The Globe-republican., 1893-08-04
CLEvElAND'S TARIFF VIEWS.
The Presidents Position and the Chicago
EiaffOrm


cles The editor of the Ledger is known
to hold intimate relations with the
president, and its columns have on sew
eral occasions been made a medium of
communication with the public. 1t Is
assumed. therefore, that its statement
as to his attitude on the tariff question
Is authorita.ive-asr really so as If made
by the president personally. 1t is not
surprising that the Ledger manifesto
should have occasioned widespread
amazement 1t attributes to the presi-
dent views which are directly antagon-
istic to those of his party and fatty OPP
posed to his own repeatedly declared
opinions The Ledger says:
Upon the silver question IL is known to ev-
sryonc that there Is no one in authority, no one
IN the country. whose financial policy is safer
Or sounder than Mr. Cieveland's and it is, if
not absolutely known. at least confidently be-
iieved. that his economic policy is opposed TO
any revision OF the tariff which will inlure the
peoples industrial interests or jeopardize their
prosperity Mr. Cleveland is known by his own
declarations. which are conclusive, TO be favor
able to q revision OF the Mckinley act but he
is also known by his own declarations TO be I'M
favorable to free trade or to anything like
?
Or harmful TO our great manufacturing inter
astS"
The democratic policy. as declared at
Chicago, antagonized all protective
duties as robbery and as without war
rant in the constitution. The demo-
cratic national platform demanded that
the Mckinley act, designed for the en-
couragement and protection of our
great manufacturing and industrial in
terests, should be repealed, and pledged
the party to make its repeal special
and immediate duty. MIR. Cleveland,
accepting his nomination on that plat
form, emphasized his approval of its
principles in carefully digested letter
in which he denounced protection as
''eXtortion," as oppressive to the peo-
pie and as directly favorable to pri-
vate and selfish gain" and explicitly af-
frmed that tariff legislation can only
end justification in the necessities of
the government. If any candidate for
president ever occupied. by his own
avowals, an attitude of hostility to the
great system of manufacturing indus
tries which has grown up under repub-
lican tariff legislation, and to the pro-
tective policy which now exists, that
candidate was Mr.. Cleveland. His cleo
ton was urged specifically on that
ground by the revenue reformers and
free traders of the country. He re-
ceived the votes of all such reforners
ami free traders He received as well
the votes of thousands of worliingmen
who had been deluded by his appeals
and those of his advocates into the be-
lief that they were suffering from
evils which he would cure by a reversal
of our tariff policy. His election was
hailed at home and abroad as the
triumph of free-trade ideas. These
facts are known of all. They are part
and parcel of the history of the times.
Is it any wonder, then, that state
mcnt, semi-officially made, that while
in favor of tariff revision, Mr.. Cleve-
land is .'unfavorablc to anything that
would be unjust or harmful to our
great manufacturing interests. should
provoke wide amazement-that demo-
cratic newspapers should receive it
with incredulouS surprise?
1t can hardly be otherwise than that.
i: Mr.. Cleveland's position shall prove
TO be what ii is thus declared TO be,
serious divisions will arise in the demo
cratic ranks as to tariff legislation.
The great majority of the party leaders
are in full sympathy with the Chicago
platform They honestly desire the
determination of the protective system,
root and branch. They are unwilling
now to acknowledge that they won the
presidency by false pretenses. These
men will not tamely acquiesce in the
proposed abandonment of the vantage
they have gained by long years of
stubborn fighting. 1t maybe they will
not be able to hold their ground-we
hope they will not be able-but they
will not surrender, without a desperate
struggle, the principle which they re-
gard as fundamental in the party faith.
Republicans, of course. will find gen.
rine satisfaction in this possible demo
cratic breakup on the tariff question.
The matter, however, has higher than
a partisan significance. 1t involves the
welfare of great national interests
which the accepted democratic policy
menaces with disintegration and ruin.
The conservation of these interests
should be the first concern OF repub-
licans. If that result can be reached
through democratic discussions, precipi-
tated by the president, then surely
these dissensions are to be welcomed.
We may have little respect for the con-
sistency of the man who, once lifted to
place, can repudiate the declarations
by which he climbed into power: but
if that insincerity inures, in the inev-
liable 10 gic of events, to the advantage
of the public, we can well afford to
moderate our partisan criticisms of the
spectacle of political regeneration
thus presented, in keen enjoyment of
the continued practical triumph OF
principles for which we stand, and have
always stood, in our politics frank
I.eslie's Weekly.
Reports from democratic author
tiles indicate more positively from
week to week that the browning fea-
ture of the coming democratic revenue
measure will be the sugar tax The