Wheeling Register

PUCK'S COMMENTS:
TARIFF REFORM--WHAT IT PROPOSES AND WHAT IT IS.
Misrepresentation the Only Weapon Against it-A Reduction of 7 Per Cent.-Some Pertinent Questions and Answers.
Puck.
The noisy man who is fighting for the war-tariff has but one weapon, and that is misrepresentation; but one way of using it--by shouting. Now, to have to talk reason and common-sense; to have to appeal to the intelligence and common-sense of your hearers against an opponent whose only reply is vociferous abuse, and who never stops to think whether he is or is not telling the truth-this is certainly a task that tries the temper. It is not a difficult thing to prove to an intelligent nation that over-taxation is a burden to any people; and the man who preaches this simple doctrine, knowing that he speaks the truth, need not fear any attempt to confute him by logical argument. Yet he may well be annoyed if, while he is talking, another man, who is interested in keeping the people over-taxed, assails him, not with arguments but with abuse, denouncing him as the enemy of the workingman-the emissary of the Cobden Club, a conspirator sworn to destroy his country, and a subsidized annihilator of the industries of the nation. This sort of thing is annoying, not because it has any justification in truth or reason; but because it is an impertinent and insincere interruption, instead of being a frank and honorable rejoinder.
This sort of thing, however, the Republican party has chosen by way of tactics for this campaign. It is the choice of desperation. It has no chance of success that we can see, unless the clamor of calumny is strong enough to drown the voice of reason and common sense. But, all the same, it is offensive and brutal; it is designed to annoy and confuse; and in some instances, no doubt, it accomplishes its purpose.
Mud-slinging is contemptible enough; but it is not every man at whom mud is slung who realizes this truth at the moment of the mud-slinging. For the benefit of those who find fair argument met with foul abuse, we offer a few memoranda which may not come amiss. This battle, for fair taxation and honest government, is ours--and we must not forget that the right is the side that wins, by right.
I.--Let us not forget, first of all, that there can not be one honest, sincere, reasonable argument against a fair and equitable reduction of our present tariff.
II -All that we propose-all that anybody has ever proposed, or thought of proposing-is a fair and equitable reduction of the tariff.
III -The reduction proposed (by the Mills bill) is a reduction of about 7 per cent. on a tariff which averages 47 per cent. of duty.
IV.-This is not Free-Trade.
V.-This does not "mean" Free-Trade
VI.-A 7-per-cent. reduction on a 47-per-cent. tariff is no more like Free-Trade than washing your face is like drowning yourself.
VII.—"Free-Trade" is not a phrase which should frighten any believer in tariff reform, If Free-Trade pays this country better than Protection, Free-Trade will be the policy of the country.
But this is a question which will probably interest another generation more than it can interest us. We are trying to reform an antiquated tariff so as to meet the needs of the citizens of the present day.
VIII.-A lie is born unhealthy. It is easy to tell the workingman that over-taxing his food, fuel and clothing puts money into his pocket; but it is not easy to bring proof of this assertion. if he begins to ask pertinent questions.
IX-The workingman is beginning to ask questions. You who believe in tariff reform have only to tell him the truth.
Your opponents have got to conceal the truth from him. You have the advantage.
X -If the workingman asks you whether wages are not lower in England, where there is no protective tariff, than they are here, tell him they are lower there. Tell him also that the cost of living is lower, and that a day's work there is about two-thirds of a day's work here.
XI.-Tell him also that the wages in Germany, where there is a protective tariff are still lower, far lower, than in England.
XII --Tell him, moreover, that the rate of wages is influenced very little, practically not at all, by the tariff or the lack of a tariff. There is one thing, and one thing only, that keeps wages down in Great Britain and Germany-the overplus of laborers. He can convince himself of this by observing the number of the emigrants who come to this country.
XIII -. Point out to him that if these emigrants keep on coming the rate of wages will go down here as it has gone down in Europe.
XiV.-Point out to him furthermore that if a heavy tax is levied on foreign raw materials and foreign manufactures, while no tax is levied on foreign labor, the American workingman stands a poor chance of getting employment.
XV.—"Protection" is said to protect the laborer. But the miner in protected Pennsylvania gets 65 cents a day, and the unprotected carpenter gets from $2.50 upward. Let the laborer consider this little paradox, and compare the case of the protected woolen-mill hands with the unprotected house painters, and the protected iron puddlers with the unprotected railroad engineers. He can figure out for himself which is the better off of either pair
X VI.-If, when you tell the truth about these matters, anybody calls you an emissary of the Cobden Club, ask him if he knows what the Cobden Club is, where it lives and what it does.
XVII.--If any man tells you that he honestly thinks that England will be benefited by a reduction of the American tariff, ask him "How?" Why? and wherefore?
England lives on her foreign trade; if we induce foreigners to trade with us we take her business away.
XVII.--England has most of the immense trade of the South American States.
We ought to have it. We could have it, if we would let the South Americans sell their goods in our market.
X1X.-If the tariff permitted South America to send her goods here, we could export our goods in return, and double the foreign market for American manufactures. She ships raw materials--rubber, coffee, hides, etc. And buys manufactures-machinery, clothing, tools, furniture. She deals with England, because our tariff shuts her out.
XX -You will not find it hard to show that 'trusts'—combinations of manufacturers to raise the price of goods to consumers—are not "private affairs, with which neither President Cleveland nor any private citizen has any particular right to interfere." (James G Blaine )
It is well to remember the truths that are here suggested, and to remember how much more important, how much more effective, how much more powerful they are than all the, shifting and quibbling and lying which the other side can oppose to them. Let us not for a moment accept the monstrous idea that falsehood can have the inherent strength of truth.
When the managers of the Republican party issued their "tract" comparing English with American wages, the New York Evening Post exhibited that tract's absurdity, as a campaign document, in a dozen words. How, it asked, could a 47 per cent tariff make a difference of from 200 to 400 per cent in the wages of the laborer?
There was no answer: with the lie goes the truth to shame it. So we shall find it as we make the whole question of tariff reform clearer to the people. "If we do not make a problem," says Professor Sumner, "there will not be any."
Our task is simple. We have only to tell the truth.
While we get no better answer than false statements, we can safely leave them to work their own destruction.
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