Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1902-10-31
Root Says, In Revising | ariff.
But Don't Hurt Independ-
ent Concerns.
DON'T LET IN FOREIGN COMBINES
In the Operation OF Killing or the
Local Combination - Democratic
Idea Would ss;ng Industrial Ruin
and Idle Labor.

vas AISu laoS L-1A4t Win pS~t4S WI
had come . attend Republican
meeting, the principal speakers he
ing Mayor Low, Governor Odeh and
Secretary OF War Root. Secretary
Root said in rart:
What does the Democratic party
propose to do, II the pc q ta
United States put the " into
their hands to remedJ L. III ind e..
trial evils and annoyanca5 g44eh lave
come along with our groa,y prosperity?
They have made two proposals. The
first is to revise the taris.
Now, what uoes the Democratic
sent to the principle Of protection
and ask the people Of the United
States to commit TO our hands the
revision Of the tar1-- in conformity to
that principal?" Far from it. They
avow their unrelenting hostility to
the T inciple OF protection and ask
that the people Of the country put in
their hands the revision of the tariff
in order that they may revise the
protection out az it, and repeat the
experiment Of Mr.. Cleye- and s second
administration, when, according 10
Mr.. Gompers, present CT the Ameri-
can Federation Of Labor, put three
million American workmen to walk
ing the streets without work and
without bread Tor their families. 1t
is not revision OF the protective
tariff, but the destruction CT the pro
tective tariff upon which tne people
are to pass in voting for members
of congress next Tuesday, and with
that destruction would disappear, nee
essarily, the conditions CT our pres
ent prosperity.
Would Ruin A.. With Trusts.
The specific ground upon which the
Democratic party now says that it
should be permitted to revise the tar
iff is that the tariff protects the
trusts. Observe that they do not pro
pose to confine themselves to cuttin !,
off the duties upon the articles made
by the trusts, but their remedy is q
destroy the trusts by dragging then
down in the general ruin. But con
slider their proposition regarding the
trusts by themselves. The manufac
turing trusts are protected by the
tariff in common with all other pro
ducers of similar articles, and the
census of 1900 showed that less than
Is per cent of the manufactured
product of the country was made b.
trusts.
If the duties which protect the
trust-made articles are unreasonably
high, then they ought to be reduced
as to all the producers without any
reference to the question whether
they are made by the trusts or not
and if the duties are reduced as to
any of the producers they must be as
to all. You do not hurt the trusts
by such reduction unless you maka
the reduction so great that it will be-
come Improbable to manufacture the
articles in this country. If that is
done, you can kill the trusts, you can
close their mills; you can turn their
laborers out of employment, but you
close the mills also of all other pro.
ducers of similar articles, and you
substitute for domestic production OF
the articles the Importation CT for
eign articles. AS the production Of
foreign articles is in a very great
measure controlled by trusts, you SUB
stitute a foreign trust for an Ameri
can trust
The latest and greatest combina
tion, the United States Steel corpor
alton. was supposed to be an over
whelming monopoly, but the stats
tics of the American Iron and Steel
association for last August show that
already in the year 1901, independent
companies produced over 81 per cent
Of the iron ore Of the country, over 81
per cent of the total pig iron, over
40 per cent CT the Bessemer steel
rails, over 81 per cent of the struc
tural iron. over 4, per cent Of ell
rolled products. We forget the Cam
bria Steel company, the Pennsylva
MIA Steel company, the Bethlehem
Steel .companv End the Republic Ircr
and Steel coTpeny and scores of
other great establishments. with hun
dreds Of mills and furnaces. Compe.
tition is growing: new plants are be
ing equipped The Union Steel CON-
pany is building the Crucible Steel
company is building. the Lackawanna
Steel company is building OF Buffalo,
in our state, a thiTtv million do lar
plant. Are YOU going to ruin al
such independent industries for the
purpose CT furnishing the trusts or
are you going to help thou in their
competition b. wise regulation, AMI
seeing to it, if neea be. that the biz
concern is fair 10 the smaller ones
Are you going 10 cav II the wor$.
men in the tin Plato mills. who have
just cut the;~ OWE WAGES to make
competition with foreign producers
possible. "vcl ere worlring for
trust. We ere going TO make your
sacrifice useless and throw YOU on.
CT work By citing the tarier 3 as 10
bring in fo~eien row pctft > and
drive vour enplo~e~ cut + business
because il is a trust:'
Declared It u-ccastitutional.
Mr.. Root then referred tn TIE $500.
ond proposal of the Democratic
party, contained in the plank of the
New York platform. adopted while
the anthracite cCel strike was ct its
height, and now famous as the coal
plank" and said l. part:
The least CT the offeases involve :
in the declaration is that il 10 unncr