Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1888 — Missouri Aroused. [ARTICLE]

Missouri Aroused.

Globe- Democrat. Intelligence which we havb received from various parts of the State shows that Missouri is aroused as it had not been before in many years in a Presidential canvassA In every county from the Mississippi River to the Kansas border, and from the lowa boundary to the Arkansas line, the voters of the State are weighing party poficies and discussing political issues with an earnestness and interest such as has not been felt to in any electoral campaign since the close of the war. The interest is particularly great in the manufacturing localities, like the ninth and part of the eighth and tenth Congressional districts, comprising the city of St. Louis, as wgll as in the iron and lead producing regions of the tenth and thirteenth

tricts, and the great wool-growing area throughout western and southern Missouri. ■!:_ There are especial reasons why the residents of the manufacturing and lead' and’Wool producing regions of the Btateshould feel an interest in the political issues of the present canvass. The Democratic party is now making the most desperate and malignant assault on American industries which it has attempted in many years. That party, in the Mills 'bill, proposes' to, reduce the duties on many kinds of- •tftamtt'ac.ures, as -well as on lead, and to put over fifty important articles, including wool, on the free list. St. Louis has grown to be one of -the great manufacturing centers of the country, witile in lead and wool production few states stand ahead of Missouri. It is entirely safe to say that every one of the 114 counties of the State would be affected injuriously, to a greater or less extont,>bv the passage of the Mills hill, and the people are aware of this fact. - The' interest which ds being felt in politic.* throughout Alissouri at present is telling favorably on the fortunes of the Republican organization. Seldom in all its history has the party in the State been so harmonious, enthusiastic alhd confident as it is ait this moment. There will be no disaffection or sulking this year. Every Republican vote will be cast for the State and National tickets. The mischievous and utterly un-American policy of the Democracy has obliterated all factional lines in the Republican organization and made the party soikL It has done more than this. It has repelled thousands of men who have heretofore always voted the Democratic ticket, and driven them into the Republican ranks. The movement from the Democracy to the Republican party in the past few weeks has been quiet but widespread and important. It has weakened the Democratic line in every section of the State. Thousands of men will vote for Kimball and Harrison this year who have hitherto been among the stanchest and most earnest supporters of the Democratic ticket. A careful survey of the political field in this State will show' that there is a strong probability that the electoral vote of Missouri will be given to the Republican part}' this year.

. DEMOCRACY MEANS FREE TRADE. “Those who buy imports pay the duty charged thereon into the public Treasury but the great minority of our citizens who buy domestic articles of the same class pay a sum at least approximately equal to this duty to the home manufacturer. This reference to the operation of our tariff laws is not made by way of instruction, but in order that we may be constantly reminded of the manner in which they impose a burden upon those who consume domestic products, as well as those who consume imported articles and thus create a tax upon all onr people.”—President’s mes sage. __ The statement that 'ptfrcliasers of American manufactures “pay a sum at least approximately equal to the duty” on the imported articles is so preposterous that no Democrat in the House, except Air. Cox, has seriously attempted to defend it. • A protective tariff" lias steadily reduced prices in every branch of manufacture. The President can find no support in comparative price-lists of 1860 and 1888 for Ids extravagant assertion. It is one of the crudest applications of free-trade theories to American economic experience. These sentences from the message suffice to establish the President’s reputation as a free trade jiagfriatist. T :r _

“In his message to Congress President Cleveland struck the key-note of future prosperity and sounded the deatli-knell of a robber protective tariff by which The -manufacturer is made richer and the grand army of laboring people reduced year by year to poverty and almost starvation A system of protection which protects the few at the expense of the many is a species of class legislation which is a b bump on the fair name of American liberty, . .-. ... 1 am opposed to the protection policy of our Government.”—("William ELMartin, Dem., Texks, tariff debate May 8. This is the enthusiastic way in which out-spoken free-trade Democrats have received the President’s message. Yet Americans are asked to believe that there are no Free Traders in the House of Representatives and no free-trade doctrines in the message! “The tariff reform which the President recommends goes as far at least as the abolition or reduction of the duties on raw materials. Should Congress give effect jo this proposal its immediate result would be an enormous stimulus to English industry. Iron, though a product of manufacture, is in one sense a raw material, and the removal of the duties bh irou would stimulate the iron industry in this jeountry*. ... The abolition. Jbf. the duty on wool, which the President mentions, would also probably lead to a great export of wool to America and a considerable rise in the price of that commodity. The first effect of the adoption of the President’s policy would be a great increase in our trade with the United States.”—People’s Journal, Dundee. Scotland, Dec, 10. . This wide-awake Scotch journal declared that the prospect of the changes recommfnded by the President had “diffused fresh hope throughout business circles” in Dundee;aud then it added that free wool would lead to a great export trade and that the policy of reducing the duties on raw materials would have a most beneficial effect on English manufacturing interests. These premonitions of prosperity for British industrial interests should suffice to warn Americans that the „ President and his party are promoting the business! funds of foreigners.

The absolute dictatorship which President Cleveland lias established over the members of his party is beginning to be recognized throughout the country as one of the mast remarkable features of American -political history. An old politician said last night: “Cleveland cracks the whip over the members of jiis party as much as the old slaveholders used" to ply the lash on their slaves. The worst of it for the country is that the Democratic party acknowledges and likes such bossism. In private and behind his back they snap and snarl and growl at Cleveland like a band of disgruntled curs. But the minute heraises his , finger they all crouch down in silence. They have no courage whatever to oppose him, and ther servility is abject.” J- H. Manley, of Marne, in talking upon the same tojnc, said that the power of Presidential patronage was (

enormoiM. “Years ago,” said he, i4 I remember being on the floor of the House with Mr! Biaine. in the presence of. Thaddeus Stevens, when the great Republican leader was told that some member who had been up to the White House had shown improper intentions in reference to certain measures then pending. ‘Old Thad’s’ eyes fiaslred fire as he-remarked that it seemed possible for the warpath of Presidential patronage to melt the marrow in the strongest ‘ backbone that God fiver made. is a condition that, confronted us, . not a theory. We have had protection in 1789, 1812, 1828, 1842, and from 1861 to date. AVe have had free trade or low tariff in 1783, 1806, 1832, 1846 and 1t57. The unvarying results have been: UNDER PROTECTION, j UNDER FREE TRADE. Great demand for; Laboreverywhere labor. seeking emplo yAVages high and ment. money cheap, j Wages low ami. Public and private;money high, revenues large andj Public and private steadily increasing.irevenues small and General prosperi-steadily decreasing, ty and activity of Pqblic and private private and public bankruptcy nearly enterprise. [universal. Growing national Growing national independence. dependence.