St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1897-05-15
ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR.
AN INFAMOUS CLAUSE.
Protection Farsnticfsm in Tariff Leg
islatiOn.

islatfOn.
There is nothing in the records OF
American legislation which as piece
of stupid and ruthless tyranny equals
the retroactive clause of the tariff bill
just passed in the lower branch of con-
gress. The face Of legal opinion as we'll
as of popular judgment has always been
sternly set against eN post facto laws
as opposed not only to public interest,
but to the essential spirit of our insti-
tutions. Yet the tariff mongers have
not forborne to include such clause in
the bill, in itself the most extreme in
its high protection abuses ever pro-
posed in congress, to make its burden
still more onerous. Fanaticism could go
no further in party madness.
Whether this retroactive feature OF
the tariff would, in case of its becoming
law, stand the ordeal of the courts is
doubtful. No precisely similar case has
ever been brought before the supreme
bench, or, indeed any other of our aw
tribunals, so far as we can learn. That
its spirit does not accord with that sup
posed to be dominant in our political
system is clear at half a glance. This,
far more than any technical or super
fetal agreement with the established
course of things, if such an apparent
concord existed, as is not the case,
would control the final decision. But
in the meantime, during the pendency
of the question, retroactive jurisdiction
will do more to unsettle and agitate the
business of the country than would even
the final results of the tariff itself. Un-
certainty is the prime factor of business
convulsion, especially in those branches
of business which deal with articles of
perishable nature, or such as are sub
iect to rapid fluctuation OF price. In
these days, too, of immense production
and of steamship and cable as CONNER
cial factors, prices fuctuate far more
rapidly than il the more easy-going
days of old.
An illustration of the working Of the
retroactive clause may be instanced in
the case of the fruit commission mer-
chants of New York city. Nearly all
fruit arriving at this port is consigned,
and the American merchant has to
make large advances to make sure OF
his cargoes. Under the provision that
only goods purchased and shipped prior
to April of this year win be free OF
the new excessive tariff, in case it be-
comes a law, foreign fruit when it be
gins to arrive will be met by exactions
positively ruinous in it's competition
with the native fruit. Thefrade of hum
dreds of merchants will be destroyed.
While the case of fruit Importation, ow-
ing to perishable quality and liability
to quick price fluctuations, perhaps is
an extreme example, many other prod
ucts will share in part a similar draw
back. All consigned goods-and these
constitute a very important portion OF
the volume of commercial business
will be specially liable. Importations
purchased absolutely belong to the
more stable priced articles as rule,
and the excessive hardship in any in
dividual case would be less. But here
also can be readily perceived the bur
den, which will tax business and cramp
the operations of the merchant; for it
is held that the difference between the
new duties and those of the Wilson tar
if would constitute q lien against all
goods. The republican party came into
power with clamorous braggadocio as
"the advance agency of prosperity A
more monstrous trayesty on it's claim
can scarcely be fancied than this tariff,
which arouses detestaticn in the minds
of the. more intelligent members of its
own political family, and further in
vokes an agency which would scarcely
be tolerabIe even in d despotic govern
nent of the Europe to-day. The victim
is made subject to all the terrors OF
prompt execution even before his trial
has been decided Mr. Mckinley, while
in the house, in one of his speeches on
tariff agitation, deplored the evil which
any change in schedules infallibly
brought about. He laid stress on the
Importance, where these changes were
necessary, of fixing such a date for
their effect as would allow gradual pro-
vision for the new condition created.
The mad army which traInps in his
footsteps have proceeded in this retro
active clause of their new bill to negate
most condemptuously the old dictum of
their standard -bearer.-N. Y. journal.