The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-05
THE PRESIDENTS TARIFF SPEECH.

THE PRESIDENTS TARIFF SPEECH.
The Presidents speech on the tariff
will be read with more interest per-
haps than any other one of the speech
es which he has delivered or will de-
| liver on his trip through the West, for
the reason that the tariff is pretty GER
tain TO be the paramount issue in the
next presidential campaign.
He wants the country to believe that
| the good times which we are now hav-
| ing are due to the present high tariff.
! He says: The present phenomenal
prosperity has been won under a tariff
which was made in accordance with
certain fixed and definite principles, the
most important of which is an avowed
determination to protect the interests
of the American producer, business
man, farmer and wage-wOrker alike"
He advances no argument to prove
that prosperity is due to the present
tariff. There are arguments-very
strong ones-in favor of the position
that we are having prosperous times in
spite of the tariff. We have had pc
RODS of good times and of bad times
ever since the foundation of the gov
eminent. Not long ago we had a pc
Rod of great business depression, and
we shall in all probability have an
other such period before very long,
though no one can state with any de-
gree of certainty how long. If good
times depended upon the present high
protective tariff there would be but
little desire to have it changed, but
as a matter of fact, it is not generally
believed that they do depend upon it,
or that they are due to it. 1t pleases
the Republican party, however, to
claim good times for it.
Another claim that the President
makes for the Dingiey tariff is that
it insures good wages for labor Do
the protected trusts pay better wages
than they can help, and are the wages
they pay better than would be paid
if the protective principle were elm
mated from the tariff? When we say
better wages we mean of course wages
that have greater purchasing power.
protective principle in the tariff has
the effect of putting up the prices of
about all kinds Of articles.
1t is evident that wage-earners are
not satisfied with the wages they are
receiving. The newspapers are full of
accounts of strikes, Hundreds of
thousands of textile workers are de-
handing an increase in wages.
The President says that changes in
the tariff should not be made until
the need for them outweighs the dis
advantages which may result" Who
is to determine when that condition
exists? The Republican party, of
course, if it is in power and it is so
completely in the hands of the trusts
and other corporations that If the need
for changes should become so apparent
to the majority of the people it would
not be permitted to make them.
In an interview the other day, Sem
ator Allison, one of the most promi-
nent of the Republican leaders, said
that the next Republican platform
would declare lin favor of changing
the tariff to meet the changed con-
ditions." About the same time, how
ever, Mr.. Root, the Secretary of War,
in a speech in Boston, said that there
must be no effort to change the tariff
prior to the next presidential cam
paign. Senator Allison admits that
there is need for changes now, but Mr.
Root says there must be no changes
prior to the presidential contest. Evil
IDENTIFY he agrees with the trusts that
no changes are needed.
The President is finding a strong
tariff reduction sentiment in the West,
and he Is doing what he can to check
it. He knows the trusts wouldn't con-
sent to any changes.