The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-28
FRIDAY, OCTOBER ss, ,sos.
SECRETARY SHAW.

Secretary Shaw is really the most re- freshing character on the Republican side in this campaign. His name should be spelled with a "P." He admits practically all the charges made against his Party by the Democrats and refutes these by crying 'tPshaw, what if they are true: no natter"
 Ills first accomplishment in that line was to deliver a eulogy on Increased cost of living. admitting that house. hold expenses had gone up. but cheer fully disrnissing the fact with. Q. pshaw, we can afford to pay more and the more we pay the richer we are all getting to be-" His managers must have called him down on this propo- sition or was 1t the amazement with which the country heard his words that taught him he was on dangerous ground? It is more expensive to live, but 1t was plain that . party that claims to be in alliance with Providence could not boast that policies had been established by which the citizen was compelled to pay more and more dol lars for the support of himself or his family.
 The secretary's next break was in the announcement that Congress had no power to inquire into the conduct of an Executive Department. That was as much as to say. granted we have been stealing in Washington, granted that graft and corruption in every form charaeterises the administration there. if we do not choose to unearth these and expose them to the public eye and punish the offenders, what are you go- ing to do about 1t? There is no law fully constituted authority to compel us to open our books and reveal our methods" This was so outrageous that a leading organ of his Party fiatly warned the Republican National Com mittee that Shaw should be withdrawn from the stump.
 His latest confession is that the trusts are selling many articles abroad more cheaply than they sell them at home and he boasts of this. He con- tends 1t is perfectly right and fair that their surplus should be dumped on for eign nations to save ourselves from being dumped upon by European man. ufacturers; that two months of open competition would close every factory in the United States. Many people are in truth deceived by this argument. These credulous ones appear to think the conscienceless foreigners will
 
 regardless of whether we gave an equivalent or not. This is the rash fal- lacy of the whole protectionist doc trine International trade Is nothing but barter on an extended scale and the American can get nothing from the foreigner fin the way of goods man. ufaetured or unmanufactured. without giving other good in return. If the foreigner dumped a billion dollars worth of merchandise in any shape up- on our shores, 1t would mean nothing mere and nothing less than that we had proffered him in exchange goods that he valued for his own uses and purposes at worth more than a billion dcliars; and to produce these exchange able products 1t would have been nec- essary to work with all our might and main, utilizing all our labor. capital and natural resources. To hold oth- erwise Is to hold that the foreigner will give away his goods. If he will do this we should be just so much the better on and we should be grateful for then our own output could be ex- changed with yet other foreigners for get other things we naIsht desire