Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-09-08
CANDID FREE TRADERS.

ism.
CANDID FREE TRADERS.
Illustrations of How the English and til,
Southern Free Traders Tell the Truth.
Chicago Inrer-Ocean: We admire Tie
English and the southern free traders
because they tell the truth. We de
| spise the northern free traders because
| they dare not tell the truth. Free
trade, or tariff for revenue only
which is as near to free trade as it is
possible to get under existing circum
stances, means free admission from AL
countries in which labor is cheap of al
things that are, or easily can be, pro
duced by the weIl-paid labor of Ameri
cans, and the consequent reduction OF
the price of American labor. 1t also
means the imposition of duties ''fol
revenue only" on all such things as
Americans need, but which they can
not sufficiently produce, to which
class sugar, tea and coffee belong.
1t has been republican policy to make
these things free Of duty for Il tariff
on them is "a tax" because it does not
protect and therefore it does not stimu-
late production, and therefore does not
excite that competition which neces-
sarly lowers prices to the consumer.
Just as sure as it has been republican
policy to make these things free OF
duty, it will be democratic policy to
tax them. For when the duties on
wool. iron, tin plate and other articles
are repealed, as the democrats promise
that they shall do, there Will be such a
deficit i'll revenue as will compel the
levying of taxes on sugar and other ar,
ticleS that we consume but do not pro-
duce, or do not produce in sufficient
quantity for our use.
The northern democrats deny this,
for they know that the working7nen
never can be persuaded to vote for a
party whose policy it is to admit free
of duty all things that compete with
the products of northern labor, and to
tax all things that are bought with the
wages of northern labor.
But the southern democrats do not
deny it. The New Orleans Daily
States, easily the leader of the ultra
Bourbon democrats of Louisiana, had
this to say to the sugar planters of
that state, no later than the 9th day of
this month. We entreat q careful pc,
rusal of our contemporaries editorial ut
terauce:
The facts have shown, beyond all
question, that the tariff for revenue
democrats are the friends and the pro-
tectiOniSts are the enemies of the sugar
industry. But these men are Indifferent
to facts while they worship a rame
That every democrat who is an author
ity, and every democratic paper which
represents anything, have stood resO-
lutely for the sugar tariff, while every
republican who is an authority and
every republican organ, great or small,
nave denounced that tariff, and that the
republican party repealed the sugar
tariff"
This is truthful history; not the less
truthful that it is recorded by a demo-
cratic scribe.
AS to what is in the future, we will
let the New Orleans Daily States pre-
dict:
The only difference in the policies
that will be pursued by the two parties
is Just this, and mark it: If the demo
cratic party captures the government,
the sugar bounty will be withdrawn,
and the sugar tariff will be restored:
while if the republican, or protection,
party remains in power, the sugar
bounty will be withdrawn, and sugar
will remain on the free list. That is
the difference, and let sugar people Of
Louisiana keep it in mind"
This is q truthful prediction; not the
less truthful because the utterance of a
democratic prophet.
Let northern wage earners and house
holders of all conditions take notiLe
that the leading democrats declare that
to elect Cleveland is to reimpOse the
tax on sugar. We say the leading
democrats advisedly, for what the
south wills that the northern demo-
cratic leaders accomplish in humble
even the humblest, submission to their
poor but naughty masters.