Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1904 — POLITICAL COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL COMMENT.

Plan of Campaign.

It seems to be a settled fact that the tariff will form the principal issue in the campaign of 1904. The issue will, however, be presented in a somewhat altered form. Not again, we think, will the country be asked this year to decide between protection and free trade. Evidences abound that the Democratic party is not going to repeat the blunders of past platforms by denouncing protection as a robbery and a crime, a scheme of organized plunder whereby the few are enriched at the expense of the many. In the past eight years something has been learned by the party of which it has been said that it never learns and never forgets. It has been discovered, among other things, that the sentiment of a large majority of the voting masses is favorable to the general proposition that it is a wise thing to conserve and maintain an internal trade amounting to thirty billion dollars annually, and that it is an unwise thing to give to foreigners privileges and opportunities in this vast market that will curtail domestic production, employment and wages. Realizing the folly of attempting to overturn a fiscal system whose fruits have so strongly commended them-

selves to popular approval, the Democrats will not, presumably,, antagonize protection to the extent of calling for a repeal of all tariff duties levied for protective purposes. They will not undertake to storm the citadel and carry it by open assault. To do that would be to rush to certain defeat and disaster. In their plan of campaign for 1904 they will resort to strategy and indirect methods of attack. They will adopt the underground approach, and by the tactics of the sappers and miners will endeavor to weaken the wall in spots, not to destroy ft all at one blow. To proclaim the abuses of protection will be one of their biggest mines, one of their highest explosives. They will point to the trusts and demand that these aggregations of industrial production be forthwith deprived of all the benefits of protection. This they are sure to do in spite of the fact that the same torpedo that blows up the trusts will inflict far greater damage and destruction upon that very Important part of our production which is wholly outside of trust eontiol. But they will have smashed domestic industry and over the market to foreigners. Another underground passage to the. base of protection's wulls will l;e chosen by the Democrats in the shape of a general scheme of reciprocity in competitive products. This strategical mode of ussault has gained great favor with the Democratic tacticians. By Itt employment they expect to gain some reinforcements through de-ertions from Republican ranks. In this they will probably be disappointed, but they are quite certain to try it. If, as now seems certain, the Democratic plan of campaign for 1901 is to embrace tariff reduction as a means of dealingwith the trusts, and tariff reduction througli reciprocity arrangements as a means of insuring nn Increased in flow of foreign competitive products, it should follow, and we think It will follow, ns a matter of course, that the Republican plnn will be to meet tbe issue squarely by refusing to smash the protective tariff because of the trusts and by refusing to. countenance free trade ori the Installment plan by providing for reciprocity in competitive products. Republicans know that tlae best way to keep protection is to fight for it. They know, too, that nil tbe advantages of position are theirs, and that in the facts of tbe past seven rears of prosperity tbe best weapons

and the most effective ammunition are in their possession. Retaining these advantages and making good use of them, they cannot fail to win the fight. —American Economist. It Can He Hone. Under protection more than sixty countries are being supplied with American shoes. And yet some people still believe, or affect to believe, that such things can’t Jbe until “the wall of protection” is torn down. —Burlington Hawk-Eye. In Harmony. Congressman Dalzell’s conception of reciprocity is in perfect harmony with that expressed by President Roosevelt and in which the American people thoroughly believe. It is the only kind of reciprocity which American citizens want. —Ottumwa (la.) Courier. A Solemn Joke. The Minneapolis Tribune, voicing the views of the millers, the railroads and the jobbers, is disgruntled at the platform declaration of the Republican State convention regarding tariff aud reciprocity. “The reciprocity plank,” says the Tribune, “is a solemn joke.” It certainly is a joke, and a rather

solemn one, on the wide-open reciprocitarian Interests for whom the Tribune speaks. These interests have for the past two years been scheming to open the door to 'the unrestricted competition of Canada's natural products. They were turned down at the convention, just as they deserved to be. If they want wide-open reciprocity with Canada, of course they cannot consistently refuse to co-operate with those who want wide-open reciprocity with pretty much all the rest of the world. They went to the wrong place to look for aid and comfort. They would probably fare better at a Democratic convention. • _ lowa*ft Feelinjc* lowa is not going to the national convention with the demand that the flag of protection to American industries and American labor be hauled down. —Manchester (la.) Press.