The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-11
THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT


raid the federal treasury for 1t.
THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT.
Least admirable of all, in our view,
of the critics of the Dingley bill are
those who accept it all except some
particular section or item of policy
whose evil effect they, fnr some per-
sonal reason, appreciate most lh.'Y.
Such persons hammer away with aii
the appearance of an Indignant anu
outraged virtue at the features o.
jectionable to them, and do not see
that precisely the same principle Is III
yolyed in every line OF this or any
other protection measure. Here, Tor
instance, is the Chicago Tribune, which
is as violently denunciatory as any
free trade" orator could desire OF the
wool and some other sch a1ules. 1t says
of the duty on lead ore that it is part
of the price to be paid for the votes
of certain Rocky mountain senator's.
1t speaks of the wool schedule as fcl-
lows:
If the wool and wooden schedule drafted by
the financial committee were to become
law, it would add 50, on an average, to tne
clothing bill of every American. That Woulo
amount to about $500 900. Tine use OF sucn
adulterants as shoddy and cotton would De
increased, and the people would get poorer
clothing than they do now.
1t proves to us that the whole rur-
pose of this schedule is to lake care
of the Western ranchmen, who nave
the advantage of cheap lane and che ap
labor and yet are to lave ",als eN-
cessive, disproportionate protection.
And all this, it concludes, is crime
whose only explanation is that the
votes of Western senators must De had
for the tariff bill, and that they must
be purchased by wool duties sahsfac-
tory to them. Such is the. wall of the
Tribune over wool and the New Eng
landers over the proposed DUTY en-
hides. and of the others who happen to
be hit in a tender spot by some lea
ture of the new tariff act. But wat
have they to complain of? Zach OF. the
other schedules hits somebody else just
as hard. and all of them are designed
to make life less tolerable and lator
more poorly rewarded over the wtcie
country.
We cannot understand how any
newspaper of the standing of the Tr1b-
une can tell us that the duty on WOOL
is paid by the American consumer, a1o
that it makes him pay higher price
for poorer article only to Denent
those who need no protection, Whlle
if will tell us, when the wool duties are
not under discussion, that protection IS
benefit and results in cheapenlng
production as we'll as in keeping con-
troll of our markets. 1t reminds us OF
the extraordinary argument, to which
we have referred before, of news
paper that sustains the rest OF the
Dingley bill, but opposes a duty that
would increase the cost of print paper.
The interesting moral Of it all is that
this protection business is the very in
carnation of selfishness and greed. 1t
is all a game Of grab. Every duty i'm
posed on any commodity for protective
purposes is the "price" of somebody's
vote. With the growth of all our in
dustries to a point where they can
not only stand alone, but can COM
pete with others all over the world. the
protective idea has become a pure
myth. It remains to be utilized as the
coin of commerce between the avar1-
cious business man and the avar1cious
congressman. Let not the Tribune, nor
anybody else. throw stones at the
Rocky mountain senator's" whose
crime in this instance consists of de-
manding their share Of the spoils. Ev-
cry other senator and every representa-
tive who votes for a protective duty of
any kind or description is in precisely
the same boat with them.