The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-27
GREELEY'S PAPER TURNS HER
ETC.

| The New York Tribune, the leading
Republican paper of the country, is
seemingly going over to the enemy
What is the matter with 1t? IL GER
tainly shows grave symptoms of here
sy symptoms that most certainly
would call for an investigation were II
religious organ. In an article en-
titled "A Tariff on Ideas" which dealt
chiefly with the provisions of the Ding
ley bill placing a tariff on works of
| art, it said:
Whether a tariff is for revenue or
protection or for purposes of retalia-
ton, it must be based upon economic
logic of some sort if it is to be re-
spected 1t is not to be supposed that
any nation would rise up in the morn
ing and place tax upon certain, i'm
ports for the sheer pleasure of showing
its power Yet it is pretty nearly this
kind of action to which Mr.. Dingley
seems DESTROYS of committing us in
that part of his tariff bill which re-
/ letes to the products of art and Gtera-
ture. He places a duty upon them
which has no earthly justification in
the facts of our Intercourse with other
nations. We say this advisedly. 1t is
undoubtedly true that the traffic in
works of art, in printed books, and in
the instruments of learning generally
which is carried on between the United
States and Europe involves great
moneyed interests. But there are some
financial transactions in which the
parties concerned can afford to over
look the profit and loss account of the
individual for the sake of the benefit
accruing to the community at large.
That is a fact which Mr.. Dingley ig
nores.
For a long period of time the best
influences in our civilization have been
at work to put the means of better
and better education into the hands of
the people. Mr.. Dingley asks that we
write ourselves down as a nation car
ing more for money than for intellec-
tual and moral progress.
That is enough to startle a dyed-in-
the-wool protectionist out of a sweet
slumber into a horrid nightmare. But
the Tribune is following this up with
other articles of an equally REASONABLE
nature. 1t is attacking that sin and
iniquity, that abomination in the sight
of all honest and self-respecting peo-
ple-the free distribution of seeds On
this subject it says:
The evil in question is the indis-
criminate free distribution of seeds at
public expense. In its inception, the
system had its good features. 1t was
intended to distribute to agricultural
lists foreign and other rare seeds which
they could not otherwise readily OBJ
tain, and to secure from them in re-
turn reports upon results of the plant
ing. But these purposes are no longer
served. The system has degenerated
into a mere giving away of ordinary
seeds, for no other end than to save
the recipient the slight expense of
buying them-and to secure his vote
for the reelection of the congressman
who sends them. Now, it is a nice
thing to get seeds without paying for
them. But it is not to be supposed
that the farmers of the country want
to pose as beggars, or as the receiv-
ers of aims. Nor is there the Slight
est good reason why such gratuities
should be bestowed upon them The
farmer has no more title to get his
turnip seed at the public expense than
he has to get his hoes and shovels in
the same way, or than the city work
lnSman has to get his -four and sugar
OF course the farmer is no more
entitled to free seeds than he is TO
free hoes and shovels, free tea and
coffee, but those who advocate pater-
nalism in government have been teach I
ing him such doctrines that those who /
accept them naturally expect the free /
seeds TO follow.
That the Tribune can publish such I
articles as these goes to show that the
doctrines of protectionism and pater- {
lalism have not quite so firm a grin /
iron the country as they once had. I
they indicate that the country may /
still turn its eyes to the east in the I
lot wholly vain expectation that it will /
'eceive some light.