The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-10-16

remainder of the CLEVELAND administra-
tion, and allow business interests to re-
cover confidence and adjust themselves
There is also the political reason for such
a conclusion as this, that nothing could
be accomplished while Democratic
President remains in Office and is ready
to veto anything looking toward cor
reciion of Democratic biunders and
viciousness.
There is no question of the wisdom Of
this program. Whether it has the ap-
proval of other party leaders than Mr..
REED will be revealed, but it is only do
ing justice to their wisdom and patriot
ism to assume that they will not only
indorse what Mr.. REED has now said,
but that his utterance was only a state
ment of their sen.m mt and their reso-
luton.
Mr.. REED might have gone further
than the close of the CLEVELAND regime
to set the bounds of Republican conser-
yative attitude upon the tariff. He
might have said that the Republican
party, responding TO public sentiment
of great and growing strength, will pur-
sue policy of careful and well considered
revision of the tariff act by amendment,
when it finds itself once more in posses
sion of full power. The country ought
not again, for at least generation, to
be subjected to the terrible strain of a
sweeping tariff reconstruction.
When the thin shell of partisanship is
removed from the tariff question, it is
clearly perceived that both political
parties are in substantial accord with
respect to the fundamental theory
of protection. In conventions
and during the heat Of cam
paigns, Democrats will continue to
deny this until scme new party division
line has been established; but whoever r
has watched with attention the course
of events since the Cleveland Admin
istration.took Office cannot doubt that
the great body Of citizens. of all shades
of political belief, are convinced that
protection is vital necessity, entitled
TO their support and advocacy.
The existence of this belief not only
tends to make their present ostensible
ground wholly untenable for the Demo-
Gratis, but suggests to the Republicans
the propriety Of regarding protection
not as national necessity solely, but as
a necessity the nation is thoroughly per-
suaded of and firmly determined to de-
fend to the last extremity. Hence the
wisdom of the policy indicated by Mr.
REED, and the extension OF it beyond the
limits of Democratic control Of the Ad-
minstration.
There will always be theoretic free
traders with Us, just as there will always
be theoretic socialists-men whose habit
of mind. whose mental constitution and
surroundings do not compel them to
consider conditions as Of paramount inn
portance. But their following will
dwindle to those whose devotion to a
scholastic cult blinds them TO recog-
milton of the needs of the present time.
These academicians are not only harm
less, but play most important part in
the progress of mankind. They keep the
ideals vitality alive, and it is the
ideals that supply the high stand
ards which sustain faith and ennoble
works. The ideal Of commercial comfy
demands free trade, surely, as the ideal
religion bring the millennium to our
doors; but the very essence of ultimate
free trade demands the present exercise
of protection by America, since its
abandonment merely contributes to the
more thorough protection Of European
nations, and the consequent delay Of
conditions precedent to universal trade
comfy.
Mr.. REDS assurances, therefore,
that the Republican policy is to be one
of conservative abstinence from agita-
ton for agitation's sake, is eminently
satisfactory, whether regarded in the
light of present political wisdom or OF
the wisest requirements Of permanent
policy.
WHAT 0TuEPC ABE CAVTMH