The Tucson citizen., 1902-05-09
AN lOWH STORM SIGNAL.

clasts among Republican party lead
ers. Hardly has Secretary of the
Treasury Shaw unleashed few Of his
innermost thoughts concerning the
motives underlying the war with
Spain than his successor as governo:
of Iowa, Hon. A. B. Cummins. begins
to tear off the Republican mask and
say few things about the tariff. in
speech delivered a few days ago at
Minneapolis, Governor Cummins re-
galed his hearers with sentiments If
which the following is a fair sample:
The American people will no more
submit to commercial despotism than
they would to COVER nmentai nesDot
ism, and the tendency In the one case
can be and will be as easily thwarted
as the tendency in the other.
His subject was Trusts" and he
directed his attention to one of the
ro.ts of the evil by roundly condemn
ing the issuance of watered stock. He
believes. he says. that il corporations
industrial and otherwise, were forbid
den to issue stock unless paid for in
money at its par value many OF the
present combines would not have been
effected. In the same protective line.
Mr.. Cummins would have vested in the
national government the power to fix
the prices of products or service upon
which a monopoly or substantial
monopoly has been established. Car.
ried into execution, these suggestions,
doubtless. would have a remedial ef-
feet, although they may be easier to
theorize on than to practice. But the
suggestions come from man who Is
said to have the Washington admins
tration's support in his canvass tor
governor, aAd therefore to be weighed
as important.
While these utterances are worthy
OF consideration, In view of their
source, there is still another which
win ocme as thunderclap to the wor-
shippers at the shrine of high protec-
ton. This is what Governor Cum
minis says:
| believe. too, that some branch of
the government must be empowered 10
remove the duties upon imports upon
these commodities respecting which
competition no longer exists in our
own country. have long been "A
most devoted adherent OF the principle |
of protection, and my zeal for 1t has |
Increased rather than diminished with |
the progress of time. Nevertheless | |
believe that the consumer has a better
right to competition than the pro-
Queer has to protection. Competition /
we Will have, that of our country pre- I
ferred, but that of the world If neces- /
sary. Within the last three or four
years human nature, fired by unwonted /
prosperity, and led by the kings of
commerce, has proposed and has been
endeavoring to accomplish objects I
which are intolerable in a free coun- T
try, which do not tend to development,
but to tyranny. The fundamental law
of healthy, vigorous. enduring in
dustrial life Is competition. There
80 - CNI WV tOiNCo nAIIH chH safely DE
trusted to regulate industry and com
merce. The first is competition; the
second law.
Governor Cummins then pointed 70 /,
the United States Steel Corporation,
stating that the American people were
proud to see it's nucleus, the Carnegie
company. win its great victories
through enterprise and brains; but
the warning came when the absorbing
company appeared, first to enrich its
promoters by the issuance of vast
quantities of fictitious stock that rep
'csented nothing but the audacity of
he sellers and the credulity of the
buyers" The superstructure built
Upon water is in danger of toppling
after it has crushed out the life OF
Such sentiments as the governor Of
owa expressed at Minneapolis seem to
,e the distant warning of a political
storm. The protection temple is al
'eady swaying. and the fall elections
nay witness it's collapse.