The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-09-29

DEMOCRACY AND THE TARIFF.

The position taken by some Republic
can papers and their echoes in the west
in relation to Inc action OF the Ways and
Means committee on the tariff bill. is an
illustration of Republican political
methods. That committee is required to
prepare and report on a schedule of duties
to be imposed on foreign imports for the
purpose of providing revenue for the ex-
penses of the government. In order to
accomplish this in the most iudicious
manner, having to regulate it IN detail,
to decide which articles shall be placed
on the free list, and which shall be made
to bear a high or low rate of dnty, the
committee have given opportunity to
gentlemen representing various indus
trial interests who have applied for a
hearing, to come before the committee
and make their pleas. Some of them
protest against the placing of goods or
the free list; others desire slight reduc-
ton of the tariff only, while others con-
tend either for present duties or rear
rangement on protection lines.
Now, suppose the committee had re-
fused to listen to these applicants, had
closed their doors against all advocates
of the high tariff theory, and declined to
consider the arguments of dealers and
manufacturers. Would this have been
satisfactory to the Republicans who are
now finding fault with the committee for
treating those gentlemen with proper
courtesy?
Local advocates OF McKinleyism take
the fairness of the committee in hearing
the other side as evidence that the Demo-
cratic party is receding from its platform
position and principles. They are SO
stepped in one-sided partisanship that
they cannot appreciate the fairness ofany
party that has patience to listen to its
opponents, but look upon it as an
evidence of weakening.
One or two papers here are fond of
quoting the New York Sun on this mat
ter, claiming that it is a Democratic
authority, when it is well known that the
Sun is hostile to the party policy on the
tariff The dishonesty of this course
is apparent to people who know the facts,
but those papers do not squirm at a
falsehood or two if that will answer their
purpose. The Sun says concerning the
tariff hearings before the committee:
''They ought never to have been begun. ,"
1t then treats the subject in an ironical
manner which these local sheets take for
dead earnest. and they copy the badinage
with all the gravity of journalistic owls.
Now if the SUMS notion is correct,
~. -
means similar and infexible duty on
all imports without discrimination and
with no free list, the committee of course
would have nothing to do with hearings
or discussions, but only to determine the
customs rate, and there would be no need
of 3 tariff-that is, schedule of duties,
at all. But nobody else understands the
Democratic doctrine as TO the tariff in
that way, and it is not to be supposed
that with the light the San possesses and
disseminates as public journal, it in
tends what it says on this matter to be
taken as anything more than sarcasm.
That both parties are IN favor of tariff
need not be argued. What is a tariff?
1t is a schedule or list of goods that are
made dutiable, with the amounts of
duties imposed. The use OF the word i'm
plies the making OF list or table of arti-
cIes which are to be charged with duties
at the custom house. The difference be-
tween the two great political parties is
not as to the necessity or the meaning of a
tariff, it is as to its primary object. The
Republicans would levy tariff for the
purpose of protecting certain class OF
citizens, to wit, the manufacturers, in
profitable production OF articles at home
which are made abroad and imported into
this country. The Democrats would levy
tariff for the purpose of providing rev.
enue necessary for the purposes of gov
eminent to be economically administered.
Neither system implies fixed and non
Adjustable rate on all articles imported.
Neither party contemplates anything OF
che kind. Any assumption that it does
may afford some amusement, but it casts
no light and answers no serious purpose.
The Democratic party is interested as
much as any other in promoting the gem
eneral welfare. In nothing is it more SO
than in It's tariff policy. 1t is the benefit
of the entire nation that it has in view in
preference to the enrichment of class.
It would limit the revenue to the necessi-
ties Of economical government.
+! On the other hand, while the Republic