Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-09-06
HAS MUCH MEANING
PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE TERM "STAND PAT"
1t Meant a Great Deal More When
Hanna Injected 1t Into Politics
and 1t Means More as the
Years Roll BY.

"But what does 1t mean to stand
pat?" This is the question propound
ed in double-leaded and rather nerv-
GUS editorial by the New York Mail
of July 2S. 1t is easily answered. To
stand-pat means now precisely what
1t meant when that non-political eu-
phemism was projected into politics
by Mark Hanna five or six years ago
Mr.. Hanna saw a country on the top
wave of sea of unparalleled prosper
ity "Stand-pat," said he.
He saw domestic production in
creasing at tremendous rate to meet
domestic demand. "Stand-pat!"
He saw domestic labor fully en-
ployed, at increasing high wages.
"Stand-pat!"
He saw savings bank deposits in
creasing at the rate of half billion
dollars year. "Stand-pat!"
He saw railroads carrying more
freight and passengers and building
more miles of new road than ever be-
fore. 'Stand-pat!"
biV oa" IOyVVUyoOO lil iilClo Will
paid-off mortgages of the tariff revis-
ion period of 1S93-97 and buying pia-
nos and automobiles. "Stand-pat!"
He saw an internal trade amounting
to twenty billions year and growing
very fast. "Stand-pat!"
He saw a foreign trade pass the
two-billion mark and growing at the
rate of $2O0,00O,0OO year ct is now
over three billions) "Stand-pat!"
He saw the outside world taking
more and more of our agricultural
and manufactured exports. Stand
pat!"
He saw a big increase in our i'm
ports alike of non-dutiable articles
for use in manufacture and of dutia-
BILE goods of the competitive sort.
"Stand-pat!
He saw that the duties collected on
imports were yielding ample revenues
for the governments increasing re-
quirements. "Stand-pat!"
He saw the excess of exports over
imports bringing to us annual trade
balances averaging more than half a
billion dollars. "Stand-pat!"
He saw in consequence a vast in
flow of gold, which in the past ten
years has added S7O0,000,000 to our
supply of yellow metal. "Stand-pat!"
He saw American securities held
abroad sent back to aid in settling our
favorable balances of trade, and the
amount of American money sent
abroad to pay interest and dividend s
on foreign capital invested in this
country reduced to less than half
what it was ten years ago in a tariff
revision period. 'Stand-pat!"
He saw the United States paying off
its debts to foreigners and rapidly be-
coming the money center, as it has be-
come the industrial center of the
world. 'Stand-pat!"
He saw, in short, the most extraor-
binary prosperity, the highest rate
of wages, the highest standard of liv-
ing that the world has ever known,
So he said, "Stand-pat!"
What Mark Hanna saw five years
ago is to be seen today on a much
bigger scale. If he were living to-day
he would again say, "Stand-pat!"
He did not say, nor does anybody
now say, as the Mail seems to think,
that protection is "a hoop of IRON" an
inflexible, ineXorable thing that will
never permit of the change of single
tariff schedule. The Mail ought to
know better. That is not the stand-pat
attitude. That is not what stand-pat
means. To suppose it is to suppose a
silly thing. Free traders and chronic
tariff reformers ought to be given a
monopoly of that kind of supposing
This is a stand-pat year. So will
next year be, and the year after that,
and many years after that, we should
all hope. When a different condition
comes, and when revision of the tariff
is called for to promote the general
good-when decrease of some of
the schedules and an increase of some
of the schedules shall obviously work
to the advantage of the country as a
whole-then tariff revision should
come and will come
Should it come any sooner than
that? The best craftsmanship of the
country says no. The business inter-
ests of the country say no. The wage
earners of the country say no.
That is what it means to stand-pat.