The herald., 1896-01-19
BY THEIR OWN EVIDENCE

Now that the Republican leaders in
congress are using every effort, legiti-
mate and otherwise, to get tariff bill
enacted, and Republicans outside OF
congress are eagerly looking forward
to their national convention next June.
it might be we'll for them to know what
some of the great modern leaders of
the party have said on the tariff ques-
ton. Here are few gems from Re-
publican sources which protectionist
papers are respectfully invited to re-
produce:
John Sherman, in 1857, declared: 81
said it, and stand byit, that as gen.
eral rule the duties paid upon imports
operate as tax upon the consumer.
A system of national taxes which rests
the whole burden of taxation on con-
sumption, and not entirely on property
or income, is intrinsically unjust"
Senator John A. Logan, in 1870, said:
"Does not every farmer and mechanic
IN this broad land make use of iron in
ell kinds of labor? They are producers
and consumers, and are not protected; !;
and it is they who pay this large
amount of money into the pockets of
the manufacturers of this article"
General Grant, when president, said
in his message in 1875: "All duty paid
upon such articles (raw materially goes
directly to the cost of the article when
manufactured here, and must be paid
for by the consumers"
William Mckinley in 1892, at Provi-
dence, R. L, said: mo one ever claimed
that protective tariffs were intended to
increase wages
James g. Blaine in 1890, speaking of
the Mckinley bill, said: "There is not
section or line in the whole bill
that will open market for another
bushel of wheat or another barrel of
pork"
William B. Allison, who is now being
doomed as a presidential possibility,
declared in 1879: at is true that under
customs laws there is a small duty
upon wheat, barley, oats and other ag-
ricultural products, but it does not af-
ford any protection to the great wheat
and grain producing regions of the
country. What is true of wheat is
equally true of other grains. There
fore the farmer has practically no pro-
lection at ALL"
Benjamin Butterworth of Ohio, in
1890, said: "No industry has a right to
any advantage over any other industry
in the republic. The giving OF such an
advantage to any industry or class of
industries is not indictable, because it
is not written within the terms of the
statute; not because it lacks that quail
ity which ought to make it indictable." !"
And here is another gem that fell
from the lips of Benjamin Butterworth
in May, 1890: "The manufacturers and
the trusts get the protection and the
profits of the tariff-the farmer gets
the husks and the humbug."
Senator Plumb of Kansas, in a
speech on the Mckinley bill, when
that Legislative iniquity was before the
I senate, said: "There has been no fact
produced, of any kind or description
whatever, no attempt made, to justify
this proposed increase of duties"
In 1868 Senator Sherman, having pro-
gressed beyond the position he occu-
pied in 1867, talked about absolute
free trade as follows: every advance
towards free exchange of commodi-
ties is an advance in civilization; every
obstruction to free exchange is born
of the same narrow, despotic spirit
which planted castles upon the Rhine
to plunder peaceful commerce; every
obstruction to commerce is tax upon
consumption; every facility to a free
exchange cheapens commodities, in-
creases trade and production, and pro.
notes civilization"
James A. Garfield said: 81 am in
favor of that kind of protection which
will lead to ultimate free trade"
Similar declarations from other
prominent Republicans might be
quoted, bnt these will suffice for the
present. They should be pasted in
every voters hat.