Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-12-13
tleyeiand's Last Message.

Z
| President CIeveland's last annua
message to Congress is calm, digni
fed, straightforward document, in
which there is not trace of the dis
appointment of defeat. 1t is an elabo
rate paper, embracing summaries o
the various departments of the Cover
ment along with his views of general
public policy, and we give in full his
suggestions on the national revenue
finances, omitting the department
details which are given in the regular
r,ports.
The President presents the tax issue
| with its lnseparable relations to CEN
/ tralized wealth and the oppression o.
industry, as the supreme question of
| the day, and enforces his convictions
| with facts and arguments which are
unanswerable. It will be easy to brush
them aside at present, with the flush oi
party victory that is held to be the an
swer of the nation to his policy; but
the message delivered to Congress
| will be turned to and re-read with
| quick tened interest in the near future,
| when its predictions will approach
+, realization. The slave power of the
Republic never was so defiant as in
1857, when Buchanan entered the Pres
idercy by the first defeat of the Re
c;sion, just delivered, nationalizing
human bondage. What follow ed is
too fresh in the nations history to
need recapitulation. One brief adj
ministration sealed the doom of slave
ry, and it was simply colossal sui
eide. It could have saved itself, bnt
it would be Caesar or nothing, and it
died unlamented.
There was great battle for the
emancipation of slaves from the chains
and lash of the master; the present bat
tie is for the emancipation of free labor
from the chains and lash of the monop-
olist: and the struggle is possibly de-
layed, but possibly accelerated by the
now common assumption that centra-
y
money and that tax reduction upon
the necessaries of life and the restraint
of monopoly oppression of industry,
have been postponed Indefinitely by
the solemn verdict of the people. Now,
as In 1857, the legitimate rights of the
victors can be fully realized with the
cordial assent of the nation; and now,
as then, any attempt to give absolute
mastery to oppression, must result in
absolute disaster. No man has more
need to study with intelligent care the
suggestions and admonitions of Presi-
dent Cleveiand than President-elect
Harrison, for he is the man who must
grapple with the issue when the echoes
of party victory sl.all have persisted.
The people of the Union desire ju-
dicious protective policy. They want
the labor of our general productive in
dustries protected to the full extent of
the difference between the wages OF
foreign and American workingmen;
but they do not want, aud they will
not long tolerate, the prostitution of |
beneficeut protective policy for labor to
the crea: ion and protection of exacting |
And they will be quick
ened to discrimination between the pro-
lection of labor aud the protection of |
by the ostenatatious con-
tributions to political corruption funds, |
which come from those who are amass-
ing wealth by restrictive tariff pol
icy that gives only high taxes and low
wages to labor. IF it shall be assumed |
that the late national verdict means |
to centralized wealth and
surrender of the power OF the govern
ment to the few who Cypress the |
will be only repetition of the
madness of the slave victors of 1856,
whose crowning triumph, as they |
then boasted, was but opening of their |
sepulchre.
There is safety to the protection of
la Dor only in the prompt reduction of
the revenues to the actual necessities of
the government; the reduction of pro-
tective tariff duties to the standard of
honest protection of labor; the adop- |
ton of the policy of free raw materials |
to protect our own mills and working
men, and the repeal of all needless
taxes on the necessaries of life. With |
this standard of protection, the protect
i've policy would be without assailants
in any party or section except by few
dreaming theorists. It is the stand
ard of protection adopted by the hon
est protectionists of 1912 and of 1851; it /
is the standard of protection in every
protective country of the world except |
our own, and it must soon become the |
accepted standard OF protectionists in
sist upon self-.,estruction. The pres
ent tariff and tax policy of the nation
cannot stand, and the party that re-
fuses honest and thorough tax revision
i'm the interest of the whole people
will be broken by the retributive
stroke of popular condemns ton. Pres
ident Cleveland is right; being right,
he dares to declare bis faith, and the
party that is nearest in accord with
the revenue policy of his message Will
be the ruling party of the future
Phitade laoIia Times.
The Popular Vote.
The official returns of the popular