The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-09-15
ISSUES OF THE DAY.
CANDIDATE sTEvENsoN's ADDRESS AT
BLOOMINGTON, ILL.-THN WAR
TARIFF AND THE FORCE BILL.

TARIFF AND THE FORCE BILL.
Vice Presidential candidate, Adlai E.
Stevenson, spoke before great gather
ing of Democrats at Bloomington, Ill.
Mr.. Stevenson's speech, which was re-
ceived with tremendous enthusiasm, in
substance was as follows:
"The responsibility of determining
what line of public policy shall be pur-
sued, and who shall be selected as Chief
Magistrate, IS again upon us. Upon
tee correct determination of these ques-
tlons through the peaceful methods pre-.
scribed by law, will depend the welfare
OF the people.
''It will be my endeavor to suggest
some of the reasons why Mr.. Cleveland
should be elected President and the
Democratic Party restored to power.
The four years administration of Presi-
dent Cleveland was confessedly an
honest administration. Those who pre-
dlcted evil from Mr.. Cleveland's election
proved false prophets. The Democratic
administration ending March 4, 1889,
has gone into history as an economical
and able administration of the Govern.
ment. No scandals attached to any OF
its appointments to office.
Vat the close of President Cleveland's
Administration the surplus IN the Treas
ury. exclusive of the gold reserve, was,
in round numbers, eighty-three millions
of dollars.
"What is the condition that now con-
fronts us at the end of three and half
years of Republican administration On
the basis of revenues to the Government,
as estimated by the Secretary of the
Treasury, for the present fiscal year, and
of the liabilities of the Government on
account of the annual and permanent
appropriations for the same period, there
will be a deficit of fifty-two millions of
dollars. The bankruptcy which now
threatens the Treasury is the result, first.
of the enactment of the Mckinley Tariff
law, and, secondly, OF the lavish appro-
priations of the Fifty-hrst Congress.
THE TARIFF.
!. .sThe tariff is the all important issue
| bf the campaign. The position of the
two leoding political parties upon that
Question cannot be misunderstood. The
Republican Party, as illustrated by its
recent enactment of the Mckinley law,
stands for a high protective-in other
words. prohibitory tariff. The Dem
ocratic Party, as emphasized by its ut
terances and its acts, is the advocate of
tariff reform.
"The argument advanced by the early
advocates of protective system was the
necessity of protecting our ''infant in
dustries." :" Yet Mr.. Clay, the author of
the famous tariff bill with which his
name is inseparably associated, declared
such protection to be only temporary,
and that SO soon as such industries were
able to stand alone, tariff duties should
be reduced. The compromise tariff law
of 1888, of which Mr.. Clay was the
author, provided that at the end of ten
wears there should begin rapid reduc-
ton of duties, until the average rate
should not exceed twenty per cent. In
view of the fact that protection to the
"infant industries" has more than
trebled since the passage of the bill OF
which Mr.. Clay was the author, Clay
wouh himself, if living, be now de-
nounced as free trader by the protec-
/ tionists.
"rhe average tariff tax at the begin
ming of the Civil War in 1861 was but
nineteen per cent. To purchase NUM-
tions of war, to arm and equip soldiers
and meet all of the expenses incident to
the great struggle, required large sums
of money. Tariff taxes were largely IN
creased. Our Government was in the
throes of war, struggling for its exist
ence, and but little heed was given by
the people to the fact that duties under
the new tariff law were not only highly
protective to manufacturers but burden
some to the people. But this was not
all. BY subsequent increase by success
sive Republican Congresses the average
rate of duties reached four per
cent. This was the average rate of tariff
taxes when the Mckinley bill became the
law.
SIN the early days of the war new
system of taxation was devised by Con.
gress known as the Internal Revenue
system, by which enormous sums flowed
into the Treasury. With the war closed,
a Republican Congress relieved the
manufacturers from this taxation, and
added to their profits and to the burdens
of the people by increased duties. l
grant the necessity of repeating these in
terral war taxes when the evidences of
war no longer demanded their con-
tinuancc. But why did not the Repub-
lican Congress repeal the war taxes
tariff taxe.-which bore so heavily upon
the farmer, upon the mechanic, upon the
laborer, upon the great mass of our
people9 Why was not the war tax re
duccd upon the necessaries of life2
"Why remove from the manufacturer
the tax of less than five per cent. and
leave him the power to tax the consumer
forty-seven, sixty, eighty per cent. upon
hats, upon shoes, upon blankets, upon
clothing2
''But this is not all. The protected
classes growing year by year stronger