The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-18
OUR COLONIAL PROBLEM.


 case of the United States, in ''preserv
 ing our industries from destructiv,
 competition few persons, except thos'
 who are directly affected by the in
 crease or reduction of duties, appear tt
 be interested in them. The man whC
 talks tariff or writes tariff is regarded
 as being created solely for the pur-
 pose of wearing out the patience of his
 felloW-mortals, stuffing them with sta
 tistics and gradually driving them eith-
 CT to distraction or reducing them to a
 state of chronic drowsiness. There
 may be exceptional occasions, however
 when even the tariff may be invoked as
 subject to stimulate the jaded inher-
 est of ennuied mortals. In this hour of
 national peril it may not be aniss to
 direct attention to what our statesmen
 are doing to save this country from the
 insidious assaults of the Cubans and
 Filipinos.
 As everybody who reads the newspa-
 pers knows, the House of Representa-
 tives recently passed bill to prevent our Philippine brett from wiping out American industries and converting
 this republic into a wilderness. This bill provides that when products of the Philippines are imported into the Uni ted States the full rates of the Dingley tariff act must be levied on them. When the measure was under consider atlon in the house veteran protectonists strong men and bearded men-shed bitter tears at the thought that even the Dingley tariff might not be suffi- cient to protect our puny industries from the trade onslaught of the ilipi no. Now they are terrified at the pros pect that the senate may modify the Philippine committee, has prepared an only seventy-fve per cent. of the Ding ley rates on the products of our little brown brother in the Philippines. Sen ator Lodge, the chairman of the senate Philippine committee, has prepared an amendment and will press it at the ear Hest opportunity, possibly to-day If he secures it passage the hemp, indigo, rice, cane sugar, tobacco and cocoanuts of our distant archipelago will be taxed only three-fourths as much when sent to the United States as the patriotic protectionists of the house demand. It is true the tariff devised by the Philip pine commission levies an export tax on all these products. and therefore inn ports from the Philippines will actually, although not nomnally, pay about the full rates of the Dingley act So, after all the concessions for which Senator Lodges amendment provides are of shadowy nature, and the Filipino gets practically no relief. But, according to the statesmen in the lower branch of congress, we will even then be at the mercy of the Filpinos and in imminent deadly peril of being exterminated.
 It seems to the irreconciliable protec- tionist that our tariff makers in Wash ington do not realize the threatening character of the Filipino and Cuban 1 The mighty archipelago of the | far east and the powerful country al- l most in sight of our Florida coast have | filled the souls of our Dingleyites with | unspeakable dread. When Cuba | knocks at our doors and asks for re- duction of the duties on her sugar and ] tobacco Americans who believe in pro- tecting our industries quake and tren- ble. The New England Tobacco Grow srs' association met on Tuesday and re- solved that it was "all up with them if congress allows American citizens to smoke Cuban tobacco not grown under 1 he shadow of Plymouth Rock. The oeet sugar interests of the west, which 10 not make enough sugar to supply he country for two weeks, insist that here shall be no concession to Cuba, otherwise they will go out of business md die of starvation. Some protec- ;ionist newspapers like the New York ribune maintain that it will be not only yood business but the fulfillment of a moral obligation" to give the Cubans ] chance to sell in our markets. The 1 western beet growers and sugar nak- ITS and the New England producers of Cuban tobacco" retort that moral ob- , igations have no place in tariff chedule and that if any obligations of hat kind exist they were assumed by - he liberators of Cuba without any in- ention of being bound by them. The Jew York Press, the organ of the un- compromising protectionists. charges he Sugar Trust with stirring up the gitation for reduction of the duty on ugar, alleges that the trust will ge to r he point of starting revolution in ' uba to carry it's point and savagely re- i ukes American citizens for desiring ) pay less for their sugar or to buy enuine Cuban cigars for a fair price. # This is the situation which the coun- y faces. Men with national reputa ons and presumably with intellects r lirly scream with fright at the pros 6 ect of exposing American industries , the competition of the Cubans and ilipinos. It is pitiful plight for a ation which boasts of it's commercial U lpremacy to find itself in. Possibly if a e had known in time what terrible Lte we were inviting when we released uba from Spanish dominion and &C., tired the Philippines we would have ,ted otherwise. As it is, the protec- onist element in the country is in a T ate of hysteria, and almost goes into ,asms when it thinks of these weak Id defenseless United States exposed
 the competition of Cuba the mighty Id of the all powerful Philippines. No onder strong (beet sugar) men weep Id stalwart New England tobacco \ 'owers have onvulsions.-Baltimore / Tn. '
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 To accommodate those who are par ! n Il to the use of atomizers in applying uds into the nasal passages for ca