Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-10-31


Our esteemed Republican, cotemp6rary
the VALLEY Virgiseiam has brought ont his
familiar old influential Democrat again.
AS this time-worn member Of the staff has
made many appearances in the Varginaom's
columns just on the eve of elections, and
has come to be viewed with a ishearGening
Indifference on the part OF the audience,
our cotemporary costumes him in a new
character--that Of IAN intelligent merchant
and one of the best business men in the
country" 1t says:
Gas an intelligent merchant and one of the
best business men in the country, and at the
same time one of the most influential Demo-
Gratis in the Valley, said a few days ago, in
response to an inquiry from another Demo-
crat, What he thought about the repeal of
the Mckinley bill THE repeal of the tariff
law would ruin Virginia 1t would arrest all
the Blooms III the State and lay us fiat of our
backs That was a truthful and pregnant
statement. Every enterprise that is now going
on-every boom that is agitating the COM
munity, every mine that is being opened,
every industry that is going up is the direct
lOooiU VI tilC piOtCNUlfC pOIiCA
While it is a little remarkable to find an
Influential Democrat advocating the
most obnoxious measure of taxation that
the Republican party has enacted, it is
even more remarkable to see the childlike
faith our Republican contemporary reposes in
a Democrat. Without producing an argu-
ment to support the assertion, he has only
to declare ''that tie repeal of the tariff law
would ruin Virginia" and our contemporary
turns reverently from the oracle and as
sures the people that s'Ihat was truthful
and pregnant statement. +" If our friend of
the Virginia.a is not hopelessly infatuated
with the opinion Of this influential Demo-
GRAFT, y we would solicit his perusal of the
following opinion of an Influential Repub-
lican, 'an u Senator from Kansas, who
voted against the Mckinley bill, and would
vote tomorrow to repeal it, and who, as we
learn from the following in the same issue of
the Varginian, has interests in the develop
ment enterprises of Virginia possibly equal
to thosesof the Influential Democrat:
Senator Plumb, who has large interest in
mineral and railroad property in Virginia,
recently said that he regarded this State as
the richest i'll the Union in resources, and that
eventually a great boom would sweep over
the Old Dominion and ultimately make her
one of the most prosperous of all the States of
the Union.
This Senator 2. B. Plumb who has SO
much at stake in Virginia, on October Sd
last, in reply to a critic in Kansas who was
taking exceptions to his opposition to the
Mckinley bill. wrote:
Did you never before hear of Republican
who was such notwithstanding he did not be-
lieye in the highest possible protective tariff.
and in giving to the manufacturers everything
they ask for? If all those who believe with
me were driven out of the Republican party,
beg you to take notice that it would not be
very powerful organization. 1t certainly
would not carry many OF the Western States.
How do you account for the fact thata major
ity Of the farmers of New Jersey Delaware.
Connecticut, and large proportion of those
OF Pennsylvania, New York and of Ohio are
Democrats, notwithstanding they live in the
shadow OF the very chimneys for which ex-
IRENE protection is invited Do you think
the tariff is of more benefit to the people of
Kansas than it is to those of PENNSYLVANIA
and Connecticut How does it happen that a
majority of the farmers OF Indiana great
manufacturing State-are Democrats? / am
i
we have gone far enough, and whether we
have gone far enough or not insist that if a
manufacturer wants more protection he must
demonstrate the necessity for it. This has not
insolence which in itself calls for rebule, the
manufacturers and those who represent them
have simply said, we want it and that is
enough. There has not been an argument
which was worth the name offered to show
that higher protection was needed. = VI
You quote Messrs Mckinley and Reed to me-
They are two very eminent men, but human
beings are liable to be mistaken. May not,
in opposition to that, quote Mr.. Blaine to you?
May | also net quote to you the thousands of
Republicans in the State Of Iowa who have
left the party on account Of it's position on
the tariff, whereby that State, instead of Civ
ing 10000 majority, as it did in 1880, Is now in
the doubtful column?
Respectfully yours, P. B. PLUMB.
MI. Plumb has lived and still lives in a
State which is, like Virginia, both agricul-
tural and manufacturing. He has seen
Kansas when it was as newly and freshly
discovered by the world of enterprise as
that portion of Virginia lying west of the
Blne Ridge is to-day. He can understand
from experience that high tariff does not
encourage the growth of a State and can
see that his investments in Virginia are
retarded and imperiled by a Mckinley tar
if bill which cuts off the markets of the
world from us. He can see the folly, the
unparallele / folly of building manufacturing
towns all over Virginia and then passing
tariff bill which shuts their products off
from the markets Of the civilized world.
What is to become of the products of the
mines being opened in Virginia;'of the fac
tories being erected in Virginia; of the
capital being invested in Virginia, if there
is no outlet to the products thereof ?
The Mckinley bill is a Force bill against
the young manufactures Of Virginia,
cramping their field and barring their pro-
gress, and we should just as soon accept
the assertion that the Cabot Lodge Force
Bill was beneficial to Virginia as to believe
that the repeal of this ruinous tax-bill would
''arrest all the blooms in the State" as
the Influential Democrat seems to think.
MErDI NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.