The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-04
A TENNESSEE DEMOCRAT
By SAY OYARD

counsel and the rejection of it were char
 aeteristic of both men.
 Thetus w. Sims is democrat, and that
 is got to be a good deal in our day and this generation, when in a national House of Representatives with an enormous
 democratic majority Randallism has choked Carlsesm to death. The situ- ation now present is this The insurgent
 republicans in the two branches of the
 national legislature have chased high pro-
 lection out of the G. o. P, and the Ram dall-Bailey democrats have forced the
 protective principle" on the democratic party. The elephant has dropped his load, the donkey contemplates lifting it
 and carrying it. To revert to Colonel
 Watterson's happy, though rather tropic
 figure: ''The painted harlet of protec-
 ton. having been turned outdoors by the G. 0. P. through stress of circumstances and force of logic, now seeks to usurp the
 bed of the star-eyed Goddess of Tariff Reform in the democratic party by the in, spiration of circumstances and dogmatism
 of falacy. The issue is sharply drawn,
 and it is this: Shall the democratic party
 be the city of refuge of 'the protective
 prnciple?'
 In one of the finest figures of English
 letters Macaulay tells of how the English
 whig who. in the name of liberty. was
 rebel in the reign of the last Stuart,
 became the very minion of privilege when, the House of Brunswick was securely es-. tabshed, whereas the English tory ln-
 der the Stuart. was so strenuous for pre-
 rosative that he embraced the doctrine
 of passive obedience" vet in the time of George IT he was as strong for hp-i serty as Hampden had been. Then the.
 great historian draws the figure from the fight between a man and a serpent that
 Dante saw in Malebolge, the termination If which was "the serpent stood up man and spalle; the man sank down a
 serpent and glided hissing away. "The parties swapped principles in England. Shall we do the like on the tariff here in America? Or shall this passage from
 Bolingbroke apply to both parties on the tariff? Liberty has been the cry of one set of men, as prerogative was formerly of another. But it has been no more than cry. and the cause of liberty has been as little regarded by these leaders who gave it out to their followers as the cause of St. George or St. Dennis was concerned in the battles of the English and the French" Mir. Sims made a sterling speech on tne taT1ff III Ine last tOHSieS'' "hS' Payne bill was under discussion, and Tn it he expressed all there is of real democ- racy on the tariff question. It's central idea is that it is as unjust as 1t is fal- lacious to deny the manufacturer Tree raw materials and then insist tnat ne make goods as cheap as the foreign mah- ufacturer, who has free raw materials. The democrats have long insisted that .he American manufacturer shall compete with the foreigner after we shall have levied a duty for revenue only on the goods of the foreign producer. The for eigner has free raw mate. .ials: he has rIant erected from materials that are ln- taxed and ne has free machinery. We say give the American manufacturer these, and order h'm to supply the do- mestic market with cheaper wares, and then go forth and do as England does conquer foreign markets with cheap l goods. It is the only way in the world 1 to do it. But as long as the rawF ma /! terial Is taxed the American manufao- turer can only supply the Domestic mar ket, and he can't do ths without pro- l lection
 l There is the whole tariff question as it
 now presents itself. Any party favoring
 tariff duty on raw materials is pro-
 tective tariff party. care not what they howl. Free raw materials is the bekin-
 ming of tariff reform. lower and hon-
 ester tariff taxes This issue will be paramount in the next democratic na-
 tional convention. It is the issue of Joe
 Eaileyism against Woodrow Wilsonism. And there is going to be fight. Thetus
 Sims is all right. He is democrat they
 can't caioles nor browbeat.