St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-08-30

pathway of duty TO all the people. R0n
know. for you have followed with wafell-
full interest the varying history OF our
attempt at tariff reform. You have fol-
lowed with rising hopes and hearty ap-
prOval the action of the hoIse of repre-
SentativeS In the framing and passage OF
a measure bearing the badges of Demo
cratic principles and fraught with prom
ised benefits to all the people. You have
followed with waning hopes and angry
diSapproval the tedious and tortuoHs
passage of that bill through the senate,
and have seen that despite anomfual
Democratic majority in that body, the
great trusts and monopolies were still
able to write their taxes, as they had
done under Republican rule. in some of
its most important schedules. The
burden upon you is the same, whether
they use Democratic or a Republican
hand as their amanuenSIs. But the
wrong to you is infinitely the greater
when those who bear the commission of
your party thus prove taithless to its
highest duties.
need not recite you the successive
steps, the material and baneful altera-
tions through which the house bill
quietly passed into law yesterday
morning without the signature and ap
proval of the president, who was elected
upon the issue of tariff reform, and who
anticipated as the signal triumph and
historic achievement or his adminiStra-
/ ton. the privilege of affiXlng his name
to a genuine and thorough reform bill.
You know by what influences this was
brought about. The country knows,
and history will know where TO put the
responsibility for our partial failure to
dlSlOdge the great privileged interests
from / q m Cr,rQ
very failure may not be the harbinger
and assurance of q
Speedier and NIOro Complete
Triumph
of commercial freedom than the smooth
and unobstructed passage of the house
bill would have been. The American
people are aroused as hardly anything
else could have aroused them to the
deadly menace which protection begets
to the purity and the very existence Of
free government. They have seen
Single great trust empowered by our
tariff laws to control the production and
sale of a necessary of life. parceling out
the country with its partners, and using
its law-made wealth aud power to
thwart the best efforts of the people to
reduce their own taxation. They lave
seen 1t hold up congress for weeks, and
declare that there would be no tariff
bill in which their interests were not
protected, and they have realized the
fulfiilment of that boast. When the
sugar trust thus challenges the Amer
lean people to contest of strength, its
days are numbered, its temporary tri-
umph is its speedier and more complete
overthrow, ana with its overthrow will
vanish its sister brood of monopolieS
that are existing through its support.
But, my friends, there is another and
brighter side to this picture. With all
its manifold failures, its final retention
of many protective duties. its objection
able sugar schedule and its excessive
duties Oh cottbns and woolens and
metals, the new bill carries in 1t very
substantial relief to tine people and
must be accepted as substantial De-
ginning of thorough and progressive
tariff reform. But as the president
well said, we have gained vantage
ground, from which we shall continue
to shell the camp of MONOPOLY. The daJ
of mad protection is over in this coun-
try; McKinleyism will disappear as
dark and hlGeous blight from oar
statute books.
Tremendous cheers greeted the fam
Gus tariff reform advocate as he closed
his address.
Strong resolutions indorsing Wilson's
course were adopted.
Upon his arrival from Washington
MI. Wilson was seized by the enthusi-
astic Democrats who were at the train
to receive him and carried him bodily
to carriage In waiting and hauled by
hand to the Central opera house, where
the convention was held. His recep-
ton amounted to more than an ovation.
The convention was the largest ever
euthuSiastic