The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-12

a moral relation, is not merely rhetor- ical: ft is on it's face false. The qpes- tfon of what tarff is best for our peo- pie Is primarily one of expedfency, to be determined not on abstract aca- demfc grounds, but in the light of ex- perience. It fs . matter of business; for fundamentally ours Is a business people - manufacturers, merchants. farmers, wase-earners, professional men. all alike.
 Revision by Its Friends.
 Our experience as a people in the past has certainly not shown us that we could afford in this matter to fol- low those professional counsellers who have confined themselves to study ip the closet; for the actual working of the tariff has emphatically contradict ed their theories. From time to time schedules must undoubtedly be rear ranged 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.
 To uproot and destroy that system would be to insure the prostration of business. the closing of factories. the impoverishment of the farmer, the ruip of the capitalist. and the starvation of the wase-workeF. Yet, if protection fs indeed robbery" and if our oppon- ents really believe what they say. then 1t Is precisely to the destruction and uproottng of the tariff. and there- fore of our business and industry. that they are pledged. When our opponents last obtained power 1t was on a platform declaring |a protective tarif "unconstitutional;'' and the effort to put this declaration into practice was one of the causes of the general national prostration last ing from 1898 to 1897. If a protective tarin Is either Unconstitutional or robbery" then it is just as unconsti- tutional just as much robbery, to re- wise 1t down, stifl leaving it protec- tive. as it would be to enact 1t.
 Democrats in the Hole.
 In other words our opponents have committed themselves to the destruc- ton of the protective principle in the tariff, using words which If honestly used forbid them from permitting this principle to obtain in even the small- est degree.
 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 no reciprocity un- less there Is substantial tariff; free trade and reciprocity are not compat- ible. We are on record as favorine arrangements for reciprocal trade re- lations with other countries, these ar engagements to be on an equitable basis of benefit to both the contracting par ties. The Republican party stands pledged to every wise and con- sistent method of increasing the for eign commerce of the country.
 That 1t has kept its pledge Is proven by the fact that while the domestic trade of this country exceeds in vol ume the entire export and import trade of all the nations of the world, the United States has in addition secured mere than an eighth of the export trade of the world. standing first among the nations in this respect.
 Exports Tremendous.
 The United States has exported dur ing the last seven years nearly ten bt1iif ms of dollars worth of goods-on an average half as much again annual ly as during the previous four years, when many of our people were consum- ing nothing but necessaries, and some of them a scanty supply even of these.
 Two years ago. in speaking at Lo- gaflsport, Ind. I said:
 ''The one consideration which must
 
 the imperative need of preserving the American standard of living for the American workingman. The tariff rate must never fall below that which will protect the American workingman by allowing for the difference between the general labor cost here and abroad, so as at least to equalize the conditions arising from the difference in the stand ard Of labor here and abroad-a differ ence which 1t should be our aim to foster in so far as 1t represents the needs of better educated. better paid, better fed, and better clothed working men of a higher type than any to be found in a foreign country. At all haz- ards, and no matter what else is sought fer or accomplished by changes of the tariff. the American workingman must bs protected In his standard of wages, that is. in his standard of living and must be secured the fullest opportunity of employment. Our laws should in no event afford advantage to foreign in- dustries over American industries. They should in no event do less than equa1ize the differences in conditions at home and abroad"
 Should Be Irrevocably Fixed.
 It Is a matter Of regret that the pro- tective tariff policy, which. during the last forty odd years, has become par. of the very fiber of the country, is not now accepted as definitely established Surely we have a right to say that it has passed beyond the domain of ibe- ory, and right to expect that not only It's original advocates. but those who at one time distrusted 1t on theoret1c