The Winslow mail., 1901-01-10
TARIFF REVISION.
Beneficiaries of the Protective Sys
tenn Are Getting Anxious for
Another Haul.

We are now hearing from certain
republican organs that it is about
time for the tariff to be revised by it's
friends" once more.
When these organs speak of the
tariff they mean the protective sys-
tenn. They are not talking about
revenue. They do not have that in
mind at all.
Therefore. when they say that the
friends of the tariff should revise it
they mean that the friends of the
protective system should revise it.
Who are the friends" of that sys-
tenn? It's benefciaries, of course. It's
friends are those who get rich out Of
it. They are those who are at once
licensed by tariff laws to demand far
more than the competitive prices for
their products and armed with power
to collect the extra charge from their
fellow citizens.
Thus it will be seen that what the
republican organs referred to propose
is that it shall be left to those who
are practically armed with public
say for themselves just how far they
shall be armed with those powers.
We are told that many of the bene-
fciaries of the system do not need
so high duties as they formerly did
to shut out foreign competitors and
give them possession of the home
field. And the suggestion is that
81 hO1 oil
lower duties they, the friends" of the
system. will voluntarily reduce them.
Perhaps they will. But we thank
them for nothing. We may be sure
from our past experience with them
that they will arrange the duties so
as to shield them completely against
foreign competition and extort the
highest possible prices. We may de-
pend on it they will keep up the rates
so that by combining among them
selves to stife competition they can
extort far higher prices from their
own countrymen than they find quite
satisfactory when they sell their
goods to foreigners.
Those organs which suggest that
the tariff should be revised by it's
friends" are not in the least prompt
ed by any desire to relieve the Amer
lean people from the wrong of being
compelled by the agency of law to
contribute out of what is justly theirs
to the enrichment of those who are
engaged in pet industries.
All they intend is that there shall
be a reduction of such duties as do
not produce revenue or enable any
body to practice extortion, and that
on the strength of such reductions
their party shall get credit for re-
ducing taxes.
Heretofore they have not succeeded
even in playing this dishonest game
to any purpose.
The friends" of the tariff mode
of extortion revised it in 1890, but
they did not even make pretense of
relieving the people which could inn
pose on any intelligent person. AS a
matter of fact. they increased the
protective duties and gave us higher
protective tariff than we ever had be-
fore. The most they did was to dis
guise very thinly the fact of the in
crease by abolishing the duty on
sugar, which was equivalent to some
Is per cent, and substituting an
equivalent bounty for the benefit of
domestic producers of sugar.
In 1897 the friends" revised again,
and again they helped themselves to
more protection than they had ever
before ventured to take.
Thus we learn about how much the
people have to expect from a revision
of the tariff by it's friends" People
who enjoy profitable privileges do not
as rule surrender them voluntarily.
They never see the time when they
can get along with any less privileges.
1t would be as rational to leave all
criminal legislation to the inmates of
the penitentiaries as to leave tariff
legislation to the benefciaries of pro-
lection. The public would fare about
equally well in either case.-Chicago
Chronicle.