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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1908)
'-" ,,IW 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. 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