Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-07-30


bring about a reform until the people
have repudiated him. revoked his au-
thority and retired him to private life
is of about as much value as Il lawyer
V no learns how he could have Non his
case after ii has been iirevocs,bly lost
cur democratic friends in their last ma
tional platform declared that all prod
ucts of trusts should be put upon the
cratic members of the house of repre-
i SentatiyeS WAS to meet in caucus and
4 reiterate this declaration. Before Civ
ing !; moments attention to this pro-
posed remedy l want to say that the
republican party is welded To the gem
eral principle of Il protective tariff but
not to any specific schedule. 1h, tariff
should be revised from time to time to
meet changing conditions. and the re-
! Cuction of Il rate, or placing of an arti-
| Gle on the free list, is no evidence, much
| less no confession, that the original rate
| was wrong when made. The republican
| party will modify the tariff whenever
lev conditions require such modifca
| ton, and If in any specific case a
change in the tariff will tend to relieve
| the people from the oppression of 4
/ trust without undue injury to
American labor that change ought
to be made. Revisions of the
tariff. tending as they do to
unsettle business. should only
| be undertaken when the wrong to
he corrected is So serious that the
Improvement contemplated will COM
pensate for whatever disturbance to
business will result from such revi-
sion.
| But our democratic friends contend
that they have discovered a general
principle which can be applied, and
| that the tariff should be removed from
| all articles, the products of trusts. In
1 view of the assaults upon the tariff
made by the democratic party for two
generations and its We'll known anxiety
to tear it down upon any preteNt, it is
but proper that this new assault upon
lit be scrutiniZed with care. will
not take time to discuss the question
as to whether, as is claimed, the tariff
is the mother of trusts, to dwell upon
the multiplication of trusts in free
trade England, nor to more than refer
to those like the Standard Oil Company,
which deals in an wholly unprotected
product but do want to call attention
to some of those classes of cases in
which the application of the principle
commended for by our democratic friends
would do the people no good and the
trusts no harm, but upon the contrary
would harm the people and help the
trusts.
Ii a trust buys its raw material
abroad or buys it at home of producers
in whom ii has no interest. the removal
of the tariff on such raw material would
not hurt but benefit the trust. To il
lustrate, the removal of the tariff on
cattle ii it had any effect would help.
not hurt the beef trust, by simply en-
aiding it to buy cattle cheaper TO the
detriment of the American farmer, but
would not necessarily in any way re
lieve the people from oppression, be
cause the chief complaint against the
trust evil rests upon the contention
that it can and does by its power hold
the price of what it sells out of due
relation to the cost of production.
When a trust has so far developed
its industry as to be able to compete
in the market places of the world, and
when its domestic competitors have not
so far developed their business as to
be able to so compete. a removal of the
tariff would destroy not the trust but
the competitors of the trust, and thus
make the monopoly complete. -
Where a trust controls the produc-
ton of an article here and the foreign
production of the same article is con-
trolled by another trust, the removal
OF the tariff would serve to release
our people from the clutches of a trust.
but to simply transfer them from the
clutches of domestic trust compelled
by tariff law to produce its goods here
with domestic labor to the clutches OF
a foreign trust that would produce it's
goods abroad with foreign labor.
If these three propositions are cor
rect it appears that the proposed plan
is on par with the wisdom of dem
ocratic craftsmanship generally, and
that the democratic party would if it
had the power injure perhaps Incl
dentally some of the trusts at the
same time faten others by increasing
their already unjust profits, rob the
American laboringman of that work
which is justly his and bring about
another starving time.
The republican policy is far different. |
1t will thoroughly test the existing laws
in the courts and ii it is found that
they are in any way deficient will |
cause them to be amended and |
strengthened so far as Congress has |
constitutional power to do so. We |
have seen the great courageous and |
honest man, who now occupies the |
white house attack the Northern Sc
curities Company and the beef trust |
under the law as 1t is, and it will re-
quire something more than the base |
less insinuations of democratic states |
men to convince the American people |
that the fight thus instituted is not |
Il battle to the death The repub- |
lican party will fearlessly use every |
means in its power to reach this great |
evil and where notifications of the |
tariff would be useful to that end, with
out serious injury to the laDorers of |
this country, will not hesitate to resor. |
thereto. 1t may as We'll be understood |
however, that the republican party |
will neither consent to abandon its |
cardinal doctrine of protection nor to |
the oppression of the people by the |