The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-07-21

TIE DEMOCRATIC FREE TRADE PLATFORM.
The tariff plank OF the Democratic plat
form means free trade. and nothing less.
The convention Indignantly repudiated the
plank reported by the committee. because
it had a few oily phrases in it. The dele
gates We're not disposed to butter the free
trade parsnip with soft language this year.
This action of the convention was most
significant. and it means war to knife on
protected labor and industries.
The Democrats have made free trade
their chief and almost their only issue,
and on that doctrine they have at last got
back to first principles.
For over twenty-five Years they have
been qualifying their free trade declara-
tions with deceptive tricks and frauds Of
speech. but they are done with that now.
They have caught their true voice and
talk plainly now as they did before the
war, when one of their leaders in Congress
Garnet, of Virginia. that
Democratic policy aimed at duties .'im-
posed with a single eye to revenue alone,
and not an iota for protection.
Since the days when tariff reform" was
advocated for the express purpose of
cheapening labor and reducing wages, the
Democrats have made a wide divergence,
but it is now ended in complete return
They are tenting on the old grounds of
cheap labor Once more they even deny
the Government the right or power to
protect labor.
Like the tailors of Tooley street, who
called thems elves ''the people" the South
| ern Democrats, possessed of cheap, . half
slave black labor declare themselves
the american people, who are to be
blessed by free trade, while that protec-
ton which sustains vast Northern and
Western industries is alleged to be for
'.the benefit of the few They say:
I'VE denounce Republican protection
as fraud. a robbery of great majority
of the people (?) for the benefit of the
few. (?) We declare it to be the fllnda-
mental principle of the Democratic party
that the Federal Government has no con
stitutional power to impose and collect
| tariff duties, except for the purposes of
revenue only, and we demand that the
| collection of such taxes shall be limited
| to the necessities of the Government when
honestly and economically administered. -
Glorious old Democratic doctrine, this
| 1t means not an iota of tariff duties for
| the protection of labor.
| 1t means that the American labor unit
and standard must be that of the ''half
| slave black toiler of the South.
| 1t means that the natural labor level is
that of the voteless Southern blacks, and
Congress has no right to put any labor on
higher plane than that.
1t means that the Southern Democracy
are determined to exploit labor in the flu
ture as in past not only black, but white
as well. They demand the right to ex-
change the cotton product of cheap black
labor for foreign goods and backload the
proceeds home under low revenue duties,
and hence to sell at rates Northern white
| labor cannot stand.
If there is no power in this country to
maintain duties for protection, and to
keep Northern labor above the ''natural
level,'' millions who have known comfort
heretofore will know only misery hereaf-
| ter.
What is a Government good for if it can
not impose duties to protect labor as well
as to get revenue? National Republican.
If there was but one potato in the world