Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-23
Standpatters at Their Pattest.

| The American Protective Tariff League
| has just held it's annual meeting. 1t pledges
| itself anew to the policy from which it takes
| its name in an address which sets the pegs
| for the standpatters.
Take this paragraph:
1.-The democratic tariff revisionist we al
ways have with us. The free trade tariff
reformer is a familiar figure. From them
We have grown accustomed to expect
neyer-ceasing agitation for tariff changes,
for economic commissions. We look for 1t
and know what to do with it. When, how
ever disintegrating force asserts itself in
side of the republican party, when men pro-
Tossing adherence to the cardinal principles
of protection align themselves with the enc
mics of that policy and undertake to force
upon the party in power the tearing up Of
our system of tariff protection, the situation
presents aspects of unusual gravity and i'm
pOrtance.
Here is your extremist at his best, or
worst. The man who asks a limited re-
vision of the tariff strictly ON protection
lines, who supported the Dingley bill and
applauds all of its benefcent results, is ac-
cused of a desire to tear up "our system of
tariff protection He is ticketed with the
free traders, and cast into outer darkness.
Never more be party brother of mine says
the league to him.
There is something refreshing, too, in this:
This is no time to NEEDLE with our tariff
system, no time to exploit theories, guess
work and hearsay as reason for wholesale
tariff changes At a time when all labor is
profitably employed, when business is -four
ishing. when the aggregate wealth of all the
people is rapidly increasing. when domestic
consumption is at high-water mark, when
foreign trade has reached the largest figure
ever known in our history, tariff changes
and tariff legislation should be approached
with extreme caution, with great reluc-
lance"
1t is plain enough that the leagues time
| for revising the tariff is when the mills and
mines are all idle, when the roads are hlled
with tramps, when not one man in thou
sand has the price of beefsteak in his
pocket, and it would be difficult for John
D. Rockefeller. with Andrew Carnegie as
security. to discount note for a thousand
dollars in bank. Then, of course, the league
would be safe in demanding, it would
demand, that the tariff be revised upward.
That is the play.
But the league would not regard the pres
ent time even a inappropriate for raising
figures. Listen to this:
at may ard some time will DE desirable
| to make some changes in the present tariff.
| 1t is quite possible that some of the exist
| ing duties may be reduced; it is more than
| possible that many of the existing duties
| and classifications should be changed for
| the sake of fairer and more adequate pro-
| lection. The case for upward revision is
| fully as strong as the case for downward
| revision"
| Would il not be well to state "the case for
! upward revision now? The argument
| would attract very general attention, and,
| if it is as strong as the league believes it
! might silence the demand for a downward
| revision. 1t might put an end to the talk
| of an extra session of Congress. Let us
| have the~case. We shall get it, Of course,
next fall, or winter, when Congress meets,
| for then it cannot be withheld, but if we
| could get it now, with all of it's convincing
| details it would add something to the in
| terest of tariff discussion.