The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-10-12

We have imposed tariff upon
lum Der, tariff that is exclusive
and that keeps it out of the coun-
try. You cannot bring bundle
of kindling wood across the Dor
der. There is tariff on that.
The effect of a tariff upon lumber
is 10 bring about the destruction
of our forests. While we have
been inviting the destruction of
our forests during ali these years
we have at the same time been
giving one hundred and sixty
acres of land to any man who Will
plant on it a grove of trees. Such
logic as this is too much for gods
or men.
1t would have been better for
the nation during all these years
to have paid bounty upon the
Importation of lumber and in this
way to have preserved our for
ests. OveJ in Germany they tell
me that you cannot cut down a
tree without authority from the
government, and then you are
required to agree to plant another
tree in its place. We have been
engaged in the business of denud-
ing our country of trees all these
years. We have forgotten that
We cannot raise a crop of oaks as
quickly as we can raise crop Of
corn
We impose a tariff upon iron
products in order to protect our
iron industries. with our noun
tains FIJI of iron ore all these
years. with more iron ore within
our boundaries than there is i'll all
the rest Of the world. But the
deposits of the finer ore, the ore
out of which the BeSSemer metals
are made, and the deposits of
cOking coal are limited, and upon
these two things depend the build
| inc Of navieS. We are told that
We have plenty of cooking coal,
but there is one country In the
world where the finer ores and
where cOking coal are becoming
4 scarce, Away down deep i'll the
great Durham mines in England
the miners today are digging out
coking coal lying on their sides
and working at veins that are
only two feet thick. Already
England has begun to look for
new deposits in the south Of
Spin, in the north Of Sweden
and away out in the Baltic Sea.
What would be about to hap
pen now if during the century
that has passed We had invited
/ the shipping of cOking coal into
this country, and had invited
here the iron products Of Eng
land made out of the finer ores?
The time might now be here
when those materials might be
getting scarce over there, and at
the present stage III our progress
as nation. when so much de-
ponds, when everything depends,
according TO the proponents of
the protective tariff, upon the
building of navies. the time
might even now be here when no
country in the world would be
prepared to build iron and steel
ships except the United States,
aud the supremacy upon the seas
which We lost so many years ago
might even now be passing to us
Our policy has been to preserve
for England these important de-
pOSitS.
While we have been expanding
in d military way across the great
ocean to the west of us, we have
been expanding in a commercial
way across the great ocean to the
east of us. Throughout the
length and breadth of the land,
i'll thousands of factories. the
fires are burning, and from our
Atlantic SeabOrd there flows
across the ocean into the capitals
of the Old World a stream of
American made goods. w e
know now that our industries
have become so strong that out
side Of the tariff wall we are able
TO compete successfully with the
industries of the nations of
Europe.
simultaneously with this COM
mercial advance of ours toward
the east comes the news to all of
US that these industries, protected
here 30 long from competition
with the world, are able now. on
account of the sheltering tariff
wall, to make one charge here to
American consumers and lust on
the other side of the wall, where
competition is free, they make
another and a cheaper charge to
the foreign consumer.
1t is against that sort of thing
that the people are rebelling, and
they are beginning to understand
that tariff walls are maintained