The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-04
SUGAR-COATING THE PILL.

L..
Not the least amusing feature of the
framing Of the new tariff bill is the
obvious and desperate anxiety of the
honorable senate to lay a coating of
sugar over the nauseous dose that they
have prepared for the American peo-
PIE. Having carried out the orders Of
their masters-the capitalists, monopo-
lists and trusts-and put into the bill
the rates that were agreed upon as the
price of political support, there comes
to them glimmering and fearful idea
Of the hereafter When they go back
TO their constituents, as they will have
to do, and try to explain from the stump
Why they committed this outrage upon
American industry, they must have
some defense ready. The great body
of duties imposed by this bill are as
lndefensible, even from the standpoint
OF protection, as any other form of
robbery. The equalizing of cost of
production here and abroad, which has
been a favored plank in Republican
platforms, would, if Incorporated in an
act, tear the Dingley bill to tatters and
cut the schedules of the senate sub
stitute until they would be unrecog-
nizable. The new tariff bill, there
fore. was advanced as a measure Of
protection and a confessed failure as
a raiser Of revenue. There must he
70 do n.r1o
before the eyes of the people as an
apology for this legislative monstros-
ity. We saw the first signs Of yielding
when few items like bagging were
transferred to the free list. A sober
second thought has raised before the
eyes of the senate a vision of angered
constituents, and they made a COR
cession to their personal safety. The
same is true of the reduction in duty
on white pine from 81 to 81 per thou
sand, with a narrow margin of but a
single vote between a duty on lumber
and place for it on the free list If
there were a little more time in which
to hear from the people, the extrava-
gances of the new tariff act would be
still further toned down.
We come now to a list of appendices.
or perhaps we should call them, more
accurately, codicils, wherein the Re-
publican party devises and bequeaths
to the public certain alleged compen-
sations for the extortionate tariff rates
imposed. One of these is the resurrec-
ton of the hoary humbug known as
reciprocity. This empowers the pres
1dent, with the advice and consent of
the senate, to make reciprocity treaties
giving 20 per cent reduction in the
duties on certain articles or placing
them on the free list. We need not go
again into the argument that this is a
total abandonment of protective prin
ciple. 1t is outright free trade. Here
is manufacturer of wooden goods. LET
us say, for whom the senate has i'm
posed upon WoOlens a certain rate CT
duty declared by it to be the lowest
that will protect the wooden manu-
featuring industry from the competf-
ton of the foreigner. If, however, that
foreigner agrees to make certain con-
cessions in admitting exports of other
commodities from this country. then
he is to be permitted to send woolens
into the United States at a reduction
of one-fifth of the established rates
Wa nf
merely for illustration. The reciproc-
ity arrangement may or may not ap-
ply to that, but wherever it is applied
the principle is the same That prin.
ciple is simply this; that if we can
secure profitable arrangements for the
sale of some of our products in par
ticular countries, we will, as to those
countries. take away the protection
given to specified industries at home,
and leave them, according to the Re-
publican idea, at the mercy of the des-
pot and the slave. If this is not a.
gorgeous humbug, then the state pam
oply of an African potentate Is a de-
cent and Quaker-like garb. Reciproc-
ity and protection are utterly incom-
patible.
Again, we have little doubt that this
provision is wholly unconstitutional
Possibly that may be one reason why
it is put into the bill; for effect upon
the people, in the belief that it will be
thrown out by the courts. That con-
gress can commit to the executive
department a power located strictly
by the constitution in the legislative
department is beyond any probability.
To confer upon the president the right
to alter duties established by law. or
to sweep them away altogether, when
the constitution vests the framing Of
bills to raise revenue in the house OF
representatives, is stretch of that
ancient document too great, we believe.
to meet the approval of the supreme
court
Another clause in the sugar-coating
process, designed this time to draw
an electric spark of approval from
the jingoes, is that which authorizes
retaliatory duties. This serves a dou-
BILE purpose. 1t not only pleases the
gentleman who asks what have We
to do with abroad?" but it causes 4
pleasant glow to permeate the whole
being of the sugar trust 1t provides
that, whenever any country pays n
tu Of