Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-06-20
THE REPUBLICAN DILEMMA.
Ehe Tarin 3 DiGscult Subject for the Next
Congress TO Handle.

Congress TO Handle
The republican politicians confident
| " expect the administration to ask the
/ congress which was elected last No
vember to provide more revenue They
have an overwhelming majority in the
house, where revenue legislation must
| originate. It is therefore for the re-
publicans to say what sort of legisla-
ton, If any, there shall be on the sub
iect If the administration wants
| moro revenue undoubtedly it will rec
| ommend some way of raising it But
what will the house do? That is the
| interesting question.
| Such of the republican politicians as
have expressed themselves on the sub
| ject declare emphatically that they
will pass a highly protective measure,
and say to the administration: take
this or nothing" AS Updegraf, of
Iowa. puts it, they will offer the adj
ministration- its choice between pro-
| lection and poverty.
But whom they come down to action
| will they dare do this? They must be
able to convince voters that there are
| industries that need more protection
than they are getting or their legisla-
ton increasing protective duties will
be condemned at the polls next year.
To what industries will they extend
their legislative favors?
Take the iron and steel industry.
The captains of this industry are
the men who are voluntarily taking
the lead in voluntary increase of
wages. The other day the Carnegie
Steel company added ten per cent to
the wages of about twenty thousand
men. The same day the Cambria
Iron company made a like advance, to
take effect June 10, thus adding TWEEN
ty thousand dollars a month to the
pay roll. These advances are made al
though the average of prices of manu-
featured iron is nearly forty-one per
cent. below what it was in October,
1890. What excuse, then, can a repub-
1ican house find for putting higher pro-
tective duties on iron and steel? They
will hardly venture to advance rates
in view of the proof that the iron and
steel industries do not need Legislative
help.
VIII they give more protection to
the cotton industry? The commercial
agencies report that the manufacturer
in this field is doing well and the de-
mand for his products is improving.
New cotton mills are going up and old
D1dnCS are DelnS especially
in the southern states. With the gem
eral advance in wages demand will in
crease and by the time congress meets
it will be hard to invent an excuse for
putting more protective taxes on cot
ton goods.
Will they bestow their legislative IA
vors upon the woolgrowers and wool
en- manufacturers? There is no evil
dence that those people are worse off
than the rest of US, and if they were it
would not be the most popular thing
in the world to restore the Mckinley
wool schedule. The people have
learned the difference between high
duties and low duties on wooden goods,
and they will not develop enthusiasm
in support of any party which may
venture to give them another vista
ton OF Mckinley high prices and
shoddy.
These industries have been the prin-
cipal benefciaries of protective 1egis-
lation. If the repu blicans think it IN
safe to legislate for their benefit they
may as well say nothing about pro-
lection and content themselves with
providing any revenue that may be
needed in the easiest and best way
open to them. They cannot expect
much gain in votes or campaign fat"
in return for favors bestowed upon
mining industries, such as copper min
ing, and the manufacture of glass,
crockery and tin plate.
And yet the republicans must do
something with the tariff or else ad-
nit that all their outcry against tariff
reduction has beer mere sound and
fury, signifying nothing. They are in
a dilemma as to the tariff and the
dilemma grows more embarrassing as
times grow better. It becomes more
dangerous either to touch the tariff or
to- let it alone just in proportion as
people come to see more clearly that
tariff reduction, whether prospective
or actual. so far from causing panic or
hard times, serves to mitigate the eff
fects of panic and to hasten recovery
from business depression
Calamity is the meat upon which re-
publicanism fattens; prosperity is its
Chicago Chronicle.
"A high-tarif organ the other day
undertook to ride two divergent horses
by telling the wool grower that ''enor-
nous quantities of foreign WOOL had
come in to ruin him and at the same