The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-08-24
Is the Tariff Question Settledp

Is any matter settled until it is set
tied right? And who is there that will
say that the tariff bill that has just
received the signature of Speaker Crisp
is rightg Who is there to commend it
in any way9 The President says it is
rank "perfidy and dishonor." Mr..
Wilson says it puts SAC, 900, 900, to start
with, into the pockets of the Sugar
Trust. He said, in his final speech
when the vote was taken on the passage
of the BILL that he was credibly in
formed that the Sugar Trust had just
bought, in anticipation of the passage
of the bill, 44S, 900 tons of raw sugar,
paying upwards of 1920, 900 Tor it.
He said that the passage of the Senate
bill "involved the surrender of the
dignity and selfrespect of the House"
Burke Cochran declared it to be more
obnoxious than the Mckinley bill,
which it will supplant. The Demo
cratic press all over the land denounce
it. The New York Herald charac-
terizes it as 1.-THE darkest and foulest
conspiracy in the annals of any nation. p"
The Democrats denounce it; the Repub-
leans denounce; the people universally
decry it with horror. Who is there to
bespeak it favor? The great trusts and
monopolies whom this bill was made to
serve and whose money and influence
have secured its passage.
And beneath it all has been the
prevalent feeling that the Democrat
party, now having attained power, must
do something in the way of tariff legis
lation. Their own party expected them
to do it. The Republicans looked for
it. The entire business of the country
had lain down in fear and trembling to
await the anticipated avalanche.
The Democrat party has existed for
thirty years upon its opposition to pro-
tective tariff. Protection to American
industries has ever been one of the
principal tenets of Republicanism, and
Democrats have constantly arrayed
themselves in opposition to it. They
have decred protection so long, as a
party shibboleth, that as a mere matter
of consistency they felt that they must
pass some sort of tariff measure to
supersede the hated Mckinley law
And this feeling, with the influence of
trusts and monopolies that will be bene-
fitted together with a general pressure
brought to- bear 10y the business inter
ests of the country to have the tariff
agitation settled, have forced the pas
sage of this atrOcious measure.
But is the tariff agitation ended? The
bill had scarcely passed the House when
other bills were presented to change it.
Bills to change the sugar schedule, the
iron and coal schedules, and so on. The
entire ground on the main articles is
all to be fought over still. No one is
satisfied except those interested in the
sugar trust and in the whisky trust.
They all admit, even the partisans OF
the bill, that it is make-shift - the
only way out of middle. They state
that it is general sweeping change,
and now they will proceed to alter il
in detail, and they have already begun
the work of amending before the bill
has become q law; before the signature
of the Speaker had been affixed. How
then can it be said that the passage OF
a law OF which no party approves set
ties tariff agitationg How well doe:
this measure illustrate the perfidy and
falsehood of the Democrat party?
They have denounced monopoly and
trusts and charged them against the
Republican policy of protection fol
years, and now, on attaining to com
plete power, they have allowed the rev
enue producing machinery of the gov
eminent to be shaped in the interest o
the greatest trust that exists in tn,
country. This statement is not mer,
assertion; it is not party clap-trap anC
scandal, proclaimed for its campaign
effect, but it is the admitted declara
ton of Democrat party leaders. The,
not only do not deny that the grea
Sugar Trust has held its grip in the re
cent tariff legislation and shaped it
provisions, but they admit the fact
declare it and condemn it, and Demo
crat leaders have themselves declared
that this tariff bill which they them
selves have voted for and passed els al
Infamous bill of sale TO the Sugar
Trust" That cit is fragrant repudia
ton of the spirit and express decla
rations of the Chicago platform agains
trusts and monopolies." When Demo