The herald., 1896-05-03

them the promise of their assistance tc
the Republican party If it will make the
repeal Of the present tariff law the is
sue Of the coming campaign.
The Call has always been an advocate
| of protective tariffs, but its present
noticeable ebullition of protectionism 1:
not because it Is any more strongly
impressed with the value of OIL
the urgent necessity Of intensity
ing 1t. The Calls call with the
, trumpet of protection is for the purpose
| of concentrating the attention Of Re-
| publicans upon a question regarding
which 1t considers there can be no dan
| gerous differences Of opinion among
them and drawing them from the too ab-
| sorbing consideration of another ques-
ton that threatens to divide the Re-
publican party like the PROV Of an
ocean liner parts the pillows of the sea
the free coinage of silver. To tho free
coinage Of silver, at 16 to 1. the Call is
apparently friendly. but 1t is not for
the proposition at the expense Of the
Republican party. The potency of the
free silver issue as disinte-
grating force in the Republican
party has dawned ON the Spreck-
els journalistic venture, as it
has on other organs of the same political
faith. and the task of burying as ex-
peditiously and deeply as possible the
much eulogized dollar of our daddies"
"a dollar which, by the way, our dad
les saw precious little of-in the dust of
tariffism has commenced
The delegation of 1000 manufacturers
to st. Louis deserves the same sort of
consideration that the migration of Mr..
Huntington to the federal capital in be-
half of a railroad funding bill or har-
Dor appropriation should receive. The
members of this delegation will be in
spired by patriotism of an exceedingly
local character. patriotism that will
have it's Alpha and Omega in a tender
solicitude for their individual interests.
They have reveled in the riches that
were wrung through the machinery OF
public taxation. from the products of
the peoples labor, and they want more
and their hope is that the Republican
party will be able to feed their bottom
less appetites with that more.
The ear-embellished lamentation that
a return to Mckinleyism is imperatively
needed to save the country from ever
lasting damnation has about IL the same
flavor of reason that the plea that re-
vival of antique methods of labor is es-
sential to increased production would
have. 1t is not justified by theory or
fact. Neither the Call nor any other pro-
tectionist journal can prove that the
masses wax rich by taxing themselves
for the benefit of a few, or that industry
is most encouraged when trade is most
restricted. And the undeniable fact that
1t was during the existence of the
apotheosis of protectionism, the McKir-
ley act, that mills, mines and furnaces
closed down by the hundred; that banks
and business houses of all kinds went
into bankruptcy on a scale never before
equaled in these United States, and the
wages of hundreds of thousands of work.
ers were cut down or cut off, while since
the repeal of that act the suspended in
stitutions have reopened, business in all
branches has steadily revived, and the
reduced wages have been restored,
should settle most effectually the alb
surdity of the claim that through Nc
kinleyism prosperity will be promoted.