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The Commoner.
JULY 17, 1908
13
rW"in) ,
one act was passed in the Interest of
Labor, or in acknowledgement of its
right to fair and equal treatment.
"The Republicans enacted a tariff
-which enhanced the price of products
that labor had made and capital
owned, and they pretended to do this
-with a view of securing for labor high
er wages. What they gave, however,
was to the capitalist, and they trusted
him to divide. That the increased
profits of protected employers have
made them able to pay the laboring
men higher wages no one can doubt,
but it remains for the saving grace of
Almighty God so to touch their hearts
as to make them willing to pay the
higher wages. Among the contribu
tions that went to make up the monu
ment that this great man, qrover
Cleveland, builded in the respect and
affection of his countrymen few are
more striking than his almost instant
recognition, as evidenced by this act
of 1886, of the sane and just demands
of labor on the law-making power.
Under him Democracy blazed the way
and now remains the unflinching cham
pion of every sound reform in this di
rection. Immunity from law we prom
ise nobody; immunity from oppres
sion, from its very infancy, the Demo
cratic party has been dedicated to es
tablish and secure.
Deceit in Tariff Promise
"The president and his party de
clare that a pre-election revision of
the tariff would be unwise. This as
sertion has been repeated in advance
of every election since the enactment
of the Dingley law, and surely the
country will not again be deceived by
Republican promises to revise the tar
iff after the election. Their appeal to
the people is this: 'Give ua another
chance to make you a promise and the
promise will be made.'
"What does protectionism mean?
"Under the Republican policy of pro
tection, the people, the consumers,
while paying a little over $300,000,000
per year into the treasury through im
port duties on foreign goods, pay be
tween $1,250,000,000 and $1,500,000,
000 a year in the enhanced price of
home-produced goods. Our domestic
manufactures exceed our total imports
hy ten to one, and they are nearly
all protected. It is safe to say that
the people pay at least $5 to the al
ready wealthy beneficiaries of protec
tionism for every $1 that is paid into
the treasury. Behind the wall of high
protection, which in some cases Is
altogether prohibitive, the trusts levy
enormous tribute on the people. This
has amounted to not less than $10,000,
000,000 in the last decade, not
counting the amount paid to support
the government.
Tariff Pnts Money in Coffers of
Trusts
"This money has come from the
pockets of the farmer, the mechanic,
the merchant, the professional
man, and the laborer, and has
been poured into the coffers of the
protected classes.
"More than two-thirds of the capital
that derives benefit from protectionism
belongs to the trusts. The Democrats
will revise the tariff downward and in
the interest of the tax. payers, who are
always forgotten by the Republican
party.
"There must be a revision and a
gradual reduction of the tariff by the
friends of tariff reduction for the com
mon good, and not by the beneficiar
ies of its abuses who justify use of the
impost-taxings power for the chief pur
pose of conferringr privilege and profit
upon the few at the expense of the
many.
"The president liimself has said:
" 'I am of the opinion that one
change in the tariff coulI with advan
tage be made forthwith. Our forests
need every protection and one method
of protecting them would be to put
upon the free list wood pulp, with a
corresponding reduction upon paper
made from wood pulp, when they
come from any country that does not
put an export duty upon them.'
"What was the fruit of this rec
ommendation? In the house a com
mittee was appointed to Investigate
the subject. This was a scheme to
muddy the waters, to placate the news
papers, and to excuse nonaction. The
Republican majority decided to do
nothing. In fact my countrymen, as I
recall it, the only work done by the
great ways and means committee of
the Republican house in the matter
of the revision or reduction of the ad
mittedly unjustifiable tariff was to re
port out a bill to put upon the free
list tea sweepings and tea dust. This is
the sum total of the result of all the
ante-election tariff revision promises
made and repeated in several cam
paigns. "It is the shortest of steps from the
tariff to the trusts. Let it be denied
If they care to deny it, that the tariff
Is the real mother of the trusts.
"The president has made great pre
tense of destroying trusts. Let him
tell of the result.
"In a message delivered to congress
he said:
" 'The department of justice has for
the last four years devoted more at
tention to the enforcement of anti
trust legislation than anything else.
Much has been accomplished ; particu
larly marked has been the moral ef
fect of the prosecutions; but it is
increasingly evident that there will
be a very insufficiently beneficial re
sult in the way of economic change.
The successful prosecution of one de
vice to evade the law immediately de
velops another device to accomplish
the same purpose. What is needed is
not sweeping prohibition of every ar
rangement, good or bad, which tends
to restrict competition, but such ade
quate supervision and regulation as
will prevent any restriction of com
petition from being to the detriment
of the public, as well as such supervi
sion and regulation as will prevent
other abuses in no way connected with
restriction or competition
Privilege and Panic "Under Repub
licans
"This is an admission of failure,
and one does not need to dwell on this
admission further than to say that
the imprisonment of these who viola
ted the law would not have had a more
salutary effect than all that has been
done, or might have been done, in
this direction during his entire admin
istration. "The Democratic party will strike
down special privileges whether grant
ed through a high protective tariff, or
granted to government chartered cor
porations by permission of law. All
trusts owe their birth and their abili
ty to continue existence to one or the
other of these two forms of special
privilege. No private monopoly, no
business approximating private mon
opoly in methods or in magnitude can
endure without one or the other.
"Proceeding at once to a mention
of the Republican party's dealing with
the disturbed finances of the country,
we are brought before the curious leg
islative compound, the Vreeland-Al-drich
bill. The Republican party
boasts of its knowledge of finance.
What have they given us in this law?
"In my opinion it is an accomplished
scheme to enable banks that have
floated questionable enterprises, to di
gest otherwise indigestible securities
by making them the basis of a na
tional circulating medium of exchange.
The future will show whether thisr mis
erable make-shift, part house infamy
and nart senate infamy, as a great Re
publican newspaper has said, will an
swer its purpose. Whatever it may
show in the way of sins of commission
or omisBlon, not only is it the fault of
Republican legislation, but the evil
which It pretends to cure was alto
gether and exclusively the fruit of
Republican legislation. Theirs is the
responsibility for the bill, and theirs
also the responsibility for the condi
tion which led to the enactment of
the law.
Grandstand Plays to Aid "The Heir"
"Thus, my countrymen, In this re
view wo have the spectacle of a presi
dent urging a refractory congress to
pass needed reforms and appealing
in vain, or wo have another spectacle,
that of a president, for the sake of his
own popilarity, or for the sake of the
popularity of his own candidate, 'mak
ing a political play, but urging that
congress do what he must have known
it would not do, and what we are
forced to consider he did not wish
done. The president stands sponsor
for Taft. He desires that the labor
ing man, that those who would have
the government effectively regulate
the railroads, that those who would
revise and reduce the tariff and de
stroy the trusts: these should bollevo
that Taft Is not a reactionary, but a
militant reformer, saturated with his
Ideas and that ho will carry out 'my
policies.' Taft will have to receive
about seven million votes before he
can execute any policy.
"The press has told us, In what
Beemed to be semi-official statements
from the White House, that the presi
dent was so Intent upon his policies
that If congress adjourned without
enacting them into law he would call
an extra session.
"Congress did adjourn, leaving un
passed most of his favored measures,
and the extra session was never called.
If the play results In Republican votes
it will have accomplished its purpose.
If the president desired to have this
legislation the Democrats were ready
to join In its passage. The Democratic
leader of the house, authorized by all
his party associates, repeatedly offered
the entire Democratic strength in sup
port of these measures. The Republi
cans havo less than sixty majority in
the house. If thirty of them had
joined the Democrats, all of theso
measures would have passed there and
gone to a Republican senate. So far
as the house is concerned, less than
one-seventh of the Republicans were
needed to change these recommenda
tions into law. The Republican sup
port was not forthcoming.
Laws Which Might Havo Been
"Let us see what could have been
done if legislation, Instead of party ad
vantage, had been desired.
"If a part of the Republicans had
joined the Democrats in support of
measures proposed by a Republican
president, the power with which some
federal judges have hastily thrown
their authority into the scale against
labor would have been regulated by
law.
"A fair trial in all cases of Indirect
or constructive contempt of court
would now be provided by law.
"Labor would be exempt from the
prohibition of the Sherman law against
combinations.
"Wood pulp and print paper would
now be on the free list, and the pres
ent tax upon Intelligence to that ex
tent abolished.
"No longer would it be In the power
of one federal judge, sitting in cham
bers, hearing evidence, ex parte, upon
the allegations that a state law is con
fiscatory, to suspend it by temporary
injunctions'. A Democratic measure
that passed the senate at the last ses
sion of congress, providing that it
should be accessary for three judges
to act together for the purpose of is
suing such an order, would now be the
law.
"President Roosevelt has constantly
clamored for more law, and lias "fre
quently disregarded laws already on
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