The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-24


great lakes as all the region round about
them has been built up-that is you had the
qualities of heart and brain. the moral and
physical fiber which enabled you TO use TO
the utmost possible advantage Whatever
you found ready to your hands.
In such development laws play GER
tain part, but individual characteristics
greater part. A great and successful COM
monwealth like ours in. the long run works
under good laws because a people endowed
with honest and practical common sense
ultimately demands good laws. But no law
can create industrial well-being, although II
may foster and safeguard ii and although
a bad law may destroy il. The prime rae
tor In securing industrial well-being is the
high average of citizenship among the In
dividual members of the community. The
best laws that the wit of man can devise
would not make community OF thriftless
and idle men prosperous. No scheme OF leg
islatton or of social reform will ever work
good to the community unless IL recognizes
as fundamental the fact that each man
own individual qualities must be the prime
factors in success. Work in combination
may help and the state can do good deal
In its own sphere, but in the long run eacn
man must rise or fall on his own merits;
each man must owe his success in life to
whatever of hardihood or resolution, or
common sense and of capacity for lofty
endeavor he has within his own soul. 1t Is
a good thing to act in combination for the
common good but Ii is a very unhealthy
thing 10 let ourselves think for one moment
of our own Individual watchfulness and ex-
ertlon. Yet, given this high average OF In
dividual ability and invention, we must
ever keep in mind that it may be nullified
by bad legislation, and that ii can be given
a chance TO develop under the most favor
able conditions by good legislation.
THE CURRENCY.
Probably the most important aid which
can be contributed by the national govern
ment to the material well-being of the
country is to insure its financial stability.
An honest currency Is the strongest SYM
Dol and expression of honest business life.
The business world must exist largely on
credit, and to credit confidence is essential.
Any tampering with the currency, no mat
| ter with what purpose, If fraught with the
suspicion of dishonesty in result is fatal
| in its effects on business prosperity. Very
! ignorant and primitive communities are
continually obliged to learn the elementary
truth that the reputation of debts is, in the
end ruinous to the debtors as a class; and
| when communities have moved somewhat
| higher in the scale of civilization they also
learn that anything in the nature of de-
based currency works similar damage.
"A financial system of assured honesty
| is the first essential. Another essential for
| any community is perseverance in the eco
nomic policy which, for a course of years,
| is found best fitted to its peculiar needs.
| The question of combining such fixedness
/ of economic policy regards the tariff,
while at the same time allowing for nee
| esSary and proper readjustment of duties
| in particular schedules, as such readjust-
| ment becomes matter of pressing i'm
portance, is not an easy one. 1t is, perhaps,
| too much to expect that from the discus
| sion of such a question it would be possible
| wholly to eliminate political partisanship
| Yet, those who believe, as all must
when We think seriously of the subject
| that the proper aim of the party system is
| after all, simply to subserve the public
| good, cannot but hope that where such par
| tisanship on a matter of this kind conflicts
| with the public good, it shall at least be
| minimized
What we really need in this country is
| to treat the tariff a business proposition
| and not from the standpoint of the tenn
| porary needs of any political party. 1t sure
| ly ought not to be necessary to dwell upon
| the extreme unwisdom, from a business
standpoint, from the standpoint of national
| prosperity, of violent and radical changes
/ amounting to the direct upsetting of tariff
/ policies at intervals of every few years.
A nation like ours can adjust it's business
| after fashion to any kind of tariff But
| neither our Nation nor any other can stand
| the ruinous policy of readjusting its bust
ness to radical changes in the tariff at
! short intervals. This is more true now
| than ever 1t was before, for, owing to the
| immense extent and variety of our products,
| the tariff schedules of to-day carry rates
| of duty on more than 1900 articles. Con-
| tinually sweeping changes in such tariff,
| touching intimately the commercial in
| terests of the Nation which stands as one
of the two greatest in the whole indus
| yet, on the other hand where the in
| dustrial needs of the Nation shift as rap
/ idly as they do with US, 1t Is a matter of
| prime Importance that we should be able
| to readjust our economic policy rapidly
| as possible and with as little friction as
| possible to these needs. We need scheme
| which will enable us to provide a reappli-
cation of the principle to the changed con-
ditions.
| DANGER IN RADICAL ACTION
1.-The problem, therefore, is to devise some
plan by which these shifting needs can be
| recognized and the necessary readjustment
| of duties provided without forcing the en-
tire business community and therefore the
| entire Nation to submit to a violent sur
gical operation, the mere threat of which
| and still more accomplished fact of which
would probably paraly-e for considerable
| time all the industries of the country. Such
| radical action might very readily produce
the conditions from which we suffered
| years ago, in 1893. 1t is on every account
most earnestly to be hoped that this prob
| lem can be solved in some manner into
| which craftsmanship shall enter a purely
| secondary consideration, If a. all; that is,
| in some manner which shall provide for an
| earnest effort by nonpartisan inquiry and
| action to secure any changes the need of
| which is indicated by the effect found to
| proceed from a given rate of duty on a
| given article; its effect, If any, as regards
| the creation of a substantial monopoly; its
| effect upon domestic prices, upon the rev.
| enues of the government, upon importations
from abroad, upon home production and
| upon consumption.
I'm other words, We need to devise some
machinery which, while persevering in the
| poity of a protective tariff, in which l
| think the Nation as whole has now gener-
| ally acquiesced, we would be able to correct
the Irregularities and remove the incongru-
tiles produced by the changing conditions,
| Such machinery would permit us to con-
| tinue our definitely settled tariff policy
| while providing for the changes in duties
upon particular schedules which must in
| evitably and necessarily take place from
time to time as matters of legislative and
administrative detail. This would secure
| the needed stability of economic policy
| which is a prime factor in our industrial
| success. while doing away with any tend
| ency to fossilization. 1t would recognize
| the fact that as our needs shift 1t may be
| found advisable to alter rates and sched-
ules, adapting them to the changed condi-
| tons and necessities of the whole people:
| and this would be in no wise incompatible
| with preserving the principle of protec-
| ton, for belief i'm the wisdom of a protec-
| tive tariff is in no way inconsistent with
| frankly admitting the desirability of chang
| ing set of schedules, when from any
cause such change is in the interests of
the Nation as a whOle-and our tariff
| policy is designed to favor the interests of
the Nation a whole and not those of any
particular set of individuals save as an in
| cident to their building up of the national
| well-being.
| There are two or three different methods
| by which il will be possible to provide such
| readjustment without any shock to the