Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1903-01-03
FOl,A1 auF' REVISION
NO CONDITION CALLS E.oR TAR
fFF TINkERINo-
Scripture Says: "They That Be Well
Need Not a Physician, But They
That Are Sick."-The Country Is
Too Healthy for ouaek Remedies.

THE extraordinary prosperity of
the country makes ridiculous any and
all assertions that the tariff is so bad
that it must be revised Immediately
to relieve the people of its burdens"
In this single sentence the New York
Commercial Advertiser expresses the
situation with truth and force. 1t is
not true that the country is suffering
because of tariff burdens or tariff
inequalities 1t is not true, because,
as everybody knows, the country is
phenomenally prosperous under the
faFin as 1t $50 prosperous, indeed,
that to open up period of tariff agi-
tation and uncertainty at this time
would seem to be an act of inconceiv-
able folly. Senator Burrows of Michi-
gan was right in saying that the, time
to make notifications in tariff sched-
uies is not when the country is every
where prosperous, but when business
depression exists, which can be cured
or alleviated by tariff changes. They
that be whole need not physician,
but they that are sick" This coun-
try is not sick 1t does not require
the services of a tariff tinkering doc
tor The prospect of a tariff revision
at SUCH d time WOulQ make DuSlHoSS
sick. Even the appointment of
commission to revise the tariff, as
the Commercial Advertiser truly says,
would create uncertainty and unset
tie conditions. No business man
would know what changes were con-
templated or whether Congress would
or would not concur in any recon-
mendation of changes. No calcula-
lions beyond the immediate future
could be formed and no contracts for
a considerable period ahead could
be made. Business would have, what
business does not want and cannot
endure: uncertainty. AS Andrew
Carnegie has expressed it, "a tariff
commission would have to be doing
something" Doing what? Doing
something with the tariff, of course.
Just what it would do, business men
would not know. Result, doubt, in
decision, uncertainty. These are bad
for business, bad for industry, bad
for employment, and bad for wage
paying.
Senator Scott of West Virginia has
lately said.
But there is one subject upon
which 1 can speak for West Virginia,
as represented in both branches of
Congress. We are all agreed that we
want no revision of the tariff. The
Dingley law suits US right down to
the ground. One Republican who got
scared about the tariff was Mr.. Foss
of Massachusetts. The result was
that his district elected a Democrat.
think that all Republicans should
stand firmly against all assaults upon
our protective tariff"
Is not this the manifestly correct
stand for all Republicans? Is it not
the best stand to take for the country
and for the party? Congressman
Babcock thinks not. He wants an
extra session of the Fifty-eighth Con
gress called to tear up the tariff
Senator Depew thinks the time has
arrived when the tariff SHOULD be read
justed to meet changed conditions
We did that in 1897. we readjusted
the tariff not only to meet changed
conditions. but as a means of chang
ing the then existing conditions We
succeeded in changing the conditions
from ruin and distress to a degree Of
unparalleled prosperity. Shall we
change conditions once more? If so
in what direction shall we change
them? Certainly not for the better
Tariff revision downward has never
been known to change conditions fol
the better. 1t has always changed
them for the worse. 1t will do il
again if the revision movement is per
sisted in. Tariff revision upward i:
the only sort of revision that has evel
benefited this country. Nobody i.
pressing for tariff revision upward
though in some directions an increase
IL the duties would be distinctly
advantageous. But nobody propose.
that If revised at all, the tariff is t.
be revised downward. always down
ward. The country does not wan
that, and if it is done, the countr,
will suffer for it. This is no time tt
revise the tariff. Let prosperity alon,
for at least two years to come, ans
perhaps by that time we shall hay,
become so accustomed to prosperit,
that We shall have grown to like it
AZ present it really seems as if som,
people could not endure it