The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1894-10-05
THEY BELONG THERE.

THEY BELONG THERE.
The Louisiana sugar planters, num-
boring something over five hundred,
have gone over in body to the Re-
publican party and they certainly
had strong reason for doing SO. In
the Mckinley tariff these planters were
given two cents bounty on every
pound of sugar they produced. In this
way these people received more than
ten millions of dollars annually, an
average of nearly twenty thousand
dollars for each planter, and it is stated
that some of the large planters receiv
ed as high as one hundred thousand
dollars each. Is it to be wondered at
at then that these men should EN-
brace Republicanism and Mckinley
ism? Is not the Republican party the
very place for them and is it not
strange that they should not have
always been there? 1t is not very
likely however that this bounteous
gift was bestowed on account of any
particular love that the Republican
party had for the people of Louisiana
but it was done more probably be-
cause Vermont and Kansas made
maple and sorghum sugar and they
could not well bestow their bounty on
these Republican states without in
Guiding also the planters of Louisiana
But because these northern states al
so receive bounty it does not lessen
the value of the money received by
the State at the mouth of the
Mississippi, and they can we'll af-
ford to be thankful. They can afford
to forget all about the returning
board and Eliza Pinkston, and Gener-
al Butler, and all the evils of the car
pet baggers. But how is it with the
rest of the country, where the people
receive no bounty for what they pro-
duce 2 The planters of Louisiana say
that without the bounty they can
only produce sugar at money loss,
but how is it with the farmers of
Maryland in regard to wheat? Every
one knows that at the present price of
wheat it cannot be raised in this State,
so as to pay expenses. According to
all justice the Maryland farmer has
as much right to bounty on every
bushel of wheat he raises as the plant
er of Louisiana has to his bounty on
sugar. The Gamer in this State very
frequently loses on his venture. If
Congress should bestow on him a
bounty of two cents a can, which is
proportionately less than the planter
received for his sugar, he could make
money in the business. And why not
make this bounty business universal
The laboring mans wages are fire.
quently inadequate to the support OF
himself or family with the strictest
economy on his part, and why should
he not receive bounty? What inst
reason can there be for giving this
bounty to one class and sighting all
the others? 1t is no doubt exceeding.
ly nice to be protected, but it is a lit
tie rough on the protector. The tariff
of 1890, it is true, placed duty of %
cents per bushel on wheat and this
was held out as great favor to the
farmers. But this was really an insult
to every intelligent farmer. No wheat
is imported into this country, except
for seed, and then the farmer has to
pay this extra % cents. The Republi-
cans will no doubt glorify themselves
greatly that these southern Democrats
have entered their ranks and surely
every one who is Democratic in pripci-
pie should rejoice also and he should
hope that every one who expects the
government to support him with its
bounties should join the party of pro-
lection and paternalism, if he is not
already in it. Let all those who wish
to be protected by government at the
expense of the many be found in the
ranks of the Republican party, and
let all those who ask no other favor of
the governing power than the protec-
ton of their lives and their property
and equal rights in the race of life, be
found in the grand old Democratic
party, the party which has ever been
the party of the people, and the one
which ever will be, if it does not drift
away from it original principles.