Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-29

history will know. where to put the respon-
sibility for our partial failure to redeem our
pledges to the people, and our partial fall
ure to dislodge the great privileged interests
from cur tariff. / am not sure that this
very failure may not be the harbinger and
assurance Of a speedier and more complete
triumph of commercial freedom than the
smooth and unobstructed passage of the
House bill would have been. The American
people are aroused, as hardly anything else
could have aroused them, to the deadly
nenace which protection begets to the
purity and the very existence Of free gov
eminent. They have seen a single great
trust empowered by our tariff laws to con-
troll the production and sale of a necessary
Of life. parceling out the country with its
Partners. and using its law-made wealth
and power to thwart the best efforts Of the
PEOPLE to reduce their own taxation. They
have seen 1t held up Congress for weeks,
and have heard its minions boldly declare
that there should be no tariff bill in which
Its interests were not fully protected, and
they have realized the final fulfllment Of
that boast.
when the sugar trust thus challenges the
American people to a contest of strength
Its days are numbered. its temporary tri-
umph is its speedier and more complete
overthrow. ard with its overthrow will
vanish its sister brood Of monopolies that
are strong through its support.
Points I'm the Bill Commended.
Dos hhiCAhuo, thchC 20 ohothCA
a brighter side to this picture. With all its
nanIfold failures. its final retention Of
many protective duties. its Objectionable
sugar schedule and its excessive duties on
cotton and woolens and metals. the new
bill carries in 1t very substantial relief to
the American people. and must be accepted
as a substantial beginning of thorough and
progressive tariff reform. 1t means cheaper
clothing, cheaper tools. cheaper pottery and
n any other neceosaries for the people II
means freer and larger commerce with
those nations that buy our farm products,
and consequently Lar ger and better markets
for our farmers. 1t means a transfer OF
some of the burdens of government from
what goes out for the daily purchase Of the
nece. saries Of life to that which comes In
over and above the amount needed for such
purchase. If We denounce some OF Its du-
much lower than the duties and rates Of
the Mckinley bill are yet enormities in a
democratic bill
The Fight to Go On.
But, as the President well said, We have
gained a vantage ground from which We
shall continue to shell the camp of monop-
oily. The day of mad protection is over in
this country; McKihleyism will disappear
as a dark and hideous blight from our
statute books. The fight will go on. not, 1t
may be, in such a general engagement and
protracted struggle as We have just passed
through, but in that steady and resistless
pressure that will take one after another
of the strongholds Of privilege, until all
shall disappear before the advance of public
opinion and public emancipa ton.
Il have dwelt at some length upon these
phases of our tariff struggle which are nat
urally and properly upperrnost In the mind
of every genuine democrat. We have a right
to confess our own shortcomings as meas
ured by the high standard Of our own prin-
ciples and professions. We have a right to
hold our own faithless servants to that re-
sponsibility which duty and party fidelity
placed upon them.
But all this does not imply dissatisfac-
ton with our own party as a whole, or
distrust as to its meanings and inten-
tions. If the closeness of the vote In one
house of Congress gave opportunity for a
few to combine against the people and
against all the rest of their party, and OBJ
struct Its faithful efforts to redeem its
pledges, the overwhelming mass of the
democrats in the country are subject to
no just criticism.
They have kept the faith. They have
been true to their principles. We may
ourselves denounce or bitterly condemn
those that failed us in this fight We are
not therefore subject to condemnation by
our opponents. If we have anywhere un-
covered a trust and found Ii too strong for
our complete dislodgment in the first at
tempt, We have never failed to find them
sturdily and solidly arrayed for its de-
fense. The weapons with which monopoly
has fought us they have forged and tenn
pered and supplied. The intrenchments and
fortresses behind which privilege has
shielded itself from Our attack they have
bu1lded for ii. stone by stone, and strong
hold by stronghold"