Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-31
The Tariff Of 1894.

In communication which appears in to-
days paper, ex-Representative Bynum of
Indiana takes issue with The Star on the
subject Of the campaign of 1894. The Star
Is of opinion that the republicans carried
the House of Representatives that year on
the tariff question. Mr.. Bynum disputes
this, and points out that the Gorman-Wu-
son tariff bill did not become a law until
within three months of election day-en-
tirely too late, he believes. to have in
fuenced the result at the polls.
Mr.. Bynum, although he was in Congress
at the time, seems to have forgotten the
Mckinley tariff bill. That measure did not
become a law until October, 1890, and yet
a month later the democrats at the con-
gressional elections swept the country on
the tariff question. The issue was not
Joined on the operations Of the law, because
the law had not had time to prove itself
one way or the other. But for months the
debates of Congress had been monopoliZed
by that topic, and public sentiment was
controlled in November of that year by the
arguments which the democrats had ad-
vanced So certain indeed were the demo-
Gratis that the tariff explained their triumph
that eighteen months later they wrote
national platform embodying free trade
Two years of the operations of the McKin-
ley law did not avail to save in November
1892, the policy of straightout protection.
In 1894 the democrats paid the penalty Of
their action on the tariff question. Public
sentiment had changed. Protection as a
national policy had regained its hold on the
people. They were adjured to return to
the policy which in years gone by had
brought them so much Of benefit; and they
were Influenced very greatly by the debates
in Congress and by appeals in the press,
which had been addressed to them for
many months prior to the date Of the pas
sage of the Gorman-Wilson law. Moreover,
they found themselves unable to indorse
the action of the party which, inheriting by
it's own claims depleted revenues and in
creased expenditures, signalized its return
to power by still further reducing the rev.
enues.
Mr. Bynum objects to The Stars charac-
terization of the German Wilson tariff bill
as ''hodge-podge" measure. Well, let us
see. When Mr.. Wilson presented the bill in
the House the business interests Of the
country protested most earnestly against
its provisions. When Mr.. German got his
hands on 1t in the Senate he treated it as
though 1t had scarcely single merit He
pulled it all to pieces, and gave it a shape
to suit his own views When he released
his hold on it the Wilson people were in
dignant, and declared that it no longer rep
resented the democratic purpose. When the
bill reached the White House Mr.. Cleveland
denounced 1t as full Of "perfidy and dis
honor and he refused to sign it. Is not
the term hodge-podge little mild for such
a measure? Would not one embodying a
stronger degree of censure be justified?
But The Star agrees with Mr.. Bynum
about one thing, and that Is that IF the
principle Of protection Is ever destroyed
it will be because OF the extreme and ex-
tortionate demands of its immediate bene-
ffciaries." That is true, and that is some
thing the republican majority in the Fifty
eighth Congress cannot consider with too
great care, or act upon with too great cour-
age. The Dingley law should be revised,
and by the party which is responsible for It.