The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-06-24
TARIFF REFORM
By a Prominent Rtpub-
lican of minnesota.
". D. WASHBURN GIVES REASONS
Why the Tariff Should Be Revised
People of Mississippi Valley
Demand 1t.
". D. WiSHBURN GIVES REASONS

w. D. Washburn, jr., of Minneap-
oils, son of the ex-senator from Min
nesota and himself a we'll known re-
publican and business man. discusses
existing political, financial and COM
mercial conditions in the columns OF
the New York Evening Post as fol-
lows:
Besides the surface causes there
are deep-seated and radical reasons
for the present unsatisfactory state
OF things These involve the tariff
and the trusts which have developed
under it. The protective tariff was
erected b. the republican party for
the legitimate purpose OF defending
our industries against European Ia
Dor and capital until these indus
ries could hold their own without
assistance. and with fair profit,
against the outside world.
1t was expected that this would
render lis independent Of the Euro
pean markets and develop large
and thrifty class of American work
ingmen capable OF sustaining a gov
eminent on our basis. 1t was expect
ed too. that this body Of Well-tO-do
labOring people would afford a large
CONSUMING market for the products Of
another intelligent class. the agricui-
turisls. who ii turn would draw
wealth from the soil in regions not
adapted by nature to manufacturing
enterprises.
incidentally it was supposed that
competition among nome manufacture
ers would provide all the people with
good articles at a price assuring fair
profits to capitai and fair wages 10
| labor.
OF this system a republican might
| have boosted seven years ago that it
| had admirably accomplished its pur-
pose. The people Of the United
| States could compete with the world
| in the manufacture Of all staple pro-
ducts, and that With little or no pro-
lection. There had been no general
| consolidation CT interests to defeat
| competition. sail manufacturers
could still do brsi1ess in the open
home market. WAT are the facts
today?
| There is no longer competition,
either in production or in distribu-
ton. The intelligent independent
| citizen, without whom no democratic
| government can survive, has been
| largely eliminated by combinations
of individual capital, which have
crowded him aside. He is now. really
or practically, only clerk His
| place has been taken by a gigantic
| nrc i1a in, inf Of
With a tariff to all intents pro-
hibition of outside rivalry ana no
| home competition, such an Organiza-
zion raises the price OF all manu-
| features from 80 TO 80 per cent
above fair and normal profit. Not
content with this. it capitalizes its
enormous profits in billions of inf1at-
ed securities which hang as a con-
| slant menace over the financial and
industrial markets.
To-day many staple articles manu-
| featured in the United States are
sold as cheaply in England, Japan
or India as they are supplied to our
people. Iron rails have been shipped
to England. returned to the United
States, paid the duty, and been placed
on the market at 81 less than rails
which have never left the country
An iron manufacturer informs me
that he sells his surplus abroad al
cost, so that the prices may not be
reduced by competition of these ar
ticles in the home market
by fair price at home he means
a price that will pay 80 per cent
on his real capital or 10 per cent on
his stock and bonds, whose face
value is three times what the prop
erty is worth. Competition under
the protective system is a dead let
ter
What of the American working
man, whose we'll being was to be
protected against cheap foreign la
Dor? Puritan New England is no
longer America. 1t swarms with Ital.
lans, Bohemians, Poles and miscel
laneous mixed races, whose inheri
lance of bad morals and bad gov
eminent is a menace to democracy.
In one of the manufacturing cities
of Connecticut a leading manufactur
er told me that he had largely sup
planted American laborers with Ital-
ians. He said that. though they were
) treacherOus, they worked cheap. Al
, New Haven / saw twenty Slav work
ingmen escorted from the New Yorl
train, all tagged and numbered, il
| care of an interpreter who was TAX
ing them to some smaller manufact
uring town. | was informed tina
such conveys passed through there
} once or twice a week.
in North Adams, Mass, one hear:
all the languages spoken from the
Pc to the BOsphorus. In Maine on,
may ride through miles of deserted
farms to reach small manufacturing
5 villages, whose inhabitants are chief
1 ly French Canadians. Patterson. n
j., is largely an Italian city Nearl,
every manufacturing town within
100 miles of the Atlantic coast i!
Overrun with low-class European la