Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-10-30
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE.

will once more answer the question
. whether they are fit for self government
For thirty years one great party ha
constantly acted on the belief that tn,
people are not; that they are mostly 81
ignorant that any measure, howeve
! beneficial to them, can be made to seen
offensive by telling lies enough about
its effect. The other great party ha:
acted patiently and bravely upon tht
conviction that the people can bt
trusted; that measure actually calcu
lated to promote their welfare they will
certainly appreciate and uphold.
i The uproar about the Mckinley bill
is but the echo of a similar outcry in
1868 about the tariff revisions of 1866
and 1867, and especially about the wool
and woolens tariff of 1867. Then, as
now, the people were told that all their
wooden goods would be rendered more
costly, so that it would be practically
impossible for a workingman to wear a
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 ben
eft, for they can get suits of clothing
to-day for $40 to 500 far superior to
| those for which, when the tariff of 1867
was enacted, they wonld have been
obliged to pay $40 to $50. The finest
goods, which are worn by comparatively
few, have not been reduced as much in
price, because the nearest and largest
opportunity for the American manu-
facturers 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
developing 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, notwith-
standing all their clamor and all their
falsehoods. Then it required a measure
of intelligence and of faith which is no
louger needed Now, when the same
appeals are made, there are practical
men in every community who remember
their own experience more than twenty
years ago; who know that woolen goods
were not rendered more costly but
wonderfully reduced in cost, while the
manufacture prospered and grew in this
country as it had 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 en-
couraging 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 defensive duties applied.
1t was about the same time also that
passionate appeals were made to the
voters about the '.infamous" duty on
steel rails, then for the first time made
high enough to afford protection. In
March, 1868, these cost $174 per ton;
after ten years the average for the entire
year 1873 was but s42.25 per ton, and
now better rails sell for $50. The people
have their reward for treating the Free
Traders with contempt. 1t takes less
faith now to uphold tariff which puts
a 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 the present voters
were not of age in 1868, and the Demo-
cratic party counts upon their ignorance.
1t trusts, as it has always foolishly
trusted, that American voters will be
found too stupid to learn from past ex.
perience or to detect a lie. "Everything
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 irons
and on cheaper and coarser woolens
nave now been reduced by the tariff,
with duties on hundreds of other
articles. Do Democratic organs really
,hink the people ignorant of the fact
hat sugar has been placed on the free
list, and that this one change, which
will cut down after April l by 81 for
every inhabitant yearly the cost of a
necessary of life to all, far outweighs
Ill the advances of duty put together.
Once more the Republican party, as
many times before, trusts in the intelli-
yence and practical sense of the people.
We shall see whether an empty fear
hat 10 cents per inhabitant will be
added to the cost of tin plates will in
luce them to vote against bill which
also, and without any question, takes
off 81 for every inhabitant from the cost
IF sugar.-Ne1o York Tribune.
Remember next Tuesday, Election