The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-06-22
THE TARIFF IS THE ISSUE.

Whether Mr.. Cleveland is chosen OF
nor, it is certain that the democratic
party this year will make tariff reform
the slogan OF battle. All other ques.
tions will be subordinated to this great
issue. On it the party will stand or fall
in the November election. but in either
event the tariff campaign will go right
along just the same. It will be a fight
on lines very briefly stated in a resolu-
ton adopted in the democratic national
convention in 1910 when Martin Van
Buren, was renominated for president.
1t reads, Resolved that justice and
sound policy forbid the federal govern
ment to foster n branch of industry
to the detriment of another. Il & That
no more revenue ought to be raised than
is required to defray the necessary ex-
penses of the government" ...
1t is the same old fight with a diff
ference in conditions but not in the JUS
tice OF the principle. In 1888 Grover
Cleveland and the great tariff reform
leaders threw down the gauntlet to the
protected manufacturers and legislative
tools of monopoly. Mr.. Cleveland was
beaten by the enormous use of funds
raised from the manufacturers who have
tattened at the expense of the people by
means OF legislative favors. But since
Mr.. Cleveland's defeat there has been a
wonderful change in the public mind,
The uprising among the farmers of the
western and northwestern states which
has developed into the formation of var
ious political organizations is due pri-
marily and solely to the growth of
knowledge concerning the tariff and it's
effects. The campaign of education
waged necessarily in the last four years
is bearing fruit. The voters of this
western country have learned the mean
ing OF that axiomatic phrase in the dem
ocratic platform OF 1883, "Unnecessary
taxation is unjust taxation" The fight
has been extended into fields OF intelli-
gence where the use OF Doodle cannot
control.
III Mr.. Cleveland is nominated it will
be because the great mass of democrats
in the knowledge that he is the great
leader in this movement, insist that
despite petty factional quarrels, he shall
carry the banner in the march on the
Chinese wall tariff. He may not have
the shrewdness or diplomacy accorded
to what are commonly known as politi-
cal managers; he may be lacking in the
personal magnetism that has at different
times brought common men into the
foreground OF leaders; he may be obsti-
nate in the sense Of refusing to yield
when he believes himself to be right
But the American people have faith in
him. They believe him to be honest.
fearless, independent, and that his every
act is impelled by a sense OF copscien-
tious duty. In the warfare against the
tariff he is the natural leader.
The coming campaign will undoubt-
eddy be the most remarkable in the his
tory OF this government except when
war issues we're involved. 1t will be the
death struggle of the tariff barons TO
continue their reign over the Masses;
it will be fought by all available means,
In the light of past events, improbable
as 1t may seem from a strict political
view, we believe that several hitherto
republican states west OF the Mississippi
river will 60 democratic. The awaken.
ing OF the people in this section to a
knowledge of the iniquities of tariff leg
lslatlon surely means that they will vote
this fall as they never voted before.
On with the fight then, and let it be
to q finish