Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-04-14
Cleveland and the Tariff.

Louisville Courler-Journal.
1t was not Mr.. Cleveland's career
as mayor of Buffalo nor his service as
governor of New York nor his record
as an administrative officer at Wash
ington that made his nomination in
1892 certain and his election sure.
The supreme act which gave Mr..
Cleveland his support among the
people was his tariff message of 1887.
If it defeated him in 1888, which we
deny. it nominated and elected him
in 1892. That message bristles with
declarations, such for instance As
this:
These laws ii. e. tariff laws) as
their primary and plain effect raise
the price to consumers of all articles
imported and subject to duty, by
precisely the sum paid for such du-
ties
Concerning the effect of the tariff
on wages, Mr.. Cleveland said: The
laborer receives at the desk of his
employer his wages, and before he
reaches home is obliged in purchase
for family use of an article which en-
braces his own labor. to return in
payment of the increase in price
which the tariff permits, the hard
earned compensation of many days of
toll" These expressions and such as
these more than five years ago
aroused throughout the country an
admiration which the president had
no opportunity to justify during the
next four years. The Mills bill was
a tentative measure; it was the mod
itication of an ini9uity; it was in no
sense an attempt to uproot that in
EQUITY.
In 1892 the democratic platform
was concise, clear and defiant. The
party realized that the time for apol-
ogies and explanations had ceased.
1t determined to appeal to the coun-
try on an issue so clear cut that no
man though fool, need err therein.
Hence this plank in the platform:
I'VE declare it to-be a fundamental
principle of the democratic party
constitutional power to impose and
collect tariff duties except for the
purpose of revenue only, and we de-
mand that the collection of such
taxes shall be limited to the necessi-
ties of the government when honestly
and economically administered"
On this platform it placed Grover
Cleveland. In his Madison square
speech Mr.. Cleveland took ground
that was an advance on his tariff
message. I'VE insist said he,
THAT no plan of tariff legislation
shall be tolerated which has for its
objects and purpose forced contri-
button from the earnings and in
comes of the mass of our citizens to
swell directly the Accommodations of a
favored few; nor will we permit a
pretended solicitude for American
labor, or any other specious preteXt
of benevolent care for others to blind
the eyes of the people to the selfish
schemes of those who seek, through
the aid of unequal tariff laws, to gain
and unreasonable adj
vantages at the expense of their fell
lows"
In.his letter of acceptance Mr..
Cleveland declared that revenue was
the only possible excuse for a taxation
on imports. and the theory of a tariff
for protection is, he said, directly
by every sentiment OF
Justice and fairness of which Ameri-
cans are pre-eminently proud"
In the face of such expressions as
these, expressions of which no man
can find a double meaning, it is sur
prising to read in a journal like the
Troy Press such paragraphs as these:
1T was Cleveland's disregard of
the tariff plank, courageous indorse-
ment of mild protection and graft
flying advance in political science
that gave him tens of thousands of
votes which the Watterson plank,
taken by itself. would have repealed.
Cleveland fearlessly defined his
position before election, thereby
avoiding any charge of inconsistency
or treachery, and upon his declara-
ton of principles he was overwhelm-
ingly elected
HE was was his own platform
The masses understood and trusted
Cleveland more thoroughly than they
dld any party platform"
Mr.. Cleveland il no more his own
platform than he is his own party.
He stands where his party placed
him, and his public utterances are in
perfect accord with the principles of
an enlightened and disenthralled
democracy.
Now the party approaches the time
when it must put its creed into deeds
1t has control of She executive and