St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-06

quickly anu as 1t comes from the senate,
and then to pass and send back to tho
senate little tariff biils,n each putting
some article OIL the free list.
This is feeble imitation of the
course pursued in the Fifty-secend COM
greSs, when protection was buttressed
by the senate and the executive; wise
course then, but an inexcusably stupid
one now. The house must be gone daft,
or it IS daZed by the action of the senate
and its probable effect on the congress
sional elections, to contemplate such
plan for HIoiuent.
What does such course mean? What
will the country take to be its meaning
Whatwlll the opposition say is its mean
ing? 1t says, first, that the house, whose
constitutional prerogative it is to origi.
na.eireyenue bills, practically surrenders
this right to the senate. 1t says, next,
that the house, after going needless
lengths III coneeding protection as
favor to industries that it was feared
might suffer If it were removed at once,
joins the Senate lii Snrrendering entirely
the policy of a revenue tariff, and coop
crates with it in framing purely pro-.
tective policy.
This will be saying to the country that
for seven years we have been party Of
false pretenses, deluding the people with
cock-and-hull stories about the robbery
of protection, merely that we might get
the offices: but that we are at heart
about as good protectionisrs as the Re-
publicans themselves; in fact, measured,
by their latest platform, good deal
better ones. 4; -
Nothing will be gained by it. The
house IS Oh record as favoring certain
free materials. That position is estab-
lished. Sending little tariff bills, sep
arately freeing each of these articles,
will not make the position any stronger,
nor will it redeem the weakness of
yielding to the senate. No one would
expect that the senate would pass any
one of them. The sugar trust would
hot permit sugar to be free; the iron ore
trust would defeat that bill; and the coal
men have. with the others, already dem.
oDStrateG their ability to control the
senate. 92,-5
The sole effect of passing the senate
bill would be to admit to the country
that the party, as now represented, is
incapable of redeeming the party's
pledges; that if the country wishes the
reform for which 1t voted in 1892, it
must use some other means than the
Democratic party to accomplish it, or
purge its congressional list of the eIe-
ment now i'll it that is strong enough to
defeat its wish.
1t is inc0mprehensible that the house
cannot see more clearly than this report
Indicates its only path if it would save
the party FROM defeat. Ratifying the
SeDate's action is to insure destruction.
10 refuse to ratify it; to insist on the
original bill or better; to redraft it on
revenue lines, and throw on the senate
the onus OF its defeat, is the only safe
course to take. Then the party has
rallying point; the question will be,
Shall the house be sustained? and OIL
that we can ga to the country with con-
fidence. 1t will be the house against
the senate. and the house would have
all the advantage of the popular dis
gust and contempt which the senate
has earned and so richly deserves.
Every sailor knows that there is a
time when safety lies in erowding, not
Stacking SAIL Every locomotive engi-
neer knows that weak bridge is the
place to throw the valves open, instead
of shutting them. The party is where
tine audacity OF high courage only can
save it, aud the house contempIates
running up the white flag and suing
IyIt fn ,;,I -. l.
arms.
The house should have learned by this
time the temp r of the opposition it has
to deal with. 1t was strong enough to
swerve the house itself from the path
marked out by the national convention
and ratified at the polls. Defeated in
the house in preventing the free listing
OF the basic materials of the industries,
1t took up second position in the SEN
ate. anu has there been strong enough
to rob the bill of its sole distinctively
Democratic feature. 1t is bold, I'M
scrupulouS, able, grasping, defiant.
alert. 1t is entirely capable of having
originated this very scheme said to be
contemplated by the house. 1t knows,
if the house Democrats do not. that it is
engaged in death struggle. Like the
old slave oligarchy, it sees the spirit be-
hind tine substance and recognizes an
enemy as impIacable as death. AS
slavery saw in the pfetense of restric-
ton the purpose to abolish, SO these later
slave owners see in the pretense OF a
revenue tax the purpose of free trade.
They. at least, fully sense the lrrepr essi-
bic conflict.
The free list of the house bill Is the
pass of Thermopyla; behind it lie the
hopes of the country, the cause of indi-
vidual freedom, the safety of the Demo-
cratic party. In front are the maraud-
ing hosts of protection, hungry for
plumber and rapine, relentIessiy cruel.
And Leonidas is counSeling his 800 to
let the enemy have the pass and then
send messages to him asking him to
surrender it again by sections. Coward
ice, gentlemen of the house. is not dis
tinguishable at times from treachery,
and this is one of the times.