Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-06-30
LARGEST DAILY CITY CIRCULATION
FREE SILTER AND
PROTECTION.

PROTECTION.
 For twenty years have the Dem ocrats of the Nation, and especially of the South, been fighting the Re publican cohorts of protection
 Under a high protective tariff sys- ten which has levied an exhorbitant tax upon the consuming masses from the conclusion of the war to 1890 when the aehme of Republican rascality and robbery was reached by the passage of the Mckinley bill, we have witnessed the amasing amassment of the wealth of the coun- try into the hands of a favored few, until now small portion of our population own and control a ma lority of the wealth of the Nation. Under this unjust system there has been created a monied aristocracy "a plutoeracy, if you please whose fortunes have been made out of the toiIing and struggling masses as a direct re- suit of such an unequal system of taxation which allowed a tribute to De levied for the rich upon the poor. As another result of this unequal and unjust system of taxation the favored few now find it possible by combinations of capital, wrenched from the hands of an unwilling but helpless people, to form trusts and conspiracies against trade for the purpose of restricting production and competition and artifcially en- hancing the value of their manufac- lures and that which they have to sell, by and through which they are still enabled to oppress the poor.
 The plutocrat is the direct result of protection. Had it not been for a protective tariff the plutocrat would have been unknown, and it is in consequence of such a scheme that combinations of wealth and trusts for the oppression of the people are now possible.
 As We have before stated, the Democratic party for the past twenty years has been fighting pro- lection and class legislation of every character, until in 1892 upon that platform the party swept the country and was placed in the as tendency in every department of our Government. In the fullness of time a tariff bill was passed by a Democratic Congress-a comprom- ise measure-and although it was unsatisfactory to the great mass of tariff reformers. it was nevertheless the best that could be done under the circumstances and inaugurated an important reform in our Govern ment since it changed the course of events from high to a low tariff. The average tariff under the Wilson bill is about 30 per cent, whereas under the Mckinley bill it was about 45 per cent. From this it is appar- eat that if the Democratic doctrine of a tariff for revenue only is to be carried to a successful eonsum- nation, the Democratic party has yet a great many campaigns before 1t on that issue, which is especially true in view of the fact that the Re publicans in the next National cam paign promise to make protection their slogan and to nominate McKin- ley as their candidate for President.
 But we have an element in our party who now contend that the tariff fight should be abandoned and that the Democratic party should wage its next campaign upon the platform of free silver at 16 to 1. apparently never thinking that un- der a tariff with protective fea- ture tied to it's tail that even though our Government should adopt the free coinage Of silver that under a protective tariff which levies Q tax upon the consumer, it would not be twenty years until the wealth