Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-06-15
DEMOCRATIC ISSUES.
DIVIDED AS TO THE METHOD OF
ATTACKING PROTECTION.

David II. Hill Wants the Tariff Torn
Up Forthwith, While Edward VI.
Shepard Counsels a More Prudent
and Conservative Course of Action.
Democratic leaders are agreed upon
q single proposition. They must have
an tissue" for the campaign of 1901.
They have been cropping for that issue
since the second popular rejection OF
Bryanism in 1900. AS to what the new
issue shall be, Democratic leaders are
divided. But they simultaneously rec
ognize that their only hope Of victory
lies in the discovery Of some doctrine
upon whose advocacy they can unite.
To this end there was much speechl-
fying the other night, nominally in
honor of the memory Of Thomas Jeffer-
son, but really in an effort to Vlvlfy the
moribund Democracy. Amid all the
wilderness of words there stands most
conspicuous the proclamation OF DAVID
B. Hill. He was addressing a partisan
gathering of Democratic editors. lie
was speaking to the party organization
in the state, whose electoral vote IS
essential to Democratic success. His
speech is naturally interpreted as an
announcement of his own candidacy.
Here is the Hill issue in his own
words:
Immediate tariff revision versus an
indefinite continuance of tariff exac-
tons"
The Republican party will be quite
ready to accept that issue without ad-
hitting the truth of the charge that the
present protective customs duties are
"eyactions." 4 Republican majority i'll
congress enacted the Dingley law;
Republican president signed that act
Under the Mckinley administration the
country emerged from the slough or
despond into the firm and upward path
of prosperity. For all that the RepuO-
lican party is responsible. 1t accepts
with gladness that responsibility. If
Mr.. Hill thinks that he has found in
this a basis of successful political ap-
peal, Republican leadership will
promptly take him at his word and go
to the electorate upon that issue.
Some time ago another distinguished
New York Democrat, Edward NJ. Shep~
ard. uttered quite a different opinion
upon the policy Of Il general revision or
the tariff. Mr.. Shepard, after frankly
recognizing 1.-The widespread popular
belief. faulty as l believe it to be, Of
great masses of American business and
Iaboring men in the protective tariff,
offered this advice:
Instead of dealing with the whole
problem Of free trade and protection
instead of introducing doubt into al
most every business, the Democratic
party may we'll deal with the few
schedules in which through the practi-
cal monopoly vast fortunes have been
made by taxation upon the masses of
the people"
These Democratic doctrinaires disa-
gree. Mr.. Hill is for an immediate re-
vision of the tariff regardless of its dis
turbing effect upon business; Mr.. Shep-
ard would tinker the tariff cautiously,
striving not to alarm business or excite
the resentment of labor, but striking at
a few protected manufacturers whose
enterprise and energy have proved
profitable.
In contrast to this the Republican pO-
sition is that the trainers Of the present
tariff may be trusted to change sched-
ules when the need or justice Of change
shall be demonstrated, holding fast to
the theory of protection which in prac-
tice has produced our marvellous indus
trial prosperity. The intelligent voter,
be he wage Garner or capitalist, will not
hesitate in his choice between those
policies.-New York Mail and Express.