Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-11-14
Before and After Election.


Tho position of the democratic party on
the tariff question has for some time been
as variable as weather vane, but nothing
like the lightning change executed by the
multipartte party during the past week
on this issue h & yet been recorded. Be
fore tho fall elections the country was
gravcy assured that the democratic tariff
was proving itself to be the panacea for
which the people had been yearnng all
these years, and those inclined to qucs-
ton the accuracy OF the diagnosis were
referred for proof to the activity in various
Industries incidental upon the filing OF
immediate orders after protracted mac
tiVity. The democratic newspapers grave
lN informed their readers that it would be
criminal, or words to that effect, for a re-
publican Congress to attempt TO modest
the tariff now in operation ana in spite OF
the indignant protests on the part of Presi-
dent Cleveland himself. Mr.. Wilson and
other tariff smashers earlier in the year
that tariff reform had merely been begun,
it was stated positively that tariff smash
ing 50 far as the democratic party was
concerned was at an end.
But all this has been changed with kinet-
oscopc rapdity. The latest republicans
victories are less than a week old, and yet
in the light of the election returns our
democratic friends have seen their way
clear to another flop on the tariff question.
Before election they We're satisfied with
their new tariff law, but since November )
they have revised their opinions. Pres-
dent Cleveland and his friends in Wash
ington are said to attribute the singing
rebukes administered to Hill, German and
Brcc to a desire on tho part Of the people
to punish those Senatorial stumbling
blocks for tempering the Wilson bill as it
came from the House to the shorn indus
tries. Such muswump organs as the
Springfield Republican find solace
in the hour of defeat in The
thought that the Senatorial con-
spirators, who robbed the Wilson bill
of some of its free trade features, have
been rebuked; and even the Brattlcboro
Reformer plainly thinks that the sweeping
republican victories of last week We're
caused in part by the failure of its party
to go far enough in smashing the tariff.
Last fall the republican landslide was at
trbutcd by some democratic journals to
tho fact that the tariff was not smashed
fast enough, and it remains to be seen
what their excuse will be for next year 5
republican victories.
However, the only logical conclusion to
be drawn from the statements OF demo
cratic tariff reformers in the light of the
November elections. is that a mistake was
wi a n fraa
were eliminated, they would seek to repair
that fault. This attitude is not that as
sumed by our democratic friends previous
to election, but is undoubtedly that occu-
pied by the Cleveland wing of the democ-
lacy, which is at present plainly in the
ascendancy; and it shows what could he
expected were the tariff smashers to be
given another term OF power in both the
executive and legislative branches of our
national government
When the democratic tidal wave swept
over the country in 1892 it was Interpreted
as "a mandate from the people" to reform
the tariff by celebrating protective dutie.
and strangely enough overwhelming re.
publican majorities are Interpreted by tn,
freer traders as a sort OF reissue OF thaI
mandate No one but an Anglo American
saturated with Golden club ideas coulc
extract such meaning from the decisiv,
verdict at the polls rendered last week, bu
now that the Cleveland democrats hay,
in moment of desperation given vent tC
their true sentiments, the people will bt
likely to remember these utterances whet
again asked to put the tariff smashers il
power.