Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 December 1887 — Page 4

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THE IKDIAITAPOLIS JOURNAL, TEUKSDAI, DECEMiBEn 8, 138T.

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0?HE DAILY JOURNAL

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8. 1837. UTTTxnTON OFFICE 613 Fourteeatli St P. S. HxjlTH, CcrrespondenV jfEW IOBK OFFICE 104 Temple Court, Corner Beekm&n and Mius streets. THE CTDIANAPOUS JOUBXAX. fb found at the following plaeess LONDON Amaricua Exchange la Europe 449 btrano. ARIS American. Exchange la Faris, 33 Boulevard 1m capueines. JTEW YOKK Gednsy House and Windior Hot! rillCAGO Plmer noma. JTLN" CINN ATI J. P. Hawley Ofc, 154 Via street. LiO UISTILLE C T. Dearing, northwest comer U&ird and J eaerson streets. ST. LOUTS Union Xw Company, Union Depot - .-. . -r t . ana bouthera jaotau ITASHINGTON, D. C Riggs House and Zbbitt Telephone Call. Paslatss Office. 238 Editorial Room 242 The Vandalia railroad has not yet changed bands. John C. Eobixson he, ia sorely "worrying the Democracee. THE President's message has given him a oom in England. THERE is fr opening in Louisville for a Republican newspaper that will support Re publican candidates. The Danville speech of General Harrison touched the Harrison-Coy-Sullivan Democ racy on the raw. Their organ, the Sentinel, squeals like a stuck pig. "WITH Colonel Lamar on the Supreme Bench the country may look for a revival of the long dormant doctrines of John C. Calhoun in con atltutional construction. John C. Calhoun's body lies moldering In the ground, but his soul is marching on in the person of Lucius Quintius Cartus Lamar, his disciple and eulogist. No wonder the English press is delighted with the President's message. From their point of view it could not be better if it had been prepared by the Cobden Club.' Irish Americans will be sure to throw up their hats for Cleveland when they read the laudatory comments of the? British govern xnent organs on his free-trade message. Nobody denies that the President's freetrade message shows courage. So did the bull that essayed to throw a locomotive off the track. Courage enough, but mighty little discretion. The President and Secretary Fairchild did not consult before preparing their respective messages to Congress. Mr. Fairchild evident ly was not a member of the somewhat ceta brated "Red Top conference." The city election in Louisville seems to have been characterized by every form of corruption and fraud known to the worst Echools of municipal politics. Too much Democracy is bringing forth its natural fruit. The citizens' committee of Louisville was cot organized early enough. In order to effect any reform in the corrupt political methods of that city, proceedings shoald be begun a year or so in advance of an election. - Up from the South at the break of day there did not come a chorus of approval for the President's free-trade message. On the contrary, there is something of a rumble and roar, relieved ,by occasional flashes of silence. The Democratic party is treading on dangerous ground. Free trade is not popular in the South, and Cleveland, Carlisle, Watterson & Co. may break that solid line of States Which elected the last President unless they etre very careful. The Democracy have thrown down the gauntlet and challenged the Republicans to meet them on the free-trade issue. They could not have selected a better line of battle nor a plan of campaign more satisfactory to the Republicans. THE President ought to try and run over to London for a few weeks next summer. His f ree-tiade message has made him very popular on the other side, and Englishmen would give him an ovation. Perhaps that might secure him the Irish vote. A citizens' committee has been appointed In Louisville to arrest and prosecute Democratic bribers and illegal voters. . The organ of the tally-sheet forgers in this city should pen out on the committee. It is a great outrage to interfere with Democratic corruptionists. The members of Congress will do nothing before January but reduce the surplus a little by drawing their salaries and talk over the tariff question. There is no use of the meeting of Congress in December, and the date should be changed along with that of inauguration day. In the matter of political corruption and dishonest elections Louisville now stands in line with Baltimore. This disgraceful condition of things will not be remedied until decent Democrats meet with Republicans on the non-partisan platform of municipal reform, and rid the city of its rascals. Mr. Lamar has succeeded better in obtaining recognition himself than he did in trying to obtain recognition for the Southern Confederacy. His trip to Washington has proved more successful than his trip to Europe was, and a Democratic administration easier to Work than foreign governments. The report of Secretary Fairchild will not receive great attention. There is little new r important in it His arguments on the lurplus and tariff reduction are substantially what the President'd were, and hence appear vs twice-told tales. He makes one individual

recommendation as to the surplus, however, and that is, that it be placed in the banks of the country, where it would be available for business. He says, "as this is the best use to make of this money, I advise it." The President says in his message, "the proposition to deposit money held by the government in banks throughout the country, for use by the people, is, it seems to me, exceedingly objectionable in principle." Mr. Fairchild must be gratified at this expression of confidence in his financial ability by his chief. It is another evidence of Democratic harmony on the surplus, and what to do with it. The principal portions of the Secretary's report are printed this morning.

The President's message is generally received for just what it is, an undisguised free-trade document. The English people recognize it, and the free-trade Democrats know it. Mr. Watterson, rabid extremist, serves notice on the Randall wing of the Democracy that it means fight, and if they are not prepared to "homologate" with the free-traders, they had better go into the Republican party at once. He declares the policy the President advocates "more radical" than any the Democracy ever have avowed, not ".excepting the "tariff for revenue only" cry of 1SS0, and says the "President is against protection pure and simple," and that "the duty of the Democracy is to educate the workingmen of the country, the wage-workers, out of the idea that protection protects them to any extent." Mr. Watterson speaks plainly, and apparently with authority. The Randallites understand the message the same way. Mr. Randall say3 "the issue is forced upon us." The New York Sun says "the President treats the manufacturers of the country as a class as though they were public enemies and conspirators." The Atlanta Constitution says "it is a Bill Morrison message, and that Morrison was left at home by his constituents at the last election." And so it goes. The President's attempted sugarcoating, his little disingenuous play upon words, his masquerade, has failed of its purpose, and we have the issue of protection or free trade clean and clear cut. It ia not either the reduction of the surplus or the revision of the tariff; it is whether the surplus shall be absolutely and permanently destroyed while ; great and needed public works are demanding attention, and whether reform in the tariff shall be made with an idea of retaining the American system of protection, or committed to those who believe, with the President, that the system is "organized robbery," and that there is no necessity of throwing any kind of protection about either our industries or our workingmen. On that issue the Republicans will be glad to join battle; but the fear is that the Democratic party cannot be induced to follow the buglecall of their impetuous would-be leader. There are Democrats who remember the adage that a certain type of people rush in where angels fear to tread, and they have not forgotten the lesson of 1880. The Sentinel has not got over the last campaign, and frequently drools and drivels in impotent wrath because of the "lies" of the Republican party in that struggle, "as it pleases to call them. Well, our esteemed contemporary is in that condition where the worm that troubles it dieth not. The last campaign will be scarcely a marker to tha next one. Every issue touched in that canvass, and passed upon favorably to the Republican claim by the people, remains unsettled, and next year will be devoted to fighting the old battle over, only with redoubled energy and added ammunition. The same scandalous and corrupt management of the great benevolent institutions of the State continues. The board under which the infamies laid bare in the canvass and in the last Legislature were perpetrated, and by their connivance and consent, still continue in charge, and not a respectable, honest Democrat, in good standing "with his party, has dared to lift his voice against the gang that fed insane patients with maggoty butter, cholera hogs, and decayed fruits. The campaign of last year will be repeated with increased emphasis next year, and if our esteemed contemporary is in distress now, it will be in torment before next November. The Republican party does not propose to leave the insane of the State to the tender care of the Harrisons, the Sullivans and the Coys of the Democratic party. It will continue on "the sunlit hills of duty," remembering "the message of the Son of God;" it will again declare for non-partisan, honest, kindly, efficient care of the un fortunate wards of the State, and we believe the people will return a Legislature that will see that humanity and decency triumph over brutality, infamy and corruption. We renew to our "esteemed contemporary the as surance of our distinguished consideration, and advise it to get in out of the wet. After last year, the deluge. AMONG the great number of hungry Indiana Democrats there is one whose claims should not be overlooked by the party. The person referred to is George W. Buldock, of Jefferson ville. Mr. Buldock is .a Democrat "from way back," and his claim for recognition is one that will be instantly recognized as peculiarly meritorious. He claims to have elected Mr. Turpie to the Senate. His claim rests on a beautiful chain of cause and effect. He was recently superintendent of the poor-farm in Clark county, and in that capacity he voted fifteen paupers for Dr. McClure, Democratic candidate for the Legislature. Thesa fifteen pauper votes elected McClure, and McClure's vote gave the necessary majority in the rcmp J convention for Turpie. But for those fifteen votesi Republican would have been sent to the Legislature and Turpie would not have been where he is. This is the way Buldock elected Turpie. He is now out of office, and of course is hungry. Something handsome should be done for Buldock, and we suggest that the Democratic members from Indiana, headed by Mr. Turpie, call on the President and urge his appointment to some lucrative position. Such action on the part of the President would be a graceful compliment to Turpie, and would somewhat mitigate the embarrass ment of his present position. Perhaps no other Senator, or alleged Senator of the United States, ever owed his so-called elec

tion to the votes of fifteen paupe.s. The remarkable services of Mr. Buldock should be rewarded. , The other paupers can wait.

There is to be a meeting of the Republican clubs of the country in New York city on the 15th instant and it would seem that the club organizations of the State of Indiana should be fully and properly represented. So far, the Journal has noticed the appointment of no delegates except from the Huston Club, of this city, a new and strong colored organization, and the Morton Club, of Fort Wayne. The Lincoln League is already organized in various parts of the State, and is to be in all part3 before the winter is over. It will be the part of wisdom to have the League represented in the New York conference, where important work looking to the future campaign may be laid out Indiana is one of the important States next year. It is not improbable that where Indiana Republicans sit will be the head of the table; certain it is, that it will be well up toward the front In this contingency, the Republicans of Indiana should be fully represented at New York. If the clubs of any town or city will communicate with the Journal we can arrange needful accommodations for' their representatives on the railroads, which have made special rates for the occasion. Under the head of "Three Disappearances" the New York Sun calls to mind the brief history of Wm. R. Morrison, of Illinois; Albert S. Willis, of Kentucky, and Wm. R. Cox, of North Carolina. The Sun says: "These three respectable and conspicuous Democrats were defeated in their several districts, either in caucus or at the polls, for no other reason than that they represented impracticable tariff theories, extravagant, we will not say dishonest, methods of expending the people's money, and undemocratic notions concerning the offices." The editorial was printed the morning Mr. Cleveland's free-trade message was read to Congress. The Sun will be heard from later. Mr. Jacob, the newly elected Mayor may be regarded as the Higgins of Louisville. It is not known that he has received any certificate of character from reformer Cleveland such as that bestowed upon Fellows, of New York, but there is no doubt that he is a "worker" after the President's own heart, and that their views in regard to the proper management of municipal affairs coincide exactly. If there is anything Mr. Jacob want3 of Mr. Cleveland, he can have it for the asking. . ir : The Journal devotes considerable space this morning to personal and newspaper comment upon the President's message. These comments are not selected from 'Republican sources nor from those which have like opinions, but fairly represent the general drift of comment from all points of view. The Journal's news columns "rise above party" on all occasions. The interests of the party the paper believes in are attended to in the editorial columns. The "rubber trust" has been organized, to go into effect on the 1st of January. Before the 1st of January, if possible, a law should be passed by Congress declaring this and all kindred combinations illegal, and punishing them as conspiracies against the people. This is.a great deal more important than the postal telegraph scheme. Who will be the man to stand for the people as against the ''trusts?" ClTY officials of Buffalo say that when Mr. Cleveland formally gave up his residence in that place, last year, he stated that he expected never to return. He neglected, however, to explain whether this resolve was caused by a wish to escape unpleasant associations or by his expectation of being reelected President for the term of his natural life. For many years it was Professor Lamar, then it was Colonel Lamar, and now it is likely to be J udge Lamar. It used to be thought that a man should serve a pretty long apprenticeship at the law before aspiring to the Supreme Bench. Mr. Lamar qualified himself by teaching mathematics and commanding a regiment in the rebel army. The appointment of Boss Dickinson, of Michigan, as Postmaster-general removes the last vestige of pretense of civil-service reform in that department, and is notice to every Democrat in the service to cut loose. From this time on postmasters and postal clerks may use all the offensive partisanship they want to. Everything goes. It has come at last The blowing up of a Halifax photograph gallery with dynamite is a proof that the victims of the camera will not always suffer and make no sign. If this sort of fate, however, is to be meted out to photographers, what shall be done with the persons responsible for newspaper portraits? Now that public indignation is visiting itself upon one class of offenders, it is not likely that perpetrators of the worse outrage will escape. Left to a vote of the sufferers, it may be doubted if the dynamite method of retribution would be regarded as sufficiently severe. The Journal congratulates itself at this crisis on not being a pictorial paper. New York detectives have just arrested a confidence man who had "tolled" a ( ood Methodist elder all the way from Tennessee, for the purpose of giving him $3,000 in "green goods' in exchange for $500 in greenbacks. This begins to look like social progress. Methodist brethren must be protected, and depraved wretches who agree to sell them counterfeit money and fail to do it ought to be arrested. The coroner at Denver committed suicide tlie other day. It is an unusual thing for one who is often called upon tt look at men and women who have killed themselves and been killed vio lently, to take his own life and furnish a subject for an inquest The formality should be waived in his caso out of respect to the omce. When the national convention of barbers meets will the members all talk at once; or will it be necessary for each speaker to have a "sub ject" under his hand before his tongue has the required linibernessf Presidest Sardi-Carxot has one son-in-law, and with three marriageable daughters a pros pect of three more. President Carnot should look at Grevy, ana beware. To tbe Eilttor of the Indianaoolis Journal: What is the answer to the Sphinx's riddle "What is that which uses four feet in early life, two feet afterward, and three feet in ape, and is the weakest when it uses tho most feetf" , A SCHOOLGIRI Man. .

MR. BLAINE ON THE MESSAGE

The Maine Statesman Discusses the Pro- . position Put Forth byjthe President. And Improves the Opportunity to Give the - World His Views as to tbe Most Desirable Method of Reducing. the Revenues. He Wonld Repeal the.Tobacco Tax: and Use the Whisky Tax in Building Forts. Views of Other Statesmen and Politicians on thegMessagre It la Generally Regarded as a Strong Free-Trade Manifesto. Ne,v York, Dec. 7. The Tribune of to-morrow will contain a long interview with Hon. James G. Blaine on President Cleveland's message. It was taken in . short-band under the direction of the Tribune's Paris correspondent, and sent bv cable to-night. It is as follows: "I have been reading an abstract of the President's message, and bare been especially interested in the comments of the London papers. Those papers all assume to declare the message is a free-trade manifesto, and evidently are anticipating an enlarged market for English fabrics in the United States as a eonseqnence of the President's recommendations. Perhaps that fact stamped the character of the message more clearly than any words of mine can." , "You don't mean actual free trade without duty?" questioned the reporter. '"No," replied Mr. Blaine; "nor do the London papers mean that. They simply mean that the President has recommended what in the United States is known as a revenue tariff, rejecting the protective feature as an object, and not even permitting protection to result freely as an incident to revenue do ties." "I don't know that I quite comprehend that last point," said the reporter. "1 mean," said Mr. Blaine, "that for the first time in the history of the L nited States tbe President recommends retaining the internal tax in order that the tana may be forced down even below the fair revenue standard. He recommends that the tax on tobacco be retained. and thus that many millions annually shall be levied on a domestic product which would far better come from a tariff on foreign fabrics." "Then do you mean to imply that you would lavor tne repeal oE the tobacco taxi ' "Certainly, I mean just that," said Mr. Blaine. "I should urge that it be done at once, even before the Christmas holidays. It would, in the first place, bring great relief to growers of tobacco all over the country, and would materially lessen the price of the article to consumers. Tobacco, to millions of men, is a necessity. The President calls it a luxury, but it is a luxury in no other sense than tea and coffee are luxuries.. It is well to remember that the luxury of yesterday becomes a necessity of to-day. Watch, if you please, tbe number of men at work on the farm, in the coal mine, along the railroad, in the iron foundry, or in, any calling, and you will find 95 of 100 chewing while they work. After each meal the same proportion seek the solace of a pipe or a cigar. These men not only pay the millions of the tobacco tax, but pay on every plug and every cigar an enhanced price which the tax enables the manufacturer and retailer to impose. The only excuse for such a tax is the actual necessity under which the government found itself during the war and the years immediately following. To retain the tax now in order to destroy the protection which would Incidentally flow from raising the same amount of money on foreign imports, is certainly a most extraordinary policy for our government-" "Well, then, Mr. Blaine, would you advise the repeal of the whisky tax!" "No, I would not. Other considerations than those of financial administration are to be taken into account with regard to whisky. There is a moral side to it. To cheapen the price of whisky is to increase tbe consumption enormously. There would be no sense in urging the reform wrought by high lieense in many States If the national government neutralizes tbe good effect Dy placing whisky within reach of every one at twenty cents a gallon. Whisky would be everywhere distilled if the surveillance of the govern ment were withdrawn by the remission of tke "tax, aid illicit sales could not then be pre vented, even by a policy as rigorous and searching as that with which Russia pursues tbe Nihilists. It would destroy high license at once in all the States. Whisky has done a vast deal of harm in the United States. I would try to make it do some good. I would use the tax to fortify our cities on the seaboard. In view of the powerful letter addressed to the Democratic party on the subject of fortifications by tbe late Mr. Samuel J. Tilden, in 1885, I am amazed that no attention has been paid to the subject by the Democratic administration. Never before in the history of the world has any government allowed great cities on tbe seaboard, like Philadelphia, New Ycrk, Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans and San Francisco, to remain defenseless." "But," said the reporter, "you don't think we are to have war in any direction?' "Certainly not," 6a"id Mr. Blaine: "neither, I presume, did Mr. Tilden when he wrote his remarkable letter. But we should chance a remote chance into an absolute impossibility if our weak and exposed points were strongly fortified; if, to-day. we bad by any chance even such a war as we bad with Mexico, our enemy could procure ironclads in Europe that would menace our great cities with destruction or lay them under contribution." "But would not our fortifying now possibly look as if we expected war?'' "Why should it, any more than the fortifications made seventy or eighty years ago by our grandfathers, when they guarded themselves against successful attack from the armaments of that day? We don't necessarily expect a burglar because we lock our doors at night, but if by any possibility a burglar comes it contributes vastly to our peace of mind and our sound sleep to feel that he can't get in." "But after the fortifications should be constructed would you still continue tbe tax on whiky" "Yes," said Mr. Blaine. "So long as there is whisky to tax 1 would tax it, and when the national government should have no use for the money I would divide the tax among the States of the federal Union, with the specific object of lightening the tax on real estate. The houses and farms of the whole country pav too large a proportion of the total taxes. If. ultimately, relief could be given in that direction, it would, in my judgment, be a wise and beneficent policy. Some honest but misguided friends of temperance have urged that the government should, not use the money derived from the tax on whisky. My reply is that the tax on whisky by the federal government, with its suppression ot all illieit distillation and consequent enhancement of price, has been a powerful agent in tbe temperance reform by putting it beyond the reach of so manv. The amount of whisky consumed in the United States per capita to-day is not more than 40 per cent, of that consumed thirty years ago." After a few moments' silence Mr. Blaine added that in his judgment the whisky tax should be so modified as to permit all who use pure alcohol in the arts or in mechanical pursuits to have it free of tax. In all such ' cases the tax could be remitted without danger of fraud, just as now the tax on spirits exported is remitted. . "Besides your general and sweeping opposition to the President's recommendation, have you any further specific objections?" "Yes," answered Mr. Blaine; "I should seriously object to the repeal of the duty on wool. The repeal - would work great injustice to many ' interests, and would seriously discourage: what we should earnestly encourage, namely, sheep culture among farmers throughout the Union. To break down wool-growing and. be dependent on foreign countries for the. blanket under which we sleep and the coat that covers our backs is not a wise policy for the national government to enforce." "Do you think if the President's recommends tion were adopted it would increase our export trade?" "Possibly in some few articles of peculiar construction it might, but it would increase our import trade ten-fold as much in the great staple fabrics in wollen and eotton goods, in steel, in all tbe thousand and one shapes in which they are wrought How are we to export staple fabrics to tbe markets of Europe, and bow are we to manufacture them cheaper than they do in Europe, unless we get cheaper labor than they bave in Europe!' "Then you think that the question of labor underlies ibe whole subject?" "Of course it does," replied Mr. Blaine, "it is, in fact, the entire question. Whenever we can force carpenters, masons, iron-workers, and mechanics in every department to work as cheaply and live as poorly in the United States as similar workmen in Lurope, we can. of course, manufacture just as cheaply as they do in England and France.,' But I am totally opposed to a j.oiiey that would entail such re sults. To attempt it is equivalent to a social and financial revolution, and that would bring untold distress." -"Yes, but might not the great farming class

be benefited by importing articles from Europe

instead of buying them at higher prices at home?" - - . "Tbe moment," answered Mr. Blaine, "you beein to import freely from Europe you drive your own workmen from mechanical and manu facturing pursuits. In tbe same proportion they become tillers of tbe soil, increasing steadily the agricultural product and decreasing steadily the large homo demand which is constantly enlarging as home manufacturers enlarge. That, of course, works great injury to the farmer, glutting the market with his products and tending constantly to lower prices." "Yes. but the foreign demand for farm prod ucts would be increased in like ratio, would it not?" s "Even suppose it were," said Mr. Blaine; how, do you know the source from which it will be supplied? The tendency in Russia to-day, and in the Asiatic possessions of England, is toward a large increase of the grain supply, the grain being raised by tbe cheapest possible labor. Manufacturing countries will buy their breadstuffs where they can get them cheapest, and the enlarging, of the home market for the American farmer being checked, he would search in vain for one of the same value. His foreign sales are already checked by the great competition abroad. There never was a time when the increase of a large home market was so valuable to him. Tbe best proof is that tbe farmers are prosperous in proportion to the nearness of manufacturing centers, and a protective tariff tends to spread manufactures. In Ohio and Indiana, for example, though not classed aslimanufacturing States, the annual value of fabrics is larger than tbe annual value of acricnltural products." "But those holding the President's views," remarked the reporter, "are always quoting the great prosperity of the country under the tariff of 1 840." "That tariff did not involve the one destructive point recommended by the President, namely, the retaining of direct internal taxes in oider to abolish indirect losses levied on foreign fabrics. But tbe country had peculiar advantages under it by tbe Crimean war, involving England, France and Russia, and largely impairing their trade. All these incidents, or accidents, if you choose, were immensely stimulating to trade in the United States, regardless of the nature of our tariff. But mark tbe end of this European experience with the tariff of 1846, which, for a time, gave an illusory and deceptive show of prosperity. Its enactment was immediately followed by the Mexican war; then, in 1848. by the great convulsions of Europe; then, in 1849, and succeeding years, by the enormous gold yield in California. The powers made peace in 1856, and at the same time the output of gold in California fell off. Immediately the financial panic of 1S57 case upon the country with disastrous force. Though we had in these years mined a vast amount of gold in California, every bank in New York was compelled to suspend specie payment. Four hundred millions in gold bad been carried out of tbe country in eight years to pay for foreign goods that should bave been manufactured at home, and we bad years of depression and distress in atonement for our folly. It is remarkable that President Polk recommended the tariff of 1S46 on precisely the same ground that President Cleveland recommends a similar enactment now, namely, the surplus in the Treasury was menacing the prosperity of tbe country. .History is repeating itself. By tbe way," Mr. Blaine added, after a moment's re- . reflection, "it is worth notice that Mr. Polk insisted on emptying the Treasury by a freetrade tariff, and then immediately rushed the country into debt bv borrowing $150,000,000 for the Mexican war. I trust nothing may occur to repeat so disastrous a sequel to the policy- recommended by President Cleveland. But the uniform fate has been for fifty years past that the Democratic party, when it goes out of power, always leaves an emyty Treasury and ' when it returns to power always finds a full Treasury." "Then, do you mean to imply that there should be no reduction of the national revenue?"' ' "No; what I have said implies the reverse. I would reduce it by a prompt repeal of the tobacco tax, and would make, here and there, some changes iu the tariff, not to reduce protection, but to wisely foster it." "Would you explain your meaning more fully?" "I mean," said Mr. Blaine, "that no great system of revenue like our tariff can operate with efficiency and equity unless tbe changes of trade be closely watched and the law promptly adapted to those changes. But I would make no change that should impair the protective character of tbe whole body of the tariff laws. Four years ago, in the act of 1883, we made changes of the character I bave tried to indicate. If such changes were made, and the fortifying of our seacoast undertaken at a very moderate annual outlay, no surplus would be found after that already accumulated bad been disposed of. Tbe outlay of money on fortifications, while doing a great service to the country, would give good work to many men." "But what about the existing surplus?" "The abstract of the message I have seen," replied Mr. Blaine, "contains no reference to that point. I, therefore, make no comment further than to indorse Mr. Fred Grant's remark that a surplus is always easier to handle than a deficit." The reporter repeated the question whether the President's recommendation would not, if adopted, give us the advantage of a large increase in exports. "I only repeat." answered Mr. Blaine, "that it would vastly enlarge our imports, while the only export it would seriously increase would be our gold and silver. That would flow out bounteously, just as it did under the tariff of 1S46. The President's recommendation, enacted into law, would result, as did an experiment in drainage of a man who wished to turn a swamp into a productive field. He aug a drain to a neighboring river, but it happened, unfortunately, that the level of the river was higher than tbe level of the swamp. The con sequence need not be told. A parallel would be found when the President's policy in attempting to open a channel for an increase of exports should simply succeed in making way for a deluging inflow of fabrics to the destruction of home industry." - Opinion of Congressmen. Collected from Washington and Other Specials. Senator Call A very able document. Senator Reagan I like and indorse it Senator Eustis It is an admirable message, and suits us. Senator Teller It's a remarkable message and very weak. Senator Paddock (Rep.) It is a big card for the Republicans. Representative Mills said: "Good, elegant; it could not be better." Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania (Dam) Well, he forces the issue upon us. Representative Fuller, of Iowa, (Rep.) We can stand such stuff as that. Senator Spooner--It is a rehash of old stump speeches, poorly put together. Representative Cox (Dem.) Didn't hear it all, but it is on the right lines. Senator Blackburn If there's anything I don't want to be quoted on, it's the message. Representative McComas, of Maryland (Rep.) It is the great error of the administration. Re'presentative White, of Indiana (Rep.) A rehash and a misstatement of figures and facts. Senator Aldrich The President presents an issue which the Republicans wilLbe very glad to meet. Mr. Reed, of Maine It has come like a great blessing to us. Now we see what is in our front. Mr. Randolph Tucker It is evident that our people will not relish the suggestions about tbe tobacco tax. Mr. Burrows, of Michigan It is the twaddle gathered up from the weakest free-trade stomp speeches he could find. Senator Hiscock We can carry New York by tbe biggest majority it was ever carried if they will give us that platform. Representative Bland said: "It's the best we have ever had. I have not heard its equal since I have been in Congress." Senator Gray Strone. original, and characteristic of the man. Mr. Cleveland is the strongest President since Jackson. Representative Springer said: "That is a good one. He hits tbe nail on the head every time. We bave our platform." Representative Hooker, of Mississippi (Dem. ) It ia strong, unique, and the grounds are well taken. The party will indorse it. Representative McKinley, of Ohio (Rep.) The issue is made. It is free trade against protection, and will give us strength. Senator Manderson said: "It was a strong message for free trade, but what a complete ignoring there was of everything else." Mr. Hiestand, of Pennsylvania On that platform Pennsylvania is nood for one hundred thousand Republican majority next year. Senator Allison If the President means free trade and I take it that he does it will bo a good enough document for the Republicans. J. G. Cannon, of Illinois He only sees the five millions gathered from wool, and there are forty millions from sugar. Why, no one need ask. s. Senator Piatt said he didn't know whether he wanted to express an opinion or not for publication. If he did, it mifht not be complimentary. Senator Stanford I wasn't able to bear it very well, but what I did hear of it struck me as being something in the way of a free-trade arenment. Mr. McKinley: Speaking as a Republican, I am glad the President has so clearly fixed upon tbe attention or toe country wis great issue and I has so surely committed his party to the British I

poliey of free trade. The voters of the Union will now have an opportunity to pass upon this question fairly and without avoidance or evasion. Senator Frye, of Maine It is exactly th message which we wanted. It sharply defines the issues, and leaves the Republicans tbe issus they desired. Representative Townsend ' said: ''Elegant, elegant! It beats them all. It could not be better. We are going to stand by him, and we art going to win." Senator Chandler I only fear the Democratic party will not indorse it, and will go back on it. The Republicans want nothing better with which to sweep the country. Senator Cullom said: "It is a good free-trade message, and to that extent it is of use to us. We are entirely willing to have the Democratic party come out for free trade." Dunham, of Chicago The message is simply a few more pages cut from tbe encyclopaedia, and should be bound up with tbe rest of the en cyclopaedia speeches of the tour. Representative Bingham, of Pennsylvania (Rep.) It weakens the President, and is tbe most extreme Democratic sentiment I ever heard, uttered on the floor of this House. Representative Gibson (Dem.) The strongest and boldest expression ever made by any one on the subject. I heartily approve every word of it It is the line we must hew to. Wm. Walter Phelps, of New Jersey He comes out squarely as against protection to American labor, so that every man can see just where he is, and on that issue we can carry the country. Representative Bayne, of Pennsylvania, (Rep.) With a balance of trade against us amounting to $50,000,000 annually, a man capable of single-entry book-keeping out to know such talk is absurd. Senator Hawley was disgusted with the message. He described it as weak and trasby; full of exploded ideas. He bad heard schoolboys do better; there was no new idea or feature in it. and there was not one practical suggestion in it. Representative Hovey, of Indiana. (Kt-p.) It creates an emergency and ignores tbe real Issue before the country that of distributing the surplus. It will harm tbe Democratic party, and by ignoring the soldiers bring them solidly over to us. Mr. Ermentrout, of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, thinks the President has increased the difficulties of the situation in Congress in respect to the tariff, instead of submitting suggestions likely to bring about unity of action by tha party. Representative Glover (Rep.) I heard only portions of it, but I have talked with many of the Ohio delegation, and they are against the message because of the argument agaiust a tariff on wooL Without Ohio in accord 1 fear but little can be accomplished. Mr. Brumm, of Pennsylvania It is a counterpart of Hancock' statement that the tariff is a local issue. He wants to get rid of the five millions of duty on wool, and keep the fifty millions on sugar, because the first benefit the yeomanry of tbe North, while the sugar is raised only in the South. Representative Owen, of 'Indiana, (Rep.) It is a characteristic message, written, as usual, on the line of a stump speech. The demand for free wool and tbe silence on sugar, when there are a million wool-growers and less than seventeen thousand sugar-producers, wiU not quite meet the better judgment of the people. Mr. Wilson, of West Virginia, Democrat, who has several times made a successful fight against protection . in his - State, says: "Just such a clear and authoritative statement from tbe executive was needed. It makes the tariff tbe leading and inevitable issue between the two political parties in Congress1 and in the next presidential eompaign." A. Garland, assistant secretary of the American Protective Tariff League, and formerly a member of the tariff commission, said: "When once the people find out that filling our markets with cheap foreign goods means work at foreign wages for those who can find any work to do, they will effectually wipe out the whole free-trade scheme and the men who are behind it." Judge Kelley.of Pennsylvania To execute tbe objects indicated by the President without destroying many of the leading industries of the country is an utter impossibility. It is said that Mr. Cleveland publicly admitted that he had not known bow large tbe country was until he took bis hasty trip around tbe circle, whiea . had not anything like the diameter of that around which Andy Johnson swung Mr. Seward. Ex-Congressman Frank Hurd, of Toledo, who is known as one of the most strenuous advocates of absolute free trade in this country, said: "The President's message will serve to bring on the direct tariff issue. That is what I want. We shall now have political discussion of a great principle instead of disreputable wrangles and

personalities. On this tariff issue the Dem ocratic party can carry tbe Northwest. Soeh states as Michigan, Iowa, .Nebraska, Wisconsin) and Minnesota are with us on this question. I here will be only eight or ten States left to the Republicans. As for breaking up the South, you can not do that." Ben Butterworth: The Democratic majority aim not to revise, but to- destroy. They oppose the system in toto, and hence there is tbe strongest probability that what they would call revision would be no more and no less than tbe kind of pruning of which Mr. Dorsheimer spoke when he said: "We propose to cut, to cut deep, to cut to the quick, in revising tbe tariff" It was simply a declaration of war upon the protective system. We understand that the socalled revision by the Democratic majority means a studied assault upon the system. And that we are bound by our faith to prevent. If we bave to delay that revision in order to preserve the system, the people will sustain us. and elect a Congress which will promptly and properly revise and yet not destroy tbe tarin. Mr. Randall said: "There will be a reduction of taxation at this session to the extent of f 60,000,000 or more, but not on the exact line of the President's suggestions. The internal taxes will be reduced in part, or in a large degree removed, which the President does not seem to favor, and some reductions will be made in the rates of duties on imports." It is clear, from what Mr. Randall said, that he and his followers will insist that the greater part of tbe reductions to be made in the revenues shall be made in internal taxation, and that they intend to present a bill for that purpose.' It will be a bill to abolish the tobacco taxes, and will contain only so much relating to tariff as may be supposed to be needed to make it palatable to the "free-traders." Mr. McAdoo, of New Jersey, who is Mr. Randall's lieutenant, said: "So far as I am concerned, tbe recommendations of tbe President will have due weight and consideration. Ho is undoubtedly honest and sincere, and bis anxiety about the surplus is shared by nearly every member of the House, so far as I know." He frankly admitted, however, that be differed from the President as to the principles which nnderlie federal taxation, and did not concur in his suggestions as to the remedy for the excessive income of the government. MR. "WATTERSON'S VIEWS. Article in Louisville Courier-Journal: Though the readers of the Courier-Journal will find nothing that is wholly new to them in the President's handling of the tariff be goes out of the way, in fact, to disavow anv intention to instruct they will meet in its perusal, along with many strong, terse expressions, many old, familiar friends. Tbe infantile mendicant, a hundred years of age. is treated to tbe disdain he merits, and an excellent and sonnd argument is made to contradict tbe fallacies that high tariffs make high wages or cheapen the necessary commodities entering into tbe daily living of tbe poor. On this point the message is most elaborate and emphatic, making it clear that the President bos resolved no longer to neglect a field of public usefulness to which the Democratic party needs most to address itself. That field is tha real interest of the great body of wage-earners in the United States. Tbe time has come when they shoald be fearlessly educated out of the falsehood that protection protects them. Taken in connection with Mr. Carlisle's admirable remarks on assuming tbe chair, these pages from the message are at once significant and encouraging. They mean that there is one fence which we shall not again attempt to straddle, and that a fence constructed by ourselves, out of the supposed ignorance and credulity of tbe work-people. Not until we leap this and take the middle of the highway of honest, courageous discussion, shall we make any progress in dissipating an illusion which, through the help of timorous, time-serving Democrats, the Republicans bave hitherto been enabled to work to their exclusive profit. Attention is called to analogous points neither to belittle tbe message nor to extol the CourierJournal, but as an answer to a concerted movement on tbe part of certain protectionist newspapers in the East of late to create the impression that the Courier-Journal is fighting upon a different and more extreme line of reform than the administration a misrepresentation which these quotations and, indeed, the entire body of tbe message completely explode. It is for tbe unfair critics of the Courier-Journal now to cease their cavils and fall into the column led by the President or to fall out and into the ranks of tbe Republican party. There is no longer middle ground to stand on, and still less to fight on. - Press Comment. Philadelphia Press: We ask no fairer fighting ground in defense of American industry and American labor. Tbe Mail and Express (Rep.): The President b&s framed the issue for next year's campaign. He has taken a courageous stand, and we sincerely hone his party will uphold him. He has put the Democrats fairly upon the free-trade platform. The Republican party has nothing to complain of. Neither workingmen nor menu-