New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-10-21
LESSONS FROM EXPER FENCE.

Two weeks hence the American people Will
once more answer the question whether they
are fit for selfgoyernmcnt. For thirty years
one great party has constantly acted on the
belief that the people are not; that they are
mostly so ignorant that any measure, however
beneficial to them, can be made to seem Of
fensive by telling lies enough about It's effect
The other great party has acted patiently and
brayely upon the conviction that the people
can be trusted; that measure actually cal
culated to promote their welfare they will GER
tainly appreciate and uphold
The uproar about the Mckinley bill is but
the echo of a similar outcry in 1868 about the
tariff revisions of 1856 and 1857, and especial
Iy about the wool and woollens tariff of 1867.
Then, as now, the people were told that all
their woollcn goods would be rendered more
costly, so that it would be practically impos-
sible for a wOrkingman to wear decent SUIT.
There is not an intelligent man in this country
who bought such clothing at that time who
does not know that all kinds of woolen goods
have been cheapened almost beyond belief.
The poorer citizens received most OF the bene-
tit, for they can get suits of clothing to-day for
$40 to $40 far superior to those for which,
when the tariff of 1867 was enacted, they
would have been obliged to pay $50 to 800.
The finest goods, which are worn by compare
lively few, have not been reduced as much in
price because the nearest and largest oppor-
tunity for the American manufacturers lay in
meeting the needs of the millions, and the
market for the finest and most costly goods
has been left largely to the control of importers.
But in order to retain even that part OF the
American market against the rapidly develop
ing manufacture here the foreign makers have
been forced to reduce the cost OF their goods
more than most men can now realize.
The people had the good sense to vote down
the Free Traders in 1868 Notwithstanding all
their clamor and all their falschoOds. Then it
required measure of intelligence and OF faith
which is no longer needed. Now, when the
same appeals are made, there arc practical
men in every community who remember their
own experience more than twenty years ago;
who know that woollen goods were not rem
dered more costly but wonderfully reduced in
cost, while the manufacture prOspered and grew
in this country as it bad never grown in like
period in any other These men are able to
reason that the same policy, which reduced the
cost of the cheaper and cOarser goods for all
time by encouraging home competition, is
equally able to build up the manufacture and
cheaper the production of the finest goods,
which now have for the first time adequate de-
fensve duties applied.
1t was about the same time also that passion
ate appeals were made to the voters about the
Infamous" duty on steel rails, then for the
first time made high enough to afford protec-
ton. In March, 1868, these cost STA per
ton after ten years the average for the entire
wear 1878 Was but S42 90 per ton, and now
better rails sell for S3O The people have their
reward for treating the Free Traders with con-
tempt. 1t takes less faith now to uphold a
tariff which puts protective duty on tin plates,
and the intelligent men in every community
who know what the one duty has done will not
hesitate to uphold the other, until it in turn
shall have made tin plates cheaper for all the
people.
The majority of tho present voters were not
of age in 1868, and the Democratic party
counts upon their ignorance. 1t trusts. as it
has always fooishly trusted, that American
voters will be found toe stupid to learn from
past experience or to detect lie. "Every-
thing has been made dearer by the new tariff )"
Democracy impudently asserts. as if voters
were too ignorant to understand that duties
on nearly all forms of iron and on cheaper and
coarser woollens have. now been reduced by
the tariff with duties on hundreds of other
articles. Do Democratic organs really think
the people ignorant of the fact that sugar has
been placed On the free list, and that this one
change, which will cut down after April by
81 for every inhsbitant yearly the cost of a
necessary of life to all. far outweighs all the
advances of duty put together. Once more the
Republican party, As many times before, trusts
in the intelligence and practical sense Of the