Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1888-05-05
THE ISSUE.

tween the tariff and anti-tariff wings oil
the two parties 1t is hard to say who is
in the right and whom the wrong. The
President has announced his policyand
e~x-catherda has announced the policy
of the Democratic party. By virtue OF
his official position he had a perfect right
to do so, and the fact that he did not hes
itate, in the face Of what is supposed to
have boon an adverse majority, proves
the faith that was in him. Mr.. Cleveland
believes in free trade, and so does a large
portion Of his party. While the great
Northwest is not to any great extent
affected by the tariff question, it is none
the less interested in the cause of Democ-
racy, and none the less willing to sub
scribe to the tenets Of the faith, as enun-
ciated by the President of the United
States.
As a fair sample it may be in good
taste to quote the following from the
most Independent of Western papers, the
Chicago Herald:
> There is every indication that the Re-
publican party intends if possible to
avoid the issue of battle rendered by the
President in his message, or at least to so
obscure it in a cloud of non-essential
issues as to make it a subsidiary ques-
ti0n. Every authoritative declaration
either in convention or by party orators
is in that direction. One of the declara-
tions Of the Ohio platform has for its
burden the alleged suppressed vote in the
cnui p. General Harrison in his Chicago
y 70 20 dwelt strongly on this subject.
" Jake if.e he could point out no remedy
mas peeh opposed existing state of affairs
icisil 70 ~ TO the negro vote in the South,
MANY y 0rtheless declared that somehow
LIS Yin some way it should be made an
tissue. So other orators and certain Re-
publican newspapers take up the same
burden and hammer away at it, hoping
by mere yociferation to make the people
believe there is something in it. AS has
been pointed out time and again when
this same matter has been mooted, if the
Republicans, when they had the power,
could do nothing, what could they do if
they were again restored to power /?
Simply nothing. Why, then, should they
tender such an issue ? Because they dis
honestly wish to draw away the public |
mind from the real vital question OF the 4
day, and that is, how shall the ever in |
creasing surplus in the. Treasury be re-
ducod and the people be relieved from
taxation ?
''The democrats say, reduce the tariff
duties; abolish the war taxation; make
the income of the Government only
sufficient for its needs, and leave all
other money in the pockets Of the peo-
pie. Sue his the tenor of the Presidents
message. and for that reason it is the
wisest and most statesmanlike declara-
ton made to the nation for many years.
The Republicans say in convention and
through their orators, let the money pile
up in the treasury, and let us spend it.
Pension every soldier that eyer went to
the war: anGsvif taxation must still be
reduced take it of those necessaries of
life, whisky and tobacco, but retain it
to the last cent on those luxuries of the
poor, food, fuel and clothing. Absolutely
and truly this party of great moral
IDEAS through such Of its opponents as
Pig-iron Kelley, Foraker, Foster and
Mckinley. ayows that it would be better
to have free or cheap whisky than to-
have cheap raiment, or cheap coal, or
cheap iron. What a shameless avowal,
and how that party has fallen from its
great estatel
"But 1t is 80 that men, after a long
course Of fattening on the people, get sol
pulled up in their spider-like lusts, get
so bloated and deprayed with what they
have fed on, that they can see nothing
but their own web, which they think is
the world. These iron, cotton and woolen
barons, these trust ~mOnopolists will not
give up easily what they have so long
held to be their wi They do not care
how much the faces Of the poor are
ground, If so they can only pile up more ,
riches.
Let not the worhngman, let not the
people be deceived by the false and
fraudulent cry Of "free trade" No party
in this country desires free trade, or ever
has. Tariff taxation has been familiar :
to the people since the days of Washing- l
ton. Our habits are adjusted to it, and ,
no one desires its adjustment. What !
we do desire, what the Democratic partyj
contends for, is a reduction of that taxa-
tion to the actual requirements of the Q
This is the one true, sub d
issue Of the coming contest. !
The Herald asks its readers to consider !
it WELL" 4
lie