The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1891-04-08
LEFT A GOOD RECORD.
THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE
FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS.


The achievements of this Fifty-frst
Congress in actual Hesitation fell much
below the expectations of its friends;
but they were memorable among the
first The Houses great failure was 20
pass the Senate bill for the promotion by
subsidies OF American shipbuilding and
shipowning. lt was a mistake on Mr..
Farquhar's part 10 report n substitute
for Senator Frye's bill, which had passed
the Senate. 1t was mistake on the
part of a score of Republican members
to yield 10 the pressure and blandish-
ments of the lobby of capitalists and
other agents in voting that bill down.
The postal subsidy billwhich was adopted
may effect something, but il Is liable To
an easy handicap from our rivals in this
very field The Postmaster General is
strictly limited as TO the amount he may
pay American ships for carrying the
mails Our rivals need only increase
their postal subsidies beyond this point,
and they will nullify our action by en-
aiding their steamship lines to furnish
transportation still cheaper than we can.
And IL hardly is To be hoped that the
Fifty-second Congress will correct this
mistake ~ repeating the restriction. A
more unbuSineSs-like arrangement than
this of limiting the extent 20 which we
will try 10 counterfeit unfair competition
is hardly conceivable.
The West will be the worst sufferer
from this failure To put our shipping on
a satisfactory footing. The breadstuffs
and meats are the products which most
need the bullet which a wiser policy
would have offered. 1t is they who
most would have thriven by the extern
sion of reciprocity with our Southern
neighborS under the new tariff law.
The great and the lasting achievement
of the session was the protective legiSla-
ton, which embraces three measures:
the tariff administration bill, the tariff
bill and the copyright bill. / would add
as a fourth the postal subsidies bill if
were sure that il is going to do its work.
IL is this legislation, and especially the
reciprocity clause of the new tariff bill,
10y which the Fifty-tirst Congress has
made It's lasting mark on our history.
Its enemies proclaim that it is already as
good as repealed, since the adverse cleo
tions of last November have changed
the majority in the House and weakened
the majority for protection in the Sen
ate. But this is not true.
l. so far as the tariff question entered
into the elections of 1890 it did so
through shameless and systematic mis-.
statements as TO the character and
effects of a law which had not been
tested Every month since that time
has weakened what popular feeling there
was against the bill by furnishing fresh
practical refutations of the falsehoods
with which IL was assaulted. | have re-
spect enough for many of its loudest as
sailants 20 believe that they would not
dare TO repeat what they kept saying in
the four weeks before the election; and
that for the sake of their own character
in this world and their prospects in the
next they wish they had said much less
and had stuck closer to the facts. They
certainly are not now saying what they
did in the concluding weeks of that cam
paign, and some of them are making
wry faces over the facts as TO Mckinley
prices" and wages which protectionist
ewspapers ask them 10 publish. The
force of the "roorbacks" of 1890 is badly
spent already. They never will elect an
other Congress, and the veto of Benjamin
Harrison stands between "snap judg-
ment Congress" and free trade.
>. The issues raised by tho Farmers
Alliance, which led them to vote the
Democrats into power, indicate no con-
version OF the Northwest TO free-trade
doctrines The Western farmer is not
going 10 vote away his best market by
adopting that policy, and when that issue
comes before him he will vote as he did
in 1883. He will do il all the more
promptly because their show of victory
has led the tree-traders to throw off the
revenue reform" mask and TO declare
for the complete and prompt abandon
ment of the policy of protection. Since
last November there has been more
downright free-trade talk than ever be-
fore; and this is but an indication of
what the free traders will do when they
get together in Congress. There will be
plenty of good texts for the next Presi-
Dental and Congressional campaign.
The Mckinley tariff bill is here TO
stay. There will be no new tariff law
passed this century. And with every
year il will commend itself more and
more to the American people, until the
Democracy will no more think of calling
it into question than they do of propos-
ing the repeal of the Sherman law for
the resumption of specie payments. 1t
will come TO he regarded as an accom-
DllSncu ldCt, anu people VIII ASK III
amused wonder how the voters were ca
ioled into so gross a misapprehenson of
its character and its effects as many of
them showed in the snap judgment cleo.
ton.
And the copyright law is fit compile
ment to it. That gives ample protection
to every class engaged in the production
of books, from the author down to the
printers devil. 1t secures the author
against competition with English books
taken without payment to their authors.
1t secures the book-making trades
against the importation OF English books
which have been copyrighted. IL is
forty-four years since the United States
Senate first took up this problem. Now
at last protectionist Congress has
solved il in way that means justice to
all classes OF producers.
The Fifty-frst Congress might have
done better; but IL has done well. Prof.
. Robert Ellis Thompson, in Irish World.
Reciprocity which We DO Not Want.