St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-05-22
WE sHUDDER WITH DIsMAY.


secure its share of the business.
WE SHUDDER WITH DISMAY.
Taking about the reciprocity fake,
the Minneapolis Tribune says: 1.-THE
removal of a tax of nearly $4,000, 900
from the backs of the people at one
stroke, through free sugar alone. has
sent through Democratic ranks shud
der of diSmay."
This is enough to make strong men
weep. Why on earth should the De-
suffering from nervous prostration,
shudder with dismay because when you
take the duty off an imported commod-
ity it appears that you take it off? Does
the Dakota farmer who writes the tariff
editorials for the Tribune suppose that
there are some glbbering idiots some
where who think that when You Ike
the duty off an imported commodity you
put it on?
OF course, if you reduce the tariff on
goods you lower their price. This is
good Democratic doctrine, and for its
actualization the GLOBE has all along
been fighting, because the GLOBE be-
lieves that cheap goods mean prosper
ity and comfort for the masses. But
the protection-pOisoned invalidS of the
Republican fold have not reasoned in
this way. They have had three posi-
tions, from one to the other of which
they have jumped with bird-like facility,
as the eXigences of debate demanded.
One of their positions has been that
If you reduced the tariff you raised the
price, because the wicked foreigners
would at once make combination to
put it up. When this seemed a little
thin, they have shouted that tariff re-
duction would have no effect on prices
at all because the foreigners paid the
duty anyhow, and it came out of their
pockets. This did we'll enough on some
occasions, but when they met man
who had sense enough to show them
that it was shallow lie, they leaped
at once to the tOpmoSt perch of protec-
zionist absurdity and declared that the
higher the prices the better it was for
the community. This last is the bona
fide simon pure HARRISON theory, and
burned into the memory of the Ameri-
can people by the Infamous epigram
that "cheap goods mean cheap men,
1t really is very daring for an organ
pledged to the idealization of WILLIAM
HENRY HARRIsoN's hat to repudiate
all of these notions in the course of
quarter of column. The Tribune now
admits that if you take the tariff off
sugar you reduce its price, and it goes
further and says that this is good
thing. The GLOBE congratuIates its
contemporary on its change of heart,
and does not feel single shudder of
diSmay as it does so. But it asks
question, and here it is: If the removal
of the duty from sugar reduces its
price, and this reduction in price is a
thing to be glad for, why would not the
reduction of the tariff on the other
necessities of life reduce their price.
and why would not such reduction be
a thing worth having? Why if ''S7O,-
900, 900 taken from the backs of a bur-
dened people, bring a welcome relief
would it not be wise to take off twice
$40, 100000 in some other schedule than
that Of sugar?
The GLOBE thinks that it would be
wise and its nervous system is quite
unshattered as it makes the confession.
1t has no fault to find with any tariff
reduction. But it does find fault with
the tariff tinkering of the MCKINLEY
bill even where it essays reduction, be-
cause this tinkering is piece of wicked
hypocrisy. The Minneapolis Tribune
knows as we'll as anybody that the $7O.-
100000 of revenue receipts from the i'm
portatiGn of sugar, of which it speaks,
have not really been abolished by the
MCKINLEY bill. The tariff has been
taken off raw sugar, but bounty
to native sugar producers of
an equal amount has been sub
stituted for it. The pernicious system
of assisting one class OF producers by
presents from other classes is still adj
hered to. Under the old system the
funds for this contribution were ac-
cumulated by taxing all the sugar which
applied for admission to,Our ports. Now
1t is gotten in some other way. The
sugar growers are given bonus. But
where do the funds for this purpose
come from? The government does not
make them, does it? Not at all. 1t ac-
cumulates them by taxation. 1t no
longer taxes sugar to help the sugar
growers, but it taxes other commodities
more heavily to help the sugar growers.
This takes no burden from the backs of
an exhausted people. 1t only substi-
tutes one weight for another. For this
sort of tariff reform the GLOBE has no
stomach. 1t hates it as it hates all
hypocricy, and that is what it means
when it calls the HARRISON reciprocity
concoction fake. The Tribune may
see something to applaud in such eco
nomic jugglery, but it is not to its credit
if it does.
THE TIN HUMRUG.