The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1894-02-02
TARIFF PRINCIPLES.
some SOUTHERN SENSE ON THE
QUESTION NOW AT ISSUE.
A Fair Argument Upon the Present and
Prospective Effects of the Wilson Tariff
keasure-"The Thing to Do Is to Defeat

Prospective Effects of the Wilson Tariff
Measure-"The Thing to Do Is to Defeat
the BILL"
The tariff question in its essence is
simple one.
Some $3.50, 900, 900 of money is required
for the expenditures Of the national gov
eminent. Of this about $3.50, 600, 900 is
raised by internal revenue taxes, leaving
$500, 100000 to be raised by custom du-
ties.
The tariff question is simply, "How
shall the duties required to raise this
sum be distributedY'
The Republican theory Is that they
shall be SO laid as to give the best pro-
lection or aid to American labor and
American capital.
Hence the Mckinley law laid heavy
duties on articles which God has given
rs the natural facilities to make cheaply
and in abundance and on articles Of lux
ury or vice, and low duties or none on
articles of necessity or of general use,
and which we cannot produce, or Of
which we produce only small part of
our consumption.
Hence, to illustrate, high duties on
iron, and free coffee, tea and sugar.
The Democratic contention is that 1t is
unconstitutional to lay any duty on inn
ports with % view to protection Of home
Industries, and that all duties must be
laid with view to revenue only.
Hence. to illustrate again, they would
place such a duty on iron as to induce
the largest importation and bring the
largest amount Of revenue, and should
tax coffee, tea and sugar.
The Wilson bill follows neither theory.
but is bill without principle-a mon
grel-seeking a seeming compliance with
the Chicago platform on one hand and
to catch or save votes on the other.
It is an un-American bill, and in all its
departures from the Mckinley bill it dis
eliminates against the American wage
Garner and in favor of the foreign man.
ufacturer.
The bare proposal of its passage has been
the prime factor in the terrible demon
alization of business now prevailing
throughout the country, and its passage
will deepen and intensity the universal
distress.
The passage of the bill will in a large
measure change the economic conditions
of the country, destroy old and large in
dustrial centers in the attempt to create
new ones, disturb and render uncertain
existing values and produce great and
calamitous paralysis of business.
1t will be the entering wedge Of rad
ical departure from the policy Of en-
couragement to home manufactures, as
old as the constitution and sanctioned by
Washington.
The great boon of protection to home
manufactures is the giving them the
home market-a market of 65,000,Q0C
people, who consume more than any
other 100, 900, 900 people on the globe.
The proposal of the Wilson bill is to
divide this market with foreigners. With
q reduced output by our manufacturers
comes increased costof production, which
can only be met by reduced wages to
labor, and hence, as always, the burden
falls on the backs Of the wage earners of
the country. Then with reduced earn
ings of the great body of the wage earn
ers comes lessened purchasing power, and
the injury is reflected on all classes of
our people.
"a fair days wages for a fair days
work" is a demand founded in reason
and Justice, and the consumer should pay
for his goods a price that, under good
natural conditions, will allow the laborer
I this just reward.
God and labor only create wealth, and
they work together and in harmony.
God has given us an empire with
richness of natural resources unequaled
in the worlds history, and with a human
energy and skill to match.
What these combined resources and
skill can do is illustrated in the fact that
pig iron has been selling this year in Ala
bama and Tennessee at less than the
duty-$6. 70 per ton-in fiat contradiction
to the Democratic claim that the duty is
80 much added to the cost of the article
to the consumer.
Then, admitting virtue in the Wilson
bill, we will get no benefit from it, be-
cause of the lack of faith in the stability
of the new policy which it begins, for
everybody will wait to see how the peo-
pie vote next fall. If, as is likely, the
people vote next fall as they did last fall
and return a protection congress, capital
will again wait for return to the prin-
ciple of the Mckinley law.
So the conclusion is that the wise thing
to do is to defeat the Wilson bill and
leave the Mckinley law to be amended
by its friends as circumstances may de