The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-05-05
DEMOCRATS AND THE TARIFF.

In a recent debate in the United
States Senate on the Court of Com
MERGE bill Senator Rayner of Mary
land, tainted the Republican lnsur-
gents on their attitude and suggest
ed that they join the Democratic
path, or stop coquetting with it. If
any person had supposed that the
Insurgents might go over to the OPP
position that idea was dispelled by
the reply of Senator Dolliver, of
Iowa, who said in part:
IF ever in my life had a tempta
ton to take advantage of the moral
| infirmities of the Democratic party.
which the Senator from Maryland
/ has so graphically described. and
which he seems to think are charac-
/ teristic of his political associations,
it would not arise on the tariff Ques-
! ton, because / have been sitting
around here now nearly twenty-five
years ana have not been unobSerVant
either of men or things. In 1894 the
/ Democratic party had an ample OBJ
portunity to do exactly what they
| had proposed and exactly what is
dear to the heart of the Senator from
/
that opportunity, in control of the
! Senate. in control of the executive
departments of the Government. the
former colleague of the honored Sen
ator from Maryland sat right there
/ (indicating) and wrote a tariff law
higher than the tariff act of 1897,
nearly as high as the act of 1890. and
very much higher in many Darticu-
lars than the act recently put upon
the statute books by the amiable
combination which manages the bus
mess of the Senate
In 1894, when the Democratic
party had unrestrained liberty in re-
writing the tariff law. with which
they We're dissatisfied. they allowed
the very interests concerned as ben
eficiaries of the schedules to fix them
up in their own hands, and parse the
sentences in which they We're express
ed / read to the Senate in the eX-
trordinary session an autograph let
ter in the handwriting of Governor
Dingley, now dead, in which, writing
confidentially to the chairman of the
Board of General Appraisers, he
said
You are aware that the iron and
steel manufacturers wrote those
schedules in the, Wilson bill You
are aware that the cotton manufac-
W. Sis WiOtS tH"t SNhVuulS III Ilo
Wilson bill
Ard so throughout that historic
measure, which was the first and
ony fruitage the American people
have ever had of Democratic fidelity
to their principles, we had a statute
written by its beneficiaries. and de-
nounced by the President, a great
Democrat. as an act of pertidy and
dishonor against the people of the
United States and especially those
confiding citizens who had looked to
our law making here. 1t is just such
little incidents which have stopped
me every time l look toward the
Democratic side of the Chamber for
genuine tariff revision.
1T has been great comfort to me
that in some of the positions we have
felt constrained to make. honest
minded men of other political faiths
have shared at least in part our zeal
and our purpose. But as far as max
ing an alliance with the Democratic
of that in the roll calls is the only
handicap the Insurgent Republicans
have ever had. Our adyersaries,
most of whom never read a tariff
schedule In their lives. who could not
understand 1t If they read 1t, all unite
in saying, He is no Republican; he is
voting with the enemy
Il will say. In all kindness to the
Senator from Maryland. that we
would be winners today In half the
States of the Union II 1t We're not
possible for cheap politicians to 20
out and state that we are voting with
the Democratic party. We have mil
lions Of people who are bound only