The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1904-07-14

as trees whose roots no longer
absorb outside sustenace to support
the trunk and foliage, their leaves
wither and fall to the earth and
decay supersedes life and vigor.
History records the fact that
those mighty nations of earth which
no longer answer to the roll call of
nations, first shut out intercourse
with and stopped immigration from
other nations, then devonred their
own substance, fed on their own
strength, and like cannibal fishes
ate themselves up.
1t is an memorable law of trade
that there must be an intermingling
and exchange of commodities be-
tween individuals, communities,
states and nations to produce
prosperity.
A man with plug of tobacco in
each pocket of his trousers if he
changes the plugs from one pocket
to the other does not increase his
stock. A community, state, or a
nation that trades exclusively with
their own people cannot increase
the amount of their holdings.
VIM. Mckinley never said a
truer thing than when he stated
''We cannot forever sell everything
and buy little or nothing"
1t is an inevitable conclusion
that if we buy no commodities
abroad, the time must soon come
when we will sell none there.
If our trade doors always swing
outward and never inward CONNER
cial stagnation is sure to ensue, and
if those same doors swing ever in
ward and never outward industrial
depression is sure to result. The
great problem of the age is to SO
construct these doors that they will
swing both ways and so provide
that the vans of commerce will be
heaped harvest high both coming
and going. 1t follows then that he
who would try to prevent the gates
of trade from ever swinging inward
is as much foe to material pros
perity as he who endeavors to pre-
vent their ever swinging outward.
Trade is an exchange of COM
modities and in order to exchange
commodities we must have COM
modities to exchange.
A producer of commodity in
any country must cease the pro-
duction of the same if another
producer in another country can
produce it and bring it into the
market of the other at less price
than it costs him to produce it,
provided sufficient quantity can be
brought in to supply the demand;
unless the producer is made to pay
for the privilege of bringing the
cheaper produced commodity into
the country where it costs more to
produce it.
This is the basis of the republican
doctrine of protection and the pro-
tectiye tariff.
This protective tariff should
never exceed the difference between
the cost of producing the COM
modities, if it is greater than this
it gives the producer of the home
commodity an opportunity to ex-
tract an exorbitant price from the
consumer.
The consumer is entitled to pro-
lection as well as the producer 1t
is presumption for producer of a
commodity to demand protection
for commodity that he sells in a
foreign market more than he does
at home. Yet at the present time
many producers are receiving such
protection.
1t is anwise to make protective
tariff SO high on any commodity as
to absolutely shut out all possible
competition from abroad, for then
the home producer has an oppor-
tunity to extort unduIy large profits
from the home consumer and for
the few to become immensely rich
at the expense of the many. This
condition exists in respect to many
commodities in general use in this
country at the present time and to
say it should continue is to say that
the interests of the many should be
subserved to the interests of the
few.
When an individual, partnership
or corporation gets absolute control
OF q commodity. a trust is formed.