The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-05

does not settle the question whether it is advisable to make the change immedi- ately. Every tariff deals with duties on thousands of articles arranged in hun dreds of paragraphs and in many sched- ules.
 Conflicting Interests.
 These duties affect a vast number of interests which are often conflicting. If 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 re- member that whenever even a single schedule is considered some interests will appear to demand change in almost every schedule in the law; ana when it comes to upsetting the schedules gen erally the effect upon the business inter ests of the country would be ruinous
 One point we must steadily keep in mind The question of tariff revlsion 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 corporations arc wholly unaffected by the tariff. Prae- tically all the others that are of any importance have as matter of fact numbers of smaller American competi- tors; and of course a change in the tariff which 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 connected with either the large or the small corporations. From the standpoint of those interested in the solution of the trust problem such @ change would therefore merely mean that the trust was relieved of the compe- tition of it's weaker American competi- tors, and thrown only into competition with foreign competitors; and that the first effort to meet this new competition would be made by cutting down wages and would therefore be primarily at the cost of labor.
 In the case of some of our great trusts such a change might confer upon them a positive benefit. Speaking broadly, 1t is evident that the changes in the tariff will affect the trusts for veal or for woe simply as they affect the whole as 1t affects all other interests It makes all these 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 d people approach a matter of such prime econo- mic importance as the tariff from the
 
 can not afford to become fossiized or to fail to recognize the fact that as the needs of the country change 1t may be necessary to meet these new needs by changing certain features of our tariff laws.
 Still less can we afford to fail to recog- nize the further fact that these changes must not be made until the need for them outweighs the disadvantages which may result and when 1t becomes neces- sary to make them they should be made with full recognition of the need of sta- bility in our economic system and of keeping unchanged the principle of that system which has now become a settled policy in our national life We have prospered marvelously at home. As a nation we stand In the very forefront in the giant international industrial com petition of the day. We can not afford by any freak of folly to forfeit the po- sition to which we have thus trium- phantly attained.