The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-25
By SavnYard.

By Savoyard.
 Standpatlsm is progressive policy. Last fall the standpatters said the tariff should be reformed by it's friends; tney now say 1t shall not be reformed at ail- tkat 1t Is finished and Is not only good, but perfect No other interpretation can bs put upon the action of the Republi- can conventions in Iowa and Ohio. Not a gl eat while ago the FtIowa idea" was lrsty and brave. It denounced certain | schedules of tho tariff as the refuge of l trusts. or words like that. It was put in the platform and threatened to be cpl demic, Governor Cummins was the big l gest man in the State, and mighty man of reform; but 1t did not last long. Hep burn. Cousins, Lacey and other stand patters sounded She tocsin and mustered their forces and put the clan Cummins | to flight and to rout. Senator Allison came along with his smoothing iron and soothing sirup, and composed things with | the virile, defiant, desperate proclama- | tion-"Duties that are too low should be | ihcreased.' Everybody professed to be satisfied with that, and the standpatters | immediately set to work and brought the party to their way of thinking. which is | this: While there are possibly some du- ties that are too low, there are none that arc too high And to this complexion
 
 Reciprocity, the darling child of the late James G. Blaine's somewhat bizarre statesmanship, has not where to lay its 1 l wilderness of politics. The sugar trust got in it's share of 1t. last winter, and | there was none left for the laborer in the shop. or the farmer in the field, and a leading Republican statesman. MT. Dal- zell. a member from Plttsburg, a mag nate of Ways and Means, an autocrat of | tho Committee of Rules, has declared that cream of tartar Is the only capital this | country has got in reciprocity way. And | to this complexion, too. has the magnilo- | uuent idea of James G. Blaine come at llast-reciprocity Is for cream of tartar | only. Senator Burrows, another Republi- can statesman, in voiceful and sonorous l eloquence. announces that the Republican | platform is already written, not by any | one' man-is that reflection on Henry Cabot Lodge?-but in the deeds wrought | by the party In the past. That sort of stuff used to be called Bourhonsm. and | it is a very good name for 1t now. What | does Senator Burrows propose? Why, l that the party shall be merely memory
 There was a time when the Republican Party was Napoleonic enough to hold that the victory of the last campaign will not do for this campaign.
 | There is an idea in Massachusetts that is clamorous for recognition in the party council and expression in the party plat form; but Senator Lodge said that was a reflection on the President of the United | States and party impertinence, if not downright party perfidy, or something of that import. and so there was the peace | that reigned at Warsaw in the Republi- can Convention, and the party in the | East did things to this Massachusetts idea marvelously like the things the party in the West did to the Iowa idea" Sem l ator Lodge was master of the situation, and both spoke and voted the heresy to death. Never was there a convention more subservient to its master than was this Massachusetts Convention to the commands of Senator Lodge. It was as doclie and as pliant as the bread and bnttar ri
 As 1 understand 1t, part of this Mas sachusetts idea, and the most significant and threatening part, is a demand for 1 free hides. That 1t is a sincere and DOT | tentious demand is shown by the fact ! that the manufacturers of Lynn, Lowell, | Brcckton, and other places are agreed to | surrender the tariff on boots and shoes if 1 they are given free hides. They argue this way-that the English shoemaker is | the most efficient shoemaker in Europe. | but that the American shoemaker, aided l by machinery, can turn out three pairs l Of shoes while his English rival is making but two pairs, and that the difference | in wages Is not nearly so great as the | difference in efficiency, and therefore the | labor cost of the American shoe is the | cheapest on earth. They go on tQ say that with free, hides they can command the shoe trade of most of the world, for their wares are as good as any Tn the world and the handsomest in the world,
 anc looks is big thing in the shoe trade
 The standpatters answer and say that
 the tarin on hides Is for the farmer who sells calves and bullocks, and grazieI s
 who pasture fiocks and herds, and trad
 CTS who fatten live stock for market, and tEat according to the tariff idea these folks are as much entitled to protection | as the wool grower or the steel maker,
 ar the cotton spinner To that the shoe makers or Massachusetts reply that the tariff does not begin to operate on hides
 until the hide is separated from the car cGss, and that when that is done the hide is the property of the ir@ fate beef the tarin on hides. that the t4.ner pays
 the tarim to the beef trust. the shoe
 maker pays it to the tanner the shoe merchant pays 1t to the shoemaker, and the shoe merchant, and that it Is possible