Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-08-22
REPUBLICAN TARIFF DILEMMA
Enormous row of Trusts and
Monopolies Under Protection
staggers Them.

The unexpected often happens in
politics. When the republicans enact
ed the Dingley tariff bill they said it
settled the tariff question and that n
policy of protection would not again
be disturbed. They claim that pros
perity is dependent upon the main
tanning of the protection wall they
have so carefully erected. But sud-
denly some of the most pronounced
friends of protection express their
purpose of making a breach in the
wall, and the whole tariff matter is
again brought up for discussion by the
very men who said it was settled for all
time. The enormous growth of trusts
and ~monopolies under the protection
granted them by the republicans was
foretold by the democrats when h
Dingley bill was enacted, and now the
people are being aroused by the fact
that the foreigners are buying trust
productions for less than they are,
the allies of the trusts in congress are
in a dilemma. They must cut off pro-
lection from the trusts or the prospect
ofdefeat stares them in the face. But
to acknowledge they are wrong and
that their theory OF protection is at
fault is another predicament, and the
great majority of the republicans. I'M
der the leadership of Hanna and the
president, have determined to eyade
the strait they are in by the %unconsti-
t%utional and roundabout way of reci-
procity.
But reciprocity will not accomplish
what the people r demanding, that
protection be withdrawn from the
trusts. There is another danger
looming up to d~isarrange the protec-
ton theory, and the only way that
can be averted is by giving up the
colonies that have been acquired by
the expenditure of such vast sums
and the sacrifice of so many lives.
This the Nashville American dis
cusses when it says: "After a delay
for which there was no defense, free
trade has been established with
Porto Rico. The country has finally
performed its "plain duty as point
ed out by President Mckinley be-
fore he signed the Porto Rico tariff
bill. Free trade between all Ameri-
can possessions is a policy which no
party can afford to ignore or defy.
When the republican party, through
force of circumstances which no
party could control, accepted and
adopted the Odd democratic policy of
territorial expansion, it entered upon
a policy which is the enemy of a tar
iff policy. Expansion and free trade
go together. A severe blow was
struck the republican policy OF a pro-
~tective tariff when Dewey's guns in
Manila bay gave to this country the
Philippine archipelago, and when the
war with Spain gave us Porto Rico
and paved the way for the ultimate
annexation of Cuba. Free trade mas
been Established with Porto Rico,
and free trade with the Philippines
must follow. 1t is inevitable. Ex-
pansion is an entering wedge which
must eventually drive asunder the
tariff wall erected by republican leg
islation. The tobacco and cane and
beet sugar and rice and fruit grow
ers may succeed in delaying free
trade with the Philippines, as they
have delayed Tor a time free trade
with Porto Rico, but the time is not
far away when trade will be as free
between the Philippines and the
United States as it is between the
states of the American union. And
the time is coming when there will be
free trade with Cuba also. The logic
of events will force free trade in 9TH
er directions"
The only way the people will ever
get any relief from tie tariff tax and
the ~extortion of the protected trusts
is by revising the tariff on the demo
cratic principle of a tariff for revenue
only large enough to produce what
money the government requires
economically administered. Protec-
ton is the mother of trusts and must
go the way of all monopolies.