People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1894 — The Tariff. [ARTICLE]

The Tariff.

The Democrats held their own better in Nebraska than in any other state in the Union. Here ihe tight was for free silver and the gallant, brainy Bryan took the lead. While the Republican party cannot find enough mean things io say against the Populist parly yet it allied itself with Populism in several of the southern states in the recent election. The New York Herald calls attention to the fact that the Populists of the United States instead of being “busted” in the last election increased their national vote by 600,000, while both old parties showed a falling off. Suppose they repeat this ratio of increase in 1896? Is there statesmanship enough in the Democratic party to prevent it?—Chicago Times. The dead Pops seem to give neighbor much more concern than the live Democrats. Perhaps it is the spirits of the departed that are haunting him for the wicked and false things he has said. For every wicked act, for every false word, punishment will come in one way or another, neighbor, either in this world or the next. You know how unreasonable and unfair you were with Populism when it was in the flesh, now you and its ghosts fight it out. Day by day the Populist claim that rail roads should be run by the government is being accentuated try actual tests. The Northeastern railroad recently fell into the hands of the state of Georgia, being abandoned by the owners as worthless. The state having guaranteed the bonds, took the road and operated it. The result was that the road last year paid all operating expenses, interest on the bounds, and turned £12,000 into the state treasury. Let the government take the whole lot of them and do likewise.—Facts and Figures.

The people voted against protection in 1884, in 1890 and in 1892. In 1875 the Republicans increased the tariff and in 1876 the Democrats carried the country. In 1883 the Republicans decreased the tariff and the next year the country went Democratic. In 1890 the Republicans greatly increased the tariff and the next election went Democratic. In 1894 tlje Democrats slightly decreased the tariff and the country went Republican. The pendulum has been swinging for twenty years. Republican. Democratic. 1872, 1876, 1880, . 1884, 1888, 1892, 1894. What kind of a tariff do the people want anyhow, or does tariff have anything to do with our elections. We are liviug in the shadow of an unbridled plutocracy, caured created and cemented in

tio «*Jjgnt degree by legislative, aldermrnic and congressional action; a plutocracy that is far ever crossed the horizon of the world's history, and one that has been produced in a shorter consecutive period; the names of whose members are emblazoned not on the pages of their nation's glory, but of ; ts peculations, who represent no struggle for their country's liberties, but for its boodle; and whose octopus grip is extending over every branch of industry; a plutocracy which controls the price of the bread w T e eat, the price of the sugar that sweetens our cup, the price of the oil that lights our way, the price of the very coffins in which we are finally buried.”—Gen. Lloyd Brice, in North American Review.

The Republican published a long article taken from the New York Tribune, written by R. G. Hore, in which he predicts the downfall of the Popu list party, because, as he terms it, it howls calamity. What did Owen, Landis, Bevegdge and all the other Republican speakers do, that were sent here during the last campaign? They did nothing but howl calamity. The Republican speakers were instructed by the state central committee not to meet the Democratic and Populist speakers in joint discussion, for they knew that in joint debate the fallacies of the Republican arguments would bo exposed. They did the bidding of their masters and howled calamity. Will the Republican please inform its readers why it is right for a Republican to howl calamity and wrong for a Populist to do so?

Neighbor took up four columns of valuable editorial space last week to prove the death of the dead. If Populism be dead, is it necessary, is it really the part of common sense that all this labored argument be advanced to prove its death to the people? Why the living spending so much time with the dead? Neighbor, there are great living questions that your party must meet, give it the benefit of your counsel, let your light shine before it; your space is too valuable to be wasted upon the dead. There must be something in the appearance of this dead body that neighbor fears some might mistake for signs of life, or else there is surely a lingering doubt in his mind about the reality of this death he labors so hard to prove. The dead are peaceable and harmless, neighbor; then go not to the grave to meet your country’s foes, but turn your blade upon the living, active, devilish Democrats and let the dead Pops rest in peace, if you know they are dead. If neighbor believes Populism is dead he will show much more sense and give much more proof of that belief by saying much less upon the subject.

The tariff question is beginning to get in its discordant note among the protectionists themselves. The Chicago Tribune is flaying a prohibitory tariff contemporary for calling ‘‘low tariff Republicans” political heretics. It cites Tom Reed and Senator Sherman as advocates of moderate tariff and wants to know if they are to be read out of the party. Mr. Medill, the editor-in-chief of the Tribune, has never been a protectionist, and formerly his paper openly denounced the protective tariff theory. Of laet, however, the Tribune has been trotting in the protection harness. The McKinley law will never be re-enacted. There are too many Republicans who are opposed to it, and there is a growing feeling among all classes that a system which benefits a few at the expense of the millions, is wrong in principle and disastrous in practice. The average tariff advocate himself be-

jiwves that \u‘ excessively high tariff is highway robbery of the masses; and the Reeds and Shermans and Medills will be the men who will make the next tariff law is in favor of protection. If protection is adopted at all, it will be what is called moderate protection; and the new law is that future tariff legislation, if in the interest of protection, will be distinguished by the protection it gives certain articles and fails to give to others rather than a general wholesale raising of custom duties. Building a Chinese wall around the United States principally for the benefit of a few manufacturers is not a popular doctrine even among the rank and file of the protectionist party. Like most of our other legislation, the tariff legislation has been in the interest of the favored few. It takes care of the trusts and of the manufacturers, but it leaves the farmer to shift for himself.—The Fanner’s Voice.

The election figures showing the Populist vote for 1894 throughout the country makes an exhibit interesting and important, says the New York World. It completely refutes the notion that the Populists have receieved their death blow. They were defeated, it is true, in Kansas and Colorado —states that have been their stronghold —but they cast 600,000 more votes in 1894 than in 1892,..and a party that gains 57 percent, in two years is a force to be reckoned with. In the first place, the fact must be recognized that the Populist defeat in Kansas and Colorado was a defeat to Waite and Lewelling rather than of Populism. In 1892 the Democrats and Populists fused in Colorado and Kansas. That the Populist vote in Colorado should have increased under these circumstances from 54,000 to 67,000 is far from suggesting that the party is dead. In Kansas there is a loss of 45,000, but even so the Populist vote this year was 16,000 greatefthan the vote cast in that state for Cleveland in 1888. The largest gains were made in old Democratic states or in the states in which in re- * cent years there has been least stability in party relations, where Republicans have abandoned their own party and gone to the Democratic party for relief, and, having been disappointed with crumbs instead of obtaining substantial relief, are now voting with ffhe new party. Of the old Democratic states the chief gain of the Populists was made in North Carolina, their vote growing from 45,000 to 154,000. While they were aided by Republican votes they did not have the full strength of that party, for the independent Republicans ran a third ticket. As the Republican vote in 1892 in North Carolina was about 100,000 it is clear that the Populist vote, pure and simple, must have grown nearly, if not quite, 85 per cent. South Carolina became almost wholly Populist. In Georgia the Populist vote increased 54,000, or more than 100 per cent. In Texas it grew from 100,000 to 160,000. It fell off slightly in Virginia, but the party gained a foothold in Maryland and Delaware. In Alabama the alleged deflection of a large part of the negro vote to Oates caused a falling off on the face of the returns. In most of the fusion states of 1892 the Populist vote fell off, but the popular unrest and dissatisfaction in the west which caused the revolt against the Republican party In 1890 and 1892 this year turned, in its disappointment, to the Populists. In Illinois the Populist vote increased from 22,000 to 138,000; in Indiana from 22,000 30,000; in lowa, where Democracy has been steadily growing for a dozen years, from 21,000 to 35,000; in Michigan from 20,000 to 25,000;

iu ata innc oc l a 'V»ji 29.000 to 88,000; in Montana from 7,000 to 15,000. In Nebraska the Democrats and Populists polled 83,000 votes in 1892. but this year the Populists alone polled 80,000. In Ohio the Populist vote increased from 15,000 to 49,000, and in Wisconsin, a state which the Democrats hoped they had won permanently, from 10,000 to 27,000. This increase means for one thing that in the west and South the people are dissatisfied with both the old parties. They have turned from the Republican to the Democratic party without obtaining relief. They believed the promises made them by the Dmocratic party only to find them broken through incompetent leadership, which was taken advantage of by Gorman, Brice and Smith. And they cannot be won back until Democracy’s leaders and candidates are a guarantee that its pledges will be redeemed. In the meantime, Populism musi be recognized as a serious factor in American politics.