The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-04-07


slider tile advisability of abandoning
the present system.
"Yet, on the other hand, where the
Industrial conditions so frequently
change, as with us must of necessary
be the case, it is matter of prime
Importance that we should be able
from time to time to adapt our eco
nomic policy to the changed condi-
tions. Our aim should De to preserve
the policy of protective tariff, in
which the nation as a whole has ac-
quiesced, and yet wherever and when
ever necessary to change the duties
in particular paragraphs or schedules
as matters of legislative detail, if such
change is demanded by the interests
OF the nation as whole.
"In making any readjustment there
are certain important considerations
which cannot be disregarded. If
tariff law has on the whole worked
| we'll, and if business has prospered
under it and is prospering, it may be
! better to endure some inconvenience
| and inequalities for a time than by
| making changes to risk causing dis
turbance and perhaps paralysis in the
| Industries and business of the cOun-
ftry. The fact that the change in a
given rate of duty may be thought de-
sirable does not settle the question
whether it is advisable to make the
| change i..llnt (iately. Every tariff
deals with d,ies on thousands o:
articles arranged in hundreds of para
graphs and in many schedules. These
duties affect vast number of inter-
ests which are often conflicting. IT
necessary for our welfare, then OF
course congress must consider the
| question of changing the law as a
whole or changing any given. rates
of duty, but we must remember that
whenever even a single schedule is
considered some interests will appear
to demand change in almost every
schedule in the law; and when it
comes to upsetting the schedules gen.
orally the effect upon the business in
terests of the country would be ruin
Gus.
Zone point we must steadily keep
in mind. The question of tariff revi-
sion, speaking broadly, stands wholly
apart from the question of dealing
with the trusts. No change in tariff
duties can have any substantial effect
in solving the so-called trust problem
Certain great trusts or great corpora
tions are wholly unaffected by the tar
iff. Practically all the others that are
of any Importance have as matter
of fact numbers of smaller American
competitors, and of course a change
in the tariff which would work injury
to the large corporation would work
not merely injury but destruction to
it's smaller competitors; and equally
OF course such change would mean
disaster to all the wage-workers con-
nected with either the large or the
!. small corporations. From the stand
point of those interested in the solu-
ton of the trust problem such a
change would therefore merely mean
that the trust was relieved of the COM
petition of It's weaker American COM
petitors, and thrown only into COM
, petition with foreign competitors;
and that the first effort to meet this
new competition would be made by
cutting down wages, and would there
: fore be primarily at the cost of labor.
In the case of some of our greatest
, trusts such a change might confer
upon them positive benefit. Speak
ing broadly, it is evident that the
: changes in the tariff will affect the
, iitrusts for veal or for woe simply as
, they affect the whole country. The
} tariff affects trusts only as it affects
interests, large or small, profitable;
and it's benefits can be taken from
} the large only under penalty of taking
| them from the small also.
) "To sum up, then, we must as a
; people approach matter of such
{ prime economic Importance as the tar
iff from the standpoint of our business
t needs. We cannot afford to become
+ fossilized or to fail to recognize the
: fact that as the. needs of the country
: change it may be necessary to meet
!, these new needs by changing certain
, can we afford to fail to recognize the
/ further fact that these changes mus
Y not be made until the need for then
: cutweighs the disadvantages which