Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1903-04-24
THE TRUSTS OBJECT
XsENAToR ALLISON MAKES Hu-
INITIATING ADMISSION.
Evidence That the Corporations Con.
troll the Senate and the Republican
Party-Thus the Consumers Are
Robbed.

Senator Allison says the principal
issue in the next national campaign
will be the tariff. The Senator has
inadvertently, perhaps, supplied a
very strong argument why the policy
of protection should be defeated. He
said:
Reciprocity Is beautiful theory,
but | am convinced that it cannot be
put into practice. The instant it Is
proposed to reduce the duty on any
given dutiable product by means of a
reciprocity treaty the industry affect
ed Immediately objects. Where num-
Der of large industries are affect
ed by the proposed reciprocity treat
les they exert enough influence to de-
feat the treaties.
1T is impossible to secure the rati-
fication of reciprocity treaties be-
cause of the tremendous pressure
brought to bear by the interested in
dustries. The same difficulty applies
to the enactment of maximum and
minimum tariff, because such propo-
sition surely would provoke strong
opposition"
The Republican national platform
of 1900 pledged the party to the "as-
ISOLATED policy of reciprocity, so
directed as to open our markets on
favorable terms for what we do not
ourselves produce in return for free
foreign markets"
The Republican party, by its high
est tribunal, according to Senator
Allison, Endorsed a policy that is I'M
practicable and yet from Blaine to
Mckinley, it was declared to be a
distinctively Republican policy. 1t Is
now discredited because the indus
tries affected'-the trusts-object to
it and they exert enough influence to
defeat the treaties" The will Of the
trusts and not the will of the people
is the Senate's authority. The pres
sure" of the trusts is so tremendous"
that Senators must, perforce, yield to
their demand and submit to their die
tation. 1t might be supposed that
Senator Allison, after his long pOliti-
cal experience and his brilliant ca
reer as a statesman, would not have
made an admission so humiliating
Why should the Senate be so con-
siderate of the trusts? 1t is branch
of the American Congress, legislat-
ing, in part, for the American people
and not for the industries affected.
The Republican party may be reliev-
ed of this tremendous pressure" in
1904.
1--WE renew our faith in the policy
of protection to American labor" said
the Republican party in 1900. The
tremendous pressure" for the reten-
ton of protective duties does not
come from the workingmen of the
country. The Influence" to which
the Senate yielded so gracefully and
so readily came from the affected in
dustries"-that is the protected con-
Germs. The Senator admits, what
everybody knows, that the bene-
ficiaries of protection and not the
working people are the clamorers for
a high tariff and also that the indus
tries affected" are trusts mainly. They
control the Senate absolutely, and
Senator Allison knows it.
Why should the consumers-the
great body of American people-suf-
fer themselves to be robbed by the
trusts? Why should the industries
which so strongly oppose any reduc-
ton of the Dingley tariff duties con-
troll legislation, as against the inter-
ests of the great body of consumers?