Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-10-21


Tariff and silver Questions and the Fores
Bill.
Hon. Wayne McVeagh, one of the cad.
ing Republicans of the nation and who
was attorney general under President
Garfield, has written letter to the Mas
sachusetts Reform club in reply to an in
vitation to deliver an address in which
after announcing his intention to vote
for Cleveland, he saws:
In the present campaign what may
fairly be called the false alarms of the
canvass will prove of little value because
of the general confidence in the safe anc
conservative character of both candi.
iates. The average voter knows thai
free trade is impossible in this country
for the conclusive reason that the vast
revenues now required to meet the ex-
pense of the government will necessarily
afford a far higher degree of protection
to our established and prosperous manu-
facturers than either Alexander Hamil-
ton or Henry Clay thought desirable in
the infancy of our weak and struggling
industries. The average voter also
knows that the irredeemable paper cur
rency in use before the war can never
reappear. On the other hand, he knows
as well that no system of duties or inn
posts, however inequitable, can prevent
our continued growth in wealth, in man
ufactures and in population-a growth
due to the
INCOMPARATIvE GIFTS OF PROVIDENCE,
the intelligence and energy of the people,
and the blessings of Yree institutions.
''While / am more than ever resolved
to hold duty to country far above any
ties to party, 1 find myself at present in
general accord with the Democratic
party and willing to trust its course in
the future. The insight, the courage and
the patriotism the masses of the party
exhibited in compelling the nomination
of Mr.. Cleveland, when he was without
a single officeholder to support his can
didacy, seem to me to demand that l
should meet them in the same spirit and
act with them as long as they maintain
that high standard of policy and of ad-
ministration. 1t is the more easy to do
so because the Republican party, secur-
ing its return to power four years ago by
promising to preserve matters as they
were, at once embarked upon what re-
gard as a reckless and revolutionary pol
icy, even overturning all the safeguards
of legislation in the house of representa-
tives in their haste to pass the force bill
and the Mckinley bill, both to nv mind
unnecessary and unwise measures.
rba 80, IL. E.. 1
measure is not only sure to create far
greater evils than it would cure, but as
also subversive of the rights of the states,
has become so earnest and widespread
that it is said to have been abandoned;
but it must not be forgotten that only
two years ago such a measure was
warmly advocated by President Har-
rison, earnestly supported by the Repub-
lican party and very narrowly escaped
becoming law.
There is no pretense, however, that
the Mckinley bill is abandoned. On the
contrary, our express approval of it is de-
manded. No doubt that bill, which /
but think was an uncalled for dis
turbance of then existing tariffs, greatly
benefited few interests but certainly it
greatly oppressed many others. OF the
were then, as now, in far more urgent
need of free raw materials than of higher
protection. but with raw materials on
the free list the bill could not have
passed, for those having such materials
for sale controlled enough votes to defeat
it, and they were very likely to do so if
their bounties We're discontinued. The
who desired free raw ma |
terial were therefore obliged to Join in |
the Objectionable process of
INCREASING PRICES BY RESTRICTING PRO- |
DUC1ION,
thus adding to the number of trusts by |
which the price of the necessaries of life |
IS placed at the mercy of unlawful COM
Dinations of capital. 1t is not surprising |
hat labor, believing itself to be op- |
pressed, should rise in revolt and civil |
war mas actually ragged this summer in |
four different sections of the country.
md, of course, the farmers. paying more
FOR what they buy and getting less for
what they sell, grow poorer day by
lay, and excellent farms in some of the
most fertile sections of this most highly
protected state will hardly bring the cost
IF the buildings upon them.
But the economic evils, however
great, of the Mckinley bill, and the I'M
system of protection it repre-
'ents, are OF far less importance to my
mind than the moral evils which follow
N their wake. In deciding for what
purposes the masses of the people may
properly be taxed, it must not be forgot
en that taxes have wonderful capacity
tor filtering through all intervening OBJ
'tacles until they reach the bowed back
Of toll and resting there, and therefore
he giving OF bounties under any form
If taxation is mainly the giving away of
he wages of labor. The sad truth that
a1AEil L.. =. L. L