St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1896-03-07
POLITICS AND MANUFACTURERS
An Association which Is Not Credit 70
the Country.

POLITICS AND MANUFACTURERS
J An Association which Is Not Credit ta
the Country.
If the newly elected president of the
American Manufacturers association
is a fair representative of the prevail
ing sentiment in the association, the
latter is to be congratulated on his Sc
lection; but the country is not to be
congratulated on the association. The
country has abundant use for an asso-
citation devoted to the encouragement
Of manufactures and manufacturing
interests; but it has no use for an or
ganization which holds these purposes
subordinate to the establishment OF
partisan political theories and wbieh
of the country to a protective tariff.
The number of manufacturers who do
not believe in the protective theory or
doctrine is very 1arge-quite as large
probably as the number of those who
do believe in that doctrine. Such
an effort as the newly elected president
of the association madei his address to
commit the association to protection
must inevitably resultr-if the mem
bers have the courage Of their opinions
lin splitting the association in twain,
and such result is one upon which the
country will look with a good deal of
complaeency.
There is an unwritten lava law Of
| decency-which ought to prevent a
man put in the position of this newly
/ chosen head of the manufacturers as
sociation from making any such dis
| play of himself as Mr.. Search did in
Chicago. Under that unwritten law
| politics have no place in such an organ
ization; and the man who seeks to in
! troduee them or to commit his hearers
! or the organization TO his own partisan
: views on any subject is transgressor.
| If the republican manufacturers of the
country wish to form an organization
for the booming of protection or any
| other article in the party creed they
have an undoubted right to do SO. They
| have no right to commit or attempt to
commit an organization composed of
democrats as well as republicans, of
free traders and revenue reformers as
well as protectionists, to republican
tenets on any subject. It Is not only
bad taste, but bad faith to do SO; and
the new president of the American as
ISOLATION must be convicted of both.
II has no necessary bearing upon
the good taste or good faith Of the Off
cial mentioned to say that he is not
even an intelligent exponent OF the
principle for which he contended be-
fore the association, and to which he
sought to commit that body; but such
is the patent fact. When he talked
about securing adequate protection for
American Industries by the reenact-
ment of the Mckinley tariff, and in the
same breath of an abundance of rev.
enue being the one thing needful, he
showed himself utterly incapable Of
grasping or comprehending the first
principles of protection or of revenue.
If he had had any capacity in that re-
gard, or if he had ever read the his
tory of the tariff and McKinleyism,
he would have known that the latter
was and is utterly incompatible with
the adequate revenue" which he pro-
fesses to regard as Of prime necessity,
and that it's being SO is its chief merit
in the eyes of it's intelligent advo-
Gates. It was for the decreasing of rev.
enue, not increasing it, that the Nc
Kinley tariff was adopted, and, as we
have shown on more than one occasion,
il served admirably the purpose it's
trainers had in view.
If President Search would for mo-
ment forego his partisanship and con-
slider the subject intelligently, he would
see that this must be so. He would
see that just in proportion as tariff
becomes really protective it ceases to
produce revenue because it prevents
the importation of the goods from
which a revenue is to be collected.
1t is not at oil to the credit of the
American Manufacturers association
that 1t listened without protest the
partisan harrangue ofits new president.
1t would have been fal better occu-
pied in discussing and adopting the
resolutions Of sympathy with strug +
Cling Cuba.-Detroit Free Press.
COMMENTS OF THE PRESS.
--ES-Gov. Gov. Mckinley remarks:
''Now I am going to settle down and T
practice law" A good many people |
want to help him select his law office.
Chicago Inter Ocean (Rep.).
Mckinley now has leisure, but
there's danger the hum of industry
may interfere with his hearing his
country calling for him and monopoly I
protection. Philadelphia Times.
Maj. -inley may be expecting
something to happen. He has hired
United States army captain to act as
his secretary for four months.--st.
Paul Globe.
Maj. Mckinley has employed
two private secretaries and an extra
typewriter to enable him to enjoy his
much needed rest" on retiring from
public life.-Chicago Chronicle.
E1kins is being doomed for a
republican presidential candidate.
What a stirring up of old scandals
there would be il Elkins did get the
nomination. It would be worse than
the Blaine campaign. Kansas City
Times.
Since President Cleveland issued
his famous Venezuela message The re-
publican members of congress have
been doing all in their power to manu-
facture political capital out Of great