The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-12


 the whole country. The tariff affects
 trusts only as it affects all other in-
 terests. It makes all these interests,
 large or small, profitable; and it's bene-
 fits can be taken from the large only
 under penalty of taking them from the small also.'
 mere Is little for me to add to this.
 It is but ten years since the last ate tempt was made. by means of lowering the tariff, to prevent some people from prospering too much. The attempt was entirely successful. The tariff law of
 that year was among the causes which in that year and for some time after
 wards effectually prevented anybody | from prospering too much, and labor
 from prospering at all. Undoubtedly 1t
 would be possible at the present time to prevent any of the trusts from remain
 ing prosperous by the simple expedient
 of making such a sweeping change in
 the tariff as to paralyze the industries
 of the countries. The trusts would
 cease to prosper; but their smaller com petitors would be ruined, and the wage
 workers would starve, while 1t would
 not pay the farmer to haul his produce
 to market. The evils connected with
 the trusts can be reached only by ra-
 tional effort, step by step, along the
 lines taken by congress and the execu- tive during the past three years. If a i tariff law Is passed under which the
 country prospers, as the country has
 prospered under the present tariff law, then all classes will share in the pros
 perity. If tariff law is passed aimed
 at preventing the prosperity of some !! of our people, it is as certain as any
 thing can be that this aim will be
 achieved only by cutting down the prosperity of all of our people.
 Of course, if our opponents are not
 sincere in their proposal to abolish the system of a protective tariff, there is
 no use in arguing the matter at all. save by pointing out again that if on
 one great issue they do not mean what .I they say, 1t is hardly safe to trust fhgn on any other issue. But if they are sim cere in this matter, then their advent to power would mean domestic misfortune and misery as widespread and far reaching as that which we saw ten years ago. When they speak of protecs ton as robbery" they of course must
 mean that 1t is immoral to enact E tariff designed Gas is the present protec- .I tive tariff) to secure to the American
 wage worker the benefit of the high
 standard of living which we desire to
 see kept up in this country. Now to speak of the tariff in this sense as rob
 bery," thereby giving 1t a moral reia-
 ton. is not merely rhetorical; it is on
 it's face false. The question of what
 tariff is best for our people is primar-
 fly one of expediency to be determined not on abstract academic grounds, but
 iii the light of experience It is a mat x ter of business; for fundamentally ours
 is a business people manufacturers
 merchants, farmers, wage-workers, pro- men, all alike. Our experience
 as a people in the past has certainly ] not shown us that we could afford in 7 this matter to follow those professional counselors who have confined theRn- selves to study in the closet for the ac- tual working of the tariff has emphati- cally contradicted their theories. From time to time schedules must undoubt-
 edly be rearranged and readjusted to
 meet tie shifting needs of the country; but this can with safety be done only by those who are committed to the
 cause of the protective system To upA root and destroy that system would be to insure the prostration of business the closing of factories, the impoverish- Ement e the farmer the ruin of the . capitalist and the starvation of the wage-workar. Yet, if protection is irr : deed "robhery,'' and if our opponents 1 really believe what they say. then it IS | precisely to the destruction and uproot- ling of the tariff, and therefore of our business and industry that they arc
 pledged. When our opponents last ob-
 tained power it was on a platform de- l claring a protective tariff ,unconstitu- l tionaI,. and the effort to put this declaration into practice was one of the X causes of the general acknowledgements \ tion lasting from 1893 to 1897. If a pro- tective tariff is either "unconstitution- t al' or robbery" then it is just as un- [ constitutional, just as much robbery, to l revise it down, still leaving 1t protec- | tive, as 1t would be to enact 1t. In other {; words our opponents have committed t themselves to the destruction of the :, protective principle in the tariff, using - words which if honestly used forbid e them from permitting this principle to ' obtain in even the smallest degree. s st1s our opponents dSSeTb tNel tLLSy pc- | lieve in reciprocity. Their action on the
 most important reciprocity treaty re- gently negotiated that with Cuba ,. does not bear out this assertion. More- z over, there can be no reciprocity unless Y there is a substantial tariff; free trade : and reciprocity are not compatible. We U are on record as favoring arrangements for reciprocal trade relations with other }, countries, these arrangements to be on
 an equitable basis of benefit to both l, the contracting parties The republican t party stands pledged to every wise and e consistent method of increasing tha Il foreign commerce of the country. That g it has kept it's pledge is proven by the n fact that while the domestic trade of e this country exceeds in volume the en- st tire export and import trade of all the < nations of the world, the United States $ has in addition secured more than an d eighth of the export trade of the world, h standing first among the nations in this E respect. The United States has ex- y ported during the last seven years