Tariff And Prosperity

Immediately af ter the St. Louis convention, where a large number of delegates bolted on account of Tom Platt's gold plank, the republican leaders announced that the tariff would be the issue. Soon after the hicago convenüon they discovered integrity of the natión" was the issue and after discussing that question for about six weeks t lias dawned upon them that they have the short end of that issue, and tiiey have returned to their old cry "tariff and prosperity," which has been their watch word for that the money and the "honor and a generation. But the people have Dot ehanged front. They are still of the opinión that the question of our tnonetary basis outranks all others. Tliey know that they have had the tariff since 1862, and that during all these years their prosperity has slowly faded away as the appreciation of gold has increased the value of money. They are now awake to the fact that it is the volume ot money, and not the percentage of protection in the tariff, that determines the condition of business. They know that the tariff may be removed altogether, and every custom house that now stands as a barrier to trade be razed to theground, or that the tariff wall may be raised so high that Dot a pound of merchandise can be landed upon our shores, and yet the men who control the flnancial policy will shape its industrial future and can make or unmake the country's prosperity as best suits their individual ends. Knowing these things, thinking people have eome to the conclusión that the minor question of how high a rate of protection this or that article shall receive, can safely be laid aside until the power to control the money of the country is wrested from the hands of Wall street