The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1906-09-27
GOV. CUMMINS ON
CAMPAIGN ISSUES
OPENING ADDRESS DELIVERED
AT cHURDAN TODAY.
Has Always Labored For the Princi.
pie Of Protection, But Believes
in Adjustment Of Certain
Schedules.

Churdan, Ia, Sept. "a Governor
Cummins opened his campaign in
Iowa, at big republican meeting here
this afternoon. In defense of his DO
sition on the tariff question he in part
said:
For thirty-four of these forty-six
years, in almost every political cam
paign, have given my time and
strength in the defense and eulogy OF
this economic doctrine, which l have
always believed and still believe to
be essential to the growth of our
country and the. welfare of its people.
In 1861 we applied this policy in law
which bears the name of a distin-
guished citizen of Vermont, who has
lately passed to his reward Thirty.
six years afterwards, we again applied
the policy in a series of schedules
which, receiving congressional APP
proval, became known the world over
as the Dingley tariff law. Between
1861 and 1897, the republican party
made great many changes in the
duties that were from time to time
levied upon imports, and it did this
both by special notifications and gen.
eTal revision. The inquiry which con-
Germs us at this time is this--Is it
treason to the republican policy for a
republican to believe and say that
some of the duties prescribed in the
law of 1897 are higher than are neces-
sary to adequately protect the Ameri-
can producer; to believe and to say
that excessive duties may be made
the instrument for the exaction of I'M
just prices; and to believe and say
that the duties that are higher than
are needed to adequately preserve
our home markets should be lowered
to the point of protection, to the end
that we may have full safety against
foreign invasion, but no oppression
from domestic greed?
ut seems to me that it is not only
the privilege but the duty of every re-
publican to strive earnestly for the
just application of the principles of
his party. The test of his loyalty is
his support of the principle, not his
Judgment with regard to the amount
of duty required to fulfill the prlnci-
pie.
When Nelson Dingley sat with his
committee on ways and means around
him, in 1896, formulating the SEIZED
ules as they now are, venture to say
that there was wide differences of
opinion as to the duties in specific in
stances. l have no doubt that some
members of the committee believed
that the duty on steel rails should be
$40 per ton, and that others believed
that it should be S. per ton, instead
of 1854 per ton, as was finally deter
mined upon. If had been member
of that committee and had insisted
upon the higher or the lower duty,
would have been any the less good
republican than though | stood for the
exact duty finally agreed upon?
LET the people of the state remem-
Der that my contention has always
been that the revision of the sched-
ules must be in harmony with and
based upon the protective policy; that
the duties that are too high should be
lowered, but not so as to impair their
efficiency as protective duties. Duties
should always be high enough to give
the domestic producer his home mar
ket, with a reasonable profit, but they
should never be high enough to en-
able the domestic producer to exact
an unfair profit from the domestic
consumer. The modification l have
worked for and shall continue to work
for is therefore republican modifi-
cation, for while it is true, according
to my way of thinking, that certain
excessive duties have compelled
American buyers to pay unjust prices,
they have not wrought 1.-THE of the
injury that would be inflicted by re-
vision or reduction at the hands OF
the democratic party upon a platform
of tariff for revenue only"