The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-25
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1908.
THEDE IS SOMETHING LACKING.


 The Portland oregonian is up against an exceedingly hard proposition, and all because the English language lacks a word or an expression to fit a certain exigency. The Oregonian had been com menting on something recently said by Senator Hoai on the question of tariffs, and with which the paper could not agree. It concludes thus:
 Senator Hoar is perhaps the greatest living American, measured by his public service, his sncorruptible patriotism and his statesmanlike accomplishments. You can't call him liar. You can't charac- terize his most reprehensible utterance as nature of the English language is appar- ent There is no word to designate most palpable and mischievous perversion of the truth by a man whose character is above reproach. There is no term available by which you can call a man a liar in T way way to s do s,id him honor and All of us rave experienced that diffi- culty. There are times when polite lan- guage is entirely inadequate to do justice to the occasion. We listen to an extra ordinary fish story, for example, told by a man who is either good friend. whose
  else he Is bigger than the nearer. In either case we can't call him a liar, be- cause that would give offense and he might give us something we have no craving for. Then we need some term that will relieve our feelings and not cause a breach of the peace.
 In this case Senator Hoar, speaking of tariff revision, declared that none oflthe advocates of revision would come out in plain terms and say so. That was what Tiled The Oregonian. Though sound Republican paper 1t is a consistent op- ponent of present tariff laws and per sistent advocate of revision all along the line. It IS one of the prominent Republi- can newspapers of the country demand ing that the Republicans shall take hold of the tariff question in good earnest and rid consumers of some of the gross out rages perpetrated on them. It gives this example as one of many:
 According to Mir. Carnegie. four-inch profit at Pittsburg today for $l3. 50 per ton, plus "several dollars per ton." A profitable price for the blllets should
  the Iron Trade Review quotes four-inch Bessemer ard open-hearth steel billets at S27 to S29 per ton. In other words the producers are making from $S.50 to $10. 50 per ton. more than they can possibly have any good commercial claims to make. And 1t is argued that the tariff on steel is unnecessary
 This. we repeat, is but one example of the many which Republican papers like The Oregonian are continually bringing forward as reasons for tariff reduction, and that paper refers to it as only one ease of trust exactions. adding:
 Demand for revision of the Dingley schedules proceeds exactly upon these specific lines Iake ouf uhe ,rt psiceS Sow ana anS tnS dolIars a ton or cents pound the trusts exact exorbtantly by reason of unneces- sary tariffs on salt, paper. copper pro- d,Icts. leather, shoes. and so on down the line, and there you have the case for the tariff reformers
 Yet in the face of such specific exam nles the venerable Senator from Massa- ehusetts cha, ges that no opponent of the Dingiey schedule makes any definite ar- sument for revision. Yet The Oregonian cannot call him a liar For Brutus is an honorable man." and because of the Sem ator,s learning and high character it would not do to accuse him of willful nrevarication The word or term that would express what our valued contempo- rary wants 70 express is lacking in our accepted vocabulary. The language is not complete