Mower County transcript., 1902-10-01
cities Of the Mississippi valley and the

cities of the Mississippi valley and the
great lakes as the region round about
! them has been built up-that is, you
had the qualities of heart and brain,
the moral and physical fiber which
enabled you to use to the utmost pos
| sible advantage whatever you found
ready to your hands.
"Probably the most important aid
which can be contributed by the ma
tional government to the material
| we'll being of the country is to in
sure it's financial stability. An hon
est currency is the strongest symbol
and expression of honest business
life. The business world must exist
largely on credit and to credit conf
dence is essential. Any tampering
with the currency, no matter with
what purpose, if fraught with the
suspicion of dishonesty in result, is
fatal in it's effect on business pros
perity. Ignorant and primitive COM
munities are continually obliged to
learn the elementary truth that the
reputation Of debts is in the end
ruinous to the debtors as class;
and when communities have moved
higher in the scale of civilization
they also learn that everything in
works similar damage.
"A financial system of assured hon
esty is the first essential. Another
essential for any community is per-
severance in the economic policy
which for course of years is found
best fitted to it's peculiar needs.
Must Readjust the Tariff.
''The question of combining such
fxedness of economic policy as re-
CARDS the tariff, while at the same
time allowing for a necessary and
proper readjustment of duties in par
ticular schedules as such readjust-
ment becomes matter of pressing
Importance, is not an easy one. It
is perhaps too much to expect that
from the discussion Of such a ques-
tion it would be possible wholly to
eliminate political partisanship. Yet
those who believe, as we all must
| when we think seriously of the SUBJ
ject, that the proper aim of the party
system is after all simply to SUBJ
serve the public good, cannot but
hope that where such partisanship
on a matter of this kind conflicts
| with the public good it shall at least
be minimiZed.
"What we really need in this coun-
try is to treat the tariff as busi-
ness proposition, and not from the
standpoint of the temporary needs
of any political party. It surely
ought not to be necessary to dwell
upon the extreme unwisdom, from a
business standpoint, from the stand
point of national prosperity, of vio-
lent and radical changes, amounting
to the direct upsetting of tariff pol
icies at intervals of every few years.
Radical Action Not Wanted.
"A nation like ours can adjust it's
business after fashion to any kind
of a tariff. But neither our nation
nor any other can stand the ruinous
policy of readjusting it's business to
radical changes in the tariff at short
/ intervals. This is more true now
than ever it was before, for owing
to the immense extent and variety
of our products, the tariff schedules
of to-day carry rates of duty on
more than 1000 articles.
"Continual sweeping changes in
such a tariff, touching so intimately
the commercial interests of the ma
tion, which stands as one of the two
or three greatest in the whole in
dustrial world, cannot but be disas-
trous. Yet, on the other hand, where
the industrial needs of the nation
shift as rapidly as they do with US,
it is a matter of prime Importance
that we should be able to readiust
our economic policy as rapidly as
possible and with as little friction
as possible to these needs.
"We need a scheme which will en-
able us to provide for a reapplica-
tion of the principles to the changed
conditions. The problem, therefore,
is to devise some plan by which these
shifting needs can be recognized and
the necessary readjustment of du-
ties provided without forcing the
entire business community, and
therefore the entire nation, to sub
nit to violent surgical operation,
the mere threat of which, and still
more the accomplished fact of
which, probably would paralyze for
a considerable time all the industries
of the country. Such radical action
might readily reproduce the condi-
tions from which we suffered nine
years ago, in 1893.
No Question of Partisanshfp.
ut is on every account most ear
nestly to be hoped that this problem
can be solved in some manner into
which partisanship shall enter as a
purely secondary consideration, if at
all; that, is, in some manner which
shall provide for an earnest effort
by nonpartisan inquiry and action
to secure any changes, the need of