Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-08-04
GETTING IN DEEP WATER.
Changes In His Tariff Views is Heading
Cleveland for the Deep Sea-


Cleveland for the Deep Sea.
New York Tribune: Evidence is not
wanting to show that many democrats
ard independents who voted for Mr..
Cleveland four years ago will resoiute,y
decline to support him this year They
will abandon him because be no longer
represents the principles of his tariff
message and the platform of 1888 He
now stands for a tariff for revenue only.
whe cas- he then advoca ed revision of
the schedules mainly as mea q re-
du ing the surplus revenues. The radi-
cal change in his views may be readily
illustrated. In his tariff message he
said:
"Our progress toward wise conclu-
sion will not be improved by drawing
upon the theories of protection and free
trade. This s2vors too much of handy
ing epithets 1t is a condition which
confronts us-not theory. Relief from
this condition may involve slight re-
duction of the advantages which we
award our home productions, but the
entire withdrawal of such advantages
shuld not be contemplated. The ques-
ton of free trade is absolutely irrele-
want; and the persistent claim made in
certain quarters that all effor,s TO re-
lieve the people from unjust and unnec-
essary taxation are schemes Of so allied
free traders, is mischievous and far re-
moved from any consideration for the
public good. The simple and plain
duty which we owe the people is to
reduce taxation to the necessary ex.
penses of an economical operation of
the government and to restore 20 the
business of the country the money
which we hold in the treasury through
the pervision of government 20 ers.
These can and should be done With
safety to all our industries, without
danger to the opportunity for remp er-
atiye labor which our workingmen need
and with benefit to them and to all our
people by cheapeuing their means of
subsistence and increasing the me sure
of their comforts"
The necessity for reduction of the
surplus revenues was Mr.. Cleveland's
paramount issue in 1888. He disclaim-
ed indiscriminate warfare upon in
dust les and the labor dependent upon
them The democratic platform of that
year closely followed the lines vi the
message and recognized the need of
protecting home industries SO far as
there was any difference in the W ges of
labor at home and abroad. The demo
cratic convention of this year has eX-
plicitly repudiated the clauses % the
last platform in which these conservative
ideas were embodied. By test vote Of
564 to 342 it struck out every sentence
designed to conciliate manufacturers
| and to reassure wage earners nd adopt
ed this radical tariff plank:
1--WE denounce the republican protec-
ton as fraud; a robbery of the great
majority of the American people for the
| benefit of the few We declare it to be
fundamental principle of the demo-
cratic party that the federal government
has no constitutional power to impose
and collect tariff duties, except for the
purposes of revenue only, and we de.
mand that the collection of such taxes
shall be limited to the necessities Of the
govern ent when honestly and eco
nomcally administered.
Nothing could be more uncompromis-
ing than this tariff plank. It embodies
as "a fundamental principle" a denial of
| the constitutional right of congress to
impose tariff duties except for the pur-
pose Of revenue only, and brands pro-
| lection rs fraud and robbery That is
the platform upon which Mr. Cleveland
| has been renom mated That he is at
home upon it and entirely satisfied with
it is evident from his radical utterances
at Providence when he put in higher
| bid for he nomination in these words:
'The en- Commandments are thousands
of years old; but they and the doctrine
of tariff rcform will be taught and
| preached until mankind and the repub-
| lican party shall heed the injunction,
| Thou shalt not steal ," Candid tie and
platform are wholly in harmon They
are alike hostile to the protective policy
dis an organized system of pubic rob.
berry. They are Indifferent to the fate
of home industries and to the interests
of wage earners Without dis zuises and
Juggling of phrases they are for the En-
glish ecoonmic system pure and simple.
Conservative democrats perceive the
wide gulf separating their nvasss in
1888 from the canvas in 1892 They are
hanging back; they cannot follow Mr..
Cleveland. Then he was huggicg the
shore; now he is heading for the deep
sea of free trade