The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-05-11

| IDEILONI dttC OSC4etI ti+JIlo DciAL : CAENtiOt
were positive. aud TO the effect that TIT
two political morstrosities, the Republi
| can financial and tariff policies, should b
smashed Immediately after their return
TO power.
The Republican silver legislation wa
| denounced as the elimination of q dia
bolical plot to ruin the country, and pro
| lection was denounced as robbery ant
declared unconstitutional: vet, Demo
cratic house with the largest majority
they ever had failed in an attempt t
repeal the Sherman silver law, and th'
other twin relic of barbarism,
was not even challenged in its career O
robbery and spoliation. Not even thei
| intense love and reverence for the con
stitution,has yet moved them to chai
! lenge to mortal combat that monster
| called protection.
Strikes are increasing in number and
magnitude; the balance Of trade is large
/ " against US: the business situation
! generally is getting critical IN the eX
IRENE; all of which, we are told,is due Il
vicious Republican legislation on tht
! two great questions Of finance and tariff.
Then why delay? Why not let the
/ smashing" proceed ct once?
! They tell us that it Will not do to make
| sudden changes in our financial and
| tariff laws, but if the laws complained
| Of by the Democrats III the last campaign
are half as perniciou5 as they represent
ed them 10 be there can be no such eX-
cuse urged with sincerity, for there
would be Just as much in urging the
| firemen to go slow in trying to stop a
conhagration. There is a suspicion
in the minds of majority of the people
! that tie country was beautifully buncOed
IN the last campaign. and that the pres
ent unsettled state of affairs is due to
the uncertainties Of the future.
We were told that a Democratic vic
tory meant peace and prosperity to the
country: that it would he the millennium
for the laboring classes when strikes and
all other labor disturbances would dis
appear before the increase in wages and
the cheapening of the necessaries of life
which were promised These things
have not materialized. The only thing
in sight for the laboring classes is the
promise that when the Democrats do
make move it will be to bring them IN
direct competition with foreign labor by
removing the protective duty from the
articles they have been producing here,
and the further promise that tea, coffee
and sugar, three prime neces-
sites which Republicans made free.
shall lie made dearer by a tariff
for revenue only" We should
explain here to working people that Il
duty viii be levied on these three arti-
cles to make sure that the man who
works for 81. 30 day Will bear as much
or more of the burdens of the govern
ment as the bank president who draws
salary of 500, 600 a year, Tor the work
ing man will consume just as much tea,
coffee and sugar as the millionaire.
But large majority of the laboring peo-
pie voted with the Democrats for that
kind Of o tariff policy, and they should
be satisfied with the prospect
The farmer was promised cheaper
clothing as a consideration for the de-
struction OF his sheep industry, and he
was promised cheaper farming lmpie-
ments. machinery, DC, as consider
alton for the destruction of his home
market for his produce, and a large ma
ioritv voted for the arrangement belley-
ing implicitly that it will be so when 1t
is put into practice. They were led to
believe that if we produce 500, 900, 600
worth of agricultural products and ex-
change it with foreigners for like
amount of manufactures, that we will be
getting rich as a nation faster than if
one class of our citizens produced the
one and another class produced the
other and made the exchange wholly in
this country, for whereas, by the first
arrangement there would appear or our
balance sheet $500, 000,000 of foreign
commerce, one half of which would be
ours, the other half going to some other
nation, while. by the second arrange
ment, there would not be a cent of
foreign commence, consequently, by
Democratic logic, we wouldn't be getting
rich at all.
OF course bv the domestic arrange
menu we are $500. 000, 600 better off as a
nation. instead OF only $500 200, 600. &C
cording to their plan, but the domestic
commerce don't count in Democratic
logic.
We must buy abroad If we would get
rich, and the more we buy the richer
we get. Nothing domestic Is good
enough to meet the requirements Of
Democratic taste. \ bushei of corn sold
to domestic consumer does not count
as much on a Democratic balance sheet
as one sold to a foreigner, for the items
of freights. commissions, etc. that help
to swell the figures III foreign commerce,
and incidentlv to eat the corn mp, would
be entirely lost sight of and the country
would become impoverished unless
we could show big tables of figures
representing foreign commerce. Ger
# 81
from domestic policy of protection
TO one of such SURPRISING advantages as
the one proposed by free traders can
have nothing to do with the uncertainty
of the business situation and the evil
dent intention of capitalists to hoard
their gold as means of self-prOtectIen.
How increased importations, which is
sure to be the result Of the adoption OF
the revenue system they propose, viii
stop the utAow Of gold which will be
required to paw balances of trade IS a
question that none OF them have been
able to answer.
Duties paid in silver and balances OF
trade in gold is certain to force US to =
silver basis, especially III view of the
fact that there Is no attempt made 70
stop the enormous increase in silvers
/ representative Ia our circulation. There
was positive promise IL the Chicago
platform that both these gigantic evils
protection and the Sherman silver law
should he stopped at once. The plea set
up that it VIII not do to repeal the Sher-
man law until something better Is de-
vised. Convic;s them of insincerity in
/ their utterances last fall and duplicity
now, for while they denounced it as
wholly had, they viii not get rid OF it
now.
After all tie speculation about ths
/ causes that contribute 70 unsettle bust