Rocky Ford enterprise., 1904-10-14

In President Rooseycit's letter OF
acceptance the subject OF the tarin Is
given great prominence. To its dis
cusslon considerably more space is
devoted than To any other topic
treated In the very lengthy letter.
Rightly considering that tho tarir Is
III. chief issue in this campaign. the
President has undertaken To convince
the American people that the party
of protection In the only party to
which tarn Legislation can safely
b. trusted. lie will succeed. We feel
sure. Never before has Mr. Roosc-
welt spoken ar written 80 wisely and
no conyincinsiy on tho tariff question.
Hn recognizes that M tarir schedules
can remain forever. and that modli'
cations must come to NJ now cIi-
scncics:
"Dut the genuine underlying pr!n'
cipic of protection. as IL has been en-.
bodied In all but one Of tho American
tariff laws for tho last forty years.
has worked out results no bcnifcsni.
No evenly and widely spread. No nd.
vanta.eouK alike To farmers and cnpi.
iaiiSts and workingmcn. To commerce
and trade OF every kind. that III"
American people. II they show their
usual practical business sense. will
Insist that when these laws arc moii.
ned they shall be modified with tho
utmost care and conservatism. and by
the friends and not the enemies Of
tho protective system. They cannot
AFFORD to trust the modification to
thos. who treat protection and rob-
berry M synonymous terms"
Right here In the central fact Of tho
situation. The Democratic party de-
nounccs protection ms n crime. and
yet asks to be empowered to revise
tho tariff. On this point Mr.. Roosc-
welt says:
"Of course. II our opponents arc not
sincere In their proposal to aboiiyh
tho system Of a protective tarin there
In no use In arguing the matter Mt NIL.
save by pointing out again that II on
one great issue they do not mean
what they say. Il Is hardly safe to
trust them ON any other issue. But IL
they nrc sincere In this matter. then
their advent to power would mean do
nestle misfortune and misery ns wide
spread and farrcaching as that which
we saw ten years ago. when they
speak OF protection rs robbery they
Of course must mean that II is i'm.
moral to enact tariff designed Gas
I is the present protective tarin) to &C.
cure to the American wage worker
4 tho benefit OF the high standard OF liv-
[ ing which we desire to see kept up in
/ this country. Now. to, speak of the
tariff in this sense as n. robbery
| thereby giving It n moral relation. is
not merely rhetorical: It Is on its face
false. The question of what tariff IL
best for our people IL primarily one
OF expediency. to be determined not
on abstract academic grounds. but In
the light OF experience. 1t is n matter
of business. for fundamentally ours is
business people - manufactur. RS.
merchants. farmers. wage workers.
I professional men. all alike. Our expe.
rience as n people In the past has
certainly not shown us that we could
afford In this matter to follow those
professional counselors who have con.
fined themselves to study In the clos
ct; for the actual working of the tariff
has cmphatically contradicted their
theories
The Democratic attitude on the tar
In is to be construed from the Ian
guage employed in the Democratic
platform. Not only the promise of be-
ing destructive only a little at time.
until the country gets used to the
destructive process: nor the curious
schoolboy plea that they can't be as
bad as they would like 20 be. because
the Senate won't let them-nothing
can obscure the intention to destroy
protection. For. says the President:
Il; protection is indeed robbery
and IL our opponents really believe
what they say. then It is precisely to
the destruction and uprOoting of the
tariff. and therefore of our business
and industry. that they are pledged.
When our opponents last obtained
power II was on a platform declaring
protective tariff unconstitutional
and the effort to put this declaration
into practice was one of the causes
of the general national prostration
lasting from 1898 to 1897. If pro-
tective tariff is either 'unconstitution-
nl' or robbery. then it is just as un.
constitutional, just as much robbery.
| to revise It down, still leaving it pro-
/ tective. as It would be to enact it. In
other words, our opponents have com
mitted themselves to the destruction
I IF the protective principle In the tar
In, using words which, il honestly
used. forbid them from permitting this
principle to obtain In even the small
est degree"
1 with the trained eye of an expe-
/ rlenced observer of economic cause
and effect. the President discovers and
points out the successful workings of
the protective tariff In the past forty.