The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-11-17
THE DELAY OF TARIFF REFORM.

THE DELAY OF TARIFF REFORM,
In attempting to account for the Re-
publican gain in several states at the
recent election, while some people de-
sire to make it appear that it was
indicative of reaction towards pro-
lection. there are others who consider
it a rebuke to the administration for
not striking at once at the evils of the
'robber tariff and institutina that
reform which was the slogan in the
campaign of 1892.
Great minds, it is evident, often differ
as much as do minds of less calibre.
The probability is that the tariff did
not cut a very important figure either
way in the state elections, although it
may have contributed something to-
ward the results. Local issues and
personal proclivities had a great deal
to do with it, and the effects are
chiefly local in their bearings.
But there is no doubt that the I'M
rest felt in industrial and commercial
circles. promoted largely by Republic
can cries of ''woolf! woolfr' in some
can cries of wolf! Wolfr' in some
created dissatisfaction and reaction,
and the administration perhaps re-
ceived blame on both accounts. In
the first place, for troubles falsely at
tributed to what was expected would
be done. and in the, second place for
not accomplishing sooner what ought
to be done
1t should be remembered that there
was no expectation, when the country
elected the Democrats to power in go.
that anything in relation to the tariff
or other public matter would be done
before the new Congress would meet,
in December. 1893. There was no de-
mand for anything out of the ordinary
legislative course. Nothing was ex-
pected until the regular session, when
a tariff for revenue bill would be pre-
pared and put in operation
But suppose the President had called
an extraordinary session for the pur-
pose of attacking the tariff. Would
not the Republicans have attributed
all the disasters of the summer months
to that very cause? And would they
not have had something more plausi-
bic to point to as the fount of all those
sorrows than they had in their sense
less cry of 1.-The threat of free trade?
The people ought to be led to under
stand that the preparation of a tariff
bill is an enormous task. 1t cannot be
accomplished by the elaboration of a
few general ideas or written by a few
strokes of the pen. Both from an in
tellectual and a mechanical point of
view it is herculanean in its proper
tons and labors.
The very opposite principle is to be
at its basis from that which supports
the present protective law which is
yet in force. That reversal requires
inspection of every detail, and an
understanding of both the needs of the
government and of the people to be
affected by the duties imposed. The
views of men in the party who are
likely to dispute the propriety of GER
tain rates of duty have to be consider
ed that the bill may not ibe obstruced
in the House of it's friends. In
Vulnerable details have to be attended
to and each one must be taken up on
its individual merits.
Then when the measure is in shape
to be brought before the house in
rough draft. the statistical work which
has to be verified, and the clerical
labors that are very voluminous, re-
quire time and more toll than anyone
unacquainted with it can imagine, let
alone comprehend. That the new bill
is as near completion as announced
in Washington dispatches, is a, marvel
to those who know something of what
the work must have been.
OF course the enemy has pulled
strings both ways on the uniformed
of the people. The Democratic admin
istration is to be blamed for the
threat of free trade The admins
tration is to be cursed for not attack
ing protection at once. These have
been their tactics, and no doubt they
have aided to some extent in their
local fights for the local Offices.
There is now no struggle for i'm
mediate party advantage and the
voters of the country can take time
to investigate the principles and do
ings of the respective parties as a
guide for future action. They should
be disabused of the errors and subter-
fuges which have been the principal
resort of Republican speakers and
writers during the campaign, so that
they may be able to grasp the facts
and the situation and come to intel