The herald., 1897-08-24
SENATOR WHITE AND THE
TARIFF

, There are few newspapers in Cali
fornia-Republican organs, as rule
that are disposed to find fault with Sen
ator White for the course he followed
with reference to the Dingley bill when
1t was before the senate. These Repub-
lican organs are Of course aiming to
secure the defeat of Senator White
should he stand for reelection, and they
profess to be highly indignant over the
able manner in which the senator looked
after the interests Of his state while at
the same time remaining true to the
principles of his party.
Senator White had an eminently rep
utable precedent for his course, as the
careful student of American history Will
readily testify. Nearly seventy years
ago. when the celebrated tariff of 1928
was before congress, there were num-
ber of senators and representatives who
adopted the same line of policy as that
followed by Senator White and others of
his party with reference to the Dingley
bill.
Ex-senator Benton of Missouri, in his
famous Thirty Years View" devotes
an exceedingly interesting chapter to the
revision of the tariff in 1928, in which he
says:
My personal position was that OF
great many others in the three protec-
tive sections opposed to the policy nut
going with it on account of the inter-
est of the state in the protection of some
of its productions. 1 moved an addi-
tional duty on lead equal to 100 per
centum; and it was carried. 1 moved
a duty upon indigo, former staple
of the south, but now declined to a
slight production; and 1 proposed rate
of duty in harmony with the protective
features of the bill No southern mem
ber would move that duty, because he
opposed the principle. 1 moved it that
1.-The American system" as it was
called, should work alike in all parts
of our America
Mr.. Benton made a set speech along
these lines and was supported by Mr..
Hayne of South Carolina, who said he
was opposed to the bill in its principles
as we'll as in it's details.
With a fixed resolution to vote against
the bill, he still considered himself at
liberty to assist in so arranging the
details as to extend to every interest
and to all portions of the country, as
far as may be practicable, equal pro-
lection, and to distribute the burdens
of the system equally. in order that its
benefits, as we'll as its evils, may be
fully tested. On this principle he should
vote for the amendment of the gentle
man from Missouri, because it was in
strict conformity with all the princi-
pies of the bill.
Senator White pursued exactly the
same course in doing his part to give
the people of California the protection
they demanded, 80 far as they were rep
resented by the Republican party.
History doth strangely repeat itself
Senator Benton goes on to say: "Allu-
sions were constantly made to the COM
binations of manufacturing capitalists
and politicians in pressing this bill
L
imputation." How true is this in the
light of the history of the present day:
Only, the evil has gone far beyond the
most foreboding fears of the statesmen
of seventy years ago. For did not Mr..
McDuffie, speaking on the tariff bill Of
1923, in the house, say:
When 1 consider the disguise of dis
interested patriotism under which the
basest and most profligate ambition
may perpetuate such an act Of injustice
and political prostitution, I cannot hesi-
tate for a moment to pronounce this
very system of indirect bounties the
most stupendous instrument of corrup-
tion ever placed in the hands of public
functionaries. 1t brings ambition and
avarice and wealth into combination
which it is painful to contemplate, be-
cause it is almost impossible to resist.
If Benton and Hayne and McDuffie
had arisen from their graves last month,
marched in ghostly array to the senate
chamber for the purpose of speaking on
the Dingley tariff bill, they would have
repeated what they said sixty-nine
years ago.