Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-11-23
PUBLIC OPINION.
DEMOCRATS IN TROUBLE,


ton which has disclosed a most extra
ordinary change in public opinion, the
party is compelled to act in Congress on
the most difficult and delicate of all
questions. By its declarations in the
past, its pledges to constituents, and
particularly by its denunciation of the
Mckinley tariff, the party has bound
itself hand and foot in many respects.
1t is no longer possible for it to consider
how few unimportant notifications
of the present tariff may be made with
safety If the party frames such bill,
it eonfesses that all its denunciations
for three years past have been dishonest
and untruthful, or else it exposes itself
to defeat at the hands of its own voters,
who believed what it had declared re-
specting the evils of the Mckinley
tariff and its consequences. At the
West and South there are great bodies
of voters who have been taught year
after year to regard Protection. not
merely as a robbery in the abstract, but
as a robbery of them in particular. If
the Democratic party announces to these
voters that, having entire power in both
houses of Congress and in the Executive
Mansion, it proposes to continue that
system of robbery, it will expose itself
to a crushing defeat at the hands of its
own supporters.
On the other hand, the attempt to
frame bill of such nature as to satisfy
the Eastern tariff reformers has become
particularly difficult one. To the
voters and writers of that class free raw
materials have seemed to be an absolute
necessity. They have persuaded them
selves, and told everybody else, that
unless the industries of the country
could have the benefit of cheap raw
materials they never could be expected
to prosper. SO these people have petit
toned year after year for free coal and
free wool and free iron ore and free pig
iron, and have maintained that in New
England and other Eastern States this
change alone would go so far to
strengthen industries and toinsure their
prosperity that a great reduction OF the
duties on manufactured products could
then be safely made. But now comes
The question whether, in States like New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Virginias,
Tennessee and Alabama, it will be polit
ically safe to vote for removal of duties
on coal OF iron ore. From the recent
election it is already perceived that the
proposed removal of the duties on wool
is not regarded with intense satisfaction
in Ohio or other Western States. To go
forward and make raw materials free of
duty, as the party has distinctly pledged
itself to do, would appear in the light
of the recent election very much like
suicide. On the other hand, to refuse
the remedy for which Eastern Demo-
Gratis have been clamoring all these
years would in all probability cost the
party heavily in the Eastern States.
The difficulty is equally great respect
ing the adjustment of duties on many
manufactured products. 1t will be re-
membered that at the last session of
Congress two years ago Democratic
members of the Committee of Ways and
Means protested most earnestly against
the reduction of the duties on woolen
goods below so per cent, even in con-
sideration of the entire removal of
duties on wool. They argued with great
force that it would simply destroy the
wooden manufacture in this country to
cut off all the specific duties, and at the
same time to reduce the ad valorem
duty below so per cent. But it is now
reported that TIE committee has virtu-
ally decided to cut down the duty on all
wooden goods to 80 per cent, and it is
well known that the Western and South
ern Democrats, whose influence in the
party is at present predominant, have
insisted upon such reduction Of duties
as the one thing necessary to justify
them before their constituents. They
have been pretending that woolens were
rendered far too costly by the outrageous
Mckinley tariff, and that it was nothing
less than robbery to impose on woolen
goods duties which averaged about so
per cent. These Congressman feel that
they can not 60 before their constituents
without disgrace if they do not at least
exert themselves to the utmost to secure
reduction of duties below that figure.
The same difficulty arises regarding
many other manufactured products.
After declaring for years that the pres
ent duties are outrageously high and
involve robbery of the consumers for
the benefit of favored class of manu-
facturers, the Democratic party now has
to decide whether it will give the lie to
all its professions, or make such a re-
duction of duties as it has pretended to
desire.
Perplexing enough at any time, the
problem is particularly troublesome to
Democrats at this time because of the
needs of the Treasury. In some way a
larger revenue must be secured, or else
appropriations must be greatly reduce d
The party does not dare to reduce ap-
propriations. Probably it will not dare
to increase the internal taxes on liquors
and tobacco. If it restores the duty on
sugar, or any part of it, that will be
found particularly costly step at the
West. Yet in some way the revenue
must be had, and in some way the party
must at least appear to be reducing the
taxes which the people have to bear,
while at the same time obtaining larger
revenue than before.
HOW ABOUT SPRECKELSf
New York Press.
How much has Claus Spreckels, the
Hawaiian sugar monopolist and coolie
driver, had to do with the Cleveland |