The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-04-06
.P0PULISTS
and TARIFF
Caucus of the Third Partyitss Re-
suits in a Manifesto.
THEY HAVE NO FAITH IN THE
D1NGLEY Bull AS A STEP TO
WARD PROSPERITY, BUT BE-
LIEvE THAT THE RESTORATION
OF SILVER is THE PANACEA.

A joint caucus of the Populist mem.
bers of the Senate and House was held
Thursday evening to discuss the course
Of that party toward the tariff bill. AS
a result the following address was is.
sued:
The tariff has been the battledoor and
shuttlecock of politics for more than one
hundred years, and its final settlement
is more distant than when the contIoH
versy began.
During this period the country has ex.
perienced at different times both pros.
perity and har1 times, not only under a
high tariff, but also under low tariff:
but it has always experienced hard times
when there was n contraction of the
money volume, no matter whether the
tariff was high or low.
When the Cleveland Republican com.
bination repealed the purchasing clause
OF the Sherman act and stopped the issue
OF new money, the crash came, notwith-
standing the Mckinley tariff remained
in force year and a half thereafter, and
when the Democratic Wilson bill, became
law, the evils Of contraction were not
mitigated by it, but times have continued
to grow worse. We have no faith in
either Republican or Democratic tariff
as remedy for the evils of the gold
standard and monopoly rule.
We recognize the fact that all former
tarif legislation as we'll as the proposed
measure, has many unjust discrimina.
tions and works hardships to many in.
dustries and unreasonably fosters others.
The chief Republican complaint against
the Wilson bill, however, is that it does
not produce sufficient revenue for the
support of the Government. This lack CT
revenue is not the result of defects in
the bill as it was passed by Congress,
but resulted from the decision of the SUI
preme court, which declared the income
tax unconstitutional. There are. many
ways to supply the deficiency without
renewing the tariff agitation. The most
direct and effective method would be to
restore silver and increase the circulating
medium so as to restore the level of prices
which existed prior to the demonetiZa-
tion OF that metal. If that could be done
the present tariff law, with the money
derived from other sources would create
surplus and not q deficiency. If the
money powers are strong enough to post
pone relief in that way, ample revenue
could be derived from tax on few ar
ticlcs which would produce revenue; or
what might be still better, reduction of
needless expenditures, such as extrav-
agant appropriations OF money for rivers
and harborS, not req uired by the needs
of commerce, and the like.
We do not regard the Dingley bill as n
revenue measure. 1t is extremely doubt
full If it will produce as much revenue as
the Wilson bill. Nor is it tariff for
protection in any just sense. 1t is en-
phatically tariff for agitation. The
discrimination and inequality of the bill
will create great dissatisfaction 1t
seems to us designed by the Republican
party to create such tariff agitation as
will divert the attention Of the people
from the misery they suffer from con
traction OF money and the rule of monop-
olies. Tariff agitators, who are either
ignornntly or knowingly the tools of
monopolists and the money trust, have
succeededsfor the last twenty years in de-
luding many voters into the belief that
the misery they endure results wholly
from the..wickedness 81 the tariff proposed
or passed by the opposing party. The
whole object of the gold Republicans
seems to be to engage the Democratic
party in the old chronic tariff war, and
thereby sidetrack all oCher questions or
issues which they fear to meet, and
which alone can bring general prosperity.
These and other like considerations have
induced the Populists in the two houses
of Congress to decline to recognize the
tariff issue as proper subject to divide
the parties until the main issue of the
money ques ton and the rule of monopo-
lies is settled They refuse to counte-
nance any scheme which will keep up the
chronic fight over the tariff to enable the
money trust to avoid decision on the
real and vital issues between the people
and concentrated wealth.
While the Populists will do all in their
power in both houses of Congress to rem
edy the manifest defects in the Wilson
BILL and to secure to farmers and labor
ers suca protection as shall correspond
with the protection in both the Mckinley
and the Wilson bill of finished products;
to equalize the burden of taxation neces-
sary 10 raise sufficient revenue, and to
also equitably distribute the benefits re-
sulting from such q tariff, yet if they re-
frain from voting for or against the
Dingley bin on its final passage, it will
be TO avoid even the appearance of pro.
noting the continuance of the tariff agi
tation to sidetrack the vital and over
shadowing question of financial and mo-
nopoly reforms and also to avoid giving