The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-07

merce Commission at present dofo nos
 exist It can declare 2 Given t4te Qg
 50 cents. let us. to be unreasonablA but l 1t cannot prescribe what would no. reasonable in It's stead. The fa1lroo1o | then can do one of two thin6s4t cau
 either take an appeal which suspende.
 the decision of the Commission whtIo
 the appeal Is long. drawn out by the
 railroad interested. or 1t can chAnge
 the rate to 49 1-2 cents, and when that
 has been declared unreasonable, c9n
 change 1t to 49 IA cents. and 70 on
 compelling the newly aggrteved ctt< zen in each case to bring suit, at tho risk of being punished industrially bS the railroad for what 1t calls un~ friendly conduct" and without the hope | of any substantial immediate redresn stfn Standing Pat.
 A bill to give the Interstate Com- merce Commission power not to declafe rates generally. not to fix a schedule of rates for all the roads in the coun- try engaged in interstate commerce. l but power merely to declare reason able rate in its stead in particular cases where rate established has been declared unreasonable. this rate to Do maintained until set aside by law. hAs been pending before the Committes on Interstate and Foreign Commerce n the House of Representatives since tnis COn4Io89
 ocrats on that Committee again ana aeain demanded consideration of 0e bill and although delegation after dei- eratfon of merchants and members ok
 merchants and shippers associations have been to Washington begging en- actment of 1t, or like Legislation. notn- ing has been done. The Hepupiican
 I read from the Republican platform
 again: "Tariff rates should be re- adjusted only when conditions have go changed that the public interest de- mands their alteration" Public in- terest in this connection considering the voice which has uttered the words, Is good. Public interest from the man who wrote 1t and the convention which adopted 1t. really means protected interests" How can public interests demand" the altera- ton? How can it make the deman0T heard? There Is only one way that
 know of to make a demand of that
 sort heard, and that Is to. vote down
 the men who say that all Is we'll
 enough" and that the gospel or hu-
 manity, as far as the tariff is concerns
 ed, is all Included in the phrase stand
 pat" Are there no "conditions de-
 manding any changes in any of the
 schedules of the present tarin law
 when dozens of highly protected steel and iron products. including rails. lo- comotives. barbed wire and agricul-
 turai implements of American mako are being sold daily in competition
 with the so-called pauper labor of the
 world in the home of this same paul per labor More than that, when they are being carried right by the south door of Great Britain on through the Strait of Gibraltar and through the Suez canal to Britain's own colony of South Africa, and sold there and when, even more than that, they are sold after freight has been paid sand profit obtained at less price than the same goods are sold to Americana in American markets. five miles from the factory. will any sane man say that public interest" has not already demanded" some alterations" in tha tariff? The trouble is and will be as long as the Republicans are in power that private interests win not allow any. Suppose the following plank had been presented to the Republican Con- vention, does anybody believe that 1t would have been adopted. namely; Demanding reduction of tarifg tax ation upon trust produced articles to the point where foreign competition may enter the American market when ever trusts and combines seeking monopoly had raised their prices to the American consumer above just and reasonable profit, thus using American law as a shelter to protect them in ex- tortion upon the American people while they charge them prices higher than those charged foreigners for iden- tical articles" Suppose that an actual ' condition of that sort had been shown as 1t has been, would anybody advo- eating anything I have indicated, with view to meeting that condition have obtained any hearing from that con- vention-
 Changes in Tariff.
 The platform then goes on to say that these alterations cannot be safe ly' committed to any other hands than the Republican party since 1897 or for the last four years? Even if 1t were admitted that tariff changes ought to be made by the friends of the infquit- ous discriminations and extortions of the present law, rather than by the friends of the general interests and common veal. which is the same thing as admitting that the changes ought to be made by the Republican party. why has not that party made any of them? It has been in full power in the Senate and overwhelmingly in pow- CT in the Houes and unanimously and strenuously in power in the White House.
 Vu oocS uOt knOW tlat tn0 Only way the public can make any demands for alterations effective Is by putting the Democratic party in power?
 Of course this platform had to con- tain the usual historic untruths, to- wit: That a Democratic tarifr has always been followed by business ad- versity-a Republican tariH by busi- ness prosperity" Designing and ig- norant men have repeated that SO of- ten that I am afraid there really are a good many people who believe 1t and yet 1t is bad history. The great panic of 1873 if 1t was caused by any tariff law at all. was necessarily caused by the then existing taffff law which is the first one ever passed by the Re- publican party. /. It was passed as war measure.
 From 1901 down to the outbreak of the civil war. the country was nine- tenths of the time under Democratic With Democratic tariff legislation in nine-tenths of that time our people were prosperous beyond all precedent. as compared with other peo- plcs. What the Republican platform calls Democratic tarIff law based on free trade principles" referring to the Wilson, German bill. was the farthest removed from free trade" of any tarin law that has ever existed In this country except the one which bore the name of Mckinley and which afterward bore the name of Dingley But even this was tarin law which followed diversity in-