The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1901-10-25
A CAREFUL ANALYSIS
CONGRESSMAN TONGUE ON TARIFF
REVISION.
It Should Only he Undertaken After
Deliberate and Exhaustive Examination
of Existing Facts and Condltions-The
Present Industrial Situation.

takes a comprehensive view of the
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 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 most care
full and thorough analysis. IT, 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 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 1t
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-
ton 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, dairies,
orchards and gardens.
Our present trade balance is ena-
bling us to cancel our obligations to
foreign nations, and its continuance
for few years will make us the cred
itor nation of the world. Labor is
we'll paid and fully employed. We
should not lightly imperil these adj
vantages or endanger the prosperity
we now enjoy. To enter now upon
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 influ
ences. Six years ago the crying evil
was "low 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 well 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 capal.e 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,
ind 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 Protective system.
They give plausibility to the argument
that Protective Tariff fosters trusts.
They are the enemies, not the friends,
of Protection. II 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 step should be taken
only after the most careful examina-
ton Of the probable effect of the &C
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
we're not merely changing masters and
enthroning a foreign trust upon the
ruins of domestic trusts. We should
first be sure of the facts, and the