Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-12-11
Small Effort of a Small Man.
TChicapo Times

TChicago Times.l
But why do we characterize BenJamih
Harrison as Bourbon? Because OF MS
declarations regarding the electlon
law. which the Senate did not pass. and
because notwithstanding the verdict OF
his countrymen expressed with unmls-
taxable emphasis, he stands by tne
discredited Mckinley bill, which ne
signed as his message shows, without
full comprehension of its import lie
states that its terms conflict with rec
iprocity treaty existing between the
United States and the petty kingdom or
Hawaii, and he asks that it be cured In
this particular but in no other. he de-
tends the force bill and urges its pass
age 1t is bill which would revive In
the South the bayonet rule and the
scandalous carpet-bag days and Is
therefore generation behind the time.
There is no likelihood that, notwlth-
standing the Presidents advocacy the
Senate will pass a measure so abhorrent
to the popular sense of liberty and JUS
tice.
The Mckinley tariff bill, which the
President approved and which he con-
tinues to advocate, had well-dehned
purpose regarding nine-tenths oil the
schedules. 1t was drawn in the spirit
of the tariff resolution passed by the
convention which nominated Harrison.
is motive was to discourage lmporta-
talon of such articles as are made at
home, yet we find the President declar-
ing that already we begin to he II from
abroad and from our custom houses that
the prohibitory effects upon our lmpor-
tations imputed to the act are not Justl-
fed" Then it is not efficient.
Wherefore the President rejoices and
demands fair trial for it. The in
creasing price Of commodities, which
tells the real story, the President attrib-
utes to silver legislation, which he APP
proved. Altogether he is in melan-
choly muddle about the matter and
knows nothing more than this, that no
stands for high protective tariff, which
the people have condemned, and hopes
when his own day of trial comes the
people may judge it moro leniently.
The President is not willing to leave to
his Secretary of State any credit for adj
vocacy of reciprocity, but he goes far
ther than the Secretary in suggesting
that reciprocity mean something. We
are to confine free trade to people with
whom we have precious little trading
that is, we are to have a shadow, not
substance.
The message is important only in so
far as it indicates that there will be no
repeal, and no modification except for
the correction of errors, as in the Hawaii
an matter. of the Mckinley law, and
that on the great economic questions Of
the tariff the Republican position, de-
clared at Chicago will not be Substan-
TALLY changed, Notwithstanding popular
disapproval. The Republican is high
tariff party. The reciprocity suggestion
is mere anchor to windward thrown
out for what it is worth-that is, for
next to nothing,
The message has this further inter-
est. 1t is the last but two that Benia-
min Harrison, undou btedly the smallest
man who ever occupied the Presidency,
will form ulate.
Benny Is To, Old to Learn.
[Chicago Post-l
There is nothing in President IIarri-
sons message to indicate that its author
has been impressed with the lesson of
last months elections Those phenom-
email expressions of public opinion con-
veyed to all the world the peoples
unequivocal disapproval of the work of
the controlling party in the F.fty-first
Congress. Whoever. in that party had
taken conspicuous part in the business
of the session was selected for special
rebuke. The single exception was Mr.
Reed, and he was reelected before the
tariff bill had gone into effect McKin-
ley was defeated, and Lodge, though he
escaped that fate, was returned by
majority so greatly decreased as to
amount to moral defeat. A majority
of the House that favored the theories
of Mckinley and Lodge received the
special intima ton of their constituents
that these theories were hateful to the
American sense Of right.
Thus spoke the American people,
almost without regard for party, on No
vember 4. They spoke in vain to Pres
ident Harrison. Within month from
that day he addresses Congress with
what amounts to q special plea
in defense of the very measures
repudiated by the people at the
polls. Less than thirty days ago
the voters declared ir thunderous
tones their Reputation of the Mckinley
tariff bill and of the Lodge election bill:
Mr.. Harrison's retort to this is a mes
sage to Congress impugning the popular
verdict and urging Congress to continue
in the lines of those very measures.
The American people have declared
their will in unmiStakable tones, and
President Harrison has told the Amer
lean people that they don't know what
they want.
1t is difficult to conceive what mo-
tives could have prompted the ut
terance of such message at such
a time. President Harrison has Of
fered to his fellow partisans in the
Fifty-first Congress the choice between
his own expressed will and the ex-
pressed will of the people, He can
hardly expect that he will be preferred
in such an alternative, or if he should
be. that the outcome would be profita-
BILE to his own or his colleagues polite
al hopes. The message has the sole
merit of consistency; but it is the con
sistency of defeated man who can not
or will not acknowledge his defeat.
The Force Eli His Pet Theme.
detroit Free Press
The President stands by his guns in
respect to the tariff and force bills, and
is careful to put his advocacy of them
in the rear of his message, so as to Sc
cure reading for the remainder. Had
he started off with these topics, the rest
would have received scant attention
from the public The most noticeable