Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-01-01
No Hope for Tariff Reform.

PRESIDENT RO0Seyelts first annual mes
sage has been read by all thinking men,
regardless of party utilization, with
probably more interest than has any
Presidential message in recent years.
There has been general expectancy
that this mans first declarations Of
public policy would be strenuous, at
least In spots, and that he would tackle
some new ideas and handle them in an
original way. The message is we'll
written document, which everybody
who knows the Rooseveltian literary
style expected, and which all will COM
mend. Otherwise 1t is merely interest
ing as tale that has been told in the
regular daily history of our times by
the up-to-date newspapers of the coun-
try. The President takes strong ground
in the matter of anarchy In the United
States, but suggests no more effective
remedy than the suppression of an
archistic meetings and the deportation
of anarchists to the country from
whence they sailed to America.
Indeed it would puzzle anybody to
suggest anything further that would be
practical along that line.
Under most heads the message treats
questions fairly from Republican
standpoint but there is notable ex-
ception in the case of the trust subject.
The President will be accused of dis
honesty in the way he handles the
trusts and their causes. He makes the
assertion that ''The creation of these
great corporate fortunes has not been
due to the tariff nor to any other govern
mental action, but to natural causes in
the business world, operating in other
countries us they operate in our own"
Will the President have the-well, we
will call it "strenuosity," to maintain
before any American audience that he
is honest in this assertion? If the tar
If has not created these corporate for
tunes, such as the steel trust, what was
the tariff placed on steel products for?
If the tariff on steel was not for the ex-
press purpose of giving the American
steel manufacturers an advantage over
the foreign manufacturers, what was
the tariff made for? VIII the operation
of the American tariff on steel help the
English and German steel manufac-
turer the same as it helps the American
steel manufacturer?
Great Scott! President Roosevelt, can
you expect us to believe this? Do you
expect us to believe that you actually
think that the tariff has not assisted
the American Knit Goods Trust in pill
ing up its millions of wealth?
1t is pity that President Roosevelt
would mar an otherwise fairly con-
sistent Republican document by toady-
ing so unreasonably to the extreme tar.
if faction of his party. The thought.
full, Independent men of both parties
have up to this time looked to Roose.
welt for. frank and honest expression on
the issues that are now occupying pub
lie attention, and we have looked for
ward to his first message to see a fair
discussion of the tariff, in which he
would ut least take position abreast
of the advanced statesmen of his own
party who have begun to see glimmer-
ings Of the new dawn of industrial and
commercial freedom. If a man like
Roosevelt must fawn before the tariff
barons Of America with the obviously
false and foolish assertion that the
creation of the great corporate fortunes
Of the tariff protected Industries "has
not been due to the tariff" then what
may we expect of other men, who are
ordinary and common. and who make
no pretence of independence or "strenu-
osity?" Alack and alas
Poor Roosevelt! = Wichita, Kan,
Democrat,