The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1906-03-16

proposed to help the industries of that
island. The same arguments were then
used for and against the reduction of
the Cuban tariff that have been used
this time for the reduction of the
Philippine tariff. The same coercive
administration pressure was brought to
bear ana the deed was done. Today
even the ones who most strongly
| favored this action in the case of Cuba
cannot point out where it has done the
Cuban planter any good. The bad
! effect on the American beet sugar in
dustry has been only too evident in the
shutting down of a number of factories
But lastly there has been just exactly
| the benefit which the beet sugar makers
declared there would be-a great source
of added profit to the sugar trust. 1t
was popular thing, and looked like
the generous thing toward the Cubans
Ito give them the reduction in duty
but to the friends of the American in
dustry who were thoroughly posted on
the ms and outs of the situation it was
only too evident in advance where the
real benefit of the reduction would go.
And events justified their prophecies.
Now the fight has been to do the
same thing again in the case OF the
Philippines. AS already said, everyone
wishes to do the fair and generous
thing by the Philippines. We wish to
see them prosperous and to see greatly
quickened business activity throughout
the islands, but we do not wish to see
the accomplishment of this aim made to
merely play into the hands of the sugar
trust as was the case with the Cuban
tariff. And the desire to favor any
thing which even merely on the face of
it offered relief to the Filipinos is just
what has made it so hard to secure JUS
tice for the American farmer and the
small American investor who have put
their labor and money into this new and
growing industry. Yet even if the pro-
posed measure was the best one which
could be devised for the Philippines,
there could still be no justice in making
this one new American industry bear
the whole burden of it. But the fact is
that the proposed measure would do
little if any more for the Philippines
than the other did for Cuba. The
sugar trust in this case too stands
ready to gobble the entire benefit 1t
is, in fact, creditably reported that
Secretary Taft himself admitted before
the senate committee that the measure
would not in the actual working out be
of the benefit to the Philippines which
it was claimed it would be-
A great deal has been printed CEN
surfing the friends of the beet sugar in
dustry for their determined fights. In
surgents they have been dubbed, and
every possible effort to discredit them
with the administration, and to whip
them into line, have been made. And
yet the day is likely to come when it
will be acknowledged that these same
insurgents who fought so valiantly for
the protection of this typical American
industry were the men who after all
were the truest TO the best that is in
republican traditions. 1t will be adj
mitted that they were the ones who
remembered best tie pledges made by
the party to this new industry, and at
the same time it is not unlikely that
they will in the end be found to be the
men who will devise some method for
bringing more genuine relief for the
islands than the trust coddling devices
which the American farmer and the
small American investor in the big beet
sugar factories have been asked to pay
for. For the fight has never been to
prevent relief from being granted to
the islands, but to prevent the enact
men5 of laws which under the guise of
helping the islanders merely robbed the
American farmer and small investor, to
turn the streams of money so diverted
into the Golfers of the sugar trust.
And so it is notable victory which
the doughty fighters for the beet sugar
industry have won, and among all of
the fighters there is none who has won
the admiration for his consistent, fear
less course that Congressman j. w.
Fordney of this congressional district
has won and held. Acknowledged on
every hand the most determined, per-
sistent fighter, he has nevertheless re-
tanned the friendship, respect and adj
miration of the men he has been fight
ing the hardest. And SO, while beaten
in the house by administration pressure
and force of numbers of those who were
whipped into line, he has continued the
fight while the matter has been before
the senate committee and has given the
Michigan member. of that committee,
Senator Burrows, the most loyal and
valuable assistance. The victory there
fore belongs to both of these men who