Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-12

ployes are over seventy years Ct age. and
In the main the service rendered is vigor.
GUS and efficient. Where tho merit Sys-
tenn was. Of course, most needed was In
the Philippine Islands; and civil service
law of very advanced type has there been
put into operation and scrupulously Oh
served. Without one exception every APP
polntment In the Philippines has been rnade
| IN accordance with stricte5t standard OF
fitness, and without heed to any other con-
sideration.
The Protective Tariff.
Finally, we come to certain matters upon
which our opponents do in their platform of
principles definitely take issue with us, and
| where, II they are sincere, their triumph
would mean disaster to the country. But
exactly as 1t is impossible to call attention
| TO the present promises and past record of
our opponents without seeming offensive, so
| IL is impossible to compare their platform
with their other and later official utterances
ana not create doubt to their sincerity.
In their private or unofficial utterances
many OF them frankly advance this insin-
cerlty as merit taking the position that
to speak they have no intention of keeping
| their promises Of departing from the
| policies now established, and that there
fore they can be trusted not to abuse the
power they seek.
When we take up the great question of
the tarlH we are at once confronted by the
| doubt as to whether our opponents do or do
not mean what they say. They say that
| protection is robbery" and promise to car
| ry themselves accordingly If they are given
power. 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 regards the tariff; while
others seem anxious to prove that 1t is
safe to give them partial power, because
the power would be only partial and there
fore they would not be able to do mischief.
The last is certainly curious plea to ad-
vance on behalf of party seeking to OBJ
tain control of the government.
At the outset 1t is worth while to say
word as to the attempt to identify the ques-
ton of tariff revision or tariff reduction
is always sign of desire to avoid any real
effort to deal adequately with the trust
question. In speaking on this point at Min
neapolis, on April 4, 1903, l said:
Tariff Revision and Trusts.
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 any sub
stantial effect in solving the so-called trust
problem. Certain great trusts or great cor
porations are wholly unaffected by the
tariff. Almost all the others that are or
any Importance have as matter OF fact
numbers Of smaller American competitors;
and of course a change in the tarin which
would work injury to the large corporation
ton to it's smaller competitors; and equally
of course such a change would mean dis
aster to all the wage-workers connected
with either the large or the small corpora
lions. From the standpoint of those inter-
ested 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 American COM
petitors, and thrown only into competition
with foreign competitors; and that the first
effort 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 change might confer upon them
positive benefit. Speaking broadly 1t is
evident that the changes in the tariff will
affect the trusts for veal or for woe simply
they affect the whole country. The tar
if affects trusts only as it affects all other
interests. It makes all these interests,
large or small, profitable; and its benefits
can be taken from the large only under
penalty of taking them from the small
Also
Latest Tariff Reduction.
There is little for me to add to this. 1t is
but ten years since the last attempt was
made, by means of lowering the tariff, to
prevent some people from prospecting too
much. The attempt was entirely sue
cessful. 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. Undoubt-
edly 1t would be possible at the present |
time to prevent any of the trusts from re-
naming prosperous by the simple expedi- |
ent of making such sweeping change in |
the tariff as to paralyZe the industries of /
the country. The trusts would cease to |
prosper; but their smaller competitors |
would be ruined, and the wage-workers |
would starve, while 1T would not pay the |
farmer to haul his produce to market. The |
evils connected with the trusts can be |
reached only by rational effort, step by |
step, along the lines taken by Congress and |
the executive during the past three years. |
If tariff law is passed under which the |
country prospers, the country has pros
pered under the present tariff law, then all |
classes will share in the prosperity If |
tariff law is passed aimed at preventing
the prosperity of some of our people, 1t is
as certain as anything can be that this aim
will be achieved only by cutting down the
prosperity of all of our people.
OF course, If our opponents are not sim
cere in their proposal to abolish the system
of a 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, 1t is hardly
safe to trust them on any other issue. But If
they are sincere in this matter, then their |
advent to power would mean domestic mis-
fortune and misery as widespread and far
reaching as that which we saw ten years |
ago. When they speak of protection as
robbery" they of course must mean that
1t is immoral to enact tariff designed |
Gas is the present protective tariff to Sc
cure to the American wage-worker the !
benefit of the high standard of living which |
we desire to kept up in this country |
Now to speak of the tariff in this sense as |
robbery" thereby giving it moral rela-
ton, is not merely rhetorical; it is on it's
face false. The question of what tariff is
best for our people is primarily one of ex-
pediency, to be determined not on abstract
academic grounds, but in the light of ex-
perience. 1t is a matter of business for
ours is a business people
merchants, farmers, wage
professional men, all alike. Our !
experience a people in the past has GER
tainly not shown us that we could afford
In this matter to follow those professional
who have confined themselves |
to study in the closet; for the actual work.
Ing of the tariff has emphatically CONTRA
dicted their theories.
Readjustment Of Schedules.
From time to time schedules must I'M
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 pro-
tective system. To uproot and destroy that
system would be to insure the prostration |