The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-23
IssuE As DEAD AS FREE SILVER.

- 'ot ~ DhAD ~ IhEE SiIN III
Tariff revision is not an un-RepubHcan
policy. and tariff for revenue is as dead as
an issue as free silver" Such is the decla-
ration Of the Pittsburg Dispatch in an edi-
torial regarding Mr.. Cleveland's speech. 1t
Is quoted because the Dispatch is an inde-
pendent paper OF a decided tendency to crit
icise Republican measures. 1t believes in a
protective tariff, as does the Washington
Post and many other papers protesting the
opposite when a tariff issue affects a home
industry. The Democracy Of Louisiana is
eloquently for a revenue tariff until it comes
to sugar. when it demands a duty of not
less than 100 per cent. ad valorem to save a
local industry from ruin.
The declaration Of the paper quoted will
strike some people as being very blunt and
unconditional; nevertheless, the facts and
conditions sustain the opinion, or rather the
doctrine. that "a tariff for revenue only is
as dead as an issue as is free silver" We
have not had a purely revenue tariff in this
country since the Walker tariff of 1916 and
its revision in 1857. consequently few of
those who are so eager champions of a rev
enue or free-trade tariff have any adequate
knowledge OF the evils which that tariff
brought to the industries of the country.
The last time the tariff was a straight issue
was In 1884, after the passage of that mixed
revenue and protective tariff known as the
Wilson-Gorman law. The iron industries
and a few others escaped the revenue basis
Of the Wilson bill, but the Others did not.
The result was general paralysis. Some
attributed this general depression to the
silver purchase act, but the fact that it's
repeal did not affect conditions enabled pro-
tectionists to fairly make the claim that it
was the free-trade features of the wilson
German tariff law which struck down many
OF our Industries.
The election of 1894 turned upon the tariff
question entirely. 1t was the only issue
raised. The verdict Of the entire portion of
the country in which voting can be regarded
as a test of public sentiment was so en-
phatically in favor of protection that i'm the
States known as Northern and the new
States only thirteen Democrats were elected
to the Fifty-fourth Congress. The Repub-
E CFNAJ 0AoAA = III 1lQldLd uDOn
the issue Of protection in spite of the fact
that the districts were made so that the
Republicans could not before that contest
carry more than three or four of them. 1t
was the greatest overturn that was ever
known in the Northern States.
The next year the silver issue was raised
and made the most of. The tariff was not
mentioned in any platform. In the Bryan
platform of 1896 the tariff issue was ignored
for the reason that many men who would
vote for Is to 1 If presented as a live issue
would not vote for a ticket that declared
against protection. Even Mr.. Bryan, who
had been the most radical of free-traders
In the House, urged absolute silence upon
the tariff issue. Many Republican leaders
would have preferred to make the fight of
1896 upon the tariff issue. but the position
assumed by the Democracy would not per-
NIT it. In his addresses Mr.. Mckinley con-
stanly declared that prosperity would come
to the country by opening the factories and
not the minis. So Congress was called to
enact a new tariff, and that is the law now
in force. Prosperity came with il. and has
remained. That tariff needs some revi-
sion to meet changes which have taken
place, but the revision must be made by
the friends of protection. Every country in
Europe except Belgium and Great Britain
has a tariff based upon protection. And
now Great Britain is putting duties on
food, and the Ministry has announced a
scheme of protection for itself and it's col
onies. So the Pittsburg Dispatch is sus-
tanned by the facts and conditions when ii
says: "A tariff for revenue is as dead as
an issue as is free silver