St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-01-15
CARNEGIE CATCHES ON.

Andrew Carnegie, name with which
the people of this country have become
somewhat familiar in the prolonged dis
cussion of the tariff question, has writ
ten letter to the New York Tribune =
which that paper publishes with gri-
maces-Which gives force to the recent
statement of the GLOBE that the ways
and means committee made 4 narrow
escape in framing their tariff bill on
lines so strongly Republican. Had the
leaders of the opposition possessed ordi-
nary aStuteneSS,t they would have rallied
unanimously TO the support of the bill,
claiming it as their own, and passed it
without debate. Mr.. Carnegie says 'sthar
it would be infinitely better to have a
moderately satisfactory tariff bill passed
by the Democratic party than even a
more satisfactory bill passed by the Re-
publican party" because ''the effect of
it would be that the question would be
removed from politics for many years.
The party who made it could not attack
it. and the other party would have no
| disposition to do So" He concludes by
urging the Republicans in congress to
pCi IllC VIII " pass
ton.
Fortunately for the Democratic party,
the men who are charged with the lead
ership of the Republican party-and
their lieutenants, commanding the news
papers, in charge of the opinions of the
| rank and file-were not as astute as Mr..
Carnegie, and with one acclaim have
jumped upon the Wilson bill, turned
on it their batteries charged with their
choicest vituperation, and denounced it
as radical free trade measure. 1t is
| easy to imagine what would have been
the condition of the Democratic party
in the approaching congressional. and
later. presidential campaign. had the
Republicans been as shrewd as this
| canny Scotcbman Of Quincy castle.
| They would have run their craft to
| windward of ours, taken the wind out
of our sails. and left Us becalmed, with
sails fispping idly against the mast,
progress stopped and standards lowered.
Their action would have had exactly
| the result which Mr.. Carnegie states.
| The tariff would be no longer an issue
between the two parties; further prog
| ress in tariff reform would have been
rendered impossible; the country would
have accepted the Wilson bill as a final
ity, and we would have had the absurd
spectacle of Democratic protective
tariff fastened upon the country for an
indefinite period. The attitude of the
Republican party toward the Wilson
bill projects the tariff question into fut-
ure campaigns. committfAg the Repub.
lican party to the doctrine of uI ira pro-
lection, and leaving the Democratic
party free to support the Wilson bill as
only temporary hating place on the
way to free trade.
As we said before, our party had a
very close shave. from which 1t ESCAPED
only by the stupidity of its opponents,
who have absorbed, as Sam Weller said
he did his truthfulness, what they have
in former days been accustomed to call
"the Democratic capacity for blunder-
ing" Protective slavery has adopted
tactics and Is pursuing the course taken
by the defenders of negro slavery more
than generation ago. They meet the
ever-rising tide Of opposition to the en-
slavement of industry with overweight.