Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-05-30
The HIGH rARLEF CRAZE.

tory of the party. The first National plat
form adopted by a Republican Presidential
convention, in 1856, contained no allusion to
the tariff. The platform of 1850 had plank
which favored protection, but only moderate
protection, its main feature being the dec
laration that ''while providing revende for
the support of the general Government by
duties upon imports, sound policy requires
such an adjustment of these imposts as to
encourage the development of the indus
trial interests of the whole country"
The ''Morrin tariff " of 1862 was not
measure framed in accordance with the Re
publican platform of 1850. There was not
a Republican in Congress who would not
have ridiculed the idea that the scale of
duties imposed by that measure was what
the trainers of the resolution had in mind
when they demanded 90 such an adjustment
of these imposts as to encourage the devel-
/ opmcnt of the industrial interests of the
/ whole country" On the contrary, every
! body treated it as an exceptional and tem-
porary policy, to be excused only by the i'm
perious exigencies of an emergency which
had not been contemplated as possible two
! years before. Mr.. Morrill, himself expressed
the universal feeling of the Republican
party when he justified it in the words:
This is intended as war measure, n tenn
| porary measure, and we must as such give
| it our support"
The first President whom the Republican
party elected after the war sought to re-
deem the pledge which the party's financial
leader in the Senate had made In 1862, that
the high tariff should be only "a war meas
ure, temporary measure" the anomalous
and extortionate features of which should
be discarded as soon as possible after the
restoration of peace.
In his first annual message to Congress,
in December, 1869, President Grant pointed
out that the revenues of the country are
! greater than the requirements, and may
with safety pc reduced" In view of the
then proposed fundingo of the debt at a lower
rate of interest, he suggested that the ques-
tion of reducing taxation to the full extent
practicable had better be postponed until
the next meeting of Congress, but he
| thought it at once advisable to modify
the taxation and tariff in instances where
unjust or burdensome determinations are
made by the present laws" Growing a
| little more explicit, he added: 81 feel safe
in saying that the taxes and the revenues
from imports (which for the previous fiscal
year, ending June 30, 1869, had been $780,
OO0,0OO may be reduced safely from $6O,-
100000 to 900 per annum.
| Returning to the subject a year later, in
his message sent to Congrass in December,
1870, President Grant showed that the tax
collected from the people by the internal
| revenue system had been reduced more
than SS0,000,000 per annum, having fallen
I from S266, 100000 in 1867 to less than 1885,
100000 in 1870, and expressed the opinion
that within few years the National tax
gatherer might disappear from the door of
the citizen almost entirely.
"With the revenue stamp dispensed by
I tov
liquors of ali sorts and tobacco in all its
forms, and by wise ads .stment of the
tariff, which will put duty only upon
those articles which we could dispense with,
| known as luXurieS, and on those which we
use more of than we produce, revenue
! enough may be raised, after few years of
peace and consequent reduction of indebt-
edness, to fulfill all our obligations" Dis
cussing the subject little, he declared him
self in favor of "a tariff for revenue"
stating that it was simply a question be-
tween the most inquisitorlal kind of an in
ternal revenue system and tariff system.
1.-The necessities of the country compel US
to collect revenues from our Imports he
said. :" An army of assessors and collectors
Is not pleasant sight to the citizen, but
that or a tariff for revenue is necessary"
he added that such tariff, so far as ID
acts as an encouragement to home produc-
| ton. affords employment to labor at living
wages, in contrast to the pasper labor of
| the Old World, and also in tho DEVELOPMENT
of home resources" but this was treated as
a mere incident to the main purpose of i'm
posing 80 tariff for revenue"
President Grants position in favor Of ga
tariff for revenue" with protection as a
mere incident, was accepted as good Repub-
| lican doctrine, and so continued for years.
| Tho nhiO Ao4I -
adopted platform which had only this to
say on the tariff question: ave are in favor
of tariff for revenue, with incidental pro-
lection to American industry" Again in
1878, no allusion to the subject having been
made IN the platform of 1917, the Ohio Re
| publicans resolved that "a tariff for reye.
nue. should be maintained, and so adjusted
as to secure incidental protection to home
| industry"
But all these deliverances of high Repub-
lican authorities so short a time ago have
already become so antiquated that anybody
who should quote them to-day without say
ing where he found them would be accused
of stating Democratic doctrine. Indeed, the
language of President Grants messages of
1869 and 1870 is striklngly like that of Presi-
dent Cleveland's in 1887. Grant said that a
tariff for revenue is necessary and
| Cleveland SAID that tariff taxation '.must be
| extensively continued as the source of the
| Governments income" The Republicans
| Of Shermans State In 1878 only asked that
the ''tariff for revenae" should be $50 ad-
| justed as to secure incidental protection to
to home industry" and Cleveland in 1887
held that SIN readjustment of our tariff
the interests of American labor engaged in
manufacture should be carefully consid-
cred, as well as the preservation of our
manufacturers.
But the Republicans of 1885 haye turned
their backs upon the Republicans Of 1SG2,
the Republicans Of 1859 and 1870, and the
Republicans of 1878. They now demand pro-
lection for the sake of protection, Mr.
Blaine set the pace in 1882, when he had the
Republican State convention In Maine adopt
| q platform which omitted all alluslon to the
idea OF revenue, and declared that 'sAmeri-
can industries and labor should be protected
against the unjust competition of the
product of cheap foreign labor by protective
tariff" Sherman has followed suit, and
the platform adopted by the OHIO Republi-
can convention, which is, of course. tha
Ohio Senator's, declares that s.we faycr
such economic Legislation as win protect all
| American industries that can be profitably
pursued by American citizens" and that
the policy of tariff reduction advocated bv
tho President twill, II unreslsted, result in
Introducing policy of free trade'-a policy.
by the way, really not so severe as that ad-
vocated by President Grant in 1869.
The remarkable feature of this change of
base which has been executed by the Re
| publican party during the last few years is
that i has been made at time when the
policy Of high tariff for the sake of high
tariff IS more unpopular than over before in
our history. 1t really seems a case of the
madness with which parties, as well as
men, are afflicted when they are to be de-
/ stroyed.-N. T. Post.
| Repeating Foolish Mistake,
a traveller in making change at the ra;l
road station at Condord, n. d., gave the
tieket agent q fve-doIlar gold piece for a
penny The agent saw it and handed the