Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1904-04-15
TARIFF AND TRUST.

| SayOyard in the Washington Post.
Senator Aldrich gives as a definition
of the tariff that it's Office is to enable
our people to engage in industries re-
quiring the profitable employment OF
labor. Alexander Hamilton did not
call it that. Neither did Henry Clay,
neither did j ustin S. Morrill,, neither
did William Mckinley, neither did
John Dalzell, neither did Charles b..
Grosvenor-each of whom defined the
tariff-no two of whom defined it alike,
and all of whom defined it wrong. Jhe
tariff question will be cardinal, and
Frequently paramount, issue until
mankind becomes civilized. There are
|several Democratic Presidents to be
shaken out of it when the Democratic
party has sense enough to know how
Ito shake. But here is the remarka-
BILE, the startling, the bswildering part
of Senator Aldrich' g preachment:
"We believe that these duties thus
levied do not encourage or create mo
nopolies, or trusts, or combinations.
which are an incident of our industrial
development, and in no wise affected
by the imposition of tariff duties"
| wonder what sort Of speech Apollo
made to the swineherds of Admetus.
What is the tariff fo-, if it be not to
curtail Or destroy competition Can
trust exist as long as there is competl-
tion? What is trust but the absence
of combination ? In the Beecher-Til
ton trial Judge Fullerton asked wit
ness what his religious views were. He
answered: II am a Spiritualist, but
not fool" l profess to be Demo
crat, but not damphool, and, there
fore, I believe these are good trusts
are the spawn of excessive protection.
[ believe that a reasonable tariff on
trust made goods, or free trade in them,
would do more to beneficently com pose
the trust issue than all the demago-
CUES in the Union will ever do, or all
the Sherman laws you could write on
a scroll as vast as the sky. The trust
iquestion will be settled when the
trusts shall have paid up capital equal
to nominal capital; when they shall
have governmental examination, and
when they have destroyed adequate
competition with the weapon of cheap
ness, and shall keep it destroyed by
that same means. The demagogues
and the fools will never settle the
trusts.
Secretary Shaw declares the major.
ity opinion of the Supreme Court in
the n Northern Securities case victory
for the Roosevelt administration.
That is one way to view it, and a very
natural way a partisan Republican
standpoint. From an independent
Democratic standpoint. 1t is a victory
of the doctrine of centralized govern
ment as opposed 10 home rule. l can
very well see occasion for Republican
exultation over that victory" and l
can very we'll see occasion for Demo-
Icratic alarm. The trust issue was u0t
involved, or, if so, it was subordinate
to the greater question of States rights
land citizens rights.
The M erger decision maze the doc
trine that ownership of certain stocks
of certain corporations is Interstate
commerce, and that power to violate
law is as harmful as actual violation.
The Northern Securities Company ex-
panded trade and cheapened rates.
Now what does Secretary Shaw pro-
pose to do with trusts that restrain
trade and advance prices We know
what Attorney General Knox is not
J going to do to them, for hath he not
declared that he will not run amuck
against them? Here is the steel trust,
, that will sell the Canadian Pacific Rail
road, foreign corporation, steel rails
l'Cheaper than it will sell them to the
Northern Pacific Railroad, a domestic
corporation. That may be expansion
of foreign trade, but it is restraint OF
domestic trade. If there ever was Oc
casion for an Attorney General to rur
\ amuck, here it is, but it seems that tnt
present Attorney General reserves hi
muck running for heneficent trusti
h that expand trade and cheaper rates
and has nothing but encouragement
for vicious trusts that sell to Ameri
can consumers at monopoly prices ant
n foreign consumers at competition
lprices. For example, railroad cor
poration in the State of Washington
4 wanted some steel rails. Instead o
: ordering them directly from the trust
I it ran amuck and got firm in Van
= couver to order them, and thereb
3 saved a lot of money. All this happer
ed under the eyes of the Attorney Ger
= eral and Senator Aldrich. Free trad
!! in iron and steel would not destroy th
steel trust-and, indeed, it is not d.
> sirable to destsoy it-but it woul
G change the nature of the thing, an
4 after the surplus water shall have bee
p squeezed out of it's stock it would NAL
S a respectable and beneticent trust {
4 it. l know the demagogues OF TT
y Democratic party do not agree wit
g me, and l am glad of it.