The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-24
Too Many Tariffs
Spoil Business
From an Interview by Cath" in the Sun
with Senator Foraker.

From an Interview by Cath" In the Sun
with Senator Foraker.
'The permanent revival IN business will
be after the country has ceased to be
alarmed by tariff conflicts. Each of these
tariff bills is, till it is put in motion, an in
junction on activity. We had first the old
standing tariff bill which In 1888 Mr.. C1eve-
land shook up. In 1890 we had the McKin-
ley tariff, under which we had for the
time a great prosperity. But Mr.. Cleve-
land had committed himself and his party
to a free trade policy, and in 1894 the Will
son-Senate tariff bill was passed. In 1897
we have the Dingley-Senate tariff bill. So
since 1890, when the original standing tariff
was altered to the Mckinley tariff four
propositions have been made to business
period when the profits Of commerce are
so close and competitive that uncertainty
In the law Is disheartening to business.
Doctrinal, sectarian tariffs are in every
way Improbable and unwholesome."
Where was the first mistake nader"
81 think the Mckinley tariff bill caused
an Inflammation of the general subject;
that 1t would have been better to alter the
former tariff to effect the'result then de-
sired namely, a reduction of the amount
of revenue. BY making tariff on opposi-
ton lines to Cleveland's challenge of the
protective principle, the issue again en-
tered into politics at a time when labor
was fighting the employers and preJudices
existed which defeated our candidate and
put Cleveland back. So the third tariff
bill, which the reaction failed to agree
upon, and was satisfactory to nothing, to
neither doctrine nor revenue, stopped
business for a whole congress. 1t had to
be set aside. The work will take the
whole summer. Now, how can trade and
industry proceed with four tariffs in seven
years-more tariffs, / suppose, than any
In, ,f,,,.t
The result with us Is an instability in
every thing and suspension Of endeavor
like a great steamship stopped in a dense
fog in midsea."
what are we to do to take Off the af-
Fiction of tariffs for the sake of politics?'
pass the tariff and have a non-partisan
commission made to watch the course OF
events and do the tariff mending. Our
platform at St. Louis said "a new tariff
and then a rest"
Would not congress think this an abro-
cation of its rights|'
"A small invention can interfere with
| the production of almost any universal
production. The infnity of revolutions In
| an industrial age is above the circumspec-
ton of a national legislature. From both
sides the workers and their employers are
disturbed. We. have turned over trans
portation and many other things to COM
missions, and this OF tariffs is the chronic
| troubler of our times
| Here am l." continued Mr.. Foraker
fresh from the practice of law, called
| upon to fix technical rates and arrange
| schedules over the vast arena of mans
| production and ingenuity. What is mod
| ern tariff? 1t is guess-work modified by
| compromise A few gentlemen in the pri
| Vate parlor of hotel formulate the bill
| by calling in such persons of knowledge
| or interest as they wish. 1t is headache
| making task to reconstruct the tables ou
| of the arithmetic and apply them to moro
examples than the schoolboy has to cipher
| out. Some one person has the endurance
| for it. He is the expert; the rest OF us arr
| the weary-headed witnesses of his matha
| matics / undertake to help my constitu
| ents and those appear who have lively
| interest and show me the superior equitie:
| on their side. Upon the bench and whel
| governor of the state l could expedite
and advance matters, but here learn TIT
| useful lesson that all things must tax
their turn, that the individual senator is ;
| filament in the Federal web, and that
| hemisphere Of a nation like ours compre
| hends nearly every product in the die
| tionary and every aspiration in the mind
| The case of sugar affects all that is ant
| all that may be, Louisiana, Hawaii, Ger
many, Cuba, Nebraska, Wall street, bee
| root, the cane, machinery, everything
| opening a wide margin TO wonder and sen
sation.
do you favor doing general business Il
the extra session."
"Will We not have business enough wit
this tariff bill before the dog days strik
us? Yes, as a general proposition l d
favor legislative action, some foreign pol
icy BETTING the cries of kindred and hu
manity which reach us from Cuba an
Hawaii, but who can advance the com
plex and omnipresent tariff? We mus
get 1t out of the way, and l hope pei
manent, non-partisan, commercially wis
commission will be put in charge of tn
| subject for future time"