Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-04-14

"Parturiunt monies; ridiculus mus est
(.the mountains are in travail; a ridic-
ulous mouse is the result'
Duties that are too high should be re-
duced." YEA verify. But what rates do
the stand pattersH admit to be too high?
There's the rub" Name any schedule
you please, and they declare at once that
that schedule must not be touched or the
whole tariff system will go to what Mr..
Mantalini would denominate 'tthe demni-
ton bowwows'
Mr.. Williams has introduced several
bills to reduce rates which are palpably
too high. They are all sleeping the sleep
of death in that great tomb of tariff re-
form hopes, the room of the committee on
ways and means.
have introduced bills to cut the tariff
on farming implements, salt and other
necessaries OF life to the bone. My bills
sleep in the same grave with those of my
brother from Mississippi Others have in
troduced similar bills, and they have all
shared the same fate.
Duties that are too high should be re-
duced!' oh, YES, but I violate no confi-
dence in stating that so long as Repub-
hcan stand paters'' rule the congressional
roost the tariff rate on no schedule what
soever will be reduced.
On the 18th of March the Republicans of
Minnesota in convention assembled norni-
mated a ticket and made declaration of
pIlHcipl6s. III their PLATFORM IQSy say.
We. favor such notifications of tariff
schedules as from time to time are re-
quired by changing conditions and insist
that. such changes shall be made in line
with the fundamental principle of protec-
ton
That is a remarkable declaration, an eff
fort to mix water and oil, an endeavor to
ride two horses going in opposite direc-
tons, palpable attempt to hold with the
hare ana run with the hounds. The first
half is 'the Iowa idea the last half is
the "stand pat creed.
These Minnesota platform makers-art-
lists in their line
"Palter with us in a double sense;
They keep the word of promise to our
ear
And break it to our hope
All representatives are of course. famil-
lar with the Bible and have read the
twenty-seventh chapter Of Genesis in
which is recorded that weird story de-
scribing the ingenious plan which Rebek-
all devised to enable her favorite son ia
cob to secure from his father Isaac the
blessing which was intended for his IA
vorite son Esau. Isaac was old and his
eyes were dim, so that he could not see,
but his sense of feeling was still acute
and when Jacob presented himself to re-
ceive the blessing which did not belong
to him, but to his hairy brother, Isaac
being somewhat suspicious, said INTO ia
cob:
Come near. pray thee, that may
feel thee, my son, whether thou be my
very son Esau or not.
And Jacob went near unto Isaac his
father. and he felt him and said The voice
is Jacobs voice, but the hands are the
hands of Esau.
"And he discerned him not because his
hands We're hairy, as his brother Esaus
hands. SO he blessed him.
"And he said, Art thou my very son
Esau? And he said, ann
Governor Cummins and Brother Dalzell,
representing the extreme factions in the
Republican party, will have to exercise all
their senses of seeing, smelling, tasting,
hearing and touch to judge whether the
Minnesota statesmen are Jacobs OF Esaus,
and will even then find themselves in
gravest doubt.
The Des Noines Register and Leader,
the Republican organ of Iowa, edited by
Hon. George E. Roberts, President Roose-
velt's director of the mint, not long ago
contained these vigorous, not to say saw
age, editorial sentences touching the
"stand patters::''
when President Mckinley announced
that it was our plain duty to grant the
Porto Hicans free entrance into the Amer
lean market the ways and means commit
tee of the house of representatives at once
took up this hue and cry for narrowing
the field for American labor. Was it wise
they asked, to dump the sugar and other
products of Porto Rico on the American
market when our own citizens were en-
gagged in producing these things and to
deprive the American laborer of his job?
1T was with great dificulty that Re-
publicans in congress brought themselves
to yield to the weight and influence of
President McKinley's judgment and to
uov7f ftof OF nr1l ,f
to Rico should be granted free market
exchange. Now, what has been the re-
suit? Has the influx of Porto Rican prod
ucts narrowed the field of American la
Dor? Porto Rican exports have jumped
from two millions to several times that
amount-we do not have the exact figures
at hand-and yet the United States like
the individual who hires ten laborers in
the place of two, has broadened its own
domestic field of operations, for it is sell
ing to Porto Rico in exchange more in
proportion than Porto Rico sells to it. SO
that today the cash balance of trade in
our favor is greater than our total sales
to Porto Rico were ten years ago.
THE individual who spends an after
noon in painting his own fence in order
to save half dollar and thereby misses
a hundred dollar deal is the exact type of
the public man who today in the United
States advises against the broadcast COM
mercial reciprocity on the theory that
everything that we import narrows the
field of domestic production. Such a
spigot watching policy makes misers of
men and backwoods settlements of ma
tons. No individual ever gained wealth
or influence by it, and no nation ever de-
veloped its real resources There is a
philosophy in the old Bible injunction
that there is scattering that yet in
creaseth and a withholding of more than
Is meet that is much deeper than great
deal of our modern day craftsmanship is
able to realize"
Whenever our stand pat friends get
into q hole they resurrect the bogy man OF
free trade and hold him in terrorem over
the heads of the American people.
Nobody knows better than they do that
there is no free trade party in the United
States, and they ought to quit asserting
that there is. We can all be honest even
If we can't be great.
BY the unanimous vote of the Demo-
cratic members of this house Hon. John
Sharp Williams of Mississippi was at the
0f tho oVfT.- ord ", ~ tsaerov.