The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-11-14
JAPAN TO INCREASE
THE IMPORT DUTIES
Higher Tax TO be Placed on
Many Articles
WILL SUPPLY MORE FUNDS
Japs Are making Strenuous Efforts to
Meet the War Expenditures.
Terms of Recent Foreign
Loan Unsatisfactory.
WILL SUPPLY MORE FUNDS

| on november =, SHOWS a proposed IN
crease in import duties of s45, 900. Div
ided among a large number of articles
the increase on individual articles is
small, xcept in the case of tobacco,
glassware, beverages and kerosene.
Among the articles on which it is pro-
posed to increase the duty are objects of
art ammunition eompasses, crucibles,
cutlery, electrical machinery agricul-
tural implements, fire extnguishers
musical instruments, surgical and scien-
tific instruments, Photographic apparatus,
speetacles, telephones, thermometers, con-
fectioneries, preserves, CRATES, safes, sta
tionery, inks, straw paper, felt spirituous
liquors, carriages, bicycles, pictures, al
cohol, spirits, chemicals, cotton, BRASS
copper. lead. steel gold and silverware
The duties on a number of articles,
clusively of Chinese production, are in
creased
The budget to be submitted to the diet
will be practically the same as outlined
in previous dispatches in the Associated
Press, except that further reductions have
been made In ordinary governmental ex-
penditures.
Baron Arasuke, minister of finance, an
swering the criticisms of the terms OF
the recent foreign loan. said that the
loan was unsatisfactory to the govern
ment, but the delay in capturing Port
Arthur and the departure of the Russian
Baltic fleet had created hitch in the
negotiations, and had compelled the ac-
ceptance of terms less advantageous than
those of the first foreign loan.
A dispatch from Toxic, October 81, said
that in the preliminary estimates Of the
budget covering January, February and
March, 1906 and the fiscal year COM
meneing in April, the war expenditures
were estimated at s3s5,OOo.ooO, and the or
binary expenditures at $50 100000. 1t was
proposed to provide for the war expenses
In increasing the taxation by $3.50 900. by
retrenching from the advance expenses,
and the suspension of public works by
the amount of $3500o,0O0, and to raise the
balance of $500 900 by loans.
->~-~--~--------~>>-----~ ~---~~----------~---~~-
chinery of The party must remain in the
hands Of the men who now hold it,
Concerning Bryan.
The air still rings with the eloquence
with which Mr.. Bryan endorsed the can
didate Of the st. Louis convention, spoke
of him as the Moses of Democracy
spoke of Par1er's ideals as his own
IDEALS and proclaimed the sincerity
with which he was advocating both the
platform and the nominee of 1904 Mr.
Bryan himself will remain for four years
as much bound by the action of the St
Louis convention as he was when he
made his whirlwind trip through Indiana
If the action at the convention bound
then 1t binds him now. The election did
not release him. He can only be released
by another national convention, and that
national convention will to meet until 1908
Therefore when Mr.. Bryan cuts loose
from a platform which he so recently
asked the people to indorse in behalf of
Judge Parker, he takes a position which
is that of Bryan, the individual, and
which cannot bind any other democrat
whatsoever. For four years the demo-
cratic party has got to stand by the ac-
tion of the st. Louis convention whether
they wish to do not. What they did
there is official and binding Mr.. Bryan
himself gave it his sanction.
Again, MI. Bryan has no substantial
reason for believing that he can ever get
the national democratic party to adopt
the populist programme which he has
just formulated. The democratic party
rever did do it, and the presumption is
that il never Will. The putocratic ele-
ment has just as much power within the
party now as it had when the ST. Louis
convention met. Indeed, it has more. 1t
las all the machinery now which the
Bryan men then held; it has the same
control over the newspapers which 1t
then held; therefore, it is certain as any
thing can pc that they will be able to
again defeat Mr.. Bryan in the national
convention when he comes before 1t with
his populist platform Suppose, however,
that he should be victorious over them in
the national convention. Can they not
l1nift him Just as successfully, as they
did in 1896? Is 1t not absolutely certain
that they are just much Joined to
their idols now, as they were then2 Will
they not be as desperate and unscrupul-
Gus in knitting their own ticket as they
in hac cod
on human nature says that they will.
No Hope for Bryan.
Then even if Mr.. Bryan should win the
nomination of his populist platform In
1905 the plutocratic element in his own
party will bar his progress and compass
his defeat just as they did before.
Again, suppose that the plutocratic ele-
ment should triumph over Mr.. Bryan
i'm 1908 as they did in 1904, then what? Mr..
Bryan will have to submit just as he did
submit in 1904-after having declared pub
Iicly and positively that he would never
support a gold standard nominee of the
democratic party. Mr.. Bryan could not
bolt in 1905 The time to have done that
was 1904 That opportunity will not re-
turn. He himself has set the example
of submitting to what was wrong be-
cause, although it was wrong, it was reg
ular.
I'm short the democratic party has
this hopeless situation. The Bryanites
cannot drive out the plutocratic ele-
ment; the plutoerauc element cannot
drive out Mr.. Bryan. They exhause their
strength with internal struggles. leaving
the party where its enemies can always
defeat it at the polls. There is this fur
ther weakness in the programme of Mr..
Bryan. The plutocratic element has
shown that it can safely defy him and
combat him, although he is the nominee,
wehere as he submits to them when they
put up a plutocratic nominee. From a
party so hopelessly divided, 1t is the rank
est folly in my judgment, to expect any
reforms. From year to year 1t is a dreary
go round-and-round of one faction fight
ing another faction, each of which al