Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-23
THE REVENUE TARIFF.
Depression Has Followed It Every Time
What Protection has Done Debts
Rapidly Reduced What Mortgages
Maon-Hnra Croolov,a

Depression Has FOLLOWED 1t Every Time
What Protection has Done Debts
Rapidly Reduced - What Mortgages
Mean-Horace Greeley's Declaration.
On the subject of the "tarfff" the issue is
equally we'll defined. The Democratic plat
form declares for purely revenue tariff,
and will not consent that it shall perform
any other service. Duties must be levied
| with a view to revenue, and upon those
foreign products which will yield the great
est revenue, and which will not, incidently
or otherwise, favor domestic industry and
domestic labor. Its one mission and one
mission only is that of raising revenue. If
| in its operations it should favor home pro-
| duction, it would be obnoxious to the princi-
| pie upon which it was originally levied, and
must be repealed or modified.
A revenue tariff, pure and simple, such as
the Democratic party of Ohio advocates.
| can benefit and encourage, and build up o
domestic industry. 1t does not encourage
labor, save in foreign countries. 1t does not
| move single spindle save in foreign coun-
| tries. 1t increases the demand for foreign
| goods, and diminishes the use of domestic
| goods. 1t is for the foreign shop and
against the American shop. 1t supplies
work for foreign labor and takes it from our
own labor. 1t would not light a single fire
| in an American furnace or mill, but would
| extingush those which now burn, unless
our laborers would work at the same wages
as those of competing countries. In short
| it is well conceived to benefit every other
nation but our own.
REVENUE TARIFFS HAVE FAILED.
A revenue tariff has not in our experience
been success even as an agency for raising
the money required for public purposes. 1t
has more than once failed in our history to
supply the revenue wants of the Govern
ment. 1t has found our country prosperous
and our treasury well supplied with revenue,
and a few years under its operation has left
the treasury bankrupt and the business Of
the country in a deplorable condition.
And this is easily accounted for and en-
tirely logical. Commencing with the coun-
try prosperous under protection, the Demo
Gratis have enacted revenue tariff. and the
people of the country, Influenced by sup
posed and temporary profit, buy foreign
be cheaper for the time. But this eventu-
ates in the destruction of our industries, for
it increases the use Of foreign goods, and en-
courages the disuse of domestic goods and
with the disuse of domestic goods comes
diminished production at home and less en-
ployment for home labor, and finally no
erty to the people, which limits their
capacity to buy abroad, and follow
ing that comes diminished importa-
tions and diminished revenues,
and then q deficient and defaulting Treasury
And then there inevitably follows direct
taxation, for if the Government cannot Sc
cure needed revenue from tariffs to meet
the public expenses it must resort to in
ternal taxation. In the meantime, our in
terests are destroyed and our laborers dis
missed from the factory and mine, and
competitors, instead of, as before, his Gus
toners and consumers, and then there in,
variably follows a rise in the price of foreign
goods to the American consumer.
PROTECTION A SURE AGENT
Asa means of raising revenue a revenue
tariff is not as certain and reliable as a pro-
tective tariff. The latter has never failed
in time Of peace, no matter how great were
our expenditures, to supply the revenue re-
Quired, and has never failed but three times,
and then in war, to provide the enormous
revenue required for the public service.
ing agent in raising public revenues, and
while doing this it has served that other i'm
portant office offs adjusting the duties
upon foreign goods, as to give the largest
protection to our own industries, the widest
field of employment for our own labor and
the most generous encouragement to our
own people. 1t serves the treasury, and
while doing so serves our own people in
their industries and employments. There
ought not to be any question, inasmuch as
we have to secure revenue from foreign i'm
ports, as to the character of the foreign
goods upon which the duties shall be i'm
posed. The principle of q protective tariff
requires that articles not luxuries, which we
come in free from tariff taxation, and inn
poses the tariff upon such foreign products
as come in competition with products of our
own land and labor.
AS PLAIN AS AN AXIOM
1t does seem to me that there should be no
difference of opinion upon the subject
among American citizens. As we are COM
PEELED to tax some product every consider
alton, think, should require that the foreign
product be taxed, the taxing of which would