Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-04-07
A Candid Admission.

a CANDID ADMISSION.
The -. Paul FioHCcr Press, Il lead
ing Republican paper, declares that
sentiment al tie country j. rapidly
ma>-Ing with Irresistible force in sup
port 81 the demand that no trade
combination to raise prices and exact
unreasonable profits from the con>um-
CT, shall have the support or shelter OF
protective duty Well said; but
have not advocates oi protection dis
growth oi conditions which monopoly
fosters? Can they not sec that the
same policy which has rendered the
accrction OF millions to scores of oper-
atorS, by cutting off foreign COMPETE
ton, Ia, placed them in position to
exercise absolute control over domes-
tic competition as we'll? Is not
wealth always arrogant and dictatori-
al, and is not the measure of its aggres-
sivenesS always manifested in direct
proportion to the influence it is able to
WELD from colossal proportions? 1t
might be matter Of congratulation
that the Republican party had, even
this late, been able to read the ire
preside logic of events, could the
public be made to believe that a
change of policy was based upon any
thing more sincere in its nature than
desire to maintain party supremacy.
Death-bed repentance, though sincere,
cannot always be accepted as that
thorough regeneration which might
have made saints of its professors had
they by some miraculous power, been
snatched from the brink of the grave
and afforded an opportunity for lead
ing new lives.
The Republican party will have to
deny prenatal conditions and abandon
the characteristics that have marked
its existence from birth, to enable it
to follow the injunction of its cham.
pion, the Pioneer Press, when it de-
clares that "Thc party cannot too
soon relieve its protective policy OF the
odium of the monstrous perversion oil
its benefits to the aid of combinations
organized for purposes of public rob-
berry" 1t was to encourage, build up
and foster, the class with aristocratic
tendencies, that the Federalists band.
ed together, probably conscientiously,
to institute a government that should
retain some of what they regarded as
the safeguards of government. They
doubted the capability of the average
citizen for exercising an influence in
direction of public matters. Hence,
without hereditary rank, wealth was
made the means of giving prestige to
the class who should be accepted as
the ruling element of the nation,
The protective tariff, and its allied
forces, by due process of evolution, in
time developed the ruling power that
finally dominated American politics
controlling results, at least twice with.
in the last generation, so completely
that the opinion is very near general
the will of the people was entirely
subverted on both occasions.
1t may be that some of the more
honest paztisans-with whom we
would be glad to class the Press-now
see the inevitable result of the mis-
taken policy and realize that to foster
pride and encourage exclusiveness, is
not in accord with the true principles
of popular government. If the effect
of Republican teachings and its party
methods has been to open the eyes OF
any great number of its champions to
the fact that protection is used to aid
combinations, formed for purposes oil
public robbery, and denunciation oil
the same, then there is some hope
that patriotism will arise above parti-
sanship and hurl from power party
which has demonstrated that its pres
tige has been based upon very unstable
grounds.