One hundred years ago
PRESIDENT Cleveland and Mr. Harri- son, the two candidates for the Amer- ican Presidency, repeat their program- mes in letters accepting nomination. Their main topic is, of course, the high tariff, which Mr. Cleveland describes as a burden on the workman, and Mr. Harrison as a protection for his wages. Neither, it should be noted, directly addresses the real majority, both speak- ing always of the workman, and not of the freeholder. Both repudiate the Chinese and denounce pauper immigra- tion, and Mr. Cleveland seems hostile to immigration in the abstract, which he declares compels citizens to accept "wages which ought not to satisfy those who claim American citizenship." The exclusion of immigrants will in a few years be the most serious of Amer- ican questions; but at present Mr. Cleveland directs his heaviest battery at the "Rings," or, as he calls them, "Trusts," the combinations of capitalists who monopolise products, like anthra- cite coal, petroleum, whisky and sugar. "The Democratic Party," says the Presi- dent, "regard Trusts with unutterable hatred," — an unusually strong phrase from a reserved man.
The Spectator, 15 September 1888
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