St. Paul daily globe., 1894-03-12
ONLY MEN OF STRAW.

The Minneapolis Tribune, which finds
no difficulty in being free trade on iron
ore and lumber and protectioniSt Oh
everything else. is deeply affected by
the incidents of the stock market, i IL
which the bulls and bears have bee n
having lively Set-to over Sugars. In
the absence of certirude as to what the
senate finance committee will do with
the sugar-whether it will leave it free,
where the Wilson bill put it. or put on
tax on all sugars, raw and refined, or
discriminating tax which will put
higher duty on the refined than on the
raw-the Sugars have naturally been
played for all they were worth by the
speculative gentlemen on Wall street
who make living or lose it in betting
on the future.
That some Of these gentry have made
and others have lost sew erai million
dollars-that is, that this amount has
been transferred from the pockets of
one set to those of the other-is another
of those terrible results OF Democratic
ascendency which strike horror to the
gentle heart of our sensitive contem-
porary. 1t terms the sugar trust "De-
mocracy'S pet Industry" its stocks
have been doomed 25 per cent by Dem
ocratic legislative assurances" farmers
produce and wages have been neglected
by these "legislative assurances" and
have enjoyed no boom but the whole
body of assurances" has been directed
towards enriching still more the sugar
trust.
And so our contemporary goes maun-
Gering along, setting up its little men of
straw and knocking them over with its
usual deXterity, and finding much en-
joyment in the exercise. Of course,
the Tribune knows that its lit
tie men are only straw neil; that
there have been no ''legislatve as
surances;" that imaginative correspond
ents aud agile spectators have been
sending out their guesses of what the
committee will do. and that the specu-
lators on the market have been buying
or selling on these pointers. If they
could convince the other gamblers that
there would be discriminating tax on
refined sugar, the stock would go up in
proportion to the amount OF the differ
ence: if they produced the belief that
there would be no compensatory duty
stocks would fall: and either way, some
one would make money-and some
lose it,
There are some reflections suggested
by all this that our neighbor has failed
to indulge itself in. The chief one is
the downright viclousness of system
of taxation which thus makes one of the
ball of speculation, and makes its price
depend Oh the whims of legislators, an
| evil unfortunately not limited to sugar,
but extending to all the articles on
which tax is laid. 1t is one OF the
marvels of the day that the great body
of business men in the country will per-
nit that portion of it actually sustains
| a system of taxation which in the long
run affects injuriously their business,
| making its profits depend On legislation
rather than OH the ordinary run of sup
| ply and demand and their own sagacity.
Another conclusion which may be
drawn. which we can hardly blame our
| neigEbor for not drawing, is the hypoc-
| rlsy OF such charges on the Democrats
| 1t was the wide difference between the
tax on raw and refined sugars of the
tariff act of 1888 that made the sugar
trust possible and put the sugar con-
sumers Of the country at its mercy.
When, in order to carry out the purpose
of the Mckinley bill. declared in its
title to be to 'reduce revenue" but. in
fact, to safeguard protection, raw sugar
was put on the free list. and a tax of
half cent pound was retained on
the refined, its sole and intended effect
was to permit the sugar trust to extort
from the people of this country that
| half-cent pound on the sugar they
used, thus putting into the pockets of
the trdst sl5,0OO.0O0 annually.
It may be that a Democratic senate
| will be as regardless of the people and
as tender of that trust as was the Re-