The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-10
CASTING IT'S SHADOW BEFORE.

CASTING IFS SHADOW BEFORE
There is a sentence in the report of
Mr.. Cannon, the chairman Of the house
appropriations committee, having a
portentous meaning that Republicans,
as we'll as Democrats, are beginning
to recognize. Mr.. Cannon says:
The appropriations made for the support
or the federal government have grown to
such startling proportions in the last dozen
years as to render it we'll nigh impossible to
devise means Of raising revenue with which
TO meet the expenditures. If the new ad-
minlstration, just about to cross the threshold
or power carries out its pledge by giving
to the country protective tariff it will
utterly fall to produce the means of meet
ing expenditures, If they to be main
tanned on the existing plane, unless, perad-
venture, the protective tariff measure should
be supplemented with tax on coffee and
tea an \ perhaps taxes of an equally onerous
nature
This is nothing more or less than an
assertion by a Republican, and one of
high tariff proclivities, that the time is
already at hand when we must con-
slider all forms Of taxation solely in the
light Of revenue producers. Now that
the Republican party is clothed with
responsibility, 1T finds it necessary to
throw off the mask of pretense that if
has worn so successfully for the last
four years, and to go back to those first
principles contained in the Mckinley
act of 1890, which declared that a high
tariff is a means Of reducing and not
OF increasing revenue Mr.. Cannon
ava1ls himself of the text of economy.
and we are glad of that. The neces-
slty OF cutting down our extravagant
ana Wasteful expenditures cannot be
urged too often or too strongly. But.
aside from that, and assuming
mat future congresses will be as eco
nomlcal as their predecessors have
been spendthrift the trainers of INV
laws Will have to revise their ideas as
10 methods of raising revenue. The
progress of this country In manufac-
ture, Of which we are SO proud and
winch we have spent so much money
TO promote, sounds the death kneU of
the system Of providing for govern
mental needs by a general tariff list.
We have but to look at the metal
schedule for an example. Since the
collapse of the steel rail pool and the
reduction of the price Of rails in tba
uohlestlc market to figure with which
the foreigner cannot compete. II NAV
De assumed that the imports Of steaJ
rails hereafter will be as inconsiderabla
IN quantity as the imports of wheat ar
i've stock We are not going TO Inv
abroad commodities which can be DUR
chased as cheaply at home. When the
nome price falls tC the level of the
price abroad a tariff becomes mon
erative. If the makers of steel raiIs
IN the United States, by competition
with one another, keep the price down
10 the cost of production in ENGLAND
ana Germany then there will be prac-
ideally no imports, whether the tariff is
per cent or 500 per cent. If there era
no imports, there will be no customs
receipts. What is true of steel rails is
true OF tin plate and of pretty rearIv
all other commodities, except iuxurjes
and certain forms of textile manufac-
tures. The economic fact. then is that
irrespective Of tariffs. the imports Of
manufactured articles will decline nro-
eressiyely. You cannot bring up rave
nue. by raising duty, because. under
these conditions, the higher the duty
the less money it brings in To in
crease the duty on steel rails for in
stance, would not add a dollar to the
treasury, but would simply keep cut
that small quantity which might still
Otherwise be ordered, by reason Of the
desire for special make, or a par
Hcular quality of steel. Every devel-
opment of home manufacture that en-
ables the home producer to control the
home market, not by legislative favor
itism, but by lowering the cost Of pro-
duction here to the level of other parts
Of the world, puts an end to importa-
ton. 1t puts an end, also, to large
receipts from customs duties.
We may see in this evolution, first.
the certain decline and fall of the pro-
tective system by its own weight. All
of it's work, for good and for evil. in
whatever proportions these may have
been mingled, is about to pass away.
Not by the fierce conflict of parties is
this to come about, but by natural in
dustrial development We believe, for