The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-10-25
NO EXCUSE THIS TIME.

cess ana National Disaster Are In
separable.
For those who voted into power
Democratic low tariff administration
twenty years ago there was the excuse
that they had no lesson of experience
to warn them from their course. More
than thirty years had passed since the
enactment of a protective tariff, indus.
tries were flourishing, wages rising and
the treasury had a considerable sur.
plus. There was n feeling that Cleve-
land had not been accorded fair op-
portunity to prove that "a tariff for
revenue only" would benefit the coun-
try, and while the issue was still in
the balance came a desperate labor
struggle, amounting TO local war, to
in6ame the public mind and evoke a
demand for some action on the part
of the national government to curb the
power of large corporations. The Sher-
man law, enacted by the Republican
congress and signed by President Har-
rison July ., 1890, was in force, but
its powers had not been invoked, and
the highest judicial authority. Mr.
Cleveland's supporters argued that rad
ical reduction of the tariff would re-
strain corporate greed and prove cure
all for economic evils. Mr. Cleveland
himself took substantially this ground
in his inaugural address.
The facts of history are that the
tariff was reduced to a revenue basis,
the Sherman law remained dormant,
capital shrank from investment, facto-
ries were closed or ran on short time.
business languished because very few
had money to buy, prices went down
for the same reason, the farmer could
not sell his produce, and hundreds of
thousands of unemployed workers had
to live on the savings of former pros
perity or, If they had no savings, on
charity. large number Of the un-
employed formed what was known as
"Coxey's army" and marched on
Washington to demand relief.
Such were the conditions under the
last Democratic administration, and
the people waited longingly and re-
pentingly for that four years to pass.
Knowing that modified free trade had
proved q failure, the Democrats offer
ed free silver as their next panacea,
but the people would have none of 1t,
and when 1896 came Republican rule
and Republican policies were voted in
with a whoop.
Fifteen years have passed since a
protective tariff was restored In 1897.
Under President Taft the nation has
achieved a height of prosperity far ex-
ceeding any in the past. Every legiti- |
mate industry is active, wages are
higher than ever before, and the saw
ings banks TEEN with thousands Of
millions of dollars Of the wage earn
ers' money. The Sherman act has been
and Is being enforced against every
violator, and important legislation has
been enacted for the greater protection !
of employees of public service corpora |
tions within the Jurisdiction of federal ,
authority.
With the lesson of the last Demo /
cratic administration before the peo-
pie step backward in the same di- |
rection woAld have no sensible excuse |
w
Cleveland's second election the plea of
ignorance could be offered for the false
step that had invited the lean four
years of misfortune. A similar plea |
could not be offered In the future, |
should majority decide to make the |
trial Of another Democratic admins |
tration. In view Of past experience |
such a change would not be from a |
certainty to an uncertainty; It would |
be from certainty Of prosperity, in
dustrial activity and good times gen
orally to certainty Of depression, in
dustrial paralysis, general reaction and |
privation. Il told you sol" could point |
with accusing and unerring finger to !
the costly and painful lesson of 1893
81 whose moral had been set at naught. |
and those who had brought about the
new era of wretchedness could offer
no palliatiOn for their folly.
Happily all signs point to a contin-
uance of the present fortunate condi-
tions under the guidance of President |
Taft, whose sound, sane and impair.
tial administration Of affairs has made
these conditions possible. The Amer
lean people are not going to make
change simply for the sake of change.
From every part of the country comes
assurance that the Republican party
is gaining in renewed strength every
day and will go to the polls in No
vember to roll up a substantial ma
iority for Taft, prosperity and progress.
1--WE denounce the profigate waste
of the money wrung from the people
by oppressive taxation through the
lavish appropriations Of recent Repub-
lican congresses, which have kept
10.