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The Commoner.
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JIUNB 18, 190J
today if it had never before. Reserving his in
formation on this bill ho compelled" everybody
to voto on the amendments paragraph by para
graph. Does he expect to keep the confidence
of the republican membership of this body by
a proceeding of that kind? He is the leader
of the 'republican side, and as such he has aided
in bringing us Into a position of embarrassment
before the republican constituency of our va
rious states."
"The senator from Rhode Island," Mr. La
Folletto continued, "with all his craftiness, has
embarrassed the republicans."
Mr. LaFollette went on to say that the sen
ator from Rhode Island had come from a state
that had granted ninety-nine year franchises,
which he declared was something not tolerated
in Wisconsin. He said Mr. Aldrich had made
no report on thfs bill, and had "chilled or
frozen" those who had sought with perfect
courtesy to gain some light upon the changes
ho had made in it. He proceeded: "The sen
ator from Rhode Island need not take to him
self any anxiety about the report that senators
of the middle west will make when they re
turn to their states, and discuss these questions
with their' constituents. Ho can not by any
legislative trick argue any amendments that
have been voted upon, confusing the minds of
senators here, who have been exercising some
independence, by inciting terror or timidity."
No sooner had these words been uttered than
there was a hasty protest by Senator Gallinger,
who called upon Vice President Sherman to
invoke paragraph 2 of rule 19.
"In my experience In this body," said Mr.
Gallinger, "I have never heard so oft-repeated
accusation that legislative tricks were being
practiced; and I ask that this rule be laid be
fore the senate, that anyone may know what
It is.
Rule XIX which relates to the necessity for
avoiding personal allusions, was then read and
the vice president declared that he thought the
senator from Wisconsin had violated it.
Mr. LaFollette, who had taken his seat, arose
saying he had noticed that this rule had not
been equally applied to all senators of the floor.
He said he had noticed that somo senators
could say things without attention being called
to them, and it was generally understood that
he had in mind Senator Penrose's recent criti
cism of himself, which was not rebuked.
Vice President Sherman said he would Bea
that the rule was uniformly applied, to which
Mr. LaFollette replied that he did not blame
the vice president, as he understood that the
rule was only applied when the attention of
the chair was directed to it.
The Aldrlch-LaFollette incident then came to
a close, and Senator Bacon took the floor.
Numerous amendments offered by Mr. La
Follette providing ad valorem for specific
duties in the wool schedule were promptly
taken up for the purpose of voting on them "en
bloc," as Vice President Sherman announced.
Senator Cummins, taking the floor, said he
would vote for these amendments, not so much
because he was satisfied that they were exactly
right, but because he was sure the schedule
reported by the finance committee was absolute
ly wrong. Mr. Cummins announced that he
would move to re-commit the wool schedule
to the finance committee.
Arguing the justice of his plan for a com
pensatory duty on products of woolen manu
facturers to allow them to pay a higher price
for wool than do their foreign competitors,
Senator Cummins said that to levy a duty on
goods partly of cotton as if entirely of wool
would be to give domestic manufacturers an
advantage that no man should have. In reply
to a question by Mr. McCumber Senator Cum
mins said he was willing to make the duty
high enough to meet foreign competition on the
assumption that all imports are of goods con
taining only the finest grades of wool.
Senator Warren, opposing the plan of the
Iowa senator, declared that it would unduly en
courage the importation of shoddy.
"And," added the Wyoming senator, "this is
not a shoddy nation."
Mr. Cummins declared that he marveled at
the "blindness of the leaders of the republican
party that they were willing to commit their
party to such a woolen schedule."
"Senators," he said, "you are simply courting
the destruction of your party by allowing such
a schedule to go out to the country." -
A SIGNIFICANT RESOLUTION
The Episcopal diocesan council of Loxington,
Kentucky, adopted a significant resolution deal
ing with present economic conditions. Tho res
olution follows:
"Whoreas, wo tho Protestant Episcopal
church in tho diocese of Loxington, state of
Kentucky, being a branch of God's church and
assembled in council, feel deep concern over
conditions created and being perpetuated by
alarming, if not revolutionary legislation,
whereby tho necessaries of tho lives of tho
needy are disproportionate taxed, and
"Whereas, such legislation Is fast destroying
men's roverenco for law and so tending t-
anarchy; ,
"Therefore, we, members of tho council afore
said, conscious of tho trust of righteousness com
mitted by tho Triune God to plead with all
constructing and controlling forcos of our land
senatorial, congressional, legislative and exec
utive to give us laws right in tho sight of
God, just and true to all the people, call upon
every Christian organization in the land to join
us in this purpose and pleading."
Practical Tariff Talks
A strong testimonial to tho entrenched
strength of the sugar trust in the senate was
given a few days ago, when that body refused
to eliminate tho Dutch standard of color test
on importations. If that test had been cut out
of the law it would have permitted the importa
tion of light and dark brown sugars cheap
sugars. The provision requiring that all im
portations must be of a certain color, dark red,
when it Is uneatable and unmarketable save to
the trust, means that nothing can come in un
less it needs further refining and the trust
attends to tho refining.
The' Aldrich bill proposes to increase the
tariff on razors from 65 to 100 per cent. This
means doubling tho price of razors to every
purchaser. No less an authority than tho Iron
Ago says that this will effectually shut out for
eign competition, and thus return no revenue
to the government, but that it will place the
American market at the mercy of tho. cutlory
manufacturers, who now maintain ono of the
strongest trusts In the country. This trust Is ,
not only protected by patents on articles and
on machinery, by copyrights and trade agree
ments, but it asks absolute protection from com
petition In the home market. And the Aldrich
bill gives it. The head of the Simmons Hard
ware company of St. Louis, who claims to have
sold in his fifty-three years of business, more
razors than any man who ever lived in the
United States, is quoted in tho Congressional
Record as having said that the rate of wages
paid workmen in this country is very little
more than Is paid for the same kind of labor
in Germany and England, and that wo can not
make as good razors or grind them properly in
this country. America today manufactures
about 20 per cent of the razors Tised In the
country. The Aldrich bill is intended to hand
over the remainder of the business to the cut
lery trust, and to do this it gives it the pro
tection of 100 per cent duty when so high an
authority as Edward C. Simmons of St. Louis
asserts that there is very little difference be
tween the rate of wages paid razor makers here
and abroad. This raises the interesting ques
tion of what is a reasonable profit for the razor
manufacturer, such as the republican platform
gaurantees him after it has made up the dif
ference in wages.
A contemporary says that Senator-elect Lori
mer has "qlimbed from the bottom to the top."
Perhaps; but he has brought entirely too mutii
of the bottom up with him.
The senate has refused to take the tariff off
lumber. No well-informed republican can de
fend this tariff, and no wise one will attempt
to do so. The republican Idea of the tariff Is
that It should be high enough to protect Ameri
can labor from the competition of low-paid
labor abroad and that there should also be In
cluded a reasonable profit to the manufacturer.
This is the platform definition or measure of
the tariff. How does it work out in practice?
The tariff on lumber ought to insure the Amer
ican workman a higher wage than the lumber
worker across the border. ,. Yet Theodore M.
Knappen of the National Forest Conservation
League submitted to congress extensive tables
which show that higher wages are now being
paid in both the mills and the logging camps
of Canada than in the United States. It fol
lows, therefore, that the workmen here need
no protection and if tho manufaoturor Is getting
his labor for less than his nearest competitor
abroad then in that fact alono Ilea a reasonable
profit for him. Why a tariff? Hero is tho
explanation and It cloarly bIiows tho charactor
of tho work tho republican congress is doing
against the public intorost a tarifr operates
to restrict tho volumo of imported lumbor and
to increase its price. If it Is rotalnod tho value
of tho stumpago holdings Is enhancod and tho'
power of tho lumbermen to dlctato prices Is
continued. Does this not show in wIioho In
terest tho tariff is boing mado? C. Q D.
ROOSEVELT AND TOLSTOY
Tho following editorial appeared in tho De
troit Times:
Out of that realm of savagery and slaughter,
Darkest Africa, comes this latest Roosovoltlan
onslaught, via tho highly religious Outlook:
"Strong men may gain something from Tol
stoy's moral teachings, but only on condition
that they aro strong enough and sano enough
to bo repelled by thoso part of his teachings
which aro foolish or immoral. Weak porsons
aro hurt by the teachings. Wo aro not liablo
to certain kinds of wickedness which there Is
real danger of his writings "inculcating; for it
is a lamentable fact, as '. so often tho caso
with a certain typo of mystical zealot, thoro la
in him a dark streak which tolls of moral per
version. That side of his teachings which is
partially manifested in tho revolting Kroutzor
Sonata can do littlo damage In America, for it
would appeal only to decadonts; exactly as it
could havo como only from a man who, how
ever high ho may stand in certain respects, has
in him certain dreadful qualities of tho moral
pervert."
Tho subject of this arraignment an arraign
ment unjust, cruel, false and cowardly Is dying
in Russia among tho peasants to whom his
life has been dovoted with singular purity and
unselfishness.
Tho writer Is in tho African junglo, where a
horde of native and professional boators aro
driving wild beasts within range of his gun to
bo slaughtered.
A finer delicacy, a fairer consideration will
bo shown Tolstoy oven in tho country whose
Iniquities and barbarisms, whoso massacres and
other atrocities against hie people, and whoso
tyrants of tho royalty and aristocracy ho has
assailed with a powerful pen. lnvoJUne ut "thorn
tho teachings drawn from the Christ life.'
Moro consideration will bo shown this dying
seer there even by those who hate him for tho
truths he has written and spoken against thom,
and on his death bed ho will be spared tho pain
which would como In tho knowledge that a llfo
of such unselfishness, such hardship and forbear
ance directed in the interest of a' bleeding and
suffering people, and mankind In general, had
brought no better word than this and from ono
who has held the high position In tho eyes of
the world as president of the United States, and
who professes tho faith that commands, "Thou
shalt not bear false witness."
This attack upon tho dying Tolstoy, this
gentle, unresisting man, is from tho pen of
Roosevelt, the killer and the jingolst.
Tolstoy is not a man or beast killer and he
abhors war.
Not as one who feared war for his own body's
sake, nor as one who lacked love of country or
patriotism, for after knowing what war was,
and no man has been able to see war as ho
saw it and so described it, he asked to be re
assigned on his return to Russia from tho Cau
casus and, as showing his bravery, to the divi
sion on the Danube face to face with the oppos
ing Turk.
He was present at the siege of Silistra. From
there he went to the Crimea and the besieged
Sebastopol, the center of the war, where for
eleven months he served at tho "fourth bastion"
and was subjected to tho murderous fires of tho
allied armies.
What impressed him most was that men in
war could shoot each other down and yet have
nothing against each other as men, and what
inspired him most was the devotion of the men
on either side of the battle to country.
Tolstoy never had the blood-thirst and ho
was not a man glorying in more Dreadnaughts,
for he did not like the man-killing business.
He had looked upon war beyond its gold braid,
its flags, the inspiring bugle and the quickstep
of the band. These he thought all very fine in
themselves, but most deplorable as incitements
to slaughter.
But war to him was battlefields running red
with blood, terrible with the cries of the in-
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