The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1905-05-26
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Cen
eral Topics from
the Capital.
MAY 20, 1908

tu tDc WouR6 lOI Splll III MS
party which will rend it wide as
unders This is the question which
is being discussed wherever poll
ticianS, or even business men, are
gathered together in Washington
and, Judging by the reports, iu
business houses and clubs all over
the country. If one listens for a
few months to a group of stand
patterS, as they are called who
rigidly oppose any change of the
tariff schedules, he will be con
vinced that the Republican party
is doomed to disruption and de
feat and their reasoning is not sur
priSing. AS the servants of the
I highly protected industries all
over the country Republicans in
Congress have been diligently OPP
posing every move toward lower.
ing the tariff schedules and have
denied, with hauty Indifference
to facts, that American manutact
urers were selling their products
abroad for prices far below those
charged in this country. They
have refused to listen to the people
who have read the last Democra
tic Campaign Book and who there
saw long list of articles with two
prices opposite each, one the price
charged the foreigner, the other
! the price charged the American
for the same article aud with a
| difference of about 80 per cent in
favor of the foreigner.
Now the American public is in
formed that the claims of the
Democrats are absolutely correct;
that two ships which the Panama
Canal Commission wished to buy
were priced at 81 100000 in this
country, while identical ships,
constructed of steel plates made
ny the American Steel Trust,
could he bought in Europe for
$3.50, 900, that the domestic price
of steel rails is $33 ton aud the
foreign price for the same rails,
with freight prepaid to Europe
Is $50 a ton, and, Incidentally,
that the cost of the rails is only
Sl2 a ton; that ''the protected
hogs have their hind feet in the
IT. ugh" aud that it IS high time
they were taught a lesson; that
the tariff shelters monopoly and
that, in word, the American cen
sumner is being robbed. And the
informant of the American people
on all these points is none other
than President Roosevelt, the
leader of the Republican party.
Is 1t any wonder that the stand
patters see defeat ahead; that they
fOresee their own doom for the
reason that they have always been
elected by the campaign contribu
tons of the trusts and now that
the party of which they are mem
bers must follow its leader and
elect to Congress men who will
vote for tariff revision, their
reason for being has ased!
1t all came about in this way.
The President discovered that the
Panama Canal Commission, was
being robbed by combination of
American trusts; that, as the
Democrats have always claimed,
the tariff has created monopo.ies
which were so bold as to try to
rob the Government which by it's
favoritism has created them and
as ungratful as the viper which
Stung the bosom that cherished it.
When rumOrs of this condition of
affairs first reached the President
he did not believe them. but he
began an investigation. First he
determined to get rid of Admiral
Walker, chairman of the old com
mission. Congress, that is few
leaders in Congress, killed the bill
! that gave the President authority
to Ieorganize the Panama Canal
Commission but the resourceful
President "found a way" when he
had gotten rid of Walker and the
old commission he placed men
whom he knew in charge and told
hem to report the facts to him.
When they made their report he
found that the rumors were true
aud he became angry and used
strenuous-nOt strong-but siren
uous, language, referred to the
trusts as hogs who had put not
alone their fore feet but all four
feet into the trough, etc., and
then he rendered his now famous
decision that the comm is sion
should compel the American trusts
to grant their largest foreign dis
count or else buy the machinery
and supplies for the canal abroad.
The President is a protectiOnist,
but he does not believe in the per.
petnation of schedules which will
allow extOrtion and he is conyinc
ed that many of the Dingley
schedules do that.
The stand patters are using
every effort to defeat the intent
of the President. They have
anraQ1 unwarranto1 cfor;oS - 81 -