Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-08-30
ENTITLED TO CREDIT.



xhe Good work Done by the Genuine
Democrats.
The democrats in both houses of
congress. with but few exceptions, are
entitled to credit for doing all that it
seemed to them possible to do toward
the fulfillment of the pledges with re-
spect to the tariff which their party
made in 1892.
They have made an honest. earnest
and persistent attempt to obey the
popular mandate delivered when the
present democratic congress and pres
ident were elected. They are deserv-
ing of great praise for wrestling what
they have wrested from protectionist
senate, and for holding out so long as
there seemed to be ray of hope
against the protectionist amendments
which that body thrust so plentifully
into the Wilson bill.
The democrats of the ways aud
means committee 1abored with great
zeal and industry, and finally produced
bill which was fairly acceptable to
those who meant what they said when
they voted for tariff for revenue
only. They did not produce perfect
bill by any means. They did not pro-
duce bill which was satisfactory to
most of their own number.
But they did produce one on right
lines, based on right principles, and
making a long step toward the final
goal of commercial liberty and the ul-
innate abandonment of the entire
policy of supporting and enriching
favored industries by levying forced
contributors upon others They went
as far as they believed it possible to
go. in view of the known character Of
the senate, toward the total abolition
OF the republican system of legalized
robbery.
The house, led for the time being by
such men as Tom johnson and De Witt
Warner, went further than the COM
mittee and voted for free coal, iron
and sugar and the Immediate stoppage
of the Mckinley sugar bounty.
A majority of the democratic SEN
ators stood ready to go even farther
than the house, making larger reduc-
tions on manufactured goods and going
farther in the direction of ad valorem
rates. But presently they found them
selves confronted not only by the re-
publican senators in solid array but
by this body REINFORCED by enough
senators calling themselves democrats
to defeat any bill not acceptable to
them and the interests they repre-
sented.
The question with the loyal demo-
cratic senators then was not what
they wished to do but what it was pos
sible to do. They contested the ground
inch by inch, and yielded to the rene
gade senators no more than they were
forced to yield. The result was badly
mutilated bill. but it was that or no
bill. They had saved much that was
valuable. The bill, bad as it was,
was still vastly better than the Nc
Kinley monstrosity, and they accepted
it as better than nothing.
The house has at last done the same,
but not without making prolonged and
heroic resisCcnce. The house con-
ferrees, headed by Chairman Wilson,
struggled long and manfully against
the bad amendments, forced upon the
bill by the senate renegades, and their
democratic associates in the house sup
ported them without wavering until
they became convinced that the choice
lay between the mutilated bill and
none at all.
The majority OF the democrats are
entitled to high praise for making
courageous and determined fight and
saving the bill from wreck. It is not
their fault that the measure is not far
better than it is.-Chicago Herald.