The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1908-10-02
OPEN LETTER TO GOV. HUGHES.
Prominent Republican Condemns His
,4}i Speech Mt Youngstown.

Hon Charles h. Hughes.
Esoear SIR Because hold you in
high esteem for your conscience and
! courage-rejoicing that your incor-
ruptible character forces the baser
! elements of your party to 0acquiesce
in your denomination, and wishing for
your overwhelming election-my an
linus in openly -criticising your recent
speech at Youngstown, O., will not be
misconstrued.
The. popular confidence you enjoy
results from your detection and de-
termined exposure of corporate graft,
In the line of civic duty you have con-
sidered neither personal interest nor
party policy. and your signal tri-
umph over the adversaries of good
government gives fresh hope to de-
spending reformers.
Judge, then, the regret OF many of
your admirers at your defense of a
system of spoliation, a thousand
times exceeding in magnitude and
danger the insurance graft against
which you have so manfully striven.
/ 1t is not your excellent intent that
/ impeach; it is your self-deception in
supporting a colossal evil upon which
you have expended no serious thought
AS a reformer you are magnificent;
as a political pleader, occupying un-
certain ground. you add no strength
to the waning cause whose brief you
assume.
A single point will illustrate my
meaning. You advocate revision of
| the tariff by it's friends and the main
tenance of protection, because Amer
lean industry, involving the interest
of wage-earners,m must be safeguarded."
Therefore, you would perpetuate a
device for national pillage, impotent
to raise wages, and chiefly efficient in
depicting their purchasing power.
1t is unnecessary to demonstrate the
fallacy of which you are victim. No
accredited authority in economics, at
home or abroad, can be quoted to sus-
tain your assumption. 1t is easy to
show that tariff duties increase the
gains of special manufacturers and
predatory trade combinations; that
the tariff license permits the control
| of legislation in the interest of the
few at the expense of the many; but
neither intellect nor ingenuity can
show that labor-which commands no
protection from foreign competition,
and is bought in the open market of
the world-remotely profits by pro-
tective taxes. 1t is for you to sustain
the untenable thesis which you adopt,
AS well advocate the making of insur-
ance laws by the interested companies
and adjusting the criminal code to
meet the views of penitentiary in
mates.
Test the matter for yourself. Is it
not suggestive that the highest wages
can in no way be benefited by the tar
if? 1t is the carpenters, masons, and
employees of other indigenous trades
that get the best remuneration. For
the suffering and ill-paid classes you
are compelled to look among the
highly protected industries, for whose
special interest the protective tariff
is maintained. Your acute mind, once
set upon the trail, would quickly un-
earth the sophistry you are mistaken
ly helping to cover. That would be
in the line of your legitimate work
Emerging from the shadows Of
economic thought, you are certain tc
grapple with fundamental wrongs, anC
to waste no strength on their newt
able symptoms. The crusade against
race-track betting may be a method
of enforcing existing statutes; the in.
surance prosecution revealed the be-
trayal of an immense Trust; but what
fundamental good has been accom-
plished? At the next turn of the po
litical wheel the gamblers will make
their open temperance at Saratoga
and, even now, the uninfluential par.
ticipators in insurance policies are as
powerless to safeguard their interests
as before the brief era of publicity
blasted reputations,' and suicides
Privilege is not to be dislodged by
spasmodic attacks as long as surface
reformers zealously guard their roots
In the coming opportunities of YOU
political life, may your honored name
be identified with genuine reform, an(
win an enduring place among the re
tpublic's benefactors.
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.
Boston, Mass, September 8.