Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/557

Rh national prosperity in case the policy advocated by President Cleveland in his tariff message be approved by the people. That this collapse should be brought on by giving our industries what a prudent protective system would always have given them—free raw material—is so absurd in itself that I greatly doubt whether those who make the prediction themselves believe in it. Such a breakdown might follow a sudden and sweeping abolition of all our tariff duties, which I am sure nobody contemplates. I do think, however, that if there is any danger of it, it will be, not in consequence of the Democratic, but of the Republican policy.

Nothing is more apt to produce sudden and strong revulsions in public opinion than a defiantly selfish attitude on the part of a privileged and powerful interest in the community. That “the manufacturers of the United States are most directly benefited by our tariff laws,” that they are “getting practically the sole benefit, or at least the most directly important benefits” of them and that in consequence they “make large fortunes every year when times are prosperous,” profits indeed in some cases exceeding all bounds, is an admission which in unguarded moments will escape Republican leaders. Witness the famous “Fat Circular” of the President of the Republican League. When now those protected interests proclaim through the mouth of the Republican party that they are ready to sacrifice almost anything, and to do almost anything, “rather than surrender any portion of the protective system,” the proclamation has a peculiarly irritating sound. There is something of the insolent recklessness in it which, in the career of grasping power, usually precedes the day of judgment. It reminds one somewhat of Tweed's famous reply to his accusers: “What are you going to do about it?” If this defiant spirit should be encouraged by a Republican victory in this Presidential