hfully a thought, an emotion, a truth, has found
and restored one of the jewels.

--_Dramatic Mirror_, New York, April 21, 1888.

PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE.

_Question_. Do you take much interest in politics, Colonel
Ingersoll?

_Answer_. I take as much interest in politics as a Republican
ought who expects nothing and who wants nothing for himself. I
want to see this country again controlled by the Republican party.
The present administration has not, in my judgment, the training
and the political intelligence to decide upon the great economic
and financial questions. There are a great many politicians and
but few statesmen. Here, where men have to be elected every two
or six years, there is hardly time for the officials to study
statesmanship--they are busy laying pipes and fixing fences for
the next election. Each one feels much like a monkey at a fair,
on the top of a greased pole, and puts in the most of his time
dodging stones and keeping from falling. I want to see the party
in power best qualified, best equipped, to administer the
Government.

_Question_. What do you think will be the particular issue of the
coming campaign?

_Answer_. That question has already been answered. The great
question will be the tariff. Mr. Cleveland imagines that the
surplus can be gotten rid of by a reduction of the tariff. If the
reduction is so great as to increase the demand for foreign articles,
the probability is that the surplus will be increased. The surplus
can surely be done away with by either of two methods; first make
the tariff prohibitory; second, have no tariff. But if the tariff
is just at that point where the foreign goods could pay it and yet
undersell the American so as to stop home manufactures, then the
surplus would increase.

As a rule we can depend on American competition to keep prices at
a reasonable rate. When that fails we have at all times the
governing power in our hands--that is to say, we can reduce the
tariff. In other words, the tariff is not for the benefit of the
manufacturer--the protection is not for the mechanic or the capitalist
--it is for the whole country. I do not believe in protecting silk
simply to help the town of Paterson, but I am for the protection
of the manufacture, because, in my judgment, it helps the entire
country, and because I know that it has given us a far better
article of silk at a far lower price than we obtained before the
establishment of