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?yOLUME 0, NUMBER I '
a s The Commoner.
AN OBEDIENT SERVANT OF SPECIAL INTEREST
Tlio fact that it scorns to bo gonorally agreed
that Uioro will bo no tariff rovision at this session
of congress Bhould provido food for thoso repub
licans who, having no ax to grind aro chiefly
concerned in tho public welfare Why aro wo
not to havo tariff revision? Is it because public
intorosts or public sentiment does not domand
It? There is abundant testimony, oven for ono
who does not talto tho democratic view of tho
tariff question, to show that public interests de
mand tariff rovision, whllo tho very oarneBt and
ronowod appeals made by republicans all over
trio country in favor of rovision of tho tariff
ought to convince oven thoso who aro usually
nori'Obspi'vlng that such revision would bo clear
ly Jn Ihirj with present day public sentiment.
Tho republican party must cortainly bo a
well disciplined organization olso the stand
palters of this period would not advance a prop
osition vhich, wo make bold to say, is contro
verted uot only by tho opinion of tho rank and
fllo of lcpublicans but has been publicly re
pudiated by somo of tho most distinguished re
publican statesmen and editors.
In th?o day tho trusts find in ho tni'ltf
larger shelter than they ovor before enjoyed, and
tho American public feels more keenly than at
any other time In history tho impositions duo
to an enormously high protective tariff. Even
tho mon who framod tho present tnrlit law had
no Jdoa that tlio American pooplo would long
tmnoly submit to thoso rates, and we havo it on
tlio authority of Senator Dolliver of Iowa that
Mr. Dlngloy oxplained that many of tho rates
in his tariff bill wero purposely placed high in
ovdor that they might bo used in bringing about
reciprocity with other countries. But now re
publican loaders rofuso to malco any serious
moves In behalf of reciprocity, and at the samo
timo Uioy insist upon maintaining tho exorbitant
rates.
In 1888 John Sherman, then a member of
tho Unltod States sonato, said: "Whenevor this
froo competition is ovaded or avoided by com
bination of individuals or corporations tho duty
should bo reduced and foreign competition
promptly invited."
In 1801 Senator Plumb of Kansns objected
to tlio McKJnloy tariff bill because, as he said:
"Thoro are dozens of lines of manufactures cov
ered by tho terms of this bill, which aro con
trolled by trusts," and Senator Plumb added that
tho best way "to start out trying to reduce tho
exactions of trusts" was to "cut down the shelter
behind which trusts aro created."-
Several years ago the Iowa republican conven
tion and tho Idaho - republican convention
adopted in their platforms planks demanding
"any modification of tho tariff schedules that may
bo required to prevent their affording shelter
to monopoly." Even in Connecticut a republican
convention held several years ago declared "if
in any schedule import duties aro found that
havo been notoriously perverted from their true
purpose to the inordinate enrichment of corpora
tions, monopolistic in fact or in tendency, we
.look to a republican congress to apply in its
wisdom tho needed corrective without impairing
the principle of protection."
Tho lato Governor Mount of Indiana in a
public speech delivered in 1899 expressed similar
views. Former Senator Washburn gave out in
1S99 a numbor of newspaper interviews in which
ho said that republicans who had the welfare
of their party and their country at heart must
call a halt upon their party's tendency to con
nect i'tself with trusts and must insist that the
tariff shelter enjoyed by the trusts be destroyed.
Tho Chicago Record-Herald, the Minneapolis
Journal, tho New York Commercial Advertiser,
the Portland Oregonian, the Hartford Courant,
tho Dubuque (Iowa) Times, the Philadelphia
Lodger, the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, the Rockford
(111.) Republican, tho Keokuk (Iowa) Gate City,
tho Indianapolis News and the Chicago Tribune
all republican paperslong ago and repeatedly
demanded the removal of tariff duties from com
modities controlled by trusts.
In 1901 Representative Babcock of Wisconsin
who still holds his seat in congress, delivered a
numbor of public speeches and gave out a num
ber of newspaper interviews in all of which he
said that the consumer must bo protected; that
it was impossible to defend a tariff policy which
simply inures to tho benefit of those who may
secure tho control of a commodity, and that the
interests of the party as well as the interests
of tho public demanded the destruction of the
shelter which the trusts find in the tariff.
Tho Chicago Tribune went so far as to say
that tho mo3t of tho fortune amassed by An
drew Carnegie "came out of the pockets of his
countrymen through vthe operation of unequal
laws," and that Mr. Carnegie should never forget
that he made his money "through the unduo
favoritism of the government of the United
States."
Such opinions as these were long ago and v
repeatedly expressed by republican statesmen,
and republican editors. It is true that "wi3e
men change their views," but will any one seri
ously contend that in tho light of present day
conditions tho views of these gentlemen have
been changed? Would any of them care to
explicitly repudiate the sentiments they expressed -as
hereinbefore outlined? We know they would
not. We know that the conditions against which,
they indignantly protested ten, fifteen and .twenty
years ago have so multiplied that they have be
come well nigh unbearable; we know that the
sentiment, even among the rank and file of the
republican party, is so pronouncedly in favor at
tariff revision that a number of republican poli
ticians who have never been charged with. ah.
undue disregard for their own political fortunes
have made bold to demand tariff revision, at"
least to the extent of destroying the shelter
which the trusts find in the republican tariff iav
Yet in the face of these facts we are told that
there is no probability whatever that there will
be tariff revision. What is the explanation? It
is that the rank and file of the republican party
have lost all control over their organization; that
the special Interests which republican party
leaders have so long and so faithfully served have
secured such perfect control over the party
that no amount of publicly expressed Indignation
can disturb that control. It means that the re
publican party is wedded to its idols. It means
that the republican party is so thoroughly the
servant of special interests that it will maintain,
undisturbed that system to which Theodore
Roosevelt referred as "harmful in theory and
vicious in practice." It means that with respect
to the shelter which the trusts find in the tariff,
as with respect to all other great privileges
enjoyed by special interests within the law, and
without the law, the thing we call plutocracy ;is
the ever unyielding master, and the thing we call "
the republican party is the ever obedient servant
Commoner Readers Take Hold of the Towline
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