Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-03-29

l
against this open robbery of the peo-
Il and throttlinS OF legitimate trade!
Which is simply throwing free rein
to the trusts, which created this ad-
ministration and dominate and control
it and its organs, of which latter our
Fourteenth street contemporary is a
brilliant example.
No amount of hypocritical pretense
will Jlind ally grown person as to the
attitude of he Trusts Own. 1t is pre-
cisely that OF its masters, the leaders
of its party, who would amount 10
nothing and be nowhere without trust
backing and trust campaign Doodle.
Take trust support away from the Re-
publican organization as it is now con-
stituted and that organization would
not stand an instant. Where would
Hanna be and where would he get the
needful slush fund-the first requisite
of modern Republican campaign?
The organs statement that the trusts
are not dependent on the tariff, be-
cause trusts existed under low tariff
as we'll as high" is absurd. By low
tariff" the organ means the Wilson, bill,
which levied an average duty of 421a
per cent, and was really and in effect
a comparatively high protection meas
ure, for none other at that time could
pass Congress. OF course, trusts eX-
listed under that 421a per cent. tariff.
It was ample protection for them.
But-and mark this-if we had the
Wilson bill to-day, protectionist
though its schedules were, many
trusts that are now fiourishing and
sending prices skyward would not be
in existence, or, at least, would not be
able to increase prices to the present
exorbitant figures, for the reason that
under the lower duties of the Wilson
bill foreign competition would step in
after a certain level CT prices had been
reached.
The truth-which is well enough
known to our hypocritical contempor-
airy. the Trusts Own, of Fourteenth
streets that there is but one way to
effectively combat the trusts and that
is by entirely cutting off their protec-
ton and letting in foreign competi-
ton on them until their combines to
maintain prices and plumber the Amer
lean consumer are broken. That
legitimate American industry would
not be injured but on the contrary
would be benefited by this, is evident
from the notorious fact that the pro-
tected trusts all sell their wares in the
free trade markets of the world after
paying the freight at from one-half to
one-fourth the prices they charge the
American consumer right at home in
the protected home market.
Our Pecksniffian neighbor knows
these things as we'll as does every
business man.
But probably the funniest thing from
the Trusts Own is its cheerful asser-
ton that the Republican party will re-
duce the tariff when the time comes.
Verify, we have been told this tale
for the past forty years. 1t was told
the people when high protection was
first introduced during the days of the
civil war as a war revenue measure,
which was to be repealed when the
necessity for it ended. And it has
been told us ever since, by the same
set of politicians, or their sons and
grandsons.
But has the tariff come down whit
under Republican rule?
Not one iota.
On the contrary, it has gone steadily
up, up, up, as the trusts have formed
combinations and demanded more and
more privileges and license to plumber
the American consumer, until now we
have the highest tariff in our history
or the history of the world!
The tariff could safely have been re-
duced years ago. The plea that the
Republican leaders-trust owned and
controlled as they are-will ever vol
UNFAIRLY lower the tariff is equal to
saying that the trusts-these soulless
corporations of organized rapacity and
greed-will voluntarily give up their
quarry, their schemes of plumber, by
which they are annually making enor-
mouse unearned fortunes out of the
sweat and blood of American labor.
AS well might the lamb look for
mercy from the wolf as for the Amer
lean people to look to the trust-owned
and trust-dominated Republican lead
ers for protection against trust plum
der
The Registers readers were doubtless
amazed to read the following enigmatic