Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-02-28
A Disreputable Oyster.

l oe-
| A Disreputable Oyster.
A and B quarrel over the character
and condition of an oyster. A says ii
is good. B says it is bad. They fight.
A conquers, thereby proving to his own
satisfaction that the oyster is good
Now-Query I.-Should not A eat the
oyster, to prove his sincerity and good
| faith?-Query II.-If he does not eat
the oyster. is not his position inconsist-
ent. not TO say undignified?
We ask this question because any
candid answer must give an intelligent
Republican food for reflection. The
Republican party fought out the last
campaign on the tariff issue. The party
utterances described the present high
protective tariff as perfect bulwark of
the national prosperity, with which it
was a sin to "tinker.' Those who aid
ed and abetted "tinkering" by repre-
senting an individual duty as onerous
nr unfair were traitors to their country
and probably mercenaries of Great
Britain. The party denounced bill
for the moderate reduction of the Gus
| toms duties as an intended crime
against the nation. And when that
bill was introduced in the House of
Representatives and passed that body,
| the party, through its majority in the
| upper house, expressed its views as to
the right course to pursue by preparing
a bill known as ian amendment in the
nature of substitute" which propos-
ed, in many instances, a large increase
Of duties. The tariff, it appeared,
might properly be "tinkered" if it
were only tinkered up, and not down.
We must amend this last statement.
| III 70 for 20 ho ia
of its defenders, be tinkered down. so
long as the tinkering down was solely
at the cost of the Southern states. The
bill to which this second bill was "an
amendment in the nature of a substi-
tutenhad proposed a reduction of duties
| such as would affect all the states
alike. The amendment in the nature
of a substitute clearly set mp the theory
that while duties might be decreased
in states which generally "went Demo-
cratic" they must be retained or in
creased in states which usually voted
the Republican ticket. Well. the Re-
publican party won the last campaign.
The vote of a majority of the states in
formed a majority OF the people that
| they were all wrong in thinking that
it was right to reduce any duty except
duty on a Southern product. Insuch
PIC IdSulbii w as tlltS
| great truth established. And now,
what is the status of the bill, "in the
nature of a substitute" which came
forward last Fall as SO sturdy a declar-
alton of principle?
1t will hardly be believed-and yet
| it is true-that this bold and bumptious
bill has been, to all intents and pur-
poses, deserted by the very men who
put it into the field. 1t is to-day
shaie--a name-an echo. A third bill
is to appear-perhaps in the nature of
an amendment ouly-which alone of
all the three has some chance OF pass
ing both houses of Congress. And,
strange to say, this third bill is, i'm eff
feet, re-iteration of the principles set
forth in the first. And this bill is to
be tolerantly considered by the patriots
who, but a few short months ago, de-
nounced all tariff tinkering" as rank
treason! How has this marvel come to
pass?
In natural way, after all. The
present duties were imposed, for the
most part. at the request of certain
classes of manufacturers and producers
who made their wants known many
years ago, in the period of Infant in
dustries." Since that time many other
classes of men have come into the busi-
ness community, who derive no benefit
from these duties-Who are, indeed,
hampered and burdened by taxes on
the raw materials which they use.
These men have done their best for
themselves in silence, year after year,
afraid to lift their voices in protest
against the inequality of our tariff leg
isation, lest they should be denounced
as reasonable conspirators against the
I.lt II rfy<Asrf rfnr
as enemies of the worklngman, for
whose particular benefit, it has been
generally unders!o ID, the present tariff
on imported goods was established.
But during the last campaign these
men have discovered that man may
speak against the present tariff and
live; and this strange fact has given
them heart to ask an equal protection
with those wLo earlier demanded that
Congress should legislate in behalf ofI
their business.
That their protest against this in
justice has heen heard is shown by the
action of the Republican party, which,
though it be in power, can not afford
to force upon thousands of business men
an increase of taxes which are already
too onerous. The party's principle has
been asserted; but the party's practice
must be, sooner or later, that of its de-
fea ted opponents. The oyster is good
yet it be an indigestible oyster to eat.
But if the Republican party must listen
to the voice of the misprotected mer-
chant and manufacturer who finds his
business injured by an unnecessarily |
high tariff, what will the party do
when the millions of consumers who
are, in the end, the chief sufferers from
this vicious growth of special legisla-
ton, see the disadvantage at which
they are placed. and ask, in their own
plain way, for the simple protection of
being let alone to buy as they please at
fair market pricesg-Puck.