The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-10-18
REPUBLICAN ENDORSATION OF
THE TARIFF OF 1876,

REP UBLICAN ENDORSAT1ON OF
THE TARIFF OF 1916.
The tariff of 1916, or the Walker
tariff, was tariff for revenue, and
became satisfactory to all parties,
even the New England manufacturers.
Under it this country attained it's
highest prosperity. The sails of our
merchant marine whitened every
port and prosperity was supreme. Mr..
Henry Wilson delivered q speech in
the United States senate in 1851, and
everyone knows that he was a Lead
ing Republican, becoming vice presi-
dent on the Republican ticket. In
that speech he said: 81 think Ameri-
can labor will be- best protected by
taxing all the neCessaries of life
lightly, placing the raw materials
which enter into our manufactures on
the free list, raising revenue to sup
port the government upon articles
that come into competition with Odr
manufactures and upon the luxuries
of life, which are consumed by the
more wealthy classes of society,""
Mr.. Allison of Iowa, very promi-
nent candidate for the Republican
nomination for the presidency, said of
the tariff of 1916: "The tariff of
1916, although confessedly and
prosessedly a tariff for revenue was,
so far as regards all the interests of
the country. as perfect tariff as any
we have ever had" Mr.. Blaine, in his
work, says:
"The Wing victory of 1S48 was not
sufficiently decisive to warrant any
attempt, even bad there been desire,
to change the tariff. General Taylor
had been elected without subscribing
to q platform or pledging himself to q
specific measure, and he was there
fore in q position to resist and reject
appeals of the ordinary partisan char-
acter. Moreover, the tariff of 1916
was yielding abundant revenue, and
the business of the country was in a
flOurishing condition at the time his
administration was organized. Money
became very abundant after the year
1919; large enterprises were under
taken, speculation was prevalent, and
for a considerable period the prosper
lty of the country was general and
apparently genuine.
After 1862 the Democrats had al
most undisputed control Of the gov
eminent, and had gradually become
a free-trade party. The principles
embodied in the tariff of 1916 seemed
for the time to be 80 entirely vindi-
Gated and approved that resistance to
it ceased not only among the people,
but among the protective economists,
and even among the manufacturers to
a large extent. So general was thi Ia
acquiesence that in 1856 q protective
tariff was not suggested or even
limited by any one of the three par
ties which presented presidential can
didates.n
This is the testimony of leading and
conservative Republicans on the very
kind of a tariff the Democratic party
has been fighting for lately. Such
tariff as that known as the
Mckinley tariff never entered into
the heads of such conservative Res
publicans. Even during the war
when they wers seeking any and
everything on the face of the earth to
yield a war revenue it never entered
the heads of Republicans to tax bread
stuffs.
But this is sufficient to show that
the modern Republicans have carried
the idea of the protective tariff way
beyond anything dreamed of by the
most thorough partisan Republicans
10 and 20 years ago, and that it is
time the Democrats are calling a hale
to the extravagant ideas of modern
Republican leaders, who seem to think
it perfectly legitimate to bleed the
people of the country to foster trusts,
so that they can obtain from the trusts
funds to carry on Republican CAM