The Owosso times., 1903-09-25
Senator Hoar on Tariff Revision and
Reciprocity.

Senator Hoar dropped some pearls of
wisdom and sound policy in his speech
at the dinner of the Essex Club on the
10th of September ''The Grand Old
Man" of Massachusetts, was easily the
star among the speakers. He usually is
at any company. He talked about the
Tariff, about foreign trade and about
reciprocity, and it was clear Drained,
wholesome talk, that was alike timely
and pertinent. Tariff revision, he said,
might become necessary, just as it is
necessary to sometimes revise the stat
utes of Massachusetts,, but" said the
wise statesman and profound econo-
mist, you cannot be doing it all the
time, because, whenever you are doing it
business is thrown into confusion and
uncertainty" In the course of time,
he added-and no Protectionist disputes
this-changes may be required in the
most satisfactory and the most scien-
tific Tariff schedules, but the time to
make such changes, he insisted, was not
in the year before Presidential cleo
tion, but after Presidential election,
when the change can be made in accord
with the instructions of the people.
Note the qualification: Tariff changes
should only be made in obedience to the
expressed will of the people. The Ding
ley law, having been enacted in response
to the demand of the sovereign people,
may not and must not be changed in
any essential particular until the people
shall have declared their wishes through
the ballot box. That is the thought
which the American Economist has
again and again urged as the guiding
principle in all Tariff changes, whether
by legislation or by any other method.
1t is also the thought which Senator
Hoar entertains. 1t should be the uni
form thought and doctrine of the Re-
publican party.
AS to the much talked about and lit
tie understood question of reciprocity
as means of promoting foreign trade
the venerable statesman was equally
clear and pointed when he said:
Everybody is in favor of reciprocity
and everybody is in favor of foreign
trade. We wish to sell everything we
can sell to foreign countries and to buy
from foreign countries everything that
it is for the interest of the whole people
that we should buy rather than make
ourselves.
That is the question. Reciprocity be-
gins and ends right there, If it begins
at all under and in accordance with the
principles of Protection to domestic Ia
Dor and industry. What is it that we
now make for ourselves that we should
stop making in order that foreigners
may make and sell it to us? What in.
dustry or group of industries shall we
wipe out of existence, ,displacing Amer
lean employment, American labor and
American wage paying? 1t is hard
question and one that demands an
answer. No advocate of reciprocity in
competing products has ever answered
it; none ever will answer it except he
answer it as e-Trader-namely:
mo matter what industry or group
OF industries shall be annihilated. Let
us have more foreign trade at any cost
to domestic labor and wages"
That is not the answer of Protection
lists, and it should not be the answer of
any Republican. 1t is not Senator
Hoars answer. This is what he said at
the Essex Club dinner:
Do you wish to buy of Canada any.
thing we can make better ourselvess