The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-01
AN "AUTOMATIC" TARIFF.


Germany started on the paternaI pol
Icy of protecting the industries of some
Of its people some years after this
country re-embarked on it, but they
have shown themselves apt scholars.
with an aptness that has put them in
advance of US, with an accelerating
gait that promises to leave us far In
the rear unless the hosts of the Great
Apostle strike a double-quick. There
have been no halfway measures. If
oounties were needed to feed an in
FAINT, they were promptly forthcoming.
II tariffs failed to keep out competing
meats, experts discovered disease
germs lurking in them, and edicts per-
emptorily stopped their ingress If the
bulls and bears of the grain markets
! overloaded the markets with their flu
lures, no reluctance to interfere with
the liberty of trade prevented the
reichstag from putting bulls and bears
under the ban.
And now we are informed that their
wise men are iEventing something new
in tariffs, which they call automatic"
From the meager accounts sent in our
foreign correspondence we infer it is
a mixture of the old sliding scale that
England used in the days when she
was under the delusion that her people
needed protecting because they were
unable to take care of themselves and
our own reciprocity attachment to nro-
tectlVe tariffs. We are told that the
foreign office and the finance depart
ment" are collaborating, thus indicat-
ing that it will not be necessary for
Marshall Won Bieberstein to innrass
his views, as foreign minister, upon
Herr MIGUEL, the finance minister bv
smashing his silk tile, as our own sec
rotary for foreign affairs did in order
to impress upon Mr. McKinley's WAYS
and means committee his ideas Of reel
procity. We are driven to the admts-
sion that the Germans are improving
on our methods.
AS a preparation for the construc-
tlon or this automatic tariff, we are in
formed that expert statements are he
ing obtained from every part Of the
empire in order to get an accurate mic
ture Of the condition Of the various
industries and trades, especially hus-
pandry, so as to fix precisely the de-
gree of protection needed in each Case )"
Ihls leaves the automatic" feature of
this tariff still obscured to our dul1ar
perceptions with the fog Of words. How
tarlH can be fixed" and "automatic"
at the same time is beyond our compre-
/ hens1on, but also. so is German meta
physics, which has solved, to the salts
faction Of the Teutonic minds at least.
| more abstruse problems than any tariff
can present. Candor obliges us TO own
an inability to even guess how q tariff
can be made that will be autona flo
ana also fix precisely the degree Of
protection needed in each case" but
we have an unfaltering confidence IN
the ability of nation to do 1t that has
produced Hegel, a Kant and a Scbon-
AAOt " mention Koch and
Roentgen.
1t is well to mark that Especially
husbandry" emphasized among the
various industries and trades for whose
oehoof protection is to be fixed at "pre-
cisely the degree needed" The Agrarf-
ans are the German PopuIists. having
the advantage over our own most
graduates of the school paternaI of
having in their ranks the aristocracv
the nobility of the empire. and Tins
dominating the reichstag and tha
relchsrath. IT was Bismarck who sent
the nation off in 1879 on its fostering
policy, and Bismarck is a iunker of
Junkers. It was for them sugar bonn
ties were devised, and it is for them
that experts" continue to find trichi
nae in our pork and tubercles in orr
beef. Their type with us is our manu-
facturer and the recent hearings before
the Dingley committee give us an as
surance of what the accurate picture
will be which the agrarians will paint
to show their condition. 1t will not
lack color.