Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1895-08-02
FIRST And LAST.
ALSO OF GREATEST IMPORT
ANCE AT ALL OTHER TIMES.

A Question That VIII Never Be
Shelved In the United States-Our
Own Interests Are and Must Be
Paramount.
The natural activity and mental ex-
citability of the American people lead
them to very ready acceptance of
new ideas. 1t has often happened that
a few persons who can gain newspaper
notoriety will start an agitation that,
If cleverly directed, will arouse the
whole country.
An effort in this direction has re-
Gently been made and is still being
continued. 1t consists in diverting
the minds of the people from the in
dustrial conditions of the country to
other issues, and it is hoped that our
prosperity in 1892, under the best
protective tariff that the country has
ever had, will be forgotten now that
there is some temporary improvement
in business over the disastrous condi-
tions that existed in 1893 and 1894,
when the threat of free trade was
hanging over u.s.
The German tariff, as became
law, was not nearly SO dangerous to
the best interests of the country as
the free traders had desired to make
it, but they have not lost hope. The
free trade idea is not dead by any
means. Its friends are now conduct
ing more active and vigorous cam
paign than they have ever done. Their
work is more thorough and system
attic, and they are openly advocating
plain, unadulterated policy of free
trade, which they were formerly afraid
to do, and which used to be concealed
under the cloak OF tnriff reform.
Every effort is made to create the
impression that business interests
must not be disturbed by reopenlng
tariff discussion. Meantime, the free
traders are vigorously urging the
adoption of the free trade policy and
are endeavoring to gain converts to
their cause by steady and systematic
work. is it possible, however, to avoid
tariff discussion when the present Adj
ministration within two years has
added $170, 900, 900 to our debt and
its desire to provide for deficiencies
has been demolished by the Supreme
Court? What prospect is there that
the debt under the existing policy
will be diminished? Is there not a
much greater prospect that it will be
increased:
The precedent has been established
that we must pay exorbitant rates of
interest for money that we are COM
PEELED to borrow, and as the existing
tariff simply creates deficiency that
grows larger from month to month, is
not this prima facie evidence that we
must again, and before long, become
borrowers?
What will be the outcome of this
policy of debt? Can we, and forever.
continue borrowing? What signs are
there for the better? Where are the
signs of prosperity? Can we expect
to borrow and borrow without the
slightest hope of making settlement
with our creditors? What has England
done in the case OF ofNicaragua for pal
try $75, 900 debt? How are we to pay
the sixty odd million dollars borrowed
recently from the Rothschilds with
iaur present economic system that pro-
duces Government deficit of upward
of $50. 900, 900 year?
Is the new tariff creating greater
prosperity among the people than the
Mckinley tariff did? Are the people
earning as good wages now as in 1892?
Are they saving rs much money now
as then? Is the output of our facto-
ries as great? Are prices as satisfac-
tory both to the producer and to the
consumer?
There was no monthly Treasury de-
fciency during the enactment Of the
Mckinley tariff for protection, but
there is regular monthly deficiency
in the Treasury under the German
tariff. The people cannot be prosper
GUS with bankrupt Treasury this is
impossible.
To avoid tariff discussion is simply
the act of man driven to despera-
tion, who would rather siuk than
make an effort to save himself. Shall
we be content to be carried along like
t.riftwood, stranded on some bank or
rock, or washed out and lost in the
ocean! No, we must stem the tide.
Never was there more need, nor more
cause, for active and vigorous OBJ
sstruction to the policy of free trade
that is now in its incipiency and
which must, if persisted in, ultimate
ly result iu our utter extinction as a
leading commercial and industrial Ma
tion, placing us iu a subordinate po-
sition among the great Powers OF the
world. without influence and without