Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1891 — GREAT TARIFF REFORM. [ARTICLE]

GREAT TARIFF REFORM.

SENATOR CARLISLE’S SERVICES IN THE PEOPLE’S CAUSE. H* Is a Friend of the Consumer and a Foe of Protection—A Political Philosopher vvith Accurate Practical Knowledge Hostile to a Moneyed Oligarchy. Among all the tariff reformers in Congress none is more able or more conspicuous for intimate and correct knowledge, of the tariff question than Senator John

G. Carlisle of Kentucky. In a late number of the New York Standard Mr. Henry Loomis Nelson, formerly Senator Carlisle’s private secretary and now one of the editors of the New York World, gives an estimate of the character and the achievements of the eminent Kentucky statesman. Mr. Nelson devotes a part of his article to Mr. Carlisle's work as a tariff reformer: “Mr. Carlisle is besticnown,” Mr. Nelson says, “for his efforts in behalf of tariff reform. This is because/the enormities of the present system have framed the issue of his time. But Mr. Carlisle is an opponent of the excess of protection because he is a Democrat, and holds that government has no right to enact unequal laws, to enable the few at the expense of the many, to levy taxes for any but the general welfare. The protectionists have been building up a moneyed oligarchy, and, as a Democrat, Mr. Carlisle opposed their system. That system involved a preference by the Government for one set of citizens over all their fel-low-citizens, and, therefore, it is hostile to the theory that government is by the people and for the people, and that all are e jual before tho law. “That Mr. Carlisle has become an export exponent of tariff laws is due to the fact that not only is he a sound political philosopher but also a practical legislator. The tariff was the instrument which he found the enemies of Democracy employing against tho liberties and rights of the people. In this age and country parliamentary victories are not won on general principles. Nothing can be gained by demonstrating that a proposed measure or an existing statute is contrary to tho fundamental principles of the Government. It must be shown that, in practice, the measure or the law n*ist work injustice, must be an oppressive burden upon the people. “Mr. Carlisle, therefore, became familiar with the operations of the tariff law in ail its details. He studied it in all its ramifications. He mastered as many trade secrets as may be discovered by those who are not actually engaged in business, who are not the makers of tho secrets themselves. His knowledge of details of manufacture on both sides of tho water, of the business of importation, of the effect of the tariff upon business, and, above all, upon tho people who are tho consumers, has often excited the wonder and admiration of experts in various arts and trades, and whose experience taught them that a Congressman has usually to be Instructed in the elementary facts of any practical question which he professes to discuss. “Mr. Carlisle was the friend and champion of the consumers, who are the people, and whose fundamental political rights were invaded by the law that taxes them for the benefit of other private citizens. But Mr. Carlisle has not rested his case on a general, principle, the distortion of which would undoubtedly work a terrible disaster in time, too remote, however, to be patiently waited for, and too serious not to be anticipated and averted if possible. He has therefore made a scientific analysis of the tariff. He has demonstrated the seriousness of their burdens, their injustice, and their ineffectiveness. In all the history of tariff-tax discussion in this country no one has taken broader ground than Mr. Carlisle, and no one has been so minutely informed." % Tick New York Merchants' BetylCw states that nine-tenths of the industries of the country are controlled by combinations. v