Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1887 — THE TARIFF-REFORM ISSUE [ARTICLE]

THE TARIFF-REFORM ISSUE

In Line With the Best Interests of the Country From Every Point of View. [Chicago Tribune.] The more carefully and dispassionately President Cleveland’s message is studied, leaving partisan considerations on one side, the more surely convinced vill any honest critic become that its opinions and suggestions are in line with the best interests of the country from every material poin of vie «. The threatened congest tion of the National Treasury has made this matter plain. It is generally conceded that the Government revenues must be reduced, and the only question is whether they shall be reduced in the interests of farmers, workingmen, and the non-manufacturing class or solely in the interest of mill and factory bosses. We are confronted with a huge surplus in the Treasury, co etantly growing. The tariff alone during the last fiscal year yielded $217,000,000, whereas ten years ago it produced but $130,000.000. One-half of the present customs taxes would be amply sufficient with the revenues from other sources to meet the necessary expenses of government. And what more natural and reasonable plan of reduction can there Je than to cut the present tariff receipts in half (mak > due selection of the articles t * be reduced), thereby taking off present taxation on the necessaries of life, with the added result of further cheapening indirectly their cost to the consumers? Tor every dollar so taken off from the customs revenues five or six dollars are remitted from the bounty profits of the home bosses and factory lords. A reduction of $100,000,000 in direct tariff taxes would involve a total lessening of the burdens now sustained by the people of the United States amounting to $600,000,000 or $700,000,000 per annum. With a tariff ineome vastly beyond the necessities of the Government, beyond even the necessities of protection to the so-called “infant industries,” the mill barons still persist in their right to overcharge fer these necessities by keeping up the old war taxes, and when threatened by competition combine into trusts to extort their swag from the oppressed and overburdened people. The farmers and the laboring classes themselves have found that the promises of protection are illusory, and that the only persons who derive any advantage from it are the mill bosses and trusts. — They have also found that a reduction of the revenue by euttiug down the oppressive tariff taxes will result to their own advantage, and that the high tariff results in the increased price of all manufactured products which they need for their use. The farmers have long been bled for the benefit of the bosses, but they are now waking \ip to the fact that it is time to cheapen the cost of *heir implements, lumber, clothing, sugar, salt, iron, glass and other articles in common use, and they will not consent to be victimized any longer for the benefit of protected monopolies

At this point the ; dvcrales ot protection repeat tbeir old gabMe that to reduce the tariff wll be to cut American laborers down to the pauper wages of Europe. The statement is not only false but absurd upon its face. The paupsr was es of Europe are paid by the high tariff Europ an countries, like France, Germany and Austria. England pays one and a ha f times higher wages than any other European country. Her unemployed surplus of workingmen is not due to tariff arrangements, but to other causes ;but, taking her workingman who are regularly employed, and they are paid better wages and are more comfort ably fed, clothed and housed than those of any other European country. Tt e profits which will remain to the mill bosses after the tariff reduction will still be oufficient to remunerate their employes, and that remuneration will be all the more valuable by reason of the decre sed price of tl eai tides which they have to for themselves and families. The President makes an additional point whi h is of special interest to them, namely: that manufacturers would have a belter chance of comp ting in foreign markets if tbs taxes were removed from raw material, thus extending their sales beyond the demands of home consumption, offsetting the depressions and panics which arise irom an overstocked domestic market, and assuring workingmen of more regular work and steadier prices.

The President is to be congratulated for his courage iu formulating tariff revision and presenting it to Congress as the most important issue now before the country. It is n d a partisan matter. It concerns the interests of the large majority of the people of the United States and of the entire farming population. It must come up for discussion and action before long. Meanwhile let it be remem bered that there are sixteen districts in Illinois 95 per cent, of the people of which have no int- • erest in maintaining an t xcessive war tax. The action of tLe representatives of these districts will be watched with much interest It will show whether they are in Congress as the representatives of Eastern factory lords or of Western agricultural constituencies. Of the four Chicago members, two have a large number ot rural constituents and a few mill owners in their districts. Do they propose to represent the majority sentiment of these constituents or to vote conUnufrd excessive bounties to the latter?