Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/120

96 tariff. It is a notorious fact that for not a few of the new tariff rates scarcely any reason could be given, except that they had been asked for; and the demand for them was enforced by the argument that they had been earned.

I shall not discuss the economic, but only the political aspect of the McKinley tariff, which seems to me the most important. As has been truthfully said many a time the natural resources of this country are so enormous that in a sense it may prosper for a long period in spite of any economic system ever so vicious; or, if it suffers, it may speedily recover. The American people can endure being plundered by a favored few in this or any other way a while without danger of permanent injury. But, whether they are plundered—or, as the protectionists say, enriched by this system—what they cannot endure without danger of lasting detriment is the political demoralization which this sort of tariff policy inevitably brings with it. This is pollution of the blood.

Examine the case with care and candor. The Republican party, as the advocate of the protective tariff, is fond of calling itself the champion of American labor. The only pretext for this pretension lies in the fact that the Republican Party by its tariff policy enriches certain employers of labor and then trusts them with being so philanthropic as to pay their workingmen more than the market rate of wages—according to the well-known scheme of benevolence which consists in making the rich richer, so that they can take better care of the poor. In fact, the Republican Party is the champion of the capitalists deriving profit from the tariff duties protecting certain industries. The capital invested in these industries constitutes a gigantic money-power dependent for the magnitude of its profits on legislative favors, and therefore interested in influencing legislation for its own benefit. With this moneyed power, compacted by a