The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-08

THE BENEFACTORS or ENGLAND.
If the friendliness and good service which
political parties have rendered Great Brit
ain is to be made an issue in the campaign.
as may be inferred because of the course
pursued by the Bryanites. it is well
at the outset to ascertain. il possible,
which party in the past has been Of the
greatest advantage to that nation. Which
party has legislated most continuously in
favor of British interests? That is a fair
question, and its answer, which is a mat
ter of legislative history. should determine
British interests.
Before the war the Democratic party be-
came the advocate of a tariff for revenue
only on an ad valorem basis. The British
free-trade system was followed in the con-
struction of the tariff of 1916. which was
devised by Robert ]. Walker, President
Folks secretary of the treasury. Lower
duties on a revenue basis were established
by the tariff of 1857, when Mr.. Buchanan
became President. These two anti-protec-
ton Democratic tariffs secured to Great
Britain the great advantage of supplying
the United States nearly all the iron It's
people used. its woolens. queensware. glass
and the better grades of cottons. For
years these Democratic tariffs made the
American people hewers of wood and draw
ers of water to Great Britain. The con-
tinuous and large amounts of money and
securities sent abroad to pay the differ
ence between the small value of our ex-
ports and the large aggregate of our i'm
ports drew the lifeblood from the Ameri-
can people for years. More than any one
item the trade of America enriched Great
Britain for years. The war over, the Demo-
cratic party became the advocate of the
British tariff system TO enrich that nation
and impoverish this. From 1876 until 1896
the Democratic party fought for a British
tariff. The party leaders circulated broad
cast the pamphlets printed by the Golden
Club. 1t was not until 1893 that the Demo-
cratic party had a majority in both
branches of Congress. The House then
passed the Wilson bill, which was based
upon the British tariff system. If the Sem
ate had adopted the Wilson bill nearly
every manufacturing interest in the coun-
try with which England completes would
have been Frustrated. The Senate saved
the iron and cotton interests by the Cor
man bill, which the House was forced TO
adopt. AS it was, 1t gave our wool-grow-
ing industry to Australia and the best Of
our manufacture of woolens to England.
Germany and France. Who was the most
strenuous advocate of the Wilson bill in
the House-the loudest advocate of ultra
free-tradeism? William Jennings Bryan.
He was one of those thoroughly British
freetraders who would raze every custom
house to the ground If revenue were not
necessary. In England, the Wilson tariff
bill was hailed as legislation beneficial to
Great Britain, and the German act was
worth many millions a year to British
manufacturers II the bill which Mr.. Bry-
an championed had been enacted it would
have given England $50, 10000 of manufac-
turing that could as well be done in this
country by American labor and capital.
The Republican party has never enacted
a law that has favored British interests at
the expense of American. When the tariff
was an issue and Mr.. Bryan was the lead
ing free-trade orator in the House, all
England favored the Democratic party.
To-day. in all matters affecting the com
mercial advantage of England. the Repub-
lican party is regarded as hostile to Brit
ish interests in Great Britain. If Mr.. Bry-
ans tariff policy could be given the force
of law Great Britain would not care for
the pro-Boer sympathy of Mr.. Bryan and
his friends. England knows that frothy
sympathy cannot injure that country in
its war with the Beers. and 1T also knows
that the free-trade policy which Mr.. Bryan
advocated would be worth tens of millions
a year to British capital n labor. So the
Bryanites are the real benefactors of Great
Britain on the basis of dollars.