Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-07-31

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 a lawyer
| who learns how he could have won his
case after it has been irrevocably lost
| Our democratic friends in their last ma
| tional platform declared that all prod
Gets of trusts should be put upon the
| free list, and the last act of the demo-
cratic members of the house of repre-
! 3entativeS was to meet in caucus and
reiterate this declarations Before Civ
| ing u moments attention to this pro-
posed remedy | want to say that the
republican party is welded to the gem
eral principle of a protective tariff, but
not to amy specific schedule. The tariff
1 should be revised from time to time to
meet changing conditions, and the re-
duction of a 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
new conditions require such modified
| ton. and If in any specific case a
change in the tariff will tend to relieve
| the people from the oppression of Il
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
be 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
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 pretext, 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
to some of those classes of cases in
which the application of the principle
Icontended 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.
If trust buys its raw material
abroad or buys it at home of producers
~,
of the tariff on such raw material would
not hurt but benefit the trust. To il
lustrate, the removal of the tariff on
cattle If it had any effect would help,
not hurt the beef trust, by simply en-
abling 1T 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 1t can and does by it's 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 it's domestic competitors have not
so far developed their business as to
be able to so compete. removal of the
tariff would destroy not the trust but
the competitors of the trust, and thus
make the monopoly complete.
Where q 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 u 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 its
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 il ii
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 it is, and 1T will re-
qure something more than the base
less insinuations of democratic states
men to convince the American people
that the fight thus instituted is not
battle to the death The repub-
lican party will fearlessly use every
means in it's power to reach this great
evil and where notifications of the
tariff would be useful to that end, with
out serious injury to the laborers of
this country will not hesitate to resort
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
trusts. Its cry is not for commercial
freedom at the expense of prosperity,
but commercial freedom and prosper
ity.
Hardly was the republican parry safe
ly returned to power when the de-
mand for the freedom of Cuban because
almost universal and to that end war
was undertaken With Spain, with little
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