The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-07

If the same rule applies to the get
ting OF offices or to attempts to get
them the whole Republican party could
be sent to the penitentiary.
One of these false pretenses-the one
on which they harp the most, this year
lis that the Democratic party is In
favor of free trade. The charge is
utterly false-a lie made of whole
cloth. There are individual Democrats
who are free traders just as there are
individual Republicans who are athe-
lists, but it would be precisely as true
and fair to denounce the Republican
party as the party of athenism as to
denominate the Democratic party as
the party of free trade.
1t never was a, free trade party and
is not now. The man who charges that
it is does so because of his ignorance
or because of his mendacity.
Democrats favor the cutting down
of exorbitant tariff rates to a reason
able basis. They believe that in many
schedules of the present law the rates
are too high, those that are too high
we are in favor of cutting down.
we favor any modification of the
tariff schedules that may be required
to prevent them becoming a shelter
for monopoly"
I wonder if Mr.. Secretary Shaw
ever heard these words before? They
are taken verbatim from the Repub-
lican platform of 1901. The secretary
whooped it at great rate for Gov.
ernor A. B. Cummins and others nom
mated on that platform. He scorn-
fully denounces it now as 1.-THE dead
iowa idea But it was a righteous
declaration borrowed from Democrats
and is not dead-not even dying.
. where tariff rates are so high that
they enable American manufacturers
to sell their wares abroad cheaper
than they do to Americans here at
nome we say that they ought to be
reduced Is this anarchy or treason?
If so, make the most of it.
Let Republican sneIIhipdarS apd 81
ltorS explain why an American farmer
should pay from third to one-haIf
more Tor an American pillow than his
competitor in farming paws for it in
Australia. or South America. or the
ENDS OF the earth. Democrats say it
is wrong, and they stand by the
american farmer. Republicans say it
is right, and they stand by the Aus
tralfan and South American farmers.
Choose Ye
Choose We between us in November
NOT quite all Republican statesmen be-
lieve 1t right. Once in a while a raw of
light breaks in upon the benighted in
reject OF Republican. For example,
year or two ago Hon. J. w. Babcock
OF wisconsin, chairman of the Republi-
can congressional campaign committee
had lucid interval and advocated in
several interviews the cutting down of
tar1n rates when they are so high as to
encourage the formation of trusts and
when they enable the manufacturer to
sell his wares cheaper abroad than at
nome. He went farther and introduced
b1lls to that effect, but the Republican
leaders got hold of Bah and by coaxing
bullying or other means checked his
ardor as a tariff reformer, since when
he mas been as dumb as an oyster
am citing Babcock's performance in his
moment of lucidity to show that to ad-
Vocate cutting down of outrageou
tariff rates in the foregoing cases does
not prove that a man is the enemy of
he etc Il
have you believe.
The stand patters organs and
speakers claimed that only antiquated
sorts of our manufactured articles are
sold abroad cheaper than to Americans
at home.
That theory is very ingenious but it
is not true for steel rails are sold abroad
at IS per ton less than they are sold
at home and the fashions in steel rails
remain the same or substantially so.
Will he or some other stand patter
explain why Americans should be made
to pay one-tnird more for American
steel rails than the citizens of other
nations for them?
He may answer as did Mr.. Represen-
tative Olmstead of Pennsylvania that
the railroad companies pay for the steel
rails and that it is the business of no
body else how much they pay for them;
but Olmstead had more courage than
for everybody with two
ideas above Hottentot knows that
everybody that travels on a railroad,
everybody that ships anything on one,
everybody that uses anything shipped,
helps pay for the steel rails. The rail-
road companies foot the bills in most
ers repay them with interest-at the
highest rate the traffic will bear.
OF a piece with the foregoing false
pretenses is that other one that Demo-
Gratis would destroy American indus
tries. There is not a syllable of truth
in it. Why should they desire to de-
stroy industries? They are vitality
interested in maintaining them and
giving to them all an equal chance
and not by fostering some at the ex-
pense of others.
The true Democratic position on the
tariff is this:
Recognizing the fact that a large
portion of our revenue has always
been raised from customs duties or
taxes. Democrats divide all imports
into three classeS-necessarie COM
forts and luxuries-and contend that
the tariff taxes should be highest on
luxurieS, lower on comforts and low
est or none at all on the necessaries.
They furthermore say that taxes
should be uniform on all articles be
longing to one class. That is the
Democrat partys position from which
it will not be driven or coaxed or
bullied. No amount of misrepresenta-
ton will cause them to bulge from
that position. We say, furthermore,
that not one dollar more in shape of
tariff taxes or any other sort of taxes
should be taken from the people than
is necessary to pay the expenses of a
government economically administer
ed. On these propositions we believe
we are right and on them we conf
IDENTIFY rely in our appeal to the Amer
lean people in November.
Our Merchant Marine.
When Napoleon signed the title
deeds to this vast country west of the
Mississippi he turned to the American
commissioners and said:
Now 1 have given England a mari
time rival" and so he had until in
satiable greed and criminal malad- |
crowded the starry ban