Mr. Stearms' Speech

Willard Stearns pleaded for votes before a large audience in Ann Arbor, Tuesday evening. It is to be presumed that he put his best foot forward, and henee it is well to consider the main features of this would be congressman's speech. The most striking thing about the effort is the fearful contradictions itinvolved. He disclaimed any desire to bring about free trade, yet all his arguments were free trade arguments. They were all about the evils of the present tariff, and the benefits to be derived from sweeping away the "tariff restrictions." Mr. Stearns distinctly stated that the Democratie party believed in a revenue for tariflf only and yet was not a free trade party. He was guilty of a miserable shifting about the meaning of terms. As the terms are commonly used to day free trade and tariff for revenue only are the same. They are the opposite of the protection policy of the Republican party. Absolute free traders who would du away with custom houses entirely are not numeroua. Henee when Mr. Stearns says that the Democratie party is not for free trade he simply attempts to mislead. He declared that the policy of the Demócrata was not to remove the duties entirely and thus injure industry. In saying this he contradicted himself again ; for repeatedly in his speech he tried to show that placing articles on the free list would benefit their producers. He declared that if he owned all the sheep in the countiy he would still want wool on the free list, and yet he wouldn't lower duties sufficient to injure any business. Mr. Stearns would have the tariff rates lowered, he says, just a little, enough to prevent an annual surplus. But the congress that can do this must have infinite wisdom. It is a familiar fact in history that the lowering of duties slightly does not have the tendency to reduce the revenue. On the contrary it has often had the opposite effect, and English premiers have taken advantage of this fact to increase the English rev enues by a slight reduction of the tar riff rates. Mr. Stearns had a good deal to say about the workmen in unproteeted employments, as thoughwhat tended to give employment to part would not tend to help all.