Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1905-05-27
"FEET lin THE TROUGH"

"FEET lin THE TROUGH" Eg
alexandria Stephens in congress during one
Of these tariff upheavals, when rates were being
|upheaved, characterized the spirit of the men
who came to Washington clafnoring for pro-
tecton as "a universal rush for the hog trough"
The simile was apt if vulgar, says the St.
Paul Dispatch We have been seeing this
porcine characteristic more clearly in these
later days of completed protectionism, when
our manufacturers Fare otsonly12 competing
abroad with their rivals, but are selling to
them at less price than they make home
sumers pay, well in the tenacty with
which they hold onto their privileges.
'"The hardest jolt these fellows have had
since 1892 was given them by president
Roosevelt last week. when Secretary Taft an
nounced that the canal commission would buy
it's supplies where it could get them cheapest
Nor is the jolt lessened by the later statement
that supplies would be bought here if prices
were satisfactory, for the jar set men to think
ing who had not thought much before aAThese
are thinking why they have not good right
to buy at the lowest the government has,
and If lower prices are good for Uncle Sam why
they not good for them and why their uncle
should force them to pay higher prices while
getting lower himself This is where
that jolt is getting in it's deadlest work.
The president is quoted as saying that he
adopted the cheapest market policy for the
canal because he wanted to make some of these
fellows get their feet ont of the trough" which
is very apt supplement to Alexander Steph-
ems comparison. If there was a crush for the
hog trough" in Stephens day, the usual out
come has been reached in day, for the
larger fellows have, as do the big of the
sly, not only got the trough, but, to crowd
out the others, have get into it with all their
feet. Every farmer knows how he has to use
"the big stick" to drive back the greedy ones so
that the weaker ones can have square deal.
"Protection that began with high ideals,
appealing to the sense of patriotism, admitting
that it called for sacaifices, but only for the
good of the country, has run the usual course
and degenerated into sordid selfshness that
demands the perpetual continuance of sacrifice
long after the ends for which it was to be made
were accomplished Long ago it changed it's
tone from the high note Of loyalty to land to
the low note of self interest, telling men who
have only their labor to sell that it gave them
high wages and without it they would sink to
the "pauper" level of the old nations And
labor believed it, in face of the stubborn facts
that hundreds of thousands of other men, with
only their labor to sell, importing them
selves annually and that labor maintained it's
wage rate only through the force of its organiza
tons Farmers were told that it gave them a
home market for their produce that raised it's
price, and that lower prices would follow its
abandonment or lowering. And SO on through
the industries; stand by the policy for it means
more money for you Meanwhile, the shrewd
adroit big fellows, the only ones benefited at
the cost of ALL have their fleet in the trough"
and are waxing fat, while the excluded ones
wonder why they SO lean. It is these whom
the president says shall get their feet out Of
the trough. But when they are driven out the
feeding at the trough will stop.