The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1894-09-14
THE SUGAR BOLT.

The Louisiana sugar planters and
manufacturers can find but little COM
fort ii tile expressions of the press
throughout the country. Republican
newspapers, as rule, rejoice at their
folly and welcome them in republican
ranks, taking care, however, to mako no
promise either to restore the old duties
or the bounty system. Democratic edi-
tors, with grain Of pity, express no
fear that the bolt (eYen if successfully
will be iDiarioas to the party, and are
rather inclined to believe that it viii
prove profitable to the democracy by dis
earaing from the councils Of the party,
a constantly disturbing and uncertain
element.
The bounty system of the Mckinley
bill cost the republicans the loss Of every
doubtful state, and to William cKinley,
himself, his sent in the iifty-seeoIld eon-
gross. Tie bounty is repealed, aud they
will never again attempt to restore it as
q national policy. It has cost them too
much. AS to tho old or higher duties on
sugar imports, they afford too much
revenue ever to become the basis of a
protective tariff. From democratic
standpoint nothing could be more desiFa-
bic than an alliance offensive and de-
fensivc between the republican party
and the sugar planters. For every vote
the republicans would gain in Louisiana,
by promising either tariff or a higher
vote of duty on sugar, they would lose
hundreds IN the north and western states.
The leaders of the republican party
plainly understand the situation, and
while they will leave the sugar men,
with glittering generosity, about the
beauties and advantages of protection in
general, aud of the bounty in particular,
they dare not promise eitherthe Fe-estab-
hshment Of the bounty or a high pro
teetiYe duty on sugar, which are the only
ono Of two things which car allay the
desires of the sugar indictments.
The democrats, ON the other hand,
deeply regret the new departure of their
old friends and allies; not because they
are interested in the production of sugar,
or they believe the party will suffer any
permanent damage by their detection;
bnt simply because the sugar planters
are mostly all northern white men, with
whom they have stood shoulder to
shoulder during the "dark days, in de-
Tense of their social rights and white
supremacy. The democrats sympathize
with them as friends and neighboFs, not
as politicians. As friends they bright
eRed every doorstep and illumined every
hall. As politicians they always proved
a stumbling block to party measures and
party policy.
In order to coneiliate them, the trRe
democrats of the 1'so-ealled" sugar dis
triets, have, time and again, swallowed
the bitter pill of protective" democrats
to represent them in congress, and in
their speeches and platforms they have
been compelled to conceal their feelings
and opinions for tear Of antag0nizing the
tender sensibilities of the sugar planter
But they have willed it otherwise; they
have opened the breach themselves; they
have deserted the democratic fortress,
aud those who now stand in its defense
win dare utter their true sentiments
without fear of causing the desertion Of
those who, it seems, stood with them
heretofore not as volunteers or patriots,
but as paid hirelings and HbOuntyn
jumpers.