Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1892-09-30
ANNAPoL1s Md FRIDAY EvENINa sEPTEMBER 30 1899
HARRIsON'S LETTER.
A STUMP SPEECH DISGUISED AS
A LETTER.

A Bold and Unblushing Bid for Votes
which he WIN Not Get-Darsng Adap-
tstion of ProtectIon's Paradoxes-Food
Made Both Cheaper and Dearer.
President Harrison's letter of accept
ance is simply aHstump speech in the
form of an epistle. 1t is less docu-
ment to elucidate his views or to ex-
plain his party's purposes than an at
tempt to gain votes by accommodating
those views and purposes to hostile
public opinion.
Four years ago Mr.. Harrison bad only
contempt for "cheapness." Now he
argues that the law passed to increase
prices has really lowered them. The
paradoxes of protection never had a
more daring adapter than the president
According to him the same law has
increased prices to the farmer and made
food cheaper to the consumer, has low
cred the cost of manufactures by taxing
their raw materials, has enabled the
producer to pay higher wages by reduc
ing the price of his product.
Irfone respect only has Mr.. Harrison
the entire bravery of his bourbonisIn;
he defends the billion dollar congress
from its initial usurpation to its closing
outrage. That the people condemned
this congress, and incidentally his adj
ministration, by majority of more than
100000 is calmly ignored by the presi
dent. He says that "a vote of want of
confidence is asked by our adversaries,"
as if that vote had not been given in 1890
and repeated in 1891. The election this
year is simply demand for judgment
npon verdict once rendered and con-
firmed.
President Harrison's tardy recognition
of Mr. Blaines action in forcing the par
tial amelioration of reciprocity upon
bill that had no original saving clause
will hardly atone for his previous action
in claiming all the credit of it. Good
as far as it goes, this SO called reciproc-
ity is still "a sham" as the Democratic
platform declares it to be. 1t INTAKES
foreigners only. 1t applies to our poor
est instead of our best customers. And
il t,favors.other countries at the expense
of our own.
The presidents contention as to the
effect of tariffs on wages is thoroughly
disingenuous, not to say dishonest. He
knows that the duty under the McKin-
ley law in many schedules is more than
the entire labor cost in the articles pro
tected, and yet he repeats the deceptive
claptrap about the necessity of covering
"the differences in wages" between this
country and Europe. he claims that
protective duties strongly tend to hold
up wages, and are the only barrier
against a reduction to the European
scale. when he knows that the wages
in free trade England are from 80 to 100
per cent. higher than in any projection
iet country in Europe, and that the vari-
ations in wages in the same industries
in different states of our Union under
the same tariff are as great as the differ
ence between the average wages here
and in England
1t is characteristic of this nefaSious
system of false pretenses that it should
convert the letter Of acceptance of a
president into the dishonest screed of a
special pleader.
The passage upon the force bill will
be variously interpreted, but fairly read
it seems to be an abandonment of the
extreme policy embodied IN that odious
measure. Two years ago the president
tried to press a force bill through con-
gress. He now talks soothingly of a
nonpartisan commission to devise some
scheme for counting the negro census as
Republican votes. He affects to see,
however, In the new political move
ments" in the south and 1.-THE recent de-
cisions of some of the state courts"
hope that 'the arbitrary and partisan
election laws and practices which have
prevailed may be corrected by the state,
the laws made equal and nonpartisan
and the elections free and honest"
Such solution, he says, would be re-
ceived with rejoicing by his party-the
party Of Wanamaker's pharisaism,
Ouay's corruption and Dudley's bribery
-inasmuch as ga healthy and patriotic
local sentiment is the best assurance of
free and honest elections.
This is the Democratic doctrine, and
while the smooth sayings of candidate
cannot be accepted as binding upon his
party it is evident that President Har-
rison, like Mr.. Reid and the other lead
ers of his party, is anxious to drop the
force bill issue. At least he refrains
from defending it, and definitely sug
gests another and far better method oi
settlement.
But, as we have said before, Mr.. Har-
rison cannot wipe out the Republican
record; he cannot hide facts with pa
laver.-New York World.