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The Commoner.
Oct. 17, 190a
THE TRUSTS AND THE FREE LIST
STRONG REPUBLICAN TWTJ
MOtfY Ilf SUPPORT Or THE
KANSAS CITY PLATFORM.
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Tho proposition mado in the Kansas City
platform that "Tariff laws should he amended by
putting the products of trusts upon the free list
to prevent monopoly under the plea of protection,"
-would not provide a complete remedy for all trust
evils. This proposition suggests one of the sev
eral remedies. That it is an important and a
valuable remedy is indicated by tho fact that"
tho trust-magnates vigorously object to its applica
tion. So far as this suggestion applies to tariff
protected trusts it is, indeed, a plausible remedy
and it must appeal to tho intelligence of tho
people.
It is hy no means a new remedy.
Ten years ago' Mr. Bryan, then a member of
congress, introduced in the house a bill providing
for tho removal of tho tariff on the products of
. trusts. Mr. Bryan's bill was introduced May 20,
1892, and yet this proposition was by no means
original with Mr. Bryan.
On October 15, 1888, John Sherman, then a
member of the United States senate, said: "When
ever this free competition is evaded or avoided
' by combination of individuals or corporations, tho
( duty should bo reduced and foreign competition
promptly invited." N
On October 20, 1891, Senator Plumb, republican
of Kansas, delivered a speech against tho McKin
loy tariff. In this speech Sonator Plumb said:
"There are dozens of lines of manufactures cov
ered by the terms of this bill which are controlled
by trusts. I do not know of any better way to
start in trying to reduce tho exactions of trusts
than to cut down tho shelter behind which trusts
' are created."
A great many republican politicians objected
because the Iowa republicans demanded: "Any
modification of the tariff schedules that may be
required to prevent their affording shelter to
monopoly." The tariff trust plank adopted by
the Idaho republican state convention was very
w similar to the one adopted by the Iowa conven
tion; and even in that staid old state, of Connecti
cut, the republican state convention adopted .a plat
form in which it declared? "If in. any schedule
import duties are found that have been notorious
ly perverted from their true purpose to the in
ordinate enrichment of corporations, monopolistic
in fact or in tendency, we look to a republican
congress to apply in its wisdom the needed cor
rective without impairing the principle of pro
tection." Although a great many republican leaders
sneered at these planks, Speaker Henderson, one
of tho most skillful of politicians, discovered that
these sentiments were very dear to the rank and
file of his party. It is strange that republican
leaders did not long ago learn that they could not,
. in safety, advocate a trust-breeding tariff. While
it is true that Mr. Roosevelt and all the other
national leaders of the party insist that the tariff
shall not bo revised, even when it Is discovered
that the tariff provides a shelter for monopoly, it
is true that republican statesmen have gone on
record in favor of the proposition that the tariff
bo removed from trust-made articles whenever it
Is apparent that monopolies find shelter In . the
tariff.
The republican record on this point is a most
Interesting one. Here it is:
The late Governor Mount (republican) of Ind
iana, speaking to the Association of Indiana Hotel
,3Ceepers in December, 1899, said: "I emphatically
favor removing all tariff protection from every
industry that belongs to combinations formed in
restraint of trade."
Ex-Senator Washburn, that distinguished re
publican of Minnesota, in an interview printed in
the New York Tribune of September 11, 1899, said:
"The republican party, whether justly or un
justly, is associated with trusts In the minds of
the masses. As a party we have reached a crisis
where we have got to call a halt Tho republican
party has got to disconnect itself from trusts. It
has got to do something more than 0 adopt plat
form planks against trusts.
"It seems to me, after giving the matter a
great deal of thought, that the republicans in con
gress will have to examine the subject thoroughly;
and, whenever they find a trust is depending for
its exorbitant proflta largely on protective duties,
it will be the duty of republican congressmen and
senators to remove the diitles at once. We cannot"
Btop short of that The 'duties must be repealed
when it is shown that tho trusts aro benefiting by
them. This should bo dono with tho duty on Btecl
rails and on tin plato."
It will bo remembered that sovoral years ago,
when tho white paper trust was bearing heavily
upon tho consumers, republican papers joined tho
democratic papers in demanding that tho plan
recommended by tho Kansas City platform bo ap
plied as protection to the paper consumers.
Tho Chicago Times-Herald, a republican paper,
in an issuo in March, 1899, said:
"Most certainly it should bo tho duty of con
gress, In both branches of which the republicans
have a majority, to abolish or suspend the pro
tective duty on tho products of any industry which
has been organized into a trust, and which has
arbitrarily raised tho prices of such products."
The Minneapolis Journal, a republican paper,
commenting upon Senator Washburn's speech, in
its issuo of October 2, 1899, said:
"Tho senator is so eminently correct In his
position that tariff duties which enable tniBts or
any other kind of monopolies to raise prices above
tho point at which they could otherwise bo. main
tained should be lowered in the public interest,
that we must range ourselves besldo him on that
proposition."
Tho New York Commercial Advertiser,. a re
publican paper, in an issuo printed in tho fall of
1899, said:
"The time will soon come when public opinion
will no more tolerate protective duties on trust
products; for protection should logically promote
homo competition, while trust organization de
stroys 'It"
The Portland Oregonian, a republican paper,
in an issue printed in March, 1900, said:
"Because the paper trust has put up tho price
of printing paper to unconscionable figures, Repre
sentative Devrics of California has introduced a
bill to repeal the duty on printing paper and tho
material of which it Is made. It is very well;
but there are about forty more big trusts that have
been helped through protective tariff, and should bo
dealt with tho same way."
The Hartford Courant, a republican paper,
commenting upon the republican president's mes
sage, in an issue printed in December, 1899, de
clared that the president should have closed his
trust discussion in his message "with a straight-from-the-shoulder
recommendation for the imme
diate repeal of any and every protective customs
duty behind which a price-raising monopoly is
squatted."
The Dubuque (la.) Times, a republican paper,
in its issue of January 20, 1900, said:
"The paper tru3t is making hay while the sun
shines. The simple remedy lies In the repeal of tho
tariff used to suppress competition and to rob the
publishers, and through tuem the public. Con
gress should lose no time In wiping it off tho
leading statute books, and should not stop until
every other duty which operates to suppress com
petition or enhance the .aluo of tho bounties of
nature in private hands Is repealed."
The Philadelphia Ledger, a republican paper,
in an issue printed in February, 1899, said:
"What Is imperatively required is a revision of
the tariff such as will modify tho rates, or, better
still, place upon tho free list all foreign goods,
whether raw material or finished product, that
are the subject cf domestic monopoly."
The St Paul Pioneer Press, a republican paper,
in an Issue printed In April, 1900, said:
"The wholo list of protected monopolies ought
to be brought within the purview of a tariff reform
which would enable foreign competition to put a
limit on their ability to raise prices."
The Rockford (111.) Republican, a republican
paper, in its issue of January 29, 1900, said:
"At a meeting a few days ago at Denver tho
Colorado Editorial association adopted resolutions
demanding the repeal of the tariff on wood pulp
and all other materials entering into the manufac
ture of print paper. There are many other trusts
Intrenched securely behind tariff duties, which
shut out foreign competition and enable American
monopolies to rob consuiner. Tbere skould be a
sweeping repeal of protection, wklch. 1 madt the
opportunity of sack merciless exactions as the
print paper trust has laid on the newspaper of
the United whites."
Tho Republican club of Harvard university on
Wednesday, May 1C, i. j0, adopted a platform ap
proving various measures, among them the fol
lowing: "Publicity of tho affairs of trust and re
moval of all duty on commodities controlled by
trusts."
Tho Keokuk (la.) Gate City, a republican pa
per, In its Issue of January 30, 1WtO, said:
"Bocauso of present Injustice, the protective
system In America will perish unless It Is divorced
whcilv and completely as an Instrument of power
of tlieso combination robbers and made an agency
that r.hall senc ah tho American people."
Tho Indianapolis News, a republican paper,
in an Ibsua printed in May, 1899, said:
"With the formation of trusts controlling al
most ovo'ythlng in use, there arises the fair ques
tion why, after all these years of practical mo
nopoly of tho home market, and now after the
practical cncHrp of domestic competition, should
ihero bo a law tc keep out foreign manufactures?"
Henry O. Haveraoycr, president of the sugar
trust, In a deposition made Juno 14, 1899, said:
"The mother of all trusts is tho customs tariff
bill. It is the government through its tariff laws
which plunders tho people, and the trusts are
merely the machinery for doing it"
In a speech delivered In Wisconsin during the
summer of 1901, Congressman Babcock, chairman
of tho republican congressional committee, said:
"I maintain that It is part of the policy of
protection to protect tho consumer. We can today
produce and undersell tho world. Shall we .con
tinue a tariff on articles that aro, in fact, articles
of export? If congress maintains a tariff on such
articles, tho wholo theory of protection falls to
the ground, and It simply inures to tho benefit of
those who may secure tho control of any such
commodity, since by its aid they can fix exorbitant
prices in the domestic market How can such a
policy be defended?"
In an interview printed in the Washlncrton
Post of September 21, 1901, Congressman Babcock
said:
"One of tho points which Impressed mo of the
desirability of revising tho steel schedule was in
formation I obtained in bcotland of tho placing of
an order for 2j,000 tons of American steel. When
you stop to think that 20,000 tons of steel means
more than 1,000 carloads it will not do to say that
such an order placed abroad by our manufacture
ers is only their surplus product"
In an interview printed in tho Washington
Post of February 4, 1902, Congressman Babcock
said:
"From now on I am going to push the tariff
plan at every possible opportunity. I am going
to tako advantage of every possible opening. The
bill is going to bo pressed every time the smallest
chance offers, and I am not going to let anything
go by. If the bill cer gets before the house It
will pass by three to one, and it will get before the
house. I don't care whether ho (jfayne) takes the
duty off lumber or not Aiat is a threat that
has no terrors for mo. That won't hurt in Wis
consin. Tho people who are going to make trouble
if tho duty is taken off lumber live in Pennsylvania
and Maine, especially the hemlock people In Penn
sylvania. If Mr. Payno makes that threat good
he will bo hurting tho east and not the west No
body out our way Is going to be worried by the
taking off of that duty. It would have been taken,
out of the Dingley tariff when that bill waspassed
if it had been passed by schedules."
The Chicago Times-Herald, a republican paper,
in an issue printed In March, 1899, said:
"Most certainly it should be the duty of con
gress to abolish or suspend the protective duty on
the products of any industry which has been organ
ized Into a trust and which has arbitrarily raised
tho price df such products."