The times., 1899-12-28
The Thrift in Politics.


Congress from Illinois and member Of
the WAYS and Means Committee. has an
entertaining paper, in which he seeks to
show that the tariff. although obscured
and temporarily side-tracked. because of
the pressure of more imminent questions
upon public attention will be in the future,
as in the past. a live issue. As special
plea, addressed to the monopolistic inter
ests whose unearned. exorbitant profits are
largely the result OF tariff oppression. and
whose contributions TO the Republican
campaign fund of 1900 are earnestly de-
sired by Mr.. Hanna, the argument Of Mr..
Hopkins is easy to understand. and may
prove pleasantly productive. To students
OF political economy and other cognOscenu
it will not carry much conviction.
The essayist believes that all efforts to
take the tariff question out Of politics, by
delegating its consideration and legislation
70 a body of non-partisan experts as has
been urged by many people, would be i'm
possible under our Federal system, which
places all authority over the fiscal affairs
Of the nation in Congress, will fail, and in
this conclusion he is right Even if such
a tribunal were constitutional while the
Republican party retains power it could
never be disinterested or honest. But the
further contention, that because fiscal leg
islation cannot be removed from the forum
OF the Capitol, il must, therefore, always
be more or less a question of strife be-
tween political parties. is considerably
weakened by the very reasoning Mr.. Hop
kins uses to support it.
Although he insists that the tariff most
probably viii be a prime issue in the
Presidential campaign of 1901, he considers
that the anti-protecuon tariff principle of
reciprocity will grow in the mean time
and become the leading feature OF the ma
tional policy and practice. Il is in exactly
this way that we expect to see the tariff
take Itself out of politics The movement
viii be assisted and its end accelerated by
other things; but reciprocity alone in due
course Of time, would pick all the feathers
and bones out of protection without the aid
of any contributory considerations.
The adoption Of the principle in the Nc
Kinley tariff was the first and fatal Repub-
lican concession that protection, unlimited
and irrespective Of Industrial or CONNER
cial conditions, was not necessarily mat
ter of faith and gospel, immutabe infalli-
bic, and unquestionabIe. Reciprocity is the
negation of protection, as it is the
basic idea of the free trade theory. It was
a clever makeshift, as conceived by the
brilliant and shifty Blaine, to plow with
The free trade heifer as to all those things
Of the trusts contributory to the Repub-
Hoan exchequer, while leaving authority in
the Executive TO keep the screws down
wherever reciprocity would injure those in
terests during the time of their good be-
havior.
In this connection 1t must be confessed
that Mr.. Hopkins may be partially correct
in his prediction that the tariff is to keep
its hold upon party politics, for while at
least. The wider spread OF reciprocity and
its inevitable application TO our CONNER
ciaI relations with all civilized States, by
and by viii leave little of a strictly pro-
tectional character in our tariff schedule,
except in the matter of articles produced
by the Republican trusts and sold at enor-
nous prices in the United States, that the
producers may underseIl foreign markets
at the expense Of American consumers.
When these exceptions have become few, as
compared with commodities under reciproc-
ity, and thereby conspicuous, no doubt there
viii be a struggle on the part OF men like
Mr. Hanna, Mr.. Gage, Mr. Hopkins, and
Mr. Aldrich TO save them from sharing the
common fate Of the reciprocated mass, and
in that sense the tariff may be revived in
some sort as an issue.
It Is sufficiently evident that when Re-
publican spokesmen like Mr. Hopkins at
tempt to argue for protection and general
reciprocity in the same breath, they are
quite conscious that the latter has started
on its way to the jumping place. The
possession Of the Philippines, Hawaii, and
Porto Rico, and the necessary means we
shall have 10 adopt 10 promote their devel-
opment, viii render a continuance of our
old policy of absolute tariff protection to
the sugar, tobacco, hemp, and like things
grown on the continent no longer possible.
Reciprocity will do the rest. The reyolu-
tion does not 90 backwards. The old rob
Der tariff cult is too nearly dead to talk
about, and MIR. Mckinley will be ready
after the next election to abandon it as
easily as he has those other fe-long OBJ
jects Of his former adoration-silyer and
civil service reform.