression
Oh domestic trusts and combinations which
are III the same platform perfunetorlly
cUHdtmDt ;"
Ibis Is an adverse form in which to ex-
press a distinct free trade idea. It is
cool, coming from MIR. Cleveland, after
his free trade message in December last :,
III which he civilized backwards to the
Time when slavery was the corner sion,
of The Democracy and free trade ard sail
ors lights the shbbuleth of the party. 1t
King that John e. Calhoun abandoned his
protec i've views and became the chief
apostle OF free trade-the founder of tile
faith. Aud cotton was the product OF
in the mechanical industries and useful
manufactures. no make it profitable,
the policy was to sell Ill European mar
kets and to buy the products OF facto
ries there to supply the demands at home.
1t was establishing our workshops III
Europe, and building up the markets Of
other countries at the expense of those Of
our own. II is to that civilization the
President would relegate us when the con
ditions have changed here, in the destruc-
tion of the slave Institution, and all of It's
related influences. 1t was represented
at home by a bankrupt treasury, bankrupt
credit, and Frustrated industry as wide
spread as the limits of the country.
The "civiization the President would
escape, is that represented by the present
condition OF the Natlon-the result OF the
| PtOtSCu4sC pCliOJ. ~ PtNcShto Ho AlC
achievements the grandest industrial sys-
TEN on the globe; a credit unsurpassed
in the history of governments; an over
flowing treasury, accumulated through
economic laws operating so lightly upon
the people that they do not know how and
when they pay the generous taxes" of
which we hear SO much from blatant Dem
o3ratic emagogues and designing, crafty
politicians, seeking to deceive the voters.
The furnaces and factories; the work
shops and the mines: the well TILED and
well-improved farms of the country an
swer for the civilization which the Presi-
dent seems to ignore, and contrasts with
the conditions which existed under tie
operation of the theory of revenue, as it
was realized when Democracy had full
sway, and practical free trade was the ba-
sis upon which the commerce and enter
prise of the Nation were conducted
The affected apprehension manifested
by the President of what he calls trusts,
comes with a bad grace, at this time, from
him. The Standard Oil Trust is repre-
serted in his Cabinet, and the Sugar
Trust is engineered and managed by lead.
ing Democrats, whose contributions to the
Democratic campaign fund is one of the
main dependencies of Barnum and Brice,
to conduct their work.
The imposing sentences in which the
President clothes his official deliverance.
and the high>soundlng terms in which he
presents his refining thoughts, cannot OBJ
scure or conceal the fact that below them
turks the free trade idea in all of its hid
eous deformity. A student of Talleyrand,
he seems to forget that he does not live III
the times Of the Trlumvirate, and that
words are not made to conceal ideas, but
understanding OF the masses who cOnSti
tute the government over which he pre-
sides, and will hold to a severe reckoning
their servant, for the policies he may pro-
ject, as well as the acts he may commit.
| The December message and the letter
of acceptance are in otrict harmony, and
it was designed that the Mills bill should
convey the same idea and inculcate the
same policy of tree trade. But the emer-
gencles of the hour destroyed the symme
try of the arrangement Democratic dis
trcts had TO be held Tor the 5lSt Congress,
if possible, and there was no way to do 1t,
in many cases, under the original bill. 1t
had to be chopped up and splced, to suit
the occasion. In Virginia, North Caro-
lima ard Tennessee, the free raw materials
feature would have been fatal, and hence
coal and iron were eliminated from it. In
other districts similar adjustment to the
protection sentiment had to be made. until
the measure has become a kind of Dolly
Warden melange-free trade and protec-
tion intermixed. Yet the President holds
firm to his original utterance, and tells the
country that the admission Of raw mate
rails free is essential not only to the in
terests of labor and the success of our
manu- features, but to our own ciYiliza-
ton.
The people will consider the matter and
decide in November next.
A False Charge.
a friend writes us from Lexington, Va
that it is charged in that community that
should the Blair bill become a law it would
force mixed schools in the South. The
same pestiferous politicians would
not be toe good to make any charge that
adecent man would not think of. The fund
appropriated by the bill, should it become
a law, would be under the control of the
State authorities, and disposed Of precisely
as the State educational fund is. The