The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, 1894-09-15
Who are the Demo-
Gratis ?

coupled with their openly aVoWed IN
| tention to affiliate hereafter with the
Republicans on National questions, has
caused quite an excitement through
| out the. State, and more especially IN
! this the Third congressional district
| where the sugar interest is supreme.
No Democrat who is loyal to the ac-
| cepted traditions of the party can view
this step of the planters with feelings
other than those of regret for their
folly, and a firm faith in the final
triumph of a tariff for revenue only.
For 80 years this country has been
under a Republican administration and
a high protective tariff. During this
period: immense wealth has been on
centrated in the hands of a favored
few, and the producing classes have
rapidly become poor even unto pauper-
ism. For these evils each Of the three
great political parties ascribes a u
and is anxious to prescribe a remedy.
The Populists say the financial system
is all out of whack and proposes to
prostitute the credit of the government
to fat money and restore prosperity by
| creating a dollar out of 40 cents worth
of silver and coming all the old shirt
tails into legal tender money. The
Republicans, Vociferously asserting
that the tariff is not a tax upon the
consumer, declare that a tariff which
will compel Americans to live at home
and shut out foreign trade is all that is
lacking to make this a great and pros
| porous country. The Democrats, be-
lieVing that the tariff should be so
regulated as to yield sufficient revenue
to run the government without being
burdensome to the people have at
tempted to reduce the well nigh pro-
hibitory dues levied under the McKin-
ley bill. In this they have been only
partially successful owing to the power
full Vaccinations of the trusts, but they
have made a start. That sugar should
have received such shabby treatment
in the end is due to the popular feeling
of resentment against the sugar trust,
whose interests we're naturally more or
less interviewer with those of the
sugar planter. It should not be for
gotten that in the original Wilson bill
sugar received fair treatment in the
proposed gradual withdrawal of the
bounty. The Senate decided to sub
stitute q very unsatisfactory 0d U0lorem
duty Of 40 per cent, with a i ditferen-
tial on refined sugars. This protection
our sugar friends claim is wholly in
sufficient, and DEANS ruin and disaster
to them. We are not prepared to con-
troVert this proposition, nor do we &C
cept it. If the sugar planters are for
straight out and out protection per Sc
they should have gone over to the Re-
publicans 20 years ago. The Mckinley
bill put sugar on the free list, and while
it did grant a bounty to the sugar pro-
ducer, the universal unpopularity of
such obnoxious class legislation is SO
apparent that only z democrats; 6 of
whom were from Louisiana and 4 re-
publieans favoring the bounty could be
found in all congress. In the present
mood Of the American people the sugar
bounty appears aboutas unpopular and
untenable as the institution OF human
slavery. The only hope of the sugar
planters, if they can not live without
protection, lies in that incidental pro-
lection which will result from a purely |
revenue tariff, in which q duty Oh sugar
is SO prominent. The attempt to secure
protection through All utilization with
the Republicans is too uncertain to
the abandonment of the State
to the party whose reign of misrule and
corruption left Jul people bankrupt
after years of untold suffering and deg
radiation. 1t is idle to talk about a
party who are Democrats in State
affairs and Republicans on national
issues. A few scattering individuals
may occupy such an anomalous posi-
ton, but for any considerable number
to do so is impossible. They will be re.
quired to 60; their full length. The Re-
publicans will grant no aid for the
votes of two or three congress
men, they will require the Senators
and also the presidential electors. It
is safe TO say that this State will never
contain two white parties until the
negro is eliminated effectually from
politics. This State will never pass again
under negro domination unless the
manila diridn and IL, 49, 49, |.