The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1895-03-09
INCONSISTENT REPUBLICANS,

INCONSISTENT REPUBLICANS.
Hsrlequin Tactics Of the Party OF Blu1
and Buncombe.
There is something amusing - or
would be If the matter were not a seri-
Gus one-in the republican attitude
concerning the protests OF Germany,
legislation and their threats of retail
alton. For quite q quarter of CEN
tury, and in the cases of some for much
longer, tho republican leaders and Or
gans have been telling the people that
what we need is q ''hon,e market" and
that the great evil of the age is foreign
tradc. Volumes of the Congressional
Record and innumerable columns in
the papers. Of the republican party have
been given to an elaboration of this
contentious; and ono result has been
that a great many of the people, es-
peciaNy in the agricultural dis
tricts, have been led to believe in
the foreign market as utterly I'M
worthy of consideration in compare
Son with the home market. Yet the
moment there is q faint prospect of the
farmer being permitted to keep his
grain and meat ut home for sale here,
lambasting the democratic party for
irritating foreign countries into taking
the course they threaten. Another
feature, scarcely Il humorous, is the
solicitude these same organs and lead
ers are manifesting concerning foreign
opinion. Almost as vehemently as
they have advocated the home market
theory. have they a eclaimed their in
difference to what foreign countries
think of us or do in reference to us.
what have we to do with abroad?"
was for a long time.Ah pet cry; and
the scvercst charge they have ever
brought against political opponents
has been one of too much consideration
for foreign opinion or action. Yet if
they can be believed they are all in q
trcnor now because two or three Euro
pesn nations arc dissatisfied with the
legislation Of the United States, and
with one accord they are clamoring for
Difference to foreign threats. 1t really
is a very funny case OF backing down
on the part of the e. o. p.
Looking at the matter. however, in
its serious aspect, the republican atti-
tude is even more indicative Of dishon-
esty than of rank inconsistency with
previous professions. The pretense
they are making is that tho protest of
Germany and Austria is based on the
abrogation of reciprocity; when the
fact is that it is directed specifically at
the discrimina ting duty on sugar for
the perpetuation Of which the repub-
lican party is just as much responsible
as any body. President Cleveland in
his last annual message recommended
the repeal OF that provision in the
tariff act-not because Of any protest
from foreign countries, for none had
been 1nade-but because the provision
was the result of domination by the
sugar ring. The republicans in the
senate could have prevented the pas
sage of the provision had they
wished-or, to put the matter ac-
curately, had they not been ruled
Ivy the sugar combine, as were
certain democrats. They could secure
the repeal of the provision now, but
it is we'll known that they have COM
bined in the senate to prevent such re-
peal, on the himsy pretense that they
do not mean to allow any tariff legis-
1ation on the part Of the democracy.
Whether their attitude is due to dom
ination of the sugar ring, or partly to
material. 1t is nlike unpatriotic in
either case, and it robs the party Or
gans of any excuse they might other
wise have for charging the strained re-
lations with foreign countries to the
democracy. Tho discriminating duty
on sugar ought to be repealed, not on
account Of Germany's or Austria's
threat, for we are not accountable to
either of those nations for our legisla-
ton, but because it never was right or
for the public interest. Its passage
was due to the corrupt influence of the
sugar trust upon the senate, and that
body will always be disgraced in the
estimation Of the public as long as the
enactment remains on the statute
book.-Detroit Free Press.