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The Commoner.
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4!
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The Commoner,
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob.
PEELING ins OWN PULSE
Mr. Roosevelt's ludicrous mistake as to the
demand for his nomination reminds one of the
physician who visited an aged lady patient while
ho was under the influence of liquor. He ex
amined her tongue and then felt her pulse.
Scarcely had he touched her pulse when he ex
claimed, VMadam, you are intoxicated!" "I
never tasted liquor in my life," she indignantly
replied. "You are intoxicated," the doctor in
sisted: "Your pulse showB It." "Doctor," she
rejoined, "if you will investigate you will find
that you are feeling your own pulse."
Mr. Roosevelt has been feeling his own pulse
and, of course, he found a demand for his nomi
nation a throbbing demand.
If the present campaign does nothing else
it will convince the public that the democrats
under estimated rather than over estimated the
pernicious influonce oxerted upon republican
presidents by the enormous contributions secret
ly made by the privilege-hunting class.
. Mr. Morgan has won for himself a place in
the republican hall of fame by the enormous
contributions he has made in behalf of the re
publican candidates who are willing to con
tinue tho system of grand larceny now prac
ticed by trust magnates like Morgan.
A school boy wrote an essay telling how a little
boy made friends with a goat. One day. when
the boy was sitting on the river bank the goat
butted him into tho stream and ho drowned
Question, which is the goat, Mr. Taft or Mr.
Roosevelt, or both?
Mr. Roosevelt says that his friends are
idealists. How he must have appreciated such'
idealists as Archbold, Harrlman, Morgan, Frick
and Gould when he needed campaign contributions.
If Mr. Roosevelt stands now where ho has
stood In the past he is still on tho Wall street
sldo. If he has changed, why doesn't he ad
mit that he was on the wrong side when Wall
street made him vice president and president.
If Mr, Taft and Mr. Roosevelt represent the
"Beauty and tho Beast," it will be hard to tell
which Is which after examining the campaign
contributions made by the trusts in their behalf.
Wonder if Mr. Roosevelt would have walked
Into the steel trust trap aB meekly as ho did
if Mr. Morgan had forgotten to bait him with
that campaign contribution of $100,000?
mm m
Mr. Taft Is having his laugh now. He can
understand why he has been repudiated by the
public when he sees how Roosevelt led him Into
the jungles of Wall street.
Governor Wilson. is more than justifying the
hopes of his friends. He gains strength daily.
That "Difference m Cost of Production"
The republican platform of 1908, contained
this plank with reference to the proper method
of tariff-making: "The true principle of protec
tion is best maintained by the impojing of such
duties as will equal the difference between the
cost of production at home and abroad, together
with a reasonable profit to American industries."
President Taft, in his Topeka speech, made dur
ing tho campaign, accepted this as the true
measure, when he said: "All industries that
need protection shall be protected by a tax
equal to the difference between the cost of pro
duction here and abroad." The chief elements
entering into the cost of production are the cost
of material, the cost of labor and the interest
on capital. The first element enters but very
little into the computation of the proper tariff
duty for tho reason that in the purchase of raw
materials for manufacturing the various nations
stand much upon the same level, some below
that of tho United States and some above it.
Interest rates vary little, not enough to make
any appreciable difference. The whole question,
therefore, ranges around the difference in labor
cost.
There are fourteen schedules in the tariff law.
The principal ones cover silk, cotton, wool,
lumber, paper, steel and sugar. Of these only
in the case of silk and wool does the produc
tion cost at home exceed that abroad. In steel,
sugar, paper and lumber the production costs in
the United StateB are lower than abroad, while
in the case of cotton it Ib practically a standoff,
the cost of spinning being more here and of
weaving less than abroad. In the case of silk
the reason lies in the fact that the principal
manufacturing competition is in oriental coun
tries, where labor is very cheap. In the case
of wool there is a large mass of testimony of
decidedly contradictory character, but there is
plenty of testimony to substantiate the claim
that the difference, when the actual work done
by each laborer, machine for machine, is not
very largo. There Is no doubt but that the
American standard of wages is the highest in
the world, but the difference in the daily wage
is not the difference in labor cost.
The truth is undisputed that American mills
are better equipped, better managed and better
organized, and that because of the superior In
telligence and industry that comes from living
under American conditions, the difference in
amount of work done often more than equals the
higher dally wage. Here is the testimony of
Charles M. Schwab, one time president of the
steel trust: "I know that American laborers can
produce more steel in a given time than any
other workmen in the world. I know that they
can put out better steel than any others. The
Americans are tho best workmen on earth, and
I have been in contact with labor for years and
know what it can do. The highest paid labor is
the cheapest to the employer. The man that is
employed at a cheap wage and goes slowly and
makes blunders can not compete with the man
that thoroughly understands his business and
produces good material." Yet the duties on
steel and steel products run all the way from
7 to 85 per cent of the value of the article pro
duced, and runs through a wide range of
articles of every day use. The republican party,
in arranging the steel tariff, completely ignored
this known fact. It did not apply "the prin
ciple of protection" as defined in its own plat
Here is what the president's own tariff board
says about costs in cotton manufacturing "In
the caBe of a large variety of plain goods the
labor cost of turning yarn into cloth in the
United States is not greater, and In some cases
Is lower, than in England. For cloths woven
on automatic looms this is especially true " Yet
the cotton schedule of the present tariff law
carries average duties of 60 per cent of the
value of each article, and runB as high as 88 per
cont on some of the many articles In that
schedule. The testimony tefore the house com
mittee on ways and means with respect to the
lumber industry was to the effect that the labor
cost was higher in most Canadian mills than In
American mills, with equal labor efficiency
Senator Brown (rep.,) in his speech on the
paper schedule said the testimony showed no
difference In tho labor cost compared with
Canada, our only competitor, and quoted the
American consul at Quebec as reporting
"Labor In the Canadian paper mill is
as in the United tates, yes, oftentimes even
higher' vta
Claus A. Spreckles, the best known sugar re.
finer in the country who 1b not interested b the
trust, testified before the house committee- "we
are refining sugar as cheaply as they are in
foreign countries. The greater efficiency of the
labor and tho larger scale on which the business
is done in this country offsets any difference in
cost of labor. I would prefer absolute free trade
to the present schedule, under which the sugar
trust is the principal beneficiary." Yet the sugar
duty is 36 per cent.
Senator Burton of Ohio, who is defending tho
Payne-Aldrich tariff law in campaign speeches,
admits that the average duty collected under
that law is 41.4 per cent. The United States
census figures give the total labor cost of all
manufacturing industries at 22 per cent. "The
true principle of protection,'.' said the republi
can platform and President Taft, "is best main
tained by the Imposing of such duties as will
equal the difference between the cost of pro
tection at home and abroad, together with a
reasonable profit to American industries." If
the total labor cost in America is 22 per cent
and the average tariff duty is 41.4 per cent, then
the republican tariff-makers must figure that the
reasonable profit the American manufacturer
should have is 19.4 per cent, or almost as much
as tho amount paid out to labor in producing
those articles of manufacture. C. Q. D.
EDWARD P. DUNNE
Commoner readers are familiar with the name
of Edward F. Dunne. The Commoner has taken
occasion many times to pay deserved tribute to
this stalwart democrat. As an Illinois judge
and as mayor of Chicago he showed himself
faithful to public trust. As a citizen he has been
foremost in every movement for the public good;
as an individual he has won the affection of all
hiB acquaintances. Judge Dunne is now the
democratic nominee for governor of Illinois. He
ought to be elected by a large majority. Re
publicans as well as men of all other parties
ought to vote for Judge Dunne, for he will dedi
cate his highest efforts to the public service.
WARREN WORTH BAILEY
Warren Worth Bailey, editor of the Johnstown
Democrat, is the democratic nominee for con
gress in the Nineteenth Pennsylvania district
Mr. Bailey has been a power for good, not only
through his great paper, the Johntown Demo
crat, which has a national circulation, but in his
capacity as an individual. The people of tho
Nineteenth Pennsylvania district will honor
themselves by honoring Bailey. He will be one
of the most faithful members of the house of
representatives.
THE HYMN OP WHERE-WE-GET-ON
By Thomas Speed Mosby (with humble apologies
to George SJyvester Viereck.)
The apopleptic thunders roll out of the crim
son East,
The Day of Juggling is at hand, and we shall
play the Beast.
What are the forty heads of him why can not
we be plain?
Perkins, Morgan. Rockefeller and others still
unslain.
Into what cities leads his trail, in venom and
baled hay?
Ask 'Frisco, ask Chicago, mark New York and
Oyster Bay.
"Where shall we wage the battle, for whom un-
slieath the sword?
We stand where'er we get on and we battle
for our board.
Like hell we'll snort our snarling boast, we Bhall
not flinch nor quail.
Although In this great skirmish they may rido
ua on a rail.
Have they not seen tho writings that flame upon
the wall?
The writings true of Archbold, of Harriman
and all? s
The little lads coughed up where never sun
sheds light, .
But never mind the sobbing it's all down m
black and white.
These are the votes we carry yes, we do, upon
my word! . ,tfl
For we stand where'er we get on, and we oaiu
lor our hoard, .
.iLouisvin (Ky.) Journal. ,
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