Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1892 — That Free Breakfast Table. [ARTICLE]

That Free Breakfast Table.

Whitelaw Retd said, in his speech of September It), that, by coupling together “protection and reciprocity,’’ his party had given us “a free breakfast table,” which the Democrats propose to destroy by “restoring the revenue duties on coffee, tea and sugar.” The only thing the Republicans did to give us a free breakfast table was to reduce the duty on refined sugar fio n about 2J to cents per pound. For this we would have been thankful ■if It had- not reduced our revenue by nearly $60,000,000. to give an opportunity to impose more onerous duties upon other articles of food and clothing—duties that would not, like the sugar duty, put almost as many dollars into our treasury as it took fiom the people, but that would take three dollars from the people, one of which would reach our treasury and two of which woul i bo caught on the fly by the “friends” of the administration. No, we have not free sugar yet for our breakfast tables; the A cent duty must be paid to the sugar trust. It ia this duty that the Democrats propose to remove, and that they would hav9 removed months ago if a Republican Senate and President had not blocked the wdy.' As to tea and eoffee, they have for years been on the free list. The only possible effect of “reciprocity” upon them would be to relmpose duties and to tax them, as has been done by decree of President Harrison in some cases. For such a “free breakfast table” we are not especially grateful to tbe protectionists.