The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-09-15


so-called, Of the tariff were fairly run
into the ground" A trife more added
to the duties it imposes would have made
it tantamount to a prohibdtory tariff.
And yet the declared purpose Of it's en-
actment by congress-to supply the de-
felt in the national revenue-failed ut
terly.
AS long ago as the premiership Of Mr..
Blaine, the United States treasury was
menaced by a deficit. The reciprocity
theory of that astute statesman was a
confession pro tanto that the fiscal sys-
tenn then in vogue was inefficient In
meeting the demands Of the national
treasury. Ostensibly in the interest OF
the extension of our foreign trade and
as providing a much-to-b desired an
mex to the home market that every day
became less equal to the disposition OF
our surplus product-Mr. Blaines linz
tied free-trade reciprocity idea was SIM
ply proposition looking to the increase
In our revenue receipts. Reciprocity
was, of course, beneflcial-as all approx
imation to the Democratic free-trade
theory must be-but 1t proved only a
temporary expedient, and after Mr..
Blaine's death there came renaissance
Of that fallacy in economics: the higher
the tariff the greater the revenue.
Hence, Gaping the climax, came the
Dingley bill, the most exorbitant Of
high tariff measures, resulting in the
inevitable deficit. The country had
been promised surplus revenue. Mr..
Dingley was sure of it. But the deficit
was there, and with it the silent thre at
OF direful consequences to the Republic
can party. In fact the party had played
its last trump in the enactment of this
Dingley bill, and lost. The party was
at its wits end. Failure most igno-
minious faced the Mckinley admins
tration.
In this emergency, like a godsend,
came the Spanish-American war. 1t
was as a plank thrown to and seized
by the drowning mariner. 1t present.
ed an opportunity most promptly en-
braced, of raising revenue and wiping
out the deficit. not by the old system of
taxation on imported merchandise, but
by internal taxation. There is no fact
in the history Of modern party politics
more susceptible of demonstration than
that our war with Spain saved the Re
publican party from fatal disaster.
That stubborn deficit" would ere this
have broken the back of the G. O. P.
Gratitude to Spanish stupidity and
Spanish "honor" should henceforth be
a cardinal principle of that party's faith.
But there is another Noteworthy fea-
ture of this new departure in our fiscal
system which the American people
should bear in mind. Curlously enough
the war revenue law taxes capital,
money-lenders and corporations; 1t
collects duties on legacies, SUGGESTIONS
and all forms Of corporate activities.
In this it simply paves the way for an
income tax! What are these but con-
LESSONS that the state policy which has
hitherto been the pride of the Repub-
lican party, has been abandoned as un-
fit to meet a national crisis? What are
they but concessions to the reiterated
demands of the Democratic masses for
this very system of taxation and admis-
sion of the justice and equity of those
demands? In point of fact the party In
power has been driven by the exigen-
cies of the case to abandon Republican
and accept Democratic theories of gov
eminent as the only theories to save
the nation In the hour of peril The ex
recessitate rel may yet force the Repub-
lican party to repudiate even the gigantic
heresy of gold monometallism. So
mote it be.