The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-12

l.
Yet prominent persons among them
assert that they do not really mean
this and that if they come into power
they will adopt our policy as regards
the tariff; while 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
| a word as to the attempt to identify
| the question of tariff revision or tariff
| reduction with a solution of the trust
| question. This is always sign of de-
| sire to avoid any real effort to deal
| adequately with the trust question. In
! speaking on this point at Minneapolis,
on April 4. 1903. I said:
| 1.-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 anly substantial 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 matter of fact
| number of smaller American Compel
| itors; and of course change in the
! tariff which would work injury to the
large corporation would work not
| merely injury but destruction to its
small competitors; and equally of
course Such a cnan2e would mean O1S-
aster to all the wage-workers connect
| ed with either the large or the small
corporations. From the standpoint of
those interested in the solution of the
trust problem such a change would
| therefore merely mean that the trust
was relieved of the competition of it's
weaker Anglican competitors, and
thrown only into competition with for
| eign competitors; and that the first eff
fort to meet this new competition
would be made by cutting down wages,
| and would therefore be primarily at
| the cost of labor. In the case of some
| of our greatest trusts such a change
might confer upon them a positive
benefit. Speaking broadly, it is evil
dent that the changes in the tariff will
affect the trusts for veal or for woe
simply as they affect the whole coun-
try. The tariff affects trusts only as
it affects all other interests. It makes
all these interests, large or small,
profitable; and it's benefits can be
taken from the large only under pen
atty of taking them from the small
Also
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 afterwards effectually pre-
vented anybody from prospecting too
much and labor from prospecting at
all. Undoubtedly it would be possible
at the present time to prevent any OF
the trusts from remaining prosperous
by the simple expedient of making
such a sweeping change in the tariff
as to paralyze the industries or the
country. The trusts would cease to
prosper; but their smaller competitors
would be ruinZd and the Wage-Work-
ers would starVe, While 1t would not
pay the farmer to haul his produce TO
market. The evils connected with tne
trusts can be reached only by rational
effort, step by step, along the nneS
taken by congress and the executive
during the past three years. If a tar
country prospers as the country has
prospered under tn e present tariff law,
then, all. classes will share in the pros
perity. If a tariff law is passed aimed
at preventing the prosperity OF some
of bur people it is as certain as any
thing can be that this aim VIII be
achieved only by cutting down the
prosperity of all of our people.
Not to Be Trusted.
OF course, if our opponents are not
sincere in their proposal to abolish the
system of protective tariff, there is no
use in arguing the matter at all, save
by pointing out again that if. on one
great issue they do not mean what they
say it is hardly safe to trust them on
any other issue But II they are SIN
to power would mean domestic misfor-
tune and misery as widespread and far
reaching as that which we saw ten
wears ago. When they speak OF protec- |
ton as robbery" they of course must
mean that it is immoral to enact a tar
iff designed Gas is the present protec-
tive tariff to secure to the american
Wage-worker the benefit of the high |
standard of living which we desire TO
see kept up in this country. Now to
speak of the tariff in this sense as rob /
berry" thereby giving it moral rela-
ton is not merely rhetorical; it is on
its face false The question of what
tariff is best for our people is primarily
one of expediency, to be determined
not to abstract academic grounds, but
in the light of experience. 1t is a mat
ter of business; for fundamentally ours
is business people-manufacturer
merchants, farmers. wage-workers, pro-
fessional men, all alike. Our experience
as people in the past has certainly not
shown US that we could afford in this
matter to follow those professional
colnsellOrs who have confined them
selves to study in the closet; for the ac-
tuaI working of the tariff has emphat-
ically contradicted their theories. From
time to time schedules must undoubt-
edly be rearranged and readjusted to
meet the shifting needs of the country;
but this can with safety be done only
by those who are committed TO the
cause of the protective system 10 up
root and destroy that system would be
to insure the prostration of business,
the closing of factories, the impover-
ishment of the farmer, the ruin of the
capitalist, and the starvation OF the
wage-worker. Yet, if protection is in
deed robbery" and if our opponents
really believe what they say, then it is
precisely to the destruction and uproot-
ing of the tariff, and therefore of our
business and industry, that they are
pledged. When our opponents last OBJ
tanned power it was on platform de-
cIaring a protective tariff "unconstitu-
% he n
claration into practice was one of the
causes of the general national prostra-