The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1904-07-12

II the same rule applied to the getting
Of Offices or to attempts to get them, the
whols Republican party could be sent to
the penitentiary
One of their false pretenses-the one on
which they harp the most this year-is
that the Democratic party is in favor OF
free trade. The charge is utterly false
lie made of whole cloth, The Demo-
cratic party never was free trade party
and is not now. The man who charges
that does 50 because Of his ignorance or
because Of his mendacity,
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 those words before? They are ta-
ken verbatim from the Iowa Republican
platform of 1901 The secretary whooped
1t up al great rate for Governor A. B..
Cummins and others nominated on that
platform. He scornfully denounces il
now as the dead Iowa idea. But it was
righteous declaration borrowed from
Democrats and Is not dead-not even d.
ing.
Where tariff rates are so high that they
enable American manufacturers to sell
their wares abroad cheaper than they do
to Americans here at home we say that
they ought to be reduced. Is this anarchy
or treason? If so, make the most Of 1t.
The. stand pat organs and speakers
claim that only Anticipated sorts Of our
manufactured articles are sold abroad
cheaper than to Americans at home. That
theory is very Ingenious, but, unfortunate
~, it is not true, for steel rails are sole
abroad at So ton less than they are
sold at home. and the fashions in steel
rails remain the same or substantially so.
He may answer, as did Mr.. Representa-
tive Olmstead of Pennsylvania, that the
railroad companies pay for the steel rails
and that 1t IS the business of nobody else
how much they pay for them, but Ohm
stead had more courage than information.
for everybody with two ideas above
Hottentot knows that everybody that
travels on railroad. everybody that
ships anything on one everybody that
uses anything SO shipped. helps pay for
the steel rails. The railroad companies
foot the bills in the first instance and then
make their customers repay them with In
terest-at the highest rate the traffic viii
bear
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-necessaries comforts and Iuxu-
ries-and contend that the tariff taxes
should be highest on Injuries, lower on
comforts and lowest 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 Demo-
cratic partys position, from which it will
not be driven or coaxed or bullied. No
amount Of Misrepresentation will cause
them to bulge from that position. We
say, Furthermore, that not one dollar In
the shape of tariff taxes or any other sort
of taxes should be taken from the people
more than Is necessary to pay the ex-
penses OF government economically adj
ministered On these propositions we be-
iieve we are right. and on them we con-
adently rely in our appeal to the Amer