The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-07
A BELATED DIsCOyERER.

BELATED DISCOVERED.
THE recent arrest" of st. Louis
smuggler. says the Pioneer Press, has
invited fresh attention to the growth
Of an enormous abuse" The other In
vitation was extended by Mr.. Ding
ley's committee, which proposed to
limit the clothing and other personal
adornments that could be imported
without paying duty to $1O0. We recall
no other invitation from any Republic
can source to this enormous abuse" in
all the long tariff history Of that par
ty. To be sure there have been numer-
Gus efforts in that direction by Demo-
Gratis in congress, in their press and
from the huStings, but until Dingley
arrived the invitation fell upon Repub-
lican ears securely muff1ed against all
such appeals. Democrats in vain
pointed out the manifest inconsistency
of putting a hundred and odd per cent
tax on clothing that was imported to
be sold, while permitting those who
could afford foreign tour to purchase
any quantity Of clothing for their own
use, and bring it in past the warders
of the customs scatheless of tax
They pointed out the palpable injus-
tice Of this to those ninths of man.
klnd, the tailors, who had thus to COM
pete with the pauper ninths of Europe
But in vain. Possibly the suspicion that
the Democrats were simply guying
their opponents and really approved of
TINS free importation and, when their
innings came, Endorsed it, made the
Republicans Indifferent to the charges
of inconsistency and probably there
was too large and influential an ele-
Hent IN their own constituency that
appreciated the money value of being
allowed to buy their clothing where
they could get it the cheapest, lust
ike regular free traders, to make it
safe to deny them. Possibly, too, they
perceived that this privilege was, after
all, in entire harmony with their theory
OF governmental privileges. Anyway,
until Dingley came from Maine, back
ed Valiantly by Tawney, who came
from Minnesota, no Republican tariff
act ever indicated that the party, or
any member of it. had discovered that
this privilege was IAN enormous
ABUSE. 1t has taken that party thir-
ty-six years to find it out.
THE result" proceeds our awakened
contemporary, sis that a privileged
class is recognized" But where is the
line that divides privilege and privi-
legged classes? If it is a privilege for
man to bring in apparel from foreign
parts free of tax, is it not an equal
privilege to permit another man to
make his customers pay more for the
material of their clothing by reason of
a tax? If class of persons, by virtue
of their vocation, is given the privilege
Of exacting more for their product than
they could obtain without the barrier
raised against competition, while other
classes must labor and produce without
such privilege, is there not a "privileg-
ed class recognized" and is not such
Where is the fine line drawn that dis
tinguishes the cases? We have been
searching for it for years, but are I'M
able to find it, and dc not believe that
it exists
But our contemporary makes a dis
covery, which it should at once COM
municate to the occupant of the white
house. 1t notes, in demonstrating the
fact of the existence Of the "privileged
class it so tardily recognizes, that
wealthy man, who can go abroad
and bring back clothing, is ex-
empted from tax at the port of entry
which his stay-at-home neighhor
must pay If he wears a coat made of
imported cloth or q shirt Of Irish linen.
or INDUCES IN any one of the thousand
luxuries with which the bird of pass
age adorns his person, the persons of
his family or his home" That is to say,
that the stay-at-home pays the tax
levied upon the imported article he
buys. This is rank heresy, if McKin-
leyism is orthodoxy. That declares that
it is the foreigner who sends these
things to our market who pays the tax
for the privilege of selling here, and
not the native who buys them. That
the latter pays it is an important dis
covery of which Mr.. Mckinley should
be promptly advised. 1t might also be
communicated with benefit to Mr..
Dingley and Senator Aldrich, who still
hold to the orthodox faith.
The Hawaiians show the results of evoIu-