Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-06-26
@ansa1a 9i1ot.
TUESDAY, JUNE %. 1900
Published weekly and entered at the Post Office
st Wausauas second class matter.
Protect1on and Favor1tisna


'favoritism" and has been miscalled
protection" comments as follows:
''The statement is of course quite cor
rect that "a tariff for revenue only" is
the Democratic idea but we doubt if our
contemporary can find Democratic
platform, state or national, wherein the
position is taken that such tariff shall
be so laid as TO protect American indus
tries
In every platform adopted by the
Republicans, first place has been given
to the protective idea in the tariff dec
laration There has been no change
whatever, in either party, so far as
principles are concerned. The Democ-
racy, now as always, favor Il tariff
simply for revenue and preferentially
laid upon articles of commerce not pro-
duced in the country, such as tea and
coffee The Republicans, now as
always, advocate tariff not only for
revenue but so adjusted as to protect
American labor and capital from equal
competition with countries where the
conditions are utterly different from
what they are here"
Commenting further upon our ac-
cusation that the principle of ''favOrit-
ism" as fostered by the republican
party in its tariff legislation, had re-
suited in the trust evil, the Post says:
THE greatest trust in this country is
that known as the Standard Oil com
pany, and yet this concern deals in a
product which is admitted to the United
States free of duty. Another great
trust is the anthracite coal combination
which also handles a product on which
there is no tariff. And both of these
concerns, by the way, flourished fairly
well under a democratic adminiStra-
ton, when there was an approximation
to free trade"
1t is essential in a candid discussion
of public questions to be accurate In
the use of terms. There is and can be
no such thing as free trade under
the United States constitution. Free
trade is the admission to the country of
all foreign goods ahd products absO-
lutely free of duty. SO long as the
government must be supported by
tariff free trade is absolutely impOssi-
bic. Free trade is a common term
with republican newspapers and poll
ticians, but it requires only moments
reflection to see that it is a mere repub-
lican boyle.
A tariff for reUenue only means a
tariff which shall raise only enough
revenue to support an economical adj
ministration of the government. 1t
does not import any such nonsense as
that the word only includes the reyC-
nue. idea and excludes the protective
idea. A tariff for revenue only may be
so laid as to protect domestic industry
against foreign competition. A tariff
that is not for revenue only is for more
than enough revenue to support the
government, and such tariffs have re-
suited in raising a surplus over and
above the needs of government, of
many millions of dollars, constituting
an immense "grab-bag' for political
jobbers, and corruptioniStS.
"Clevelandism, " to which the PuoT
referred in one of its articles, is not
thing discovered by Cleveland. 1t is
an evil which grew up under the leader
ship of selfish and designing politicians
who put Cleveland forward as their rep
rasentatiye and figure head. they de-
sired TO prostitute the democratic party
to the support of republican ideas. To
carry out the deception it was necessary
to ditferentiato the two parties in some
thing, and the tariff was chosen as the
field wherein political sham battle was
to be fought. The Wilson bill, a meas
ure overlooking with favoritism " was
the result 1t may be good politics
Tor republican newspapers to talk of
the Wilson bill rs "apprOXimating free
trade, !" but it is not fair discussion to
do so. The fact that other potent
causes brought about panic at that
time, with which the Wilson bill had
no more to do than the man in the
moon, may give republicans catchy
argument with people who have not
read the Wilson bill, and have not com
pared it with similar republican meas
So 4
a higher tariff than we have now, and
the panic of 1898 occurred under the
Wilson tariff. If one of these facts
proves the Posts position the other dis
proves it,
Democracy, as Mt present organized,
is revolt against "CleyelaudiSm y and
a revival of the ideas of jefferson,
Madison, Monroe and jackson. 1t is
the republicans who have canouiZed
Cleveland as republican saint. clad in
a democratic cloak, while within our
party no man who has held public office
in this country is more ardently deteSt-
ed than Mr.. Cleveland.
1t is because the ideas of the fathers
of democracy, jefferson, Madison, Mon
roe and jackson, are intensely popular
now among the leaders and rank and
file of our party, that we believe, and
say, that the idea of protection TO
American industry as advised by Jeifer-
son, put in force under Madison, and
championed by Jackson and firmly eS-
tabliShed under his administration by
democratic congress, long before the
republican party came into existence,
Is now the popular idea among demo
Gratis.
jefferson advised protection to
American industry in his second in
augural. Ii took time for the idea to
ripen, but under his successor, Madi-
son, also democrat, the tariff act of
1915 was passed, concerning which we
find the following statement in Hough-
tons History of American Politics,
pages 1928:
Imported articles were arranged un-
der three heads /, those of which
full domestic supply could be pro-
duced ,, those of which only partial
domestic supply could be produced,
and 5, those produced nj home very
slightly or not at all On the first class
the duty was laid heavy enough 10
keep out foreign competition entirely,
on the second class a duty of twenty
per cent. was laid, which, of course, let
in foreign competition but would at the
same time give home labor chance to
rival il on the 2d class the duties were
adjusted more with reference 10 rev
enue than tariff
Next came Monroe, another demo-
erat, who, in his message TO the 18th
congress in 1923, advised additional
protection to those articles which we
are prepared 10 manufacture. The
protective tariff of 1924, passed by 4
democratic congress, was the result. /
Next came the protective tariff of 1928, /
still further enforcing this American /
idea and of which Jackson and |
Buchanan were the leading champions |
in the democratic congress which met |
Dec. 3, 1927
The democratic party was guilty of