Huntsville gazette., 1893-02-11
THE FREE TRADE PROGRAMME.
Plain Course for the Democrats to
Pursue.


Plain Course for the Democrats to
Pursue.
Mr.. Watterson is thoroughly consist
ent He drew the plank which was
substituted by the democratic national
convention at Chicago for the ''strad-
dle' originally proposed The plank
so adopted. and on which the demo
cratic tariff fight was made. reads as
follows:
1--WE dencunce republican protec ton as =
fraud, a robbery of the great majority Of the
American people for the benefit of the few.
We declare 1t TO be the fundamen tai principle
OF the democratic party that the federal gov
ernment has constitutional power to impose
and collect tariff duties except for the purpose
Of revenue only"
There is no mistaking its meaning.
1t is free trade, in the British sense
nothing more, nothing less Mr.. Wat
terson clinched the matter in the col
umns of his paper when he said:
I'VE mean to rip up, exterminate, abolish.
snnIhilate, and in the foulest ignominy and dis
grace, every vestige OF fraud called protection,
wherever we can md it Be
cause now as eyermore, until the robber tariff
is a thing OF the past the republican protection
q
cratic law and gospel stands.
This is the programme to which the
democratic party is committed bv its
tariff declaration at Chicago, declara-
tion adopted, Mr.. Watterson, its au-
thor, tells rs, not in the excitement
and confusion of midnight session,
but after the ''amplest discussion" and
thorough deliberation. Every man
who voted for it knew what he was
about, and that he was committing his
party to British free trade.
Furthermore, Mr.. Watterson fastens
Mr. Cleveland to that free trade tariff
plank, showing that he has in no way
repudiated it, but in his New York
speech and in his letter of acceptance
reiterated and reaffirmed it" Thus,
the new democratic administration and
the new democratic congress will have
plain duty to perform if they are TO
put into effect the principles of the
party which they represent Mr.. Wat
terson states that duty in language Of
no uncertain sound. They must rip
up, exterminate, and in the foulest ig
nominy and disgrace, every vestige Of
the fraud called protection" and he
now tells US that having razed the
old building, even tearing up the foun-
dations, we must erect "a FREE TRADE
TEMPLE, l. E., A TARIFF-FoR-REvENUE
ONLY, LAID UPON THE FEWEsT NUMBER
OF ARTICLES POSSIBLE TO THE REVENUES
ACTUALLY REQUIRED BY THE GOVERN
MENT, AND THESE ARTICLES SELECTED,
AS FAR AS POSSIBLE, FROM COMMODITIES
Nor PRODUCED IN THIS COUNTRY"
Whether that programme, which will
involve fight by American industries
for their very lives, will be carried out
to the letter is one question. Certain
ly large interests in the democratic
party itself will not consent to it. The
new senator from New York, repre-
senting the great shirt, collar and cuff
industry, the iron works, the knit
goods mills and other enterprises that
can only be successfully maintained
through protection, can be relied upon
to resist to the uttermost the destruc-
tive assaults of the free traders. But,
as the Courier-Journal clearly shows,
dominant democracy Is for free trade,
and no amount of ''good Lord, good
devil" tergiversation can alter that fact.
Troy Times.