The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1901-10-04
THE FOUNDATIONS OF NATIONAL
GREATNESS APPROVED.
What Classes In the Country Want Tar
rifr Revision and Who Are Opposed to
RaSIng over the Question mt This
Time.


in the staple products but wider d.
versification. This is a perfect txem-
plification of the American system or
protection. In a speech made in the
House of Representatives, March 80
and 81 1924, Henry Clay said
1.-THE greatest want of civilized So
ciety is the market for the exchange
and sale of its surplus produce. ms
market may exist at home or abroad,
but it must exist somewhere II society
prospers. The home market is first
N order and paramount in Importance.
The object of the bill under considera-
ton is to create this home market and
to lay the foundation of a genuine
American policy"
The home market created in 1924.
and that American policy" founded
by Clay and his associates, is to-day
monument of almost incalculable mag
nitude. 1t has been undermined again
and again and almost overturned, Dut
Mckinley and Dingley and the RepuD-
lican party have made the foundation
more solid than ever. Year after year
decade after decade and generation
after generation this grand home mar
ket spreads from State to State. On
our 100000 miles of railroad ponder
GUS freight trains are drawn by huge,
powerful engines day and night scat
tering the product of farm and factory
from ocean to ocean and from lake TO
gulf. Then, when we have consumed
from 80 to 95 per cent of our own pro-
auctions the surplus is shipped to
every part of the earth. But never. for
long, have we lost sight of the Amer
lean policy that ''the home market is
| first in order and paramount in I'M
portance."
Our diversified and interdependent
| chain of industries would feel at once
| the breaking of a single link. Repeal
| the tariff on the product of single in
| dustry, be it that of agriculture or
manufacture. and every other indus
try is affected We can endure
droughts. we can survive great strikes,
but we cannot permanently impair
wages and incomes without wide in
Jury to our whole industrial structure.
Free trade in any form and to any de-
gree. whether it be called reciprocity
that does not reciprocate; Babcockism
Or antitrust medicine, which, instead
of curing the supposed malady, would
kill the patient; tariff reform, the dis
sipator of surpluses and the parent OF
bonds, call it by any name you WILL
free trade would check this prosperity;
would end this progress and impel us
to the inevitable ruin that could only
be ended and repaired by return to
protection.
Never in the history of nations was
tariff law framed and operated so
nearly perfect and equitable as the
Dingley law now on our statute books
and under which we are now living.
Even if it could be done in day with
,ut interfering with any business in
terest it is doubtful if any tinkering
could improve it and leave it as equit-
able to all classes as it is now. Leave
it alone" cries the farmer and with
good reason. Leave it alone" cries
the wage Garner. as he thinks of his
home and his savings. Leave it
alone" cries the manufacturer as he
sees the smoke rising from the
chimney and the lighted mills at night
with the double force. Leave it
alone" cries the railroad man, whether
he be officer or employee. Leave it
alone" cries the banker, the doctor,
the lawyer, the teacher, the merchant,
the clerk. the minister, the actor, the
barber. the blacksmith, the mason, the
carpenter, the painter, the plumber the
drayman, the agent. the architect, the
printer. the builder, the contractor the
engineer, the sailor the 100000 fe-
male wage earners and the 25,GO0,000
of employed males who have learned
the blessings of adequate protection.
tinker" says the pawn broker and
bond buyer; tinker" says Babcock;
tinker" says Bryan; tinker" says
Lamb and Stevens and Perry and At
kinson and perhaps a few hundred
others out of our 100000.
| Tinker, says the demagogue anu
agitator. Leave it alone" says the
conservative business man and the
cautious laborer. You cannot cut off
single limb without endangering the
health if not the life of the whole
! body. Talk is cheap. agitation is easy,
but it is we'll to consider the conse-
quences. In every section of the coun-
try, in every locality. in every branch
of trade and industry there is har-
mony that makes for continued pros
perity and for still more solid founda-
ton for the superstructure known as
the American tariff policy. 1t needs
no tinkering. 1t should be. and we
believe will be, left alone.