The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-09

| Of any congress ever did before to en-
tighten the people Of these United
| States upon the method and meaning
| of protective legislation. The bill sent
| up to the senate by the house was
| bad one. 1t had, however, the merit
of comparative honesty when set side
| by side with the one sent back by the
! senate to the house. There was an
| effort made, which appears to have peen
| a really honest one, in the first stage
of the bills passage through the senate,
to make it conform to original Repuo-
| lican Ideas, and to change 1t into
revenue act instead of a deficit breed
er. Senator Aldrich, bigoted protec-
Zionist though he is, had sense enough
| to see that the house bill, with its
| prohibitive rates upon almost all artl-
cles imported, would not afford revenue
| enough to run the government. He
and his associates of the finance COM
mittee proposed certain changes that
would modify the house bill, make some
of it's worst features more tolerabie anu
bring in money enough to pay the bllls.
They proposed to cut duties here and
there, and to add a tax on tea ana
beer that would help cure the deficit.
At a very early hour they were I'M
deceived The senate would not permit
it, That body is representing great
vested interests and is looking out for
them. The demand of the brewers was
| Just as imperative in it's way as the
demand of the iron and steel makers
or the lumber barons or the sugar
trust. Nobody likes to be taxed. When
it is just common man, representing
the millions of consumers who have no
pull and no purse to divide, he does not
count When it is a capitalist, his
views are listened to with the greatest
Difference Therefore, these proposed
amendments were all cut out; there
fore, also, the country was fed with
the idea that the high duties could not
be used to buttress monopoly, because
the senate assured us that it would add
to the bill an amendment scaling down
or doing away altogether with the
duties on articles monopolizsd by fruits.
After having kept up the rates on this
plea and cut out the revenue features,
| because those whom they would hit did
not want to pay the tax, the senate
discovered at the last moment that it
was too late to legislate against the
trusts So the bill goes through by a
majority of ten votes, as arranged
for in advance by Mr.. Hanna and the
rest, and goes back to the house with
all its imperfections on it's head.
The months that have passed while it
was progressing through the senate
have shown that the interest Of the
public in it is absolutely dead. The
fraud has been brought to the surface.
The people know now what they ought
to have known before, that high tax
alton is not prosperity All the prom
iseS made to us by the McKinleyites
have vanished into empty air. We
hope held out of a return of prosperity
with the reversion to an excessive
tariff bill was foolish and has shown
itself fallacious. If industry were go
| ing to revive under the Mckinley idea,
| the symptoms of it would have been
apparent long ere this. The certainty
| that the new tariff act will become a
law was appreciated by the public six
months ago. Industry has not revived
The stagnatiop of trade has not been
| cured. The Democratic opposition i'll
| the senate has made it clear to the
most thoughtless or the least informed
| that the tariff schedules are drawn
neither for revenue nor for protection,
| but to swell the profits of monopoly.
| So the outrageous business stands to-
| day before the public as a confessed
| measure of protecting powerful inter
ests in this country, with bank balances
to their credit, at the expense of the
consumer. This is the record with
which the Republican party has to
reckon hereafter. 1t cannot evade it or
wipe it out. The new tariff bill, when it
comes out of the conference committee
will not revive our Industries, and will
| not cure the treasury deficit. What it
| will do, and perhaps that may have
been worth while, is to hold the Re
publican party up to the contempt and
ccnsure of the nation for all time to
come; and to identify at last, beyond
explanation or denial, the principle
of protection with the desire of the
powerful to rob the weak, that is older
| than legislatures or governments them
selves. The Mckinley highwayman is
abroad in the land with q govern
ment commission in his pocket Let
| us see what the people will have to
| say about it.
POT AND