The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1902-11-14

In the notable speech which he de-
livered upon the subject at Logans-
port, Ind, the President expressed the
opinion that the tariff ought to be
taken out of politics and treated on
business principles simply as bust
ness proposition. This is suggestion
whose theoretical soundness does not
admit of intelligent dispute. All COM
petent and dsinterested students OF
the question are agreed that the tariff,
constituting, as it does, the basis upon
which the trade, commerce and manu-
facture of the country are conducted,
as a matter which ought not to be en-
posed to the uncertainties of politics
or subordinated to the interests of con-
tending political organizations. There
is nothing so harmful to business,
nothing which so certainly and
promptly blocks the wheels of prog
ress, paralyzes the energy of the en-
terprising, alarms the timidity of cap
ital, changes activity to stagnation and
prosperity to distress, as that feeling
of uncertainty and suspense which is
inevitably aroused by the demonstra-
ton of a serious danger that the
schedules of the tariff may be dis
turbed in manner antagonistic to the
maintenance of the protective prin-
ciple.
This has been shown by experience
time and again. 1t has been shown
upon every occasion when the de-
scribed demonstration has been made.
Business men, if they are allowed suf-
ficient time, can at the cost of less
or greater sacrifice adjust their tran.
sactions to almost any conditions
which include the element of perma-
nency, but they cannot do business
except in hand to mouth kind OF way
when they do not know from one day
to another what to expect; when they
are without any assurance upon which
to rest their calculations. Mr.. Roose-
welt recognizes the truth Of this as
others have recognized it before him.
He perceives that nothing is more
harmful to the national prosperity
than to unsettle the public mind upon
this question of the tariff, and 1T is
in order to avoid doing so that he
wishes the divorce of the tariff from
politics to be proclaimed. He did not
in his speech at Logansport exactly
define the means whereby in his judg-
ment this result, as to whose desir-
ability there will hardly be any seri-
GUS difference of instructed opinion,
could be attained. That lay beyond
the scope of the occasion. But he said
enough to indicate that he favored the
creation of an expert body to which
should be intrusted the responsibility
of determining in what cases and to
what extent changes in the tariff
should be made. In other words, the
President is inclined to think that the
result he has in view could be at
tanned through the fundamentally of
a tariff commission.
1t might, if congress would abdicate
it's powers and prerogatives in the
premises and consent to be bound by
such a commissions recommendations
1t might if the Democratic party
would agree that the tariff is not
rightfully and should not be made
political issue, if it would admit that
protection has been definitely and irrev.
ocably adopted as the national policy
of the United States, and that from
among the possible planks included in
its Heterogeneous collection the
useful old plank of tariff for revenue
only" should be conclusively elimi
mated. Unfortunately or otherwise
neither of these things is in the least
likely to happen. There was a tariff
commission under the Presidency of
Chester A. Arthur, and how much at
tention does any one suppose that
Congress paid to its recommends
ton? No attention at all. Congress
will never submit to surrender any of
it's powers in this or any other connec-
ton, while the possibility of the Demo
Gratis agreeing that the tariff should be
taken out of politics is simply un-
thinkable.
1t follows that the Presidents vision
of time when the tariff will be
treated by a body of experts as a
business proposition is what the late
Senator ingalls, might have called IAN
iridescent dream" The only safe
guard against. the evil of tariff tinker
ing is still and is likely to remain the
election of a stalwart Republican
Congress.-Philadelphia Inquirer.