Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-11-02
A CAREFUL ANALYSIS
CONGRESSMAN TONGUE ON TARIFF
REVISION.
1t Should Only BE Undertaken After a
Deliberate and Exhaustive Examination
of Existing Facts and Conditions-The
Present Industrial Situation.


present industrial situation and
sketches the relation of the Tariff
thereto with a firm hand AS to one
phase of the current attempts at Tar
if agitation he makes a frank state
ment. If everything that Mr.. Babcock
and some others claim is true he would
concede the remedy they demand. but
Mr.. Tongue makes his proposition
entirely contingent upon a most care
full and thorough analysis. If" he
says, "a careful examination should
prove" no less than five different speci-
fications to be true, then he would re-
move the Tariff from the industries
or articles in question. His closing
caution and wise requirement of GER
tainty.
The investigation named as a pre-
requisite is now being carried on, and
it will be as thorough and exact as
possible. 1t is believed that the de-
mand heretofore made for the repeal
of certain duties on the ground of
their being imperative except to ena-
BILE American manufacturers to get
higher prices at home than abroad was
premature and hasty, and that cool
and exhaustive examination of the
whole subject will make such repeal
obviously unnecessary. The conclu-
sion of the inquiry should be awaited
before any action should be taken
81 certainly do not believe that it
would be wise for Congress at the
coming session to enter upon any
thing like a general revision of the
present Tariff. AS a whole, both in
producing needed revenue and in slim
ulating the industrial interests of the
country, the Dingley Tariff law has
been unusually successful. Our exports
surpass all previous records and are
still growing larger. With consump
tion stimulated to the highest point
we are purchasing from foreign ma
lions less of food products, especially
such as our own farmers can success
fully raise, than we purchased during
those years of terrible depression fol-
lowing the passage of the Wilson
German law. A greatly increased de-
mand for these is supplied wholly
from our own farms, ranges, diaries,
orchards and gardens.
"Our present trade balance is ena-
bling US to cancel our obligations to
foreign nations, and it's continuance
for a few years will make us the cred
itor nation of the world Labor is
well paid and fully employed. We
should not lightly imperil these ad
vantages or endanger the prosperity
we now enjoy. To enter now upon a
general revision of the Tariff, to at
tempt to remodel and rebuild our in
dustrial system would itself create
alarm, resulting in a general shorten
ing up Of production, lessening the de-
mand for labor and supplies and gen.
eral unrest and alarm. 1t would be
better to bear with slight inconveni-
ences rather than to rush blindly upon
| untold disaster. We must not attrib-
| ute all higher prices to sinister infiu-
ences. Six years ago the crying evil
was '1ow prices When all are eager
ly striving to secure higher prices in
the presence of phenomenally in
creased demand. we must expect that
there will be increase in the price OF
the production OF others. as we'll as of
our own, of the things we consume
as we'll as those we produce. We
| must not expect to buy cheap unless
we expect to sell cheap and work
| cheap.
But if a careful examination should
| prove, what is so often alleged, that
| there are Tariffs upon products not
| needed for either revenue or protec-
| ton; that the industries producing
| these goods are capable of withstand
| ing all foreign competition, that they
| are outstripping all foreign compel
| itors in their own domain, and rapidly
| capturing the markets of the world,
| and that these Tariffs serve no pur-
| pose except to enable the corporations
| controlling these products to extort
unreasonable prices from the home
| consumer while selling cheaper abroad
| then they should be repealed at once.
| This should be DONE not to destroy,
but to preserve protection. They
| form no part of a Protective system
They give plausibility to the argument
| that Protective Tariff fosters trusts.
| They are the enemies, not the friends,
| Of Protection. If we do not get rid of
| such Tariffs there is grave danger that
| the people, unmindful OF past expert
ences, stirred to madness by appeals to
| prejudice against great wealth, may
| arise in their might, guided by anger
| more than by wisdom, as in 1892, and
destroy the whole Protective policy
| But such a step should be taken
| only after the most careful examina-
! ton of the probable effect of the &C
i ton contemplated. We should be GER
| tain that the industries affected could
| successfully withstand foreign compe-
/ tition, that we were not destroying
| important enterprises while attemp-
ting to destroy monopolies, that we
| were not merely changing masters and
enthroning a foreign trust upon the
4 of re TX 10 Oh