The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-09-19
GEN. HARRISON'S LETTER.
a DEmAeoGIcAL PERFORMANCE.
uhe Republican Candidate Is For MOnop-
oily Taxes-He Trims on Free Whisky,
Hedges on the Chinese Question and
Mildly Chides the Trusts.
The following is Gen. Harrison's letter

The following is Gen. Harrison's letter
of acceptance:
Hon. NJ NJ Estee and Others, Committee, etc.
GESTLEorEN-When your committee visited
me on the Fourth of July last and presented
the official announcement of my nomination for
the presidency of the United States by the re-
publican convention, 1 promised as soon as
practicable to communicate to you a more
formal acceptance of the nomination.
Since that time the work of receiv-
ing and addressing, almost daily, large
delegations of my fellow-citizens has not only
occupied most Of my time, but has, in some
measure, rendered it unnecessary for me to use
this letter as a medium of communicating to
the public my views upon the questions In
volved in the campaign. 1 appreciate very
highly the confidence and respect manifested
by the convention, and accept the nomination
with feeling of gratitude and full sense of
the responsibilities which accompany it.
it is matter of congratulation that the dec
3srations of the Chicago convention upon the
questions that now attract the interest of our
people are so clear and emphatic. There is
further cause of congratulation in the fact that
the convention utterances of the democratic
party, if In any degree uncertain or contra
executive acts and messages, and by definite
propositions in legislation. This is especially
true of what is popularity known as the tariff
question. The issue cannot now be obscured
II is not contest between schedules but be-
tween wide apart principles. The foreign COM
petitors for our market have, with quick in-
etinct, seen how one issue OF this contest may
bring them advantage, and our own people are
not so dull as to miss or neglect the grave in
terests that are involved for them. The
assault upon our protective system IS
open and defiant. Protection is as
eailed as unconstitutional In law, or as
vicious in principle and those who hold such
views sincerely cannot stop short of an abso-
lutte elimination from tariff laws of the
principle Of protection. The Mills billis only
q step, but ii is toward an object that the lead
ers OF democratic thought and legislation
have clearly in mind. The important question
IL not so much the length of the step as the di-
TectiOn of IT, Judged by the executive message
of December last, by the Mills bill, by the de-
bates in congress and by the St Louis platform,
the democratic party will, if supported by the
country, place the tariff laws upon purely
revenue basis. This is practical free trade
free trade in the English sense. The legend
upon the banner may not be free trade"-it
smay be the more obscure motto, tariff re-
FORM" but neither the banner nor the inscrip-
ton is conclusive or, indeed, very important.
The assault itself is the important fact.
Those who teach that the import duty upon
foreign goods sold IN our market IS PAID by the
consumer, and that the price Of the domestic
competing article is enhanced 10 the amount of
the duty on the imported article-that every
million of dollars collected for customs duties
represents many millions more which do not
reach the treasury, but are paid by our citizens
as the increased cost of domestic productions
resulting from the tariff laws-may not intend
20 discredit in the minds Of others our system
of levying duties on competing foreign prod
ucts, but 1t is clearly already discredited in
their own. We cannot doubt, without impugn-
ing their integrity, that if free 10 act upon their
convictions they would so revise our laws as to
lay the burdens of the customs revenue upon
articles that are not produced in this country,
and 10 place upon the free list all competing
foreign products do not stop TO refute
this theory to the effect of our
tarih duties Those who advance ii are
students Of maxims and not of the
markets They may be safely allowed to call
their project "taEf REFORM" if the people
understand that in the end the argument com
pels free trade in all competing products. This
end may not be reached abruptly, and its APP
-oroach may DO accompanied with some ex-