Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1884 — EVENUE REFORM. [ARTICLE]

EVENUE REFORM.

W of Hon. J. Sterling Morton, of Kt'ebraska, at the Iroquois Ban- ■ qnet, in Chicago. ■HPresixtent and Gentlemen: Even In |Bimitive state, man discovered and asBf that he possessed inherent rights. BeBe historic period of humanity began, SBllyidnal declared himself born with the ■Ho defend his person against ail comers, ■Bend also the liberty of that person and Brnings and accumulations. Thus the life, to liberty, and to property was the first asse.ted and established |V of the race. And, after some generaBH perhaps, it was agreed that in general Blights should be defended by all for any HfaivkUal of the mass. In this way came Hirmulauou of laws of the day and genin which we live. The law exists, |Has the sequence of inherent rights, and do not, as many publicists would Bus believo, exist because of the law. B|our duty, and my duty, as members of |Hril government of the United States, to |Hze carefully the working of all statutes, B prevent their being made tho ins;ru■of taking away the rights of the peoHjather than the means for preserving B trghest exercise of the functions of is in oppos n? taxes upon its ■sts. A tax, legitimately, is nothing B nor * ess tban Payment for a serv.ee by the Government to the citizen. Hlservi e. In a roj uhlican form of gov■lent, should to nothing mo.e aud noth■jess than the absolute protection oi the Hp’s property, liberty, and life. Bor that 80, and that only, should ho be coinB to’ pay a tribute. Any system of the Hpition which compels one class of cltiMto contribute to the profits of another HI arbitrarily, without the consent of B taxed, is obviously unjust and iniquiHfti.e present ir.o.nent there seems to be Hi distress in the minds of some members Be Demo -ratio party beoause, forsooth, K is agitation a, a.nst a protective sys’em B-xation. We are to d that the time is inBytune. and it the discussion be continued ■vot; of tb® reduction of the protect.ve Hs now imposed t>7 the Morrill tariff that Bi s a party, will lose the Presidential eleoB and those gontlemen talk as though the Hriontt people were divided only Into two Bt clashes—those who are in office, and m who wish to get into ofleo. These genjtn, honestly enough, no doubt, hold the Hon that the sole purpose of political orBt'.ation is to pursue and proonre public Hlons where honors and emoluments are Bible and remune- ative. This large and Hwhat iutiuential class of persons vehoHty declaring against the agitation for Hrejluction of protective duties aie really ■lonizing in lavor of the maintenance of ■|gh rate of indirect and invisible taxaK but to my mind the res :lt of the discusHos protection as to the number of votes Hh wo may gain or lose thereby is worthy Hionsiaeration of none except mere placoBers, and should not, for a moment, bo" Hrtained by any thoughtful c ti. on who Hy desires the welfare of his country and loop e. e best inheritance one can leave his andants is the great and inestimable Ith of good health. Good heaßli pays no lie to either drugs or physicians. The inheritance of which I can conceive for aop'o would ba a pura government, ently administered, without auy taxawhatever; but, as that is impossible, the ; best inheritance in the way of governt is that one which shall require from iitizens the least possible amount of tax1, and furnish the most perfect and il conservation of rights. The farmers, banics, and laborers of the United States paying, Under the present protective 8, more invisible taxation on the clothing sh they wear, on the implements which : use, on the glass, nails, and sugar which consume then they are paying in direct is l'or all the machinery of national,

HrC, county, and municipal governments. 9> reduce these taxes i'O per cent, the ■prison bill has been perfected and intr.tjHod in the House of Representatives' at By this bill the Democratic declares it elf unalterably and detorHedly in tavor of the reduction of taxation ■II the citizens of all the States in the Hon. For one, lam not afraid to make this He, beoiuse I believe s.n erely that it is an Htc of tt-Lth and right and justice against He hood and wrong and injustice. Neither ■ Republican parly nor any other political HamzaUon can long- maintain itself before ■intelligent, reasoning people by theadvoH of unequal and unji.st taxation. The ■latest good to the grearest number has Home a proverb among Americans, and yet ■protective tariff legislation has been born Hl desire to legislate for the few and agamst ■ many. Every citizen engaged in a bread■tilling avocation has somewhere an inter■that js antagonisfc to a large proportion ■ bis felloes. Tho bread-maker and baker Khing to accumulate great profits desires a Bh price for br ad; .but the consumers of Had, who greatly outnumber tho bakers, ■ always anxious to buy bread attlie lowest ■Bible rates at wh ch it can be produced. Ip physician has an anti-social interest 1 the ill-health and- disease of the Knmunity in which he lives, because when ■demies prevail fees How in, his business Homes remunerative; but the patients are Barger number than the doctors, happily, I over the world. The mischief of the proI :tivc tori IT is that, at bo, tom, it is looking I tlie woll-bemg and advancement of the Htl-social inlerests of the few, forgetting Ijtirely the welfare of the multitude of conKmers. It takes oaro of the doctor and forVts the patients. Thus for a few iroumong■s’. enrichment the protective duties on iron; Bis tho protective duties on sugar; thus the ■otective duties on woolen blankets and all I'jolon goods, in behalf of the anti-social inIrests of those who manufacture articles Et of those materials, while the great mulliude of people who consume these products I’o forgotten. They ask now, in the namo I equality and justice, that all the legislation Erich has been enacted by protectionists for lb benoiit of these few manufacturers, and l:ainst the interests of the millions of conl.mers, bo roduced; first, gradually, peril ps, but that finally they be utterly abol-

Hjied. HWe are, however, admonished bye protoc- ■ mists that wo must not interfere with this Hriif, which, bv shutting out foreign eornpeIHticn, puts nn artificial price on their prodflits. We are warned of dangers which imHbnd, or spiiidles and forges which wll beHjmic Silent, and of laborers who will be Hjirown out of employment. But under the Hjroiectlve system theso evils have already Hutched and paralyzod many of those indus-H-les which are most indulgently proteo.ed. H, is the iron mill, the cotton-mill, the nail Htctory and tho glass-making establishment HiCrioh have during the year shutout the most Hihorers aud oitencst suspended operations. Hi he gloomy prodictions of the protectionists ■ s to the results which may follow tho aboli- ■ on of laws.restricting c-ommoroe, have no ■tore terror for me than had those mado by ■ho advocates of an irredeemable paper ■honey regarding the disaster whloh should ■jnrtainly add speedily ensue upon a return Ho specie payments. ■ Just as natural laws may work harm to the Hadlvidual. but, on the whole, result iu groat Hood to our raco, so economic laws, uare- ■ trained by restrictive statutes, always bring ■.bout the greatest good to tbo greatest numHer. The rainfall In our fertile valleys sotae- ■ lines destroys tho farmers crops, and again B>n tho plains of Kansas and New Mexico the Hrops perish for want of rain. But the rain is, ■teverttaeless. a good thing, and no ono prays ■ or a rainless world, or even for on* rainless Hear. Economic law may work, sporadically, Hardships to individuals. The abrogation of ■jTOtectlve duties may possibly destroy a few ■ ndustriee by making some articles oheaper Khrougb importation than they can be manufactured in the United States. Cheapness in ■yertaln commodities like sugar and woolen ■blankets, may injure a few producers and ■manufacturers, but cheapness In those artileles will bo an infln to benefaction to millions ■of consumers. We are to d. however, that ■ some manufactures have been started in the ■United States wholly because of the protect■‘re and prohibitory duties, and that the

tariff is In the nature of a contract with th» fostered manufacturers. Then tell os how long the contract m ust run ? -—- Should a new motive power be discovered to-night, and an invention evolved by which it could be successfully applied to all kinds of machinery and transportation, and so reduce the cost 50 per cent., and to-morrow, a patent being asked for. all mill owners aud railroad owners who have millions in steam power should protest against its issuance—against the utilization of the new motor—on the ground that it would destroy the value of steam mills, steamboats, and locomotives, then millers and common carriers would ip that endeavor to exalt their personal, antisocial In eretsts over and above the interests of the masses, hold the same relation to progress that the protected Industries and their advocates occupy In regard to commercial prosperity and freedom in the United States.

Why the Republican Party Should Go. It might be well to change the proposition, “Why the Republican party should go,” and subsitute the question, Why should the Republican party go ? In answering such a question, in view of all the facts of history, the only embarrassment an honest man experiences is to select from the 10,000 reasons why the Republican party should go those which most readily occur to the average intelligence of citizens. To ask, why should the Republican party go ? is very much like asking why an intolerable nuisance should go? Why small-pox should go? Why mad dogs should go? Why thieves should go? Why poisonous reptiles and man-eating wild beasts should go ? The Republican party should go because the best men who were ever associated with it pronounced it corrupt and abandoned it long ago—such men as Greeley, Trumbull, Doolittle, Hoadly, Julian, and hosts of others, who discovered its infamous tendencies and foresaw its blighting effects, pronounced it infamous and withdrew from its corrupting and contaminating influence. The Republican party should go because the best thought of the country has on more than one occasion pronounced against its remaining. The Republican party should go: because in the madness of its fanaticism it exalts a murder as the exponent of its theories of government. The sans culotte of Paris deified a courtesan, and it was left for the Republican party, in its wild blasphemies of decency, of law and justice, to glorify a creature who crawled like a snake through the underbrush around Harper's Perry to murder men who were at peace with God, with their country, and with their fellowmen. The Republican party should go: because when the great American people had elected a President and a Yice President, it uncapped hell, and, by the promise of rewards, called forth a gang of hideous creatures, and by perjuries as impious as ever damned a soul, reversed the decree. The Republican party should go: because, haviug corrupted every fountain of truth, of honesty, of purity, of thought, and of justice, having overthrown constitutions and trampled upon law to secure success, it becomes transformed into opposing factions, to fight like dogs over the hones of spoils, calls forth from the furnace of its hates an “inspired” assassin, and James A. Garfield, in the pride of his manhood, in the (lawn of his fame, when his heart heat high with hope and his future was bright with promise, is foully murdered to harmonize the party; and his embalmed corpse, on the highlands of Erie, furnishes a reason why the Republican party should go, as command-, ing as if Jehovah had proclaimed it, and written it in letters of fire on tne blue dome of the skie3.

No student of current history can dwell for an hour on the proposition, why the Republican party should go, without realizing sensatioiis of unspeakable loathing. Ife whole existence has bee a protest against its eontinuanoe. It has touched nothing it has not contaminated. It has sought to dethrone the constitution. It has brought law into universal contempt. It has partisanized the Federal judiciary, oorruted and debauched it to a degree that the people are everywhere crying out, “Shame !” Its Department of Justice (?) is known to be a den of corruption, a sewer into which is ceaselessly flowing the excrements of courts organized to let Republican thieves escape. The Treasury Department has been robbed of millions, and the cadaverous crowd who enter it skin and bones come forth, a la Sherman, bloated and obese with money. The Department of the Interior is where favored rascals combine with railroad corporations to swindle the people out of their lands. The Navy Department asks for money in face of a record black with fraud. The State Department reeks with the stench of guano, and the War Department has become, under Republican rule, so corrupt and debasing dhat army officers, once the soul of honor, are almost daily arrested for conduot unbecoming gentlemen, until at last Swairn, Judge Advocate General, the friend of Garfield, takes his place in the mournful procession of distinguished Republican vagabonds. The Postoffice Department is honeycombed with villainy, as the star-route trials bear ample testimony, and the White House is occupied by a man whose corruptions were so monstrous that even John Sherman and R. B. Hayes became exasperated, and the world beheld, for once, at least, Satan reproving sin.

To sustain itself in power the Republican party has not only robbed the treasury, but it haa robbed the hardworking employes of the Government by preoesses that would outrage the conscience of an ordinary footpad; and to make its record as despicable as possible, it gained the confidence of the Soor, ignorant freedmen to rob him of is little all. And still further, the Republican party, to sustain its position, creates monopolies by which the poor are taxed to support the rich, and when the struggle for the mastery comes the monopolies contribute of the piracy-created wealth to perpetuate the power of the party which created them. Manifestly such a party ought to go —and it is going. Every reason why it ought to go is a reason why the Democratic party shonld come into power, and such will be the verdict of the people in November. —lndianapolis Sentinel.