The record-union., 1897-12-15
THAT TROUBLESOME TARIFF
QUESTION.
THAT

! The fiery speech of Count Goluchowski
has stirred up the mugwump and op-
/ position press of the country greatly.
/ The Count proposes a commercial wal
against this country, and such papers
as the New York Post and New York
Times" pretend to feel great fear that
such a war will be inaugurated, and
that in consequence we viii severely
suffer Perhaps it would be just as
we'll that such war should begin now,
! if ever, since until we have practical
| test of the matter we shall be bothered
with the persistent meanings of such
papers, which insist that we have set
up the most exclusive system known
outside of the confines of China.
| There is nothing like experience as a
| teacher, after ALL The Post declares
that our system is made up of hostili-
| ties, and the Times" with equal
exhausted our powers for the injury
of industrial Europe OF course, the
| United States may have made mis-
take; Of course, our reciprocity scheme
may be a delusion and snare; but we
apprehend that we will never cease con-
tending about them until we have had
/ teaching experience. We have been
disposed to think that European states
men are disgruntled because America
! has been growing SO fast and mani
Testing independence of capacity. That
we are becoming self-dependent ap-
pears to us to be the chief European
/ charge against us. We have thought
! that the United States has been at
| tending strictly to its own business,
and that if European States combine
/ to wage a commercial war upon us
! they will be the chief sufferers, in the
/ present condition of their social sys-
/ TENS, which do not appear to be able
/ to stand the strain that such a con-
! flict would impose upon them
| However, we repeat, If we are ever
| to get the tariff out of politics and
settle upon a stable and non-disturb-
| ing system, it will be done not through
| political revolutions every four years,
! tearing up the business of the country,
unsettling confidence and disturbing,
not to say paralyzing, industry 1t
will come as the result of the greatest
and most effective of teachers-experi-
ence.
| The proposed step for Tariff Com
mission, by the way, is one that can
/ do no possible harm. 1t is worth try
| ing. Upon that it would seem that
the most extreme protectionist and the
most radical free trader can unite. But
to that scheme these same objectors to
| our present system raise the loud-veiced
objection that it is un-American. would
strip Congress and the Executive of all
/ dignity and power, and reduce them
/ to complete insignificance in the pres
| duties, change them from time to time,
adjust classifications of imports. and
reporting TO the President require of
/ him the issuance of a proclamation to
sion is law, and after thirty days to be
respected as such.
| We confess that the proposition as
now formulated does look somewhat
like stripping Congress as the legisla-
I tive body, and the President as the
Executive with a veto power, of their
constitutional rights and duties. How
ever. the present plan for commission
maybe, viii be, modified. 1t is possible
to name commission that will search
out and advise correction of any in
equalities in the present system. and
suggest changes as are needed. Such
a body properly constituted would. we
think, command the respect of the
/ people, and would probably be an effl-
cient force in pushing us on to that
! permanent settlement of the tariff
| question, that every interest, indus
trial. commercial and social, demands.
| Because the President recommended
in his recent message several needed
changes in the civil service law. the
opposition press is shouting through its
sensational trumpet that the Mckinley
Administration is undermining and
seeking to overthrow the entire civil
service reform system. Let not spoils-
men profess concern for the system.
There is nothing they would like bet
ter than to see IT overthrown: but no
Republican administration or Congress
Will ever have that crime laid at its
| party threshold
! An inquisitive and impertinent ex-
change asks If ever yet there was
framed In any nation of this round
globe a tariff bill that met with the
approval OF the New York Evening
/ Post? That is easy--never. Even
reciprocity according to the latest ex-
pressions of that journal is an abom-
| ination-
The President Of the London Board