The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-12-30
THE RUSH FOR THE TROUGH.

Nothing describes so we'll as the old
familiar phrase 1.-The rush for the
trough" the performance that has now
begun at Washington. The regular Re-
publican show Of tariff hearings holds
the boards. 1t is the usual saturnalia
Of self-interest, the regular game of
grab. Manufacturers and their agents
flock to the national capital and put in
their claims for permission to mulct
the consumers of the country for their
private profit. There is no other thought
In their minds. There is not the faint
est glimmer of unselfshness or even of
decent regard for one another among
them. The proverbial honor among
thieves" fails when applied to the bene-
ficiaries of the protective system. The
representative Of the Manufacturing
Chemists association, of Philadelphia,
mOdestly states that his people want
mo favors," but only justice. ''They
are now being crushed between the tex
tile manufacturers and the importers.
So the tin plate men will, little later,
enter their plant because the steel bill
let men have pushed them SO hard.
And so we go on from link to link of
this villainous chain, each one of which
is striving to rend its neighbor, and
clamoring al the same time for a boun-
ty because it's neighbOr returns evil
for evil The representative of the
color r1aOI1fa ctI11,arS IF Nayy Work. ca VIC
that his people are contented with the
present duties. They are ample; but,
he adds, if the duties on chemicals are
to be increased, then there must be a
relative increase on coIors. And so up
We go. There must be a boost all along
the line because election debts have to
be paid. There has been promised to
one infant bottle of pap, and all the
other infants yell Justify that they will
starve, although now well fed unless
they can be treated with equal liberal
ity. 1t is not surprising. in view of
these events, to have the naive remark
a the end of the first chapter of this
carnival of greed that without excep-
an increase of the duties on the par
ticular industry in which they were
interested"
If the Republican party chooses to
cut its own throat, we shall not be
found among the mourners. It's in
auguration is going to bring down upon
it such universal condemnation in this
country as even the Democratic fail
ure to perform the pledges contained in
its platform Of 1892 did not involve.
The manufacturing business of this
country is just as we'll able, far better
in fact, to maintain itself in competi-
ton with the rest of the world than the
agricultural interest. Our farmers meet
on equal terms the cheapest labor in
the worlds open market. Our manu-
facturers, after generation of protec-
ton, after a development that enables
them to sell their wares in every QUAR-
ter of the globe in competition with
other nations, a development that has
raised our export of domestic manufac-
lures to one-fourth Of the total of all
that we send abroad, gather greedily at
Washington in this rush for the trough.
They want more taxes levied on the
consumer. They want to make the
farmer pay more for his lumber, his
clothing, his household utensils, for ev-
cry article that he does not produce
directly from the soil, in order that
they may put it in their own pockets.
This country will never know enduring
prosperity, and its industries viii never
be upon any other than an artificial
and rickety foundation, until we have
put a peremptory end to legislative
favoritism, under the mask of ''protec-
ton" Setting aside the matter OF JUS
tice to the consumer, 1t is demanded
by public decency and by regard for
ordinary morality that such an exhi-
bition as that made by the tariff crowd
at Washington should never be re-
peated.