Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-07-26
REFUSE TO REASON
ARGUMENTS oF STEAMBOAT
TERsn ARE WITHOUT LOGIC.
1nsistence on High Tariff Rates Has
Become a Mania with Them, 1t
Seems-Welfare of Country
Forgotten.

In the chaste language of the New
York Evening Post, Chasing the devil
round a stump is profitable exercise
compared with running down a stand
patter." Well, that depends. If you
can give him a kick and make him
jump" your exercise will not have
been entirely in vain.
Secretary Shaw roundly denounced
Gov. Cummins of Iowa the other day
on account of the latter's tariff revis-
ion rroclivities. Yet the secretary him.
self lad 10 hesitation in purchasing
10000 barrels of cement abroad wheh
by doing SO he saved to the govern
ment q cents a barrel, or $1,000. 1t is
proposed, in the event of combining bids
for materials for the Panama canal
construction to those of American
manufacture, to add the tariff duty to
the cost of such materials abroad, and
thon further increase the expense by
permitting the bidder another addition
for a reasonable profit" Truly, it
would seem that the Creator of all is
not the only being who moves in a
mysterious way, his wonders to per-
FORM
But, as the same paper remarked in
another issue: "Standpatism is daily
mounting to new heights of unreason,
resembling mania. Like the defenders
of slavery just before the war, protec-
=,
tionists are making a religion of their
practice, and every man who dissents
from it is a heather and an infde1.'
Ergo, Gov. Cummins must be a heath
en- and an infidel. Likewise Mccall
and Eugene N. Foss, of Massachusetts.
So, too, with the Massachusetts Re-
publicans who recently complained
that unless they were given free hides
and other raw material they could Sc
cure no markets abroad; whereupon
Mr.. Serene Payne ~serenely answered
that New England manufacturers need
no foreign market, being possessed of
magnificent domains on our WI CONT
nent, Talk about your talkabouts!
There's an answer as is an answer.
But when some of our patriotic Dem
oeratic representatives in congress
pointed out that some of the most high
ly protected trusts, such as the steel
trust and the watch trust, for instance,
are 50 eager to secure foreign markets
that they sell their goods abroad more
cheaply than to the consumer at home,
Standpatter Hepburn took the trouble
to explain that that charge was simply
a campaign roorback. Of course, we
are willing to take his word for that
until the figures prove differently.
When Mr.. Williams, of Mississippi,
leader of the house minority, occupied
two days in piling up evidence to the
contrary, Mr.. Dalzell, of Pennsylvania,
kindly and frankly admitted that the
goods made Ey protected American in
terests are sold for less money in Eu-
rope than at home, simply because they
are unable to secure the foreign trade
in any other n
Of course, as Mr.. Dalzell 80 naively
puts ii, 1t is a simple business propo-
sition-undersell the other fellow
whenever and wherever you can, no
matter who gets the benefit of the
lower price. But wouldn't it be a good
proposition to so adjust the tariff
schedule as to permit American citi-
Aens 10 purchase American made goods
as cheaply as Europeans may purchase
them?
That, Of course, would be a patriotic
movement. But who will accuse a
standpatter, in these twentieth century
days, of patriotism? Perish the
thought! Business first and patriotism
after, is the motto of the trusts and
their standpat allies, in congress and
GU. AS some wives reach their hus-
bands hearts through the medium of
the stomach, SO he who would chase
the standpatter round the stump must
appeal to his pocketbook, regardless of
the welfare of the rest of the communi-
ty.