Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1892-01-27
How Protection is intrenched.

How Protection is intrenched
Robert Ellis Thompson, one Of the
oldest opponents of the American sys-
tenn of protection, writes the following
for the Irish World: "Mr. Crisp's cleo
ton to the speakership is distinctly the
achievement of the faction which is not
afraid Of free silver, but is afraid Of
free trade. [ wish I could say that its
fear of free trade is fear for the coun-
try; but it is not so. Ii is only fear
for the party. If it were not that they
see the presidential election ahead, and
remember how that issue affected the
vote of 1888. they probably would not
| be whit behind Mr. Mills and Mr.
Cleveland in their readiness to plunge
| the country into an experiment of that
kind. But they have wit to see that
their party might just as well commit
| suicide at once as announce boldly what
it would like to do with the tariff, and
act upon the avowal. So they will at
| tack the tariff piecemeal, as the old
lady shortened her dogs tail-by cut
| ting off an inch fortnight lest it would
| hurt him too much to have it all taken
off at once They will masquerade as
| revenue reformers.' under the badly
worn mask Mr.. Mills had the couage to
throw off in his st. Paul speech, when
| he declared he was for free trade with
| out any qualifications.
"They will not find this policy SO easy
as they did in recent years. Hereto
fore they were able to take refuge be-
| hind the admitted defects and inconsis-
tencies of the tariff, which even protec-
tionists proposed to have revised out of
it. Now they have to face tariff which
the friends of protection thoroughly be-
| lieve in, and which is all Of piece. 1t
is a tariff which has enlarged our free
list, by taking the duties off ali articles
which. on protection principles, ought
| to come in free. 1t is a tariff which
contains not single duty that is not
| beneficial to American labor. 1t is a
| tariff which has redvced the cost of liv-
| ing to every American in the whole
country, while securing the maximum
of employment to labor. 1t is tariff
| whose extension of the free list has re-
| duced the import duties so far that for
the present the problem of disposing of
| a surplus is not an urgent one. 1t is a
| tariff whose reciprocity clauses have
secured a great enlargement of our
commerce with our immediate neigh
| bors on our own continent, and that in
the very articles of farm produce for
which we have been looking for an out
let in the interest of the American
interests of the farmer as producer of
industrial crops, such as wool, as was
| not done by the tariff of 1883.
"There is not u point at which our
| revenue 'reformers' can touch this tar
| iff without manifestly injuring some
great American interest. And there is
not point at which they can attack any
such interest without arousing the unit
ed opposition of all the rest. The
| friends of protection were never 80
united as now. Farmer and manufact-
urer Join hands to-day in the bonds of
common interest. The bitterness bred
| by the inequalities and iniustices Of the
tariff in 1888 is of the past. The whole
country, as was shown by the elections
of last month, has wakened up to the
true character of the Mckinley tariff,
and instead of being the most assailable
of our tariffs, as it seemed year ago, it
already is established in the confidence
of the people, and that all the more for
for the SANDERS with which it was first
assaulted and which have been found
out"
Mr.. Rlaine's Riphf tn Re a Candidate.