Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-12-27
CLASS INTERESTS ARE FIRST,
Tariff Revision Looked Upon as an
Impossihility Ender Repub-
1icans Rule.

Few SUBJECTS Will come before COZ
gress this winter in any form of more
Importance to this nations industrial
interests, and more especially to the
commercial and industrial interests
of the state of Minnesota, than the
treatment which should be extended
to our live stock and dairyfng inter
ests. says the ST. Paul Globe.
For all practical purposes it seems
determined that we shall have no reci-
procity treaties ratified by the pres
ent senate. The chief vaf1le of such
treaties is, Of course, ino the extended
markets they offer to our breadstuffs,
as we'll as to our manufactured articles.
The debate now in progress in the
German parliament shows &hat we
have to contend with in foreign lands
in the effort to send into them our
cheap food products. Those govern
| ments will give us9no market they can
keep from us. They are not willing
I that our exclusive trading system,
whereby we seek to sell without buy
ing in return, shall receive even teller
alton at their hands.
Germany has been one of the most
; persistent of the foes of ouf exclusion
| laws. The agrarian interest in that
country has consistently and steadily
! opposed the introduction Of our food
|. products. The present excitement in
| German legislative circles on that score
is no new circumstance. It may be for
| the poorer classes in Germany the en-
| actment Of hunger laws as the So
! cia1ist representatives claim, and it
| may be inconsistent with the true well
fare Of the German masses but there
| is no man who will say that it is not
| justifiabl as q matter Of national re-
| prisa1.
What the German government is try
! ing to do with reference to American
| food products we are trying to do
! toward ourselves in the attempted adj
vancement of class interests through
legislation. Every Minnesota con.
! gresham having a rural constituency
| of any extent has made his appearance
in Washington this winter with a
measure designed to drive the cleo.
margarine industry out Of existence
4 And while one stands watching in won.
! derment this display of class selfish
ness and Observation-Disclosures there ap
pear on the scene the representative:
| of the cattle-raising5 interests, with
| their legislative programme. They
: are against all that the dairying in
! terests seem to demand, and they de
mand a whole lot of things which TIL
. dairy interests seem to be Indifferent
/, toward.
The, republican party has breugh
the conscience and moral sense of tn
country down to such a low level tina
} it IS almost impossible to consider pub
lie measures without immediate an
? controlling reference to the interest
which are pecuniarily interested ad
verselyo or favorabIy. Legislation i
D looked on as a form of public favorft
ism, and it seems to be the prineipa
question how much more one interes
t can get out Of the grab-bag than an
1 other interest.
No wonder, indeed, in such situs
< ton, that tariff revision is looked upo
:. as an impoksibility,2o and that tn
I sponge has been thrown up already b
L the hackers of the reciprocity idea.