Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-03-29

III
own history, but in the history of any
other nation.
This prosperity is deep rooted and
stands on a firm basis because it is
due to the fact that the average Amer
lean has in him the stuff out of which
victors are made in the great indus
trial contests of the present day, just
as in the great military contests of the
past and because he is now able to
use and develop his qualities to best
advantage under our we'll established
economic system.
United States Winning Headship.
We are winning headship among the
nations of the world because our peo-
pie are able to keep their high average
of individual citizenship and to show
their mastery in the hard, complex,
pushing life of the age.
There will be fluctuations from time
to time in our prosperity, but it will
continue to grow just so long as we
keep up this high average of individual
citizenship and permit it to work out
its own salvation under proper eco
nomic legislation.
| The present phenomenal prosperity
has been won under tariff which was
made in accordance with certain fixed
and definite principles, the most i'm
portant of which is an avowed deter
mination to protect the interests of
the American producer, business man,
| wageworker, and farmer alike.
| The general tariff policy, to which,
with regard to changes in detail, be-
lieve this country is irrevocably COM
mitted, is fundamentally based upon
ample recognition of the difference be-
tween the cost of production-that is,
the cost of labor-here and abroad, and
of the need to see to it that our laws
shall in no event afford advantage in
our market to foreign industries over
American Industries, to foreign capital
over American capital, to foreign labor
over our own labor.
Need High Type of Labor.
This country has and this country
needs better paid, better educated. bet
ter fed and better clothed working
men, of a higher type than are to be
found in any foreign country.
1t has and it needs higher, more
vigorous, and more prosperous type
of tillers of the soil than is possessed
by any other country.
The business men, the merchants
and manufacturers, and the managers
of the transportation interests show
the same superiority when compared
with men of their type abroad.
The events of the last few years
have shown how skillfully the leaders
of American industry use in interna-
tional business competition the mighty
industrial weapons forged for them
by the resources Of our country, the
| wisdom of our laws and the skill, the
inventive genius and the administers
tive capacity of our people.
1t is Of course a mere truism to say
that we want to use everything in our
power to foster the welfare of our en-
tire body polite. In other words, we
need to treat the tariff as a business
proposition from the standpoint of the
| interests of the country as a whole,
and not with reference to the temper
airy needs of any political party. It is
almost as necessary that our policy
should be stable as that it should be
wise.
Tariff Changes.
"A nation like ours could not long
stand the ruinous policy of readjust-
ling its business to radical changes in
the tariff at short, intervals, especially
when as now, owing to the immense
extent and variety of our products,
the tariff schedules carry rates of<du-
ty on thousands of different articles.
| Sweeping and violent changes in
such tariff, touching so vitality the
interests of all of us, embracing agri-
culture, labor, manufactures, and COM
merce, would be disastrous in any
event, and they would be fatal to our
present well-being if approached on
the theory that the principle of pro-
tective tariff was to be abandoned.
The business world-that is the en-
tire American world can not afford
IT it has any regard for it's own well
fare, even to consider the advisability
OF abandoning the present system.
Yet, on the other hand, where the
industrial conditions SO frequently
change, as with us must Of necessity
be the case, it is a matter of prime i'm
portance that we should be able from
time to time to adapt our economic pol
icy to the changed conditions
Our aim should be to preserve the
policy of protective tariff, in which
the nation as a whole has acquiesced,
and yet wherever and whenever neces-
sary to change the duties in particu-
lar paragraphs or schedules as matters
of legislative detail, if such change is
demanded by the interests of the ma
ton as a whole.
In making any readjustment there
are certain important considerations
which can not be disregarded If tar
iff law has on the whole worked well,
and if business has prospered under it
and is prospecting, it may be better to
endure some inconvenience and in
CAPABILITIES for a time than by making
changes to risk causing disturbance
and, perhaps, paralysis in the indus
tries and business of the country. The
fact that the change in given rate of
duty may be thought desirable does not
settle the question whether it is advis-
able to make the change Immediately.
Every tariff deals with duties on thou
| - IL