Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1905-05-25
STIRRING UP THE ANIMALS.

Inc OcnenCldrles OF Tue nlRn tdIin
in this country, particularly the Steel
Trust and the shipbuilding combine,
have been greatly excited by the an
nouncement that President Roosevelt
and his official family have decided
to buy all the supplies needed in the
construction of the Panama canal in
open market-in competition that
shall give all the world a chance.
Those individuals and firms that
usually prosper on government con-
tracts and by official favoritism had
counted on vast profits for supplies
furnished for the canal, and this an
nouncement has made them furious.
The very idea of going into competi-
ton puts the naughty trusts and tar
if robbers into a frenzy of anger.
The government will need steel rails
and large equipment OF cars and To-
comotives for double-track railroad
that must be built across the Isthmus
of Panama, and instead of paying the
trust prices they propose to buy In
Europe, where they can get the same
goods at third less. This is, Of
course, rank heresy to the Republican
party and direct betrayal Of these
poor old "infant industries"
Secretary Taft also offers the ship
building combine deadly insult by
proposing to buy ships in England in
stead of in the United States. Two
vessels will be needed in the work, and
can be bought IN England for $4,000,
as against 81 100000 in this country.
So it goes in every department Of
supplies, and if the President persists
in his determination the trusts will
be actually forced to sell to the gov
eminent right here at home at the
same price they get for the same goods
in foreign countries. Of course the
President is right, but the protected
industries didn't contribute to the cam
paign fund last year with the expec-
tation that this sort of deal would
be handed out to them.
Apropos to this subject, Congress
man John Sharp Williams, the Dem
ocratic leader in the House of Repre-
sentatives, has issued the following
statement.
ut is not at all unnatur2l that the
Federal Cabinet or the Secretary of War
should object to being robbed by the
great trusts of the country, operating
under the shelter of the tariff and sell
ing at one prlCe-a reasonable one-to
foreigners and at another priCe-an eX-
tortlonate ne-to the home consumer,
including the Government of the Uni
ted States-their great benefaCtor-
which has freely conferred upon them
the privilege of rObbing.
The only thing curious TO my mind
is that the men who can see so clear
ly the inquity, when it comes to
bear as a hardship upon the Gov
eminent itself or the Panama Canal
which is the same thing,
being a branch Of the Government
cannot see it and will not remedy it
when bearing as hardship upon the
people, many of whom are so much
poorer and less able to withstand eXtOr-
tiOn than the Government is.
"a startling public object lesson Of
the iniquity and wrong doing was
needed. The attempt upon the part of
the tariff-bred and tariff-fed trusts TO
perpetrate the old, old wrong upon a
new customer, TO wit, the Government
itself, has furnished this object lesson,
and even Republican Cabinet is soon
TO revolt. The tax which the trust
would have levied under the shelter of
the tariff, upon the people indirectly,
by making the government pay for
materials for the construction of the
Panama Canal is not 1.-THE of the
amount which they daily levy upon the
people themselves, upon the humblest,
most obscure and least able TO pay, as
well as upon our navy, our merchant
marine, our railroads and our skyscrap.
ers.'
lone of three things will now happen.
Either the government will buy its ma
terials needed upon the Isthmus from
foreigners, or the great American trusts,
to prevent it, will sell to the govern
ment at price at which they habitu-
ally sell TO foreigners, or else Il Repub-
lican Congress, upon its reconvening,
will pass law forcing the government
to buy from the American trusts at
their own prices under the guise of en-
couraging American industry and up
lifting American labor in pursuance
of the so-called American system.
The poor, miserable, transparent veil
has been rudely torn-for a moment,
at any rate. Let the people look at the
ugly face under it all-untll Congress
meets, anyhow. This spectacle Will do
them no harm in the long run. if they
will learn the lesson it can teach"