The Commoner.
6
mont, by making it tho guardian of special and
local interests! TIiIh is a fine Bchenie for the
dovolopmont of a general and national policy.
Sonator Tillman booiiib also to bo greatly ex
cited. I lore 1b his patriotic view .of the
question:
"Who gavo Bryan tho right to Bay who Ib and
who Is not a democrat? I am not worrying
about what ho or any one else says. I answer
only to tho peoplo of my r;tate. Thoy will at
tond to mo if I am not doing right, and I am
willing to submit my record to them. I am
against free raw material and believo, as Sena
tor Bailey does, that such a policy is not demo
cratic doctrine."
Tho same beautiful plan is in tho mind of
Tillman, namely to make the democratic party
iv sort of assistant "advance agent of pros
perity." All there is to tho party is a South
Carolina machine to tako care of the people of
South Carolina. But the most Interesting state
ment Is by Sonator Smith of Maryland:
"It appears to mo that Mr. Bryan should give
tho democrats'" in congress an opportunity to
work out the salvation of the party. He has
had his opportunity to lead the party to victory
and has utterly failed. We are trying to make
a record in the senate which can be defended
by tho country, and Mr. Bryan should at least
wait until tho bill is passCd before ho begins
to attack tho members of his party in congress."
Well, Mr. Smith and tho others have had
tholr" "opportunity to work out the salvation
of tho party," and they have used it in such
a way as to make tho party oven weaker than
it was before A fow days ago Governor John
son had something to say of tho democrats who
wpro voting for protection in tho senate, and,
of course, ho was "castigated" by tho men in
volved. Now Mr. Bryan, acting as a private
citizen, Is Impertinent enough to remind Messrs.
Simmons, Smith, Tillman, Bailey and tho rest
that thero is such a thing as a national demo
cratic platform, and they at onco fly into a
rage, forgotting that their difference is not
with Mr. Bryan but with their party. A few
dayB ago Henry Watterson said that when he
and hiB paper repudiated a party platform they
did it before the election. In that utterance is
contained the sufllclent condemnation of Mr.
Balloy, who is now trying to show that his party
had no right to say what it did, no right to
declare for free lumbor, and that having no such
right ho Is not bound by Its utterance. We had
no hint of any such thing during the campaign.
It was not suggested till the tariff bill got be
foro the senate. All the elaborate exposition
of tho raw material question will not serve to
square matters. For the truth is that Mr.
Bryan has put the case with perfect clearness
arid fairness. Indianapolis (Ind.) News.
noils should certainly bear no higher rate than
tho material of which they are a by-product,
but if this wore permitted they would be able
to buy what they wanted from abroad and the
worsted trust would lose a lot of very profitable
customers. The carded woolen manufacturers
havo a national association, but are .not in any
trust. Their wishes have not been heeded in
the least, therefore, and the new tariff bill will
carry a rate made so high that it will return no
revenue to the government, but will add ma-
terially to the revenues of the worsted trust.
In addition, the absence of any demand from
America for foreign noils enables the carded
wool manufacturer abroad to buy the combings
at his own price, a price so low that he can
import his cheap woolen goods into this country
and undersell tho American manufacturer.
President Dobson of tho association says that
this competition has had the effect of closing
a number of mills in Philadelphia' and else-,
whore.
Thus we are given a demonstration of the
uses to which the taxing power of the govern
ment is put, to compel the closing of those
American mills that turn out the goods from
which the cheap woolen clothing of the masses
is made, and at the same time open the mar
kets here to the foreign manfacturor, to whose
original price must be added the duty his goods
bear. That is assuredly a queer twist in the
protective tariff theory, which, wo have been so
often told, means the opening of the American
' mill, the barring out of the foreign product
and tho cheapening of clothing to the masses.
C. Q. D.
; 1 Practical Tariff Talks
'" ' "
Even tho Wool Schedule
If there is one schedule in the tariff bill that
ought to be sacred from vandal hands it is the
wool schedule. For a good many years wo
havo been impressed during campaigns with the
necessity of protecting tho owners of sheep
herds. Yot we find, there is a very violent dis
pute between the manufacturers over this
precious item. It is all because the manufac
ture of wool comprises two branches, the worst
ed manufacturers who use the longor lenetli
and those cloth manufacturers who use th
shorter ones.
o T!!2, latt0r Claim V1?1 tho formor is Protected
at their expense and in such an ingenious way
that they aro compelled to pay tribute to the
users of worsted who, by a strange coincidence,
happen to bo in a trust. Woolen goods aro
manufactured from what are known as noils
Jhn mnri WaSie Product of tho longer fibres)
tho llttlo knots and strands that are left after the
wool has been combed.
The combing wools bear a low rate of duty
and the nois are taxed at just double that
rate. That is to say, those parts of the wool
that reman after tho fibre ha been treated to
a thorough combing and twisting and which
oses from 10 to 25 per cent of its weight in
the cleaning and scouring process it afterwards'
undergoes, are made dutiable at so high a rate
as to.be prohibitive, so that the only recourse
tho woolen manufacturers who use 'the comb-"
fafturers.0 t0 bUy frm the w.onW S-
The woolen manufacturers insist that" the'
PATHETIC WAIL PROM A REPUBLICAN
NEWSPAPER
The Boston Herald was in 1908 a stalwart
supporter of the republican ticket. In its issue
of May 6 tho Herald prints an editorial entitled
"Preventing Prosperity." The editorial follows:
"It would bo better to re-enact the Dingley
bill forthwith, and then adjourn congress, than
to continue the ridiculous discussion and the
worse than foolish tinkering with the tariff now
going on at Washington. The country is dis
gusted. It has waited in vain for some sign
that the pledge of the republican party would
be kept, a pledge made not only by the party
in convention, but by the recent leader of the
party, Mr. Roosovolt, and by the present leader,
President Taft. Neither Mr. Roosevelt nor Mr.
Taft is to bo blamed for the hopeless break
down of the party promise, nor is the mass of
republicans throughout the country. To the
blindness some call it shrewdness of the con
gressional leaders, their callous disregard of an
enlightened public opinion, must be ascribed the
plight in which the country finds itself, drag
ging in tho muddle of tariff talk, the end of the
course not yet in sight.
"Senator Aldrich accuses Senator Dolliver of
attempting to destroy the tariff. This ancient
retort to advocates of tariff reform will convince
nobody. Senator Aldrich declares that' the
country is waiting for the final passage of the
tariff bill. Nobody will dispute that fact. But
who, more than Senator Aldrich with his rising'
schedules, is delaying the passage of the bill?
Who more .than Senator Aldrich, with his cyni
cal assertion that revision does not mean reduc
tion, has done more to disgust the country with
political tariff-tinkering; who has done more
than he to place tho republican party and the
administration in a false position?
"The business interests of the country, the
employers and the employed, are wearied with
all the uncertainty which this tariff agitation,
with all its sophistry and intrigue, have brought
upon all enterprise. The congressional leaders,
entrusted with a great duty which they are sad
ly muddling, are blocking the business of the
land. Were thero an able and compact party
of opposition this wretched state of things would
not havo come about. The dominant party
would havo been forced to make some sensible
provision for the interest of tho people. But
no such provision seems to be contemplated.
The so-called debates are a farce; the object
diligently pursued is humbug. Those who, our
selves among the number, took the party at "its
word, and have tried to keep it to itsword, may
fairly say that -it has broken faith with the
country. To be sure, the tariff bill is not yet'
passed, but in the bill as it stands the 'intention
of the congressional leaders is clear to all who -read.
To1 the call of tho country - congress Ms
unresponsive. Senator Aldrich's ' derisive " re-"
tort that-- although - revision1 was 'promised;- no
promise' was made for roviBionvdownward,'miv"
satisfy him, may ' satisfy the majority in "the
VOLUME 9, NUMBER 25
senate, may rejoice the majority in the house
but the American people despise such plays with
words, such juggling with the good faith of the
electorate. Had there been no general belief
that the promised revision meant reduction
there would have been no general demand for
revision; there would have been no special ses
sion of congress. If the men who are respon
sible for deluding the country do not change
their present course there will come for them
a day of political reckoning which they will rue
Great as may be their hardihood, they can not
afford to be despised by their fellow-citizens.
"This prolonged play with the tariff is cost
ing the country millions every day. The un
certainty it causes is the only bar to a speedy
return to prosperity. Business generally is re
tarded because business men are compelled to
hold back until a tariff bill is passed. Should
the bill receive the veto of the president, tho
next condition would be worse than the present.
There would be another six months, perhaps
another year, of delay in which all enterprise
would suffer. It would be better to re-enact
the Dingley bill now, if that is what the stand
patters intend, than, under the hypocritical pre
tense of revision, continue to depress the busi
ness of the nation under a lot of uncertainty.
"One good thing has come from all this pre
tense at reform. In every portion of the country
business men who are affronted by the habit of
making the tariff the football of contending po
litical teams, demand the establishment of a
tariff bureau free from partisan intrigue. It is
from that direction that reform must come. The
senate proposal for a tariff bureau or commis
sion is only another preposterous humbug, for it
would mean a political body dominated by parti
sanship. The business men of the United States
are waking up to the folly of the practice which
they have so long supported, a practice which
periodically places them, their enterprises and
their employes, at the mercy of political leaders
who play the game for the sake of personal and
partisan supremacy. The sympathy of the coun
try is not now with congress. The congress is
blind if it does not see the signs, foolhardy if
seeing them it heeds them not."
s
'
WHAT IS DEMOCRATIC?
The democrats who have voted
against free lumber have:
Voted to repudiate the national plat
form of the democratic party;
Voted to encourage the destruction of
our forests;
Voted to raise the price of one of the
chief necessaries of life;
Voted to tax a material that enters
into a multitude of industries, and thus
to place an unnecessary burden upon
these industries;
Voted to tax the people of the whole
country for the benefit of a compara
tively few owners of timber lands; and
Voted to tax a majority of their own
constituents for the benefit of a- minority
of those constituents.
To cast such a vote a democrat must
have arguments that have not yet been
given to the public and must be pre
pared to present these arguments to his
constituents.
The Commoner will give space (up to
two thousand words) to any democratic
senator or member of congress who de
sires to present an argument in favor of
a duty on lumber, provided he will in his
article answer the following questions:
First, Is a platform binding?
Second, Is it wise to encourage the
devastation of our forests?
Third, Will the country as a whole be
benefited by a tariff on lumber, and if
so, how?
Fourth, How many of his constituents
produce lumber as compared with the
number of his constituents who use
lumber?
Fifth, Will he give the names of the
men who have by letter or in person
urged him to vote for the tariff on
lumber?
00
'
it)
- This "You-tickle-me-and-ril-tickJo-you" tariff
revision ia-productive of- agreat, deal of laugh-
. IT- J0.1 among--those- who are 'the victim
of- the policy. r-' -
V
n',Mr:momnntrmHfr