The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1902-03-26
GREED GONE MAD.


tisan paper. It has no politics, but
is as thoroughly non-partisan and
independent as any paper in this
country. It speaks for that kind OF
constituency and here is the way it
voices its disgust and the disgust of
the honest masses of the American
people at the shabby manoeuvring and
shameful course of the Republican
politicians in Congress. Under the
caption of "The Republican Party
and the Proective System in Danger"
it says:
ssDamn President Roosevelt and the
administration; to Hades with the
national honor; crush the starving
Cubans-anything rather than risk
decrease in the profit on the product OF
a single sugar beet handled oy Gne
Oxnard combine!''
"That's the attitude of the Rpubii-
cans whose views are formulated IN
the preamble and resolutions presented
at Tuesday nights caucus by Mr.:
TAYLOR, of Ohio, a leading member OF
the American Protective Tariff
League, and which opposes any con-
cessions to Cuba because it involves
relaxation of the protective princi-
ssThis is Greed gone mad. Lifelong
Republicans are shocked at the
thought that they have helped to rear
a protectionist Frankenstein, this
monster, which, rather than relax the
protection principle would sacrifice
moral principle and national honor and
destroy its own creator. By their
blind rapacity the beet sugar men are
making such breach in the Republl-
can ranks and exciting among the peo-
pie such disgust and indignation as
may overthrow the party and pull
down the whole ultra protectlonlst
structure upon their own heads.
..Surely the present provocation is
greater than that which caused the
revulsion of 1892, when General Harri-
son was defeated and Grover Cleve-
land was swept into power on a plat
form which declared ultra protective
duties ga fraud, robbery of the great
mass of the American people for the
benefit of the few;'' characterized the
tariff Of 1890 as "the eliminating
atrocity of class legislation, and de-
manded its repeal. The beet men are
noisy and aggressive, but few in num-
Der, while there are fifteen millions OF
voters with no interest in sugar profits,
but imbued with spirit of humanity
and regard for the good name and hon
or of their country.
"Mr. Taylor and his associates are
mistaken in assuming that the Amerl-
can farmer is an ass. In their precious
manifesto they say The American
market for over sI0o, 600, 600 worth of
sugar annually is rightfully the Amer
ican farmers. We shall encourage no
policy which delays the time when he
Shall come into his own Consider
ing that the people are taxed sixty
million dollars year on the two NIL
lion tons of imported sugar they con-
sumo in order to profit the growers Of
domestic cane and beet, the growth
of the domestic industry is so slight
that it will be come centuries before
the amount needed can be coaxed out
of the home soil.
"With State bounties for years sup
plementing the enormous federal pro-
lection, the production of beet sugar
is but an infnitesimal fraction Of the
total consumed, and the profits Of the
beet industry could not be seriously
reduced by a reduction in the duty
nsthe portion of our imports coming
from Cuba. It would be quite as ra-
tional to declare that "the American
market for $50, 1000, 600 worth of silk
annually imported is rightfuly the
American farmers, or that the Amerl-
can market for tea is rightfully his,
and that duty high enough to per
nit its production under glass should
be imposed.
Neither the American farmer nor
any other American can be fooled by
such claptrap. They all thoroughly
understand the issue. They know that
aside from the moral obligation we are
under to help Cuba the mass Of the
American people would profit by the
admission of her sugar; that the pro-
visions and breadstuffs produced by
American farmers and the goods turned
out by American factories would be
taken in return by the Cubans. Dele
gates from the British Chambers of
Commerce visited the Foreign Office
on Tuesday last and memoriallzed Lord
Lansdowne to enter protest at Wash
ington against our Government grant
ing the proposed reciprocity with
Cuba. Why? Because in the Ian,
guage Of the memorial, it would
undoubtedly put an end to European
trade in the islands. In other words,
the United States, which heretofore
has had but fraction of the Cuban
market, would get practically the
whole of it, and with stable govern,
ment and prosperity that market would
expand to vast proportions.
''The reduction of 20 per cent pro-
posed by the Ways and Means Commit
tee is too small In opposing even
slight concession the sugar beet Con-
gressmen are inviting the annexation
Of the island, with attendant admis-
sion of its products free of all duties,
and are challenging the defeat OF their
party and the radical revision of the
whole protective system by the indig-
nant and outraged American people. "