The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-02-23
POLICY OF THE DEMOCRATS.
Free Traders Hostile to American In-
rerests.

Free Traders Hostile to American In-
rerests.
That the Wilson bill is odious 20 the
democratic party was a sharp saying OF
ex-Speaker Reed, which some are I'M
fairly using. They twist it into an adj
mission that the bill will leave duties
strongly protective, and that the in
come tax IS mere excrescence. Two
facts need to be rubbed into the minds
of men constantly, until they are thor
oughly understood. The first is that
the Wilson bill robs labor of it's re-
ward, and was meant to do that very
thing. The second is that the income
tax is the inevitable other half of q
democratic tariff.
Any duty that is less than protective
is as distinctly hostile to American and
favorable to foreign interests as if the
whole duty were wiped out and free
trade substituted Take any product
costing SO abroad, and with so per
cent duty now costing SIS here, while
the home product sells for SIS. There
is protection, and it gives to the work.
ers double the wages paid in England
But cut down the duty to 20 per cent.
and the foreign competitor seizes the
market as completely as if there were
no duty whatever. The American pro-
Queer can live only by sacrificing profits
and reducing wages, and his British
competitor can cut down IN the same
way, with larger capital and larger
labor market When the American
works have been closed the foreign
rival can make his profit at his pleas
ure. That is free trade, first killing
the home manufacture SO that there
is nothing to protect. 1t cuts down
labor for awhile, and then deprives ID
of wages altogether. To some people,
as Mr.. Reed explained, this is the one
object especially desirable. They want
cheaper labo:. and look with favor on
tariff which promises to force men
to work for lower wages
The free traders who framed the Will
son tariff have not failed, in regard to
single important industry, to cut
down duties far enough to let in the
foreign product That is their theory,
unless they bring about open COMPETE
ton they hold themselves guilty Of
causing a monopoly. To cut down just
far enough to spoil the home market
for Americans, and give foreigners a
chance with their cheaper capital and
cheaper labor to control 1t, Is the pre-
else thing for which the measure in all
it's essential parts was framed II it
protects, properly speaking, in any
part, it is either blunder or one OF
a. II IL
which make the measure disgracefuL
OF necessity such a measure is a tariff
for deficiency and not for revenue. 1t
impoverishes the people SO that they
cannot purchase or consume as they
have done.
Cutting off SIS, 900, 900 revenue on
the basis of imports last year, demo-
cratic congress had no other resource
available except an income tax. The
tax on sugar is eminently a tax of the
poor. The richest family in New York
would consume but little more sugar
for each person than the family of
day laborer. A duty of cents per
pound would yield only about $40, OO0,-
900, nine-tenths of it from the pockets
of working people at the rate of nearly
IS for every family. That road was
not open to democrats. The party
which existed by reason of its alliance
with the liquor saloons in northern
states could not tax beer or whisky
heavily. The tax on incomes appealed
to the same property-hating and COM
munistic spirit which democrats had
fostered thirty years in their warfare
against bondholders and protected in
dustries To refuse it, and tax the
workingmen who consume sugar or tho
saloons which sell liquors, was for tho
democrats an impossibility.
Republican protection collects the
SIS, 900. 900 from the luxury-loving who
choose to consume foreign goods, or
from the foreign manufacturers or
agents who sell such goods Part Is paid
by each, and practically no part by the
working millions Instead, the democ-
racy shuts up the American shops, en-
ploys the foreign shops to work for us,
cripples the purchasing powers of our
own people SO that they import already
of dutiable goods Al per cent less than
year ago, and makes up for the de
fciency by putting penalty on hon
esty-N. Y. Tribune