Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1888 — Page 4 Advertisements Column 1 [ADVERTISEMENT]

nmiorracy Dcflunl. TMr omiiuU upon our protective system in nprn nut! deJliiKl. Protection in uftKtiiiril an unconntihitiovpl in lair, or as ricioHs in principle, and those irho hold such ririrk sincerely cannot atop short of an absolute elimination from our tariff bajfm of the ptiuiiple of protection, Thf. Mills hill is only a step, hut it is toward an object thf*t‘ the leaders of Democratic , lit oily h( tmd legislation hare dearly in mind. The important, question is not so much the length of the step as the direction of if.—General Harrison’s LetTk«- ’ A Danger Sl|nal —Democracy Means Free Trade. Judged by the Executive message of December last, by the Mills bill, by the d< hates in Congress, uud by the St. Louis platform, the Democratic party mill, if supported by the country, place the tariff lairs upon a purely revenue basis. This is practical free trade—free trade in the English sense. The legend upon the bunnrr may iced be "free trade;” it may be the more obscure motto, “ Tariff reform ;* but neither the banner nor the inscription is conclusive, nor, indeed, very important. The assault itself is the impor'ant fact.— Harrison’s Letter. Taxes and the Surplus. The fact of a Treasury surplus, the amount of which is variously stated, has directed public attention to d considera—lion nf the methods bp which a national iniomc may best be reduced to the level .nf trine'ami fwresnnrp eapenditdr*. Th&e condition has been seized upon by those i rho arc hostile to protective customs duties as an advantageous base of attack ufmu our tariff iatrs. They hare magnified and nursed the surjdus. which they affiect to deprecate, seemingly for the purpose of exaggerating the evils, in order to reconcile the people to the extreme remedy they propose. A proper reduction of the revenues dors not necessitate, and should not suggest, the abandonment or impairment of the protective system. —GENERAL llarbisok’s Letter of Acceptance.