Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-06
THE TARIFF QUESTION
WHAT SENATOR GORMAN SAYS
ABOUT REVISION.
Must Not Injure Existing Industries
How the Democratic Party Can
Win Next Year.

The Baltimore Sun today contains an in
terview of Senator German with the Suns
correspondent, at the senator's home in
Maryland The senator eschewed discus
sion Of presidential candidates, but had
this to say about national questions:
THE policy" he said, "of collecting from
the earnings Of the people something like
SIS, 100000 more than can be spent even
with the most reckless extravaganza Is an
iniQuity and wrong which the democratic
party should endeavor to right. Such
policy breeds not only extravaganza. but
corruption. The revision of the tariff
should, therefore, be q great issue in the
presidential election. In order to win the
democratic party must have the confidence
of the business interests Of the country.
feats of 1896 and 1900. To secure that con-
fidence now there must be an explicit
pledge that in the revision of the tariff tt
Is not the purpose of the party to wreck
industries. many of which were established
under the existing law. The pledge should
be similar to the one upon which the demo-
cratic party elected its ticket in 1884. The
platform of 1884 contained this clause:
The democratic party pledges itself to
purify the administration from corruption.
to resore economy, to revive respect for
law and to reduce taxation to the lowest
limit consistent with due regard to the
preservation Of the faith of the nation to
its creditors and pensioners. knowing full
well, however, that legislation affecting the
opera tons of the people should be cautious
and conservative in method the
democratic party Is pledged to revise the
tariff in spirit of fairness to all interests.
But in making reductions in taxes 1t is not
proposed to injure any domestic industries,
but rather to promote their healthy
growth
The battle-ground.
That" said Mr. German, should be
about the party position in this next presi-
Dental campaign. With the solid south it
is necessary to carry a number of northern
states. With a platform which will satisfy
the substantial interests of the country /
believe we can carry enough northern and
western states to elect our candidate. We
should be able to carry New York and the
adjacent states of New Jersey and Connec-
ticut. Then we should carry the battle
into the great business centers Of the west.
That means a contest in Ohio which will
keep the republicans fully occupied in that
state. Indiana and Illinois also are hopeful
fields. 1 think we can carry several of the
mountain states Colorado. Idaho, Montana
and possibly others. We have good fight
ing chance in California, and Oregon is
close. 1 therefore regard the outlook as ex-
ceedingly hopeful The southern people
have gotten away from the issues Of 1896
and 1900. Their natural conservatism has
asserted itself, and they are now ready to
Join with the conservative democratic peo-
pie of the rest of the country. The gold
and silver question has settled itself, and
the north has assented to the management
of the negro problem by the south. The
south has determined that intelligence and
property must dominate and that it's civli-
cation must be preserved To this the north
asSentS
AT the coming session of Congress the
joint resolution to affirm the Cuban treaty
Will open up general tariff debate. The
resolution will. OF course, be adopted There
will be an effort made to have the tariff
revenues of the government deposited in
banks and kept in use and circulation in
stead of being locked up in the government
vaults. When the bill for that purpose
comes up the democrats will insist upon
requiring ample security from the banks of
deposit. There should also be some provis-
lon for proper distribution of the funds,
so that cities like Baltimore can have part
of It,. The treasury officials should not be
permitted to deposit it all in one bank in
New York.