Blue-grass blade., 1890-10-25
A COMPARISON
or Prohibition and the Tariff
Question as Political Issues.

Ot puDlc Ihorais anu u''"''i' "
terest that could enter into the
composition of any political is
sue. we have offered us by the
Democratic and Republican par
ties the dispute about the Tariff
question. i
The experience of years of
wrangling between these two
dominant parties has shown that
this question is impossible of ad-
iustment, as between them, and
the broadcst intelligence upon the
subject shows that to the public
it would be matter of supremest
Indifference whether the question
were settled according to the
most extreme views of one or
of the other party.
TO Democratic and Republican
politicians, however, it is mat
ter of the greatest importance,
as. having for Sonny years locked
horns on this issue, the one that
first backs down will appear to
have been vanquished, while his
opponent is left victorious.
AS regards the tariff question,
for years, as matter OF conve-
nience, to avoid the necessity of
explanation, l have said | was an
absolute free trader.
Having the same political poll
cy, and desiring and anticipating
the same practical results to ev-
erybody except professional poll
ticians and editors, / am an abso-
Lutte Tariff Protectionist.
The practical results of these
extremes are precisely the same.
The only position on the subject
that necessarily has in it any ele-
ment of political evil is the pres
ent Democratic dogma of "taritf
for revenue only"
The first political idea that l
can remember ever to have ap-
preciated, was when my father,
in talking about the missouri
Compromise" friend and admirer
of Mr.. Clay though he was, said,
"the very word compromise shows
that we are allowing something
wrong"
The proposition is so axiom
attic in its essence that l will pass
it without elaboration.
Mr.. David c. Vance, my neigh
Dor, is a man who, like myself,
has made his living as a farmer.
lie has been a Democrat all his
life; is not educated in politics,
any more or less than l am, but
lie Is distinguished fer7h:s -ros'
session of a plain hard common
sense that arrives at just and ac-
curate conclusions upon political
subjects, without going through
the technical processes OF the To-
gician.
In talking to me, few days
since, he said: "It is plain to my
mind that we ought to have COM
plete free trade or complete pro-
lection to our home industries,
one or the other, and don't care
which,"
MIR. Vance is one of the heavi-
est hemp raisers in the State, and
could not see that it was justice
to him to put hemp, that he had
to sell, on the free list, and make
him pay duty on woolen goods.
sugar, and the cutlery, that as a
farmer he had to buy.
A just political principle will
always admit of general applica-
ton without injustice to any
body. The application of the
idea of tariff for revenue only, is,
from the very beginning, arbitra-
ry and ear pote. The "taritf' tink-
ers" who are intrusted with the
making of tariff schedules, have
first to determine whether it is
right to discriminate between
'luxuries" and "necessaries," and
then they have to determine
which are luxuries and which are
necessaries. They begin this dis
cussion with coffee and tea, and
the combined wisdom of the
world could not settle whether
those two things are luxuries or
necessaries. Then comes sugar,
then tobacco, and then liquors.
Then comes up the question
whether or not silk "gown" is
not as much of a necessity for a
rich woman as a woolen or cotton
one is for a poor woman.
But more important than all
this it is to manage this adjust
ment of tariff rates so as to make
the most friends for the respect
i've parties in whose interest the
thinkers are working. Evidently
as a question of justice, Mr..
Vance and his few neighbors
that raise hemp around the Blue
grass region, are just as much
entitled to protection in their
business as are all the sugar
growers in the South; but while
Mr.. Vance ard his few friends
can be sacrificed with but little
damage to the party, anything