Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-02-09
FRIDAY MORNING, FEB. 9, 1894


THE TARIFF BILL IN THE SENATE
The Wilson bill reforming the tariff bow
goes to the Senate, and to that body the PEG
Die who pay the expenses of running this
great country will look with anxious eyes
Apart from any partizan view, two things
are to-day plainly apparent to the people
that high tariff is not a panacea which
will prevent the recurrence of hard times
and that high tariff willnOt give people
work. The Mckinley bill is now, has been
for three wears. and will be until it is re-
pealed. the law of the land. No harder
times have ever visited this country than
now prevail no such army of unemployed
%. 500, GOO in number-WaS ever gathered
here before; no such low prices for labor
fortunate enough to find work ever pre-
vailed before-labor was never on its knees
till now. The Mckinley bill became law
in 1880: before President Harrison had left
Z the Presidential chair in 1898, wheat had
gone down to 81 cents and now in the
eleventh month OF Cleveland S term it is
down to 60 cents. The advocates Of high
tariff may give you a hundred reasons to
show that the Mckinley bill is not respon-
sible for this dark picture, but after giving
all, they cannot show that the distress does
not exist and that the Mckinley bill which
we were told was to bring great and endur-
ing prosperity has not sulliced TO avert the
disaster. One thing is indisputably proven,
that however aliuring high protection is in
good weather, it cannot give a safe voyage
in rough water and cannot avert-even il
it does not produce-dire financial straits.
Naturally then, the thinking man
who is dependent on his labor OF his capital
for a living, will look to some other eco
nomic measure than q high tariff to bring
about return to prosperity and, if posi-
BILE, to make that prosperity as permanent
as economic legislation is able to do.
Though he look to a new method he will be
often tempted to look back to the old even
though the old is now presiding over 4
scene of distress acute to the point OF star
walton in many instances. He will recall
some prosperous days under high tariff
forgetting how dearly the people have paid
for them. He will remember some local
interest, some special industry that has
profited for time under a high tariff. All
this is but natural; it is the result of thirty
years of war-tariff education. lie has be-
come so tinid, so helpless, so prone to lean
on the government for legislation to prosper
business, that he has forgotten that it is bus
mess which prospels itself and that the less
hampered by legislation it is. the more pros
porous it will be. He has forgotten that
it is the men Of this country who have
made the great Republic what it is, and
not the lawmakers Of the country,
The Wilson bill offers the first opportu-
nifty that the men OF the country have had
in a generation to set about their work I'M
tramelled While it has been cautious in
its changes, and in many instances we think
gives far more protection than is just, vet
it goes far to establish the principle for
which the Democratic party has been
struggling SO many years, and on account of
which they have received SO many Access
sl0ns to their ranks in the last three years
the principle that what a man earns he
shall keep and that he shall not be forced to
pay part of it that some other man may
prosper. 1t does not establish it SO broadly
as we could wish, por SO broadly as we be
lieye the people voted for in 1880 and 1892,
but it is in the right direction. 1t has been
so cautious in the matter of touching
protected interests that it has been styled (,
Democratic bill with Republican princi-
pies, - but we can easily forgive that jest
in view Of the fact that its intent and pur-
pose is with the masses Of the people. 1t
keeps the promise OF the Democracy made
for SO many years, that if it ever got in full
possession of this government its legisla-
ton would be to give the worker and con
sumer a chance.
How it will fare in the Senate is matter
OF the deepest interest to the American
people IL there can be found there, enough
Democrats to side with the Republicans.
and defeat it, then the blow to their eXpec-
.tations will be Il heavy one. 1t was told by
MI. Wilson in his speech in the House the
+ other day, that When Sir Robert Peel was
= making his fight in parliament for the Re
form Bill, he received a letter from fish
erman Oh the North coast Of England tell
ing him that the country would be ruined
II there was not protection left on herring:
but he wanted Sir Robert to understand that
IN everything save herring he was an out
and out free trader. If, in the Senate, there
shall be found enough Democrats who want
to save their local herring at the expense
OF the Reform it may be defeated. 1t NAV
he, and great store is set upon the probabil-
ity, that some Alabama Senator may want
to save his herring i'll the>way of taxed iron
ore, or some Virginia Senator may wish to-
preserve his herring in the way Of retaining
protection on coal, OF some Louisiana Zen
ator may have Il sugar herring. ard so Oh
to save which they may defeat the bill. "
sincerely wish this probability may have
been over estimated. There is but one
change that seems to us advisable iii the
bill as it reaches the Senate, and that is to
restore it to the shape in which it was re-
ported to the House, with the amendments
afterwards added by Chairman Wilson. 1t
would be a matter Of extreme regret to one
State at least-Virginia- see her Sena-
tors out of line with the great mass of her
consumers land to see her weight cast against
the first tariff reform that the Democrats
OF the country have proposed to the alton
with any prospect Of its becoming law
And if the Senate succeed in defeating
the bill What viii it accomplish except a
delay? The majority OF the people Of
this country seem determined OH having
one oftwo thngs-a reasonable reform i'll
the tariff CT, falling i'll this, fee trade. 10
balk them Eow will only increase and