Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-09-12

q Ine tarlH, Wnlle OtHerS seem
anxious to prove that it is safe to give
them partial power because the power
would be only partial, and therefore
they would not be able to do mischief.
The last is certainly a curious plea to
advance on behalf of a party seeking
to obtain control of the government.
At the outset it is worth while to
say q word as to the attempt to iden-
tIfy the question of tariff revision or
tariff reduction with a solution of the
trust question. This is always a sign
of desire to avoid any real effort to
deal adequately with the trust ques-
ton. In speaking pm this point at
Minneapolis on April 4, 1903, l said:
THE question of tariff revision,
| speaking broadly, stands wholly apart
from the question of dealing with the
trusts. No change in tariff duties can
have any su%bstantials effect in solving
the so called trust problem. Certain
great trusts or great corporations are
wholly unaffected by the tariff. AL
most all the others that are of any i'm
portance have as a matter of fact num-
| bers of smaller American competitors,
and of course a change in the tariff
which would work injury to the large
| corporation would work not merely
injury but destruction to its smaller
| competitors, and equally of course such
a change would mean disaster to all
the wageworkers connected with either
the large or the small corporations"
The Wilson Tariff Law.
There is little for me to add to this.
1t is but ten years since the last at
tempt was made by means Of lower
ing the tariff to prevent some people
from prospecting too much. The at
tempt was entirely successful. The
tariff law of that year was among the
causes which in that year and for some
time afterward effectually prevented
anybody from prospecting too much and
labor from prospecting at all. :
The question of what tariff is best
for our people is primarily one of ex-
| pediency, to be determined not on alb
stract academic grounds, but in the
light of experience. 1t is a matter of
business. From time to time schedules
| must undoubtedly be rearranged and
readjusted to meet the shifting needs
| of the country, but this can with safe
ty be done only by those who are COM
mitted to the cause of the protective
system. To uproot and destroy that
| system would be to insure the prostra-
| ton of business, the closing of facto-
| ries, the impoverishment of the farmer,
the ruin of the capitalist and the star
walton of the wagewprker. Yet If pro-
lection is indeed robbery" and if our
| opponents really believe what they
say, then it is precisely to the destruc-
ton and uprooting Of the tariff, and
| therefore of our business and industry,
that they are pledged.
Reciprocity.
Our opponents assert that they be-
lieve in reciprocity. Their action on
the most Important reciprocity treaty
recently negotiated, that with Cuba,
does not bear out this assertion. More
over, there can be noareciprocity unless
there is a substantial tariff. Free trade
and reciprocity are not compatible. We
are on record as favoring arrange
| ments for reciprocal trade relations
| with other countries, these arrange
| ments to be on an equitable basis of
benefit to both the contracting parties.
The Republican party stands pledged
| to every wise and consistent method of
increasing the foreign III of the
country. That it has kept its pledge is
| proved by the fact that, while the do
| nestle trade of this country exceeds in
| volume the entire export and import
trade of all the nations of the world,
the United States has in addition Sc
cured more than an eighth of the ex-
port trade of the world, standing first
among the nations in this respect.
1t is a matter of regret that the pro-
tective tariff policy, which during the
| last forty odd years has become part
of the very fiber of the country, is not
now accepted as definitely established.
These forty odd years have been the
most prosperous years this nation has
ever seen; more prosperous years than
any other nation has ever seen. Be
You'd question this prosperity could
not have come if the American people
had not possessed the necessary thrift,
energy and business intelligence to
turn their vast material to
account. But it is no less true that ii
is our economic policy as regards the
tariff and finance which has enabled
us as a nation to make such good use
of the individual capacities of our citi'
zens and the natural u of our
country. Every class of our people is
benefited by the protective tariff.
The farmer has benefited quite as
much as the manufacturer, the mer
chant and the wageworker.
The Farmer and the Tariff.
The future of American agriculture
is bound up in the future of American
manufactures. The two industries have
become under the economic policy OF
our government so closely interviewer
SO mutually interdependent, that nef