Huntsville gazette., 1891-12-12
PROTECTION DEMOCRATS.
Signs of q Coming Struggle Between Con
tending Elements.

l
tending Elements.
In 1860 the democratic party declared
in its national platform in favor of
| progressive free trade" The tariff
then in existence was the extremely
| low one of 1857, with its average duties
of only about twenty per cent 1t was
not low enough, however, for the demo-
Gratis of that day under control of the
south. When the whig party broke
up on the slavery question number of
| its mem bers, north as well as south,
went over to the democracy, taking
with them their Henry Clay protective
principles. AT later day, owing
chiefly to the prohibition agitation,
there were numerous German seces-
sions to the democracy, most of those
who went over being moderate pro-
| tectionists.
| The result of these migrations from
one political camp to another was the
creation of strong protection element
in the democracy reinforcing the Penn
| sylvania democrats who had always
been for protection as far rs their
| special industries were concerned
This protection wing of the party was
strong enough to have its say in the
formation of national platforms. In
1880, when the democrats declared for
"a tariff for revenue only" and were
beaten, this old pro-slavery whig
element was able in 1884 and 1888 to
secure recognition of the principle
that tariff revision should be carried
~, ob "a 1nyrrS
the pay of the American workingman,
nor to deprive the manufacturers OF
such protection as would enable them
to pay the high wages.
For the last year. however, owing to
the death of Randall and the aggres-
sive policy of Cleveland, Mills and
WatterSon, the old school free-trade
section of the democracy seemed to
have crushed out the moderate protec-
ton faction, which had no newspaper
organ left except the New York Sun,
whose editor can swallow Tammany,
but not free trade. But there are signs
which tend to show that the protection
element in the ranks of the democracy
is not dead but sleeping, and that it is
preparing to reassert itself and dictate
to the party at large.
The contest for the speakership be-
tween Mills and Springer is fight be-
tween the two sects. The out-and-out
free traders, the men who were reared
in the doctrines of Calhoun, or came
into the party as mugwumps, will
with hardly an exception be found on
the side of Mills. The old pro-slavery
whig recruits and the German auxil-
iaries and the men who, while they
may be for free trade in theory, think
it would be impolitic to act on it as
presidential issue, are for Springer
The tariff policy OF the Texan as laid
down by him the other day crawfshes
considerably since he left the stump.
He no longer tontemplates absolute
free trade. If free trade be represent
ed by one hundred, the proposed reduc-
ton of the tariff now advocated by
Mills would be but about forty or fifty
But on the same scale Springer's tariff
| policy would register only fifteen or
eighteen-a little lower than Randall's
Whichever way the speakership is
settled it is not likely that the internal
tariff question will be ended. The bat
| tie will have to be fought over again in
the national convention next year be-
| tween the free traders and the protec-
tionists, reinforced by the men who
| are after the offices and who think a
free trade platform might beat them in
| 1892 as in 1880. And in this struggle it
is not improbable that the tariff re-
vision" wing will have western as
well as eastern organ. Chicago Trib-
une.
nDIET oDIhJOh