Year: 1871

From the Harrisburg PENN Patriot


AgitatOrs of tariff reform look conf


dently to the West for that encourage


ment in the elections soon to occur


which they so greatly need in the prose-


cution of their work at the next session


of Congress. They expect but little


from Pennsylvania. The immense iron


and coal interests Of our State are at


present deemed paramount by the politi-


clans, and the farmers, manufacturers


and laborers have not yet realized the


fact that a prohibitory tariff is the thief


that robs them of their earnings. Expe-


riencc must keep her expensive school a


few years longer in our good old Com


monweath, before the lesson of the tar
iff will be thoroughly conned and fully


understood. But it is otherwise in the


West. The people of that section feel


the oppression of the restrictions placed


upon commerce by high protective du-
ties, and without distinction of party ia
vor modification of the tariff. With


the exception Of Ohio, Michigan and


Missouri, there is not single Western


State in which may be found respecta-
BILE number of protectionists. In Ohio,
the Democratic party is a unit in oppo-
sition to all duties upon imports except


such as are necessary for the purpose Of
raising revenue, while the Radicals are
divided on the tariff question, the pro-
tectionists iI their ranks being, howev-
er, in the minority. The fears Of the
Radical politicians of Ohio in reference
to this division of sentiment are not dis
guised in their platform recently adopt
ed. 1t deals equivocally and evasively


with the tariff. 1t is neither for protec-
ton nor against it. 1t is an admission
that the Radicals Of Ohio have no con-
victions on the subject of the tariff, or.
if they have, that they are afraid to ut
ter them. In recent exposition Of this
platform, the central organ Of the Ohio
Radicals, the Columbus Journal, declar-
ed that it "no more commits the party
to either protective or strictly revenue
tariff than it does to the San Domingo
policy or against it, This admission
should cost the Radical ticket thousands
of votes among the revenue reformers of
Ohio. Can the latter afford to permit
the election of ticket of tariff hernia
phro6ites? Will they permit the idea to
go abroad that they prefer the hesitating
weakness Of the Radical declaration on
the subject of the tariff to the masculine
vigor of the Democratic platform If
the people of Ohio, whose industry is
crushed under the burdens of the So
called protective system, manifest such
Indifference to the needed reform, as to
suffer the election of the ticket which
stands on the non committal platform
adopted by the late Radical Convention
of that State,th effect will be to greatly
discourage the efforts Of the friends of
revenue reform in other States. For in
stance, what encouragement would there
be to the devoted men who are in the
breach in this State, if Ohio, with its
natural tendency toward freedom of
trade, should declare its willingness to
wear the yoke of monopoly still longer? =?
But it cannot be that the farmers and
workingmen of the Buckeye State will
so far forget elsewhere who have com
mon interest and are ready to make
common cause with them in the revision
and reconstruction of the tariff They
will repudiate the ambiguous platform
adopted by the Radical Convention, and
defeat the candidates who accept it.