, 1899-09-14
EMOCRACY'SCHANCE
CAN GET FREE TRADE WITH Elk
PANSION.
III Party Seems to he Against Unre-
stIicted Eorsign Competition-ReGret
In Advances the Opportunity to Fight
NEXT Years Campaign on Old Lines

oh oia Liute
New York Tribune: This is Just the
lime of all others, cries a stalwart free
trader. for the democratic party to ac-
,omplish the overthrow of protection
With ease. After battling for genera
lions on that issue. is it conceivable
hat the party will run away from 1t
precisely when the best opportunity OF
is whole history comes? This was
The one question on which 1t won sue
cess with Cleveland, and it would be
amazing folly now to abandon it for
the n question OF which 1t sustained
Its most complete and humiliating de-
teat with Bryan. With new posses
sions which produce sugar largely.
some radical alteration of the tariff
will be unavoidable, and 1t will be all
the more easy just now to overthrow
protective duties, because the great
Industries have gained a hold on for
eign markets. and want protection nc
longer. Such, in substance, is the
reasoning of sundry democratic jour-
pals which seems to have been sug-
sested by certain pithy remarks OF
Senator Morgan in the anne vein.
That senator will be treated with re-
spect by all who appreciate a genuine
Americanism. but IL this particular
suggestion were found afioat without
his name attached 1t might be attrib-
uted to those whom that senator holds
in deep contempt as enthusiasts OF
things foreign. Where has the senator
learned that American industries no
longer want protective duties, unless
from foreign journals printed on both
sides of the ocean? He would not find
his constituents about Birmingham of
that mind, nor the sturdy wool-grow-
ers of the west, who have done at least
their full share in maintaining the
honor of the flag. Nor have the WOO
manufacturers mad so much as a re-
spectacle beginning in the way OF in
vsding foreign markets, and they well
know that another Wilson tariff would
mean for them. and necessarily for
wool-growers, another four years of
extreme prostration. But the question
Will, in fact, be decided, not by the
manufacturers, but by the millions of
workers who knew what it was to hunt
in vain for work at low wages under
Cleveland. Ii is exactly because the
democratic party did succeed once on
that issue with Cleveland that it vas
ready to IL away from it, even into
populism. defeat aud disgrace.
The idea that the tariff must be re-
constructed because new possessions
grow sugar is presented by Senator
Morgan with his accustomed zeal, but
not with his usual studious examina-
ton. II he had reviewed the history
OF his country with reference to this
question he would have found that 1t
had been decided before, and not as he
supposes. Possessions of the United
States do not become part of the
United States until they have been
brought within the union as states or
territories. The tariff is to-day en-
forced respecting imports from Porto
Rico and the Philippines exactly as II
they had in no sense becom property
of the United States. President Nc
Kinley is well advised in declining to
abrogate a law on the supposition that
congress will make such disposal of
new possessions that the tariff will no
longer apply to them. 1t is a marvel
hat Senator Morgan seems ready to
assume that Americans will request
the mixed and colored races of the
islands to help Americans govern this
country.
Were 1t determined on any ground or
for any reason to admit the sugar of
Porto Rico free. as the sugar of the
Hawaiian islands has been admitted,
it does not follow that the conse-
--..Il l. - Ir-1 IT,. .r., 800
Porto Rico is not of unlimited size. nor
has 1t such a supply of ~unoccupled land
aud available labor as would promise
any vast outcome of sugar. The sup
ply from that island has fallen off ma
terially, to this country more than half
sir &c 1872, and was never large enough
to all countries to compare with the
quantity received by this country from
Hf wall. But 1t may be added for the
enlightenment OF fr~ee-traders that any
reduction in the revenue derived from
importations of sugar would assuredly
be followed by heavier duties upon the
manufactured articles which this coun-
tr, is able to produce for itself, in or
de- to secure further development CT
he me industries as a result of the col
lection of a higher revenue for a time.
This country has not done growing yet,
is not inclined to stop developing its
industries and is not in the humor to
return to the theories which brought
disaster under democratic rule.
Find Out the Cause.
Some people believe or pretend to be-
lleve that commercial affairs have their