The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-05

it that our laws shall in no event afford
advantage in our own market to foreign
industries over American industries, to
foreign capital over American capital
to foreign labor over our own labor
This country has and this country needs
better paid, better educated, better fed,
and better clothed workingmen, of
higher type, than are to be found in any
foreign country. 1t has and it needs
hiher, more vigorous, and more prosper
Que type of tillers of the soil than is
possessed by any other country. The
business men, the merchants and man
ufacturers, and the managers of the
transportation interests show the same
superiority when compared with men of
their type abroad The events of the
last yew years have shown how skill
fully the leaders of American industry
use in international business competi-
tion the mihty industrial weapons forged
for them by the resources of our coun
try, the wisdom of our laws, and the
skill, the inventive genius and the ad
ministrative capacity of ours people.
''It is, of coruse, mere truism to say
that we want to use everything in our
power to foster the welfare of our entire
body polite. nj other words, We need to
treat that tariff as a business PROPOSE
tion, from the standpoint Of the interests
of the country as a whole, and not with
ference to the temporary needs of any
political party. 1t is almost as neces-
sary that our policy should be stable as
that it should be wise. A nation like
ours could not long stand the ruinous
policy of readjusting its business to rad
ical changes in the tariff at short in"
tervals, especially when, as now, owing
to the immense extent and variety of our
products, the tariff schedules carry rates
of duty on thousands of different articles
Sweeping and violent changes in such a
tariff, touching so vitality the interests
of all of us, embracing agriculture, la
Dor, manufactures, and commerce, would
be disastrous in any event, and they
would be fatal to our present well-be-
ing if approached on the theory that the
principle of the protective tariff was to
be abandoned The business world, that
is, the entire American world, can not
afford, if it has any regard for it's own
welfare, even to consider the advisable
ity of abandoning the present system.
''Yet, on the other hand, where the in
dustrial conditions so frequently change,
as with us must of necessity be the case.
it is a matter of prime Importance that
we should be able from tim eto tine
to adapt our economic policy to the
changed conditions. Our aim should be
to preserve the policy of a protective
tariff, in which the nation as a whole has
acquiesced, 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 a whole.
I'm making any readjustment there
are certain important considerations
which can not be disregarded If a tar
iff law has on the whole worked WELL
and if business has prospered under it
and is prospering, it may be better to
endure some inconvenience and Unequal
tiles for a time than by making changes
to risk causing disturbance and perhaps
paralysis in the industries and business
of the country. The fact that the change
in given rate of duty may be thought
desirable does not settle the question
it is advisable to make the
change Immediately Every tariff deals
ranged in hundreds of paragraphs and
in many schedules. These duties affect
vast number of interests which are Of
ten connecting. If necessary for our well
fare, then of course Congress must con-
slider the question of changing the law
as whole or changing any given rates
of duty, but we must remember that
whenever even a single schedule is con-
sidered some interests will appear to de-
mnad change in almost every schedule
in the law; and when it comes to upset
ting the schedules generally the effect
upon the business interests o fthe coun-
try would be ruinous
"One point we must steadily keep in
mind. The question of tariff revision,
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 are wholly
unaffected by the tariff. Practically all
the others that are of any Importance
have as a matter of fact numbers of
smaller American competitors; and of
course a change in the tariff which would
NOTh Injury 10 lHt ldTSG COIpOIdIiOu
would work not merely injury but de-
to its smaller competitors; and
equally of course such a 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 a change would
therefore merely mean that the trust
was relieved of the competition of its
weaker American competitors, and
thrown only into competition with for
eign competitors; and that the first ef-
fort 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
greatest trusts such a change might con-
fer upon them a positive benefit. Speak
ing broadly, it is evident that the changes
in the tariff will affect the trusts for
veal or for woe simply as they affect
the whole country"