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The Commoner.
rANOART 14, 1$10
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Who Got Fooled, or the Mystery of 19 10
A great many people are puzzled what to
make of President Taft. He Is not dishonest,
for he emerged from a long career of ofilco
holding a poor man. He is not lacking in in
telligence, or he would not have been chosen
for the many important places he has filled.
Yet at "Winona ho declared the new tariff
law to be a "substantial revision downward,"
and "the best tariff bill the country ever had."
To prove this he used some figures prepared
by the senate committee on finance, of which
Senator Aldrich is. chairman, showing that the
tariff was reduced on necessary articles which
this country uses to the extent of $5,000,000,000
a year, and increased only on necessary articles
which the country uses to the value of $300,
000,000 a year. As to the increases, there
should have been none at all; and there were
few because practically every greedy and power
ful interest already was getting all the tariff
duties it needed.
It sounds well to say that the tariff was re
duced on commodities which the country uses
to the value of $5,000,000,000 a year, but it
means absolutely nothing. Take an article
which the country uses to the value of $1,000
000,000 a year, and on which the tariff duty
is prohibitive; Reduce that duty a trifle, though
leaving it still prohibitiye. The president could
then say that the duty had been reduced on an
article of which the country uses $1,000,000,000
worth a year; but there would be no benefit
whatever from the revision. And that is ex
actly what the president did. Either he was
badly fooled by Aldrich, or he deliberately
sought to fool the people.
Will Payne in the Saturday Evening Post
analyzes that $5,000,000,000 argument, and he '
doesn't leave much of it.
Duties 'Were reduced on petroleum products,
which this country uses to the value of $260,
000,000 a "year. Yet this country is the .great
exporter of petroleum products, and free petro
leum products would not lower prices.
Duties were reduced on marble, which is used
to the extent of .$84,000,000 a.year. Is marble,
a -V-necessary?" -
Metals and manufactures of metal, which we
use to the value of- $1,250,000,000, were re
duced, but prices have gone up since the law
went into effect. This is because the duties,
combined with this country's supremacy in meth
ods of manufacturing, are prohibitive still.
Lumber was slightly reduced, and that item
amounts to $500,000,000. If the maximum
rates apply to Canada, the duty will be enor
mously increased instead of being reduced. The
price of lumber has not been reduced by the
reduced tariff.
Refined sugar represents $300,000,000, and
the duty on that was reduced so little that if
the benefit of the reduction got to the consumer,
he would have to eat an even ton of sugar to
save a dollar; yet the price of sugar has ad
vanced since the law went into effect. The
sugar duties are still prohibitive.
Half a. billion is represented by food and agri
cultural products, mostly bacon, hams, pork and
beef, of which we export vast quantities and
Import little Or nothing. These commodities
have also gone up in price. The reason: The
duties are still too high and" the products arq
controlled by a trust.
Print paper represents $67,000,000. There
was a' very slight reduction on this duty, which
still is practically prohibitive, and if the maxi
mum duties apply, as they almost certainly will,
the duty will be multiplied several times in
stead of being reduced.
Soft coal, another large item, amounts to
$9.00,000,000, and the slight reduction in the
tariff will have no effect on the price except in
such localities as can be reached by vessels from
Nova Scotia. The price of soft coal has not gone
down since the tariff went into effect.
These items amount to $4,000,000,000 out of
the president's total of $5,000,000,000, and
from none of them will the consumer get the
slightest benefit. Other "" items too small to
amount to much in detail consume the rest of
the five billions.
Either the president was ridiculously fooled
by Aldrich, or he sought to befool the people.
Duluth Herald.
on the theory that the repeated attacks on Bal
linger and the latter's conduct of the general
land office are in reality but canards invented
to injure the present administration.
This, then, is the third "conspiracy" that has
been hatched against the president since ho
assumed office.
The discovery of tho first "plot" occurred
about the time the president prevented the un
seating of Speaker Cannon and the improvement
of the house rules. Some of the party leaders,
.particularly Aldrich and Cannon, apparently ex
pected that the president was to be "roasted"
for rescuing Cannon and the old rules from de
feat. So a story was started to the effect that
information from authentic sources showed "tho
big muck-raking magazines to be In a conspiracy
to discredit the Taft administration." How
ever, most of the magazines named in the "con
spiracy" did not publish a single article relative
to the Taft-Aldrich-Cannon triumvirate, and
those magazines which did handle the subject
very generously left the president out of tho
discussion altogether.
Now as to the second "plot:" It was discov
ered and laid bare by a big New York news
paper just after President Taft had declared at
Winona that the Payne-Aldrich-Smoot tariff bill
was the best legislation of the kind ever enact
ed. The ring leaders of the "plot" were de
clared to be Senator LaFollette of Wisconsin,
ex-Secretary of the -Interior James R. Garfield,
and others. The object of the "plot" was to
"discredit the Taft administration!" -
Had the president co-operated with the in
surgents when they were endeavoring to de
throne Cannon "plot" No, 1 would never have
been hatched.
Had tho president stated in his Winona speech
1 that the new tariff law was the most infamous
ever created, and that It would be likely to
have the effect of further advancing' the cost of
living there would have been no necessity for
tho second "conspiracy."
And if the president was now supporting
Pinchot instead of Ballinger there would bo no
-necessity for the latest "plot," nor even an in
vestigation of the general land office.
Who ate Mr. Taft's advisers and counsellors
that permit him to be eternally taking a posi
tion on public questions that is offensive .to
nine-tenths of the people of the United States.
Waterloo (Iowa) Times-Tribune.
WHO ARE HIS ADVISERS? . .
President Taft, according to Washington dis
patches, has just discovered the existence of an
other "plot" to discredit his administration. His
assumption that a "conspiracy" exists is. based"
"Four Years More of
the Full Dinner Pair
Do you remember the republican party's slo
gan "four years more of the full dinner pail?"
What has bedome of that slogan now? The
New York World in its issue of Tuesday, Jan
uary 4, printed this news item:
The old man died first, but the young man
seemed to be the weaker and the hungrier as
the two friends in adversity tottered to the door
of the Municipal .Lodging House, at Twenty
fifth street and the East river, last night. So it
was that the starving man of sixty supported
hs starving companion of twenty-eight as they
dragged their dreary way along the water front
to the city's bread line, supported him and urged
him to hold out for another block or two, to
keep up his spirits for a few more minutes until
he could get to the free food and thus strengthen
himself for the next day's hunt for work.
The starving man of only twenty-eight groaned
and staggered on with the help of the feeblo
arm about his waist.
The starving man of sixty said cheerily,
"There's the lodging house light now, only" the
next block. We'll smell the coffee in a minute."
Hundred Hungry Men Made Way
There were a hundred men in the lino ahead
of them when they reached the goal. Those
hundred were merely hungry suffering from
hunger, but they did not have to hold each
other up till their turns came. So these derelicts
recognized that there were grades of suffering
even on tho bread line. They stood aside, to let
the old man and tho young man pass in ahead
of them. They risked their own precious places
by stepping out of lino to let those who were
starving get to the bread.
VDon't you smell the coffee now?" murmured
Sixty to Twenty-eight; but the younger man was
senseless It was only the support of his friend
of the streets that kept him from falling before
tho pyramid of bread and tho steaming urn of
coffee.
"He's starving; I know him, but I don't know
his namo. Feed him, quick," quavered tho old
man.
Superintendent Newhouso and tho attendants
took tho younger man and placed him on a
bench.
Relieved of his burden, tho old man strotched
out his hand toward tho bread. Ho touched it
and fell dead.
Tho hungry hundred knew that ho was dead;
no need for the red tapo of tho coroner to tell
them that. Tho red tapo merely required that
he should bo covered with a sheet and loft where
he fell," between thorn and society's dolo of tho
bread and coffee.
Poor Fellows Honored tho Dead
The evening rites went on With one little
difference. As each one reached out across tho.
man who wns no longer hungry for the allow
ance of bread with one hand ho raised tho other
to remove a battered hat in honor of tho dead
brother.
The younger man was revived .for a few min
utes. Ho said that ho did not know who his
friend was. "Wo were together on tho street.
He helped me get hero. I don't know his namo."
Then the younger man became unconscious
again and was taken to Bellovue. The doctors
say he, too, will die of starvation.
Neither man had been drinking. Neither man
had an overcoat or underclothes just outside
rags to conform to the law if they did not fit
tho temperature. Neither man had so much
as a scrap of paper that would suggest his iden
tity. But the police must have statistics and
here is tho best they could do for a record of
tho incident on tho blotter of the East Twenty
second street precinct:
Man, about sixty years old, unknown, five feet
eight; died at Municipal Lodging House; star
vation. Man, about twenty-eight years old, unknown
five feet seven and a half, removed In a. dying
condition from Municipal Lodging House to
Belleviie; starvation.
"COALITION" INDEED t
Walter -Wellman, Washington correspondent
for the Chicago Record-Herald, says that a
"coalition" has been formed between the Tafl -administration
and the regulars in congress for
the purpose of whipping into lino the republican
insurgents.
If Mr. Wellman does not know that tho Taft
administration and the Aldrich and Cannon
forces, which he calls the "regulars" are ono
and require no "coalition," he could learn some-
thing to his advantage by communicating with
the average Illinois farmer.
"SATISFACTORY"
Associated Press dispatches say that the ad
ministration bill relating -to tho Interstate com
merce law "will in the main be satisfactory to
the railroads;" also "that tho railroad interests
will object to the measure up to the last ditch
committee members say is to be expected." Are
we to understand that this objection is merely
to make it appear that tho measure has not
been framed so that it "will in the main bo
satisfactory to the railroads?"
AT THE DOOR
I thought myself indeed secure,
-. So fast tho door, so firm the lock; ;
But, lo! ho toddling comes to lure
My parent ear with timorous knock.
My heart were stone could it withstand
The sweetness of my baby's plea',
-That timorous, baby knocking, and,
"Please let mo in, it's only me."
I threw aside the unfinished book,
Regardless of Its tempting charms;
And, opening wide the door, I took
My laughing darling in my arms.
Who knows but in eternity
I, like the truant child, shall wait
The glories of a life to be,
Beyond the Heavenly Father's gato?
And will that Heavenly Father heed
The truant's supplicating cry,
As at the outer door I plead,
"-'Tis.I, O Father! only I?"
Eugene Field.
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