Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-04-22
The Issues and the Candidates.
For the DisDatch.l

III we are to have OUT one ISSUE III 'ho
approaching presidential canvass, and that
issue the tariff, is 1t to be question OF
protection versus free trade? II not that,
is il then to be o question OF protection
versus q tariff for revenue only, with such
incidental protection as must inseparaoly
attach wherever duty is imposed on
foreign product coming into competition
with a similar product of this country
If it is to DO free trade the issue Is easily
made up But II we are to have free tfaue,
the government being obliged to have
revenue from some source. we must have
n searching system of direct Federal taxa.
tion. and along with II swarms of Federal
tax-gatherers to worry and harry the peo-
ule. to say nothing of the immediate party
enginery to be found in the power OF such
a personnel. IL it IS to be tarif for the
sole purpose of revenue, but inevitably
affording protection in some instances, 1t
brings the matter to the same old as
meet. as we have all been so long ac-
customed to seeing it. and the line
to be operatively drawn for material
results becomes so sinuous again that there
is difficulty IN defining il. All good Demo-
Gratis are opposed to the Mckinley tariff,
because the Mckinley tariff is extreme and
monopolistic; but with the reciprocity
supplement attaching to 1t. even the Nc
Kinley tariff becomes tempered with
something of Democratic tone, carrying
a suspicion of the spirit of free trade along
with it. And so we go! The fact Is, no
Democrat who favors the exclusion OF
Chinese labor and the inhibition of Euro
pean contract labor can nationally deny
that he tayors these two things tor the
purpose of protecting American labor. And
where is the difference between protecting
home labor from foreign labor and pro-
tecting the products OF home labor from
the products OF foreign iaDorf lweedle-
dunn and tweedledee!
Let us have tariff reform rs an issue but
not as the absorbing issue in the presiden-
tial canvass. The currency question, the
question of increasing the circulating me-
dunn of the country, the question OF free
coinage for silver. is the question to strike
straight into the households of the masses
of the people, and to stir the popular
heart as it must be stirred to bring, about
Democratic victory next ran Let
the issue be made upon that. not
obviously, but clearly and boldly,
and the Third party phantom will
promptly disappear. The farmers OF
the West and of the South have been
reading and thinking on this homely mat
ter of finance which Is so practical TO
them. And they are organized as great
host for the protection OF their own imme-
date rights as the producers Of the neces-
sarjes of life for their fellow-men. who
must not continue to practice. the arts OF
| financial legerdemain. with the interests
of agriculture as their offering to Moloch.
| Fiscal reform is much closer to the hearts
| of the people than tariff reform. And If
| this staring fact shall be UNDECIDED by the
| Democratic convention at Chicago we
shall have the modification of see
al rxvTh
and q Republican victory as the
results Of our fatuIty. The day is
going BY for ell sorts OF distractions.
| There is an increased and increasing light
| upon the popular mind. Plain men with
| unitarian ideas have learned for them
selves that metallic money becomes some
thing of O myth when it Is compared In
| quantity with all other moneys performing
every function of circulating medium
| and of measure of value every hour OF
every day in every department of
business throughout this land. Such
| men care little for the glamour
| of the CLINT of gold that charmed
| the barbara eye In the centuries that have
| gone, and which still holds its spell upon
mental and moral visions otherwise ap-
preclatine the brighter lights OF this broad
aud broadening age through which we are
passing. The plain, practical man OF this
era, in this country at least, is reading and
| thinking for himself now; and while he Is
not bothering his brain with the fossil
! formulas of fiscal science, he is reach
| ing conclusions satisfactory to CON-
mon sense so far as money as circu-
| lating medium and measure OF values
| i, concerned. Hence, / say. let us
accept the free-coiDage question as our
main issue for the canvass. 1t would
arouse O passion of party spirit such as
| this country has never yet seen; and, with
| the mighty West and the South Joining
hands and hearts upon it, a Democratic
| triumph would be assured TO US. II, how
ever. It shall be tinidly deemed too dam
| perous an experiment to make the issue
boldly in the Chicago platform. let the
platform be delphic, II you choose. and let
| Daniel w. Voorhees,, of Indiana, be
brought before the country as the
| Democratic candidate for the presidency.
| His record Oh the currency question
would prove to be platform enough to ex-
ercise the Third party to make assu-
rance doubly sure" as to the continuance
| of a solid South to sweep the West with
Democratic cyclone, to give US victory
Of the people over plutocracy, and to clear
| the way for O long continuance Of Demo-
cratic ascendancy in the councils OF the
country. BAKRs T. LEE.
Il