Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-11-22

Unofhcially, but with conviction in every
foreshadowing utterance. the Ways and
Means Committee Of the House Of Repre-
sentatives announce that the tariff bill soon
to be reported will have in 1t none OF the
principles Of protection. Strangely as such
an announcement may sound to many
ears, II is not surprising. The democratic
platform, on which Mr.. Cleveland for the
second time achieved supremacy, denounced
republican protection as a fraud. rob-
berry of the American people for the benefit
of the few" 1t also condemned the Nc
Kinley tariff law as 1.-The eliminating
atrocity of class legislation" and promised
the repeal of that law ''as one OF the be-
nefcent results that will follow the action
of the people In intrusting power to the
democratic party" For the literal fulfill
rnent Of every promise in the tariff plank
there has been continuous demand by such
eminent freetraders as Editor Charles A.
Dana, of the New York Sun; Mr.. Lawrence
T. Neal. who some little time ago imagined
he was going to be elected governor of the
State of Ohio, but who now knows better, and
Col Henri Watterson, who writes pieces"
for the Louisville Courier-Journal. These
faithful apostles of strictly anti-protec-
tive tarin have toiled all the day long and
far into the night that no man should have
occasion to reproach the democratic party
with insincerity and to them the glad news
of promissory unadulterated reform must
have come with the soothing influences OF
a benediction. But how did the facts d.
vulged strike several other people? Odd as
It may seem, there are many democrats
who are protectionists. Only few of them
are protectionists in all the word implies,
but there are thousands upon thousands OF
democratic voters who will watch anxiously
for the initial public appearance of the
Wilson bill, and who, when it is scattered
abroad, are going to indulge in savage criti-
cism of a measure that thrusts keen legis-
Iative knife into interests in which these
thousands upon thousands of democrats
are personally and seriously concerned.
States that gave Mr.. Cleveland their entire
electoral vote. not because of the tariff
plank in the platform, but because he was
the democratic nominee, will protest We
hemently against interference with profit
able Industries. Coal-felds and iron-works
are not possessed by republicans alone, nor
have the believers in protection for Ameri-
can industries monopoly in the raising
of wool or other products that are now
threatened by legislation Of the Indifferent
II not of the actually adverse sort. A large
number of Senators and Representatives
who believe themselves to be democrats
will be out Of harmony with the Ways and
Means Committee on this important bill;
each is going to defend the industries in
which the people he represents are inter-
ested. while more than one or two can be
depended upon to combat the doctrines of
the tarif-reform plank from the beginning
to the end of the debate Doubters seem to
imagine that such q measure as that out
lined by those who speak for the commit
tee cannot possibly become law, but it
must be borne in mind that the President
Is directly behind the bill, and will surely
push it through IL all the forces of the ad-
ministration can do 1t. An exciting strug-
gle may confidently be looked for