The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1906-08-30
STRADDLING THE TARIFF.

Inc laFlH plank III lle lllluoiS iepuo-
lican platform, and President Roose-
velt's tariff straddle in his remarkable
letter to Congressman Watson, look
very much as ii the republicans are
driven to the necessity of stealing some
more democratic thunder.
| The orthodox republican position
heretofore has been-and Speaker Can
non stood pat upon it in his cast iron
control of the house during the last
session that the Dingley act was the
perfection of tariff legislation. Its
schedules were sacred in the eyes of
republican leaders and party managers.
Any republican proposing to change
them was denounced as traitor to his
party.
Only few weeks before the Des
Moines convention the st. Louis organ
of robber tariff, and others, were read
ing Governor Cummins out of the party
for proclaiming the doctrine that the
shelter of the protective tariff should
never be extended to any monopoly.
And now the Illinois republican plat
form, reluctantly admitting that tariff
changes may be necessary, declares that
'the necessity for such changes, how
ever, must not arise from any special
interest"
In short, the republicans of Illinois
guardedly accept the principle embod-
led in the Iowa idea and admit the dem
ocratic contention that adequate pro-
lection may be extended to American
industry and labor without making both
victims of monstrous and Unsuitable
monopolies. Democrats hold that the
protection incidental to a revenue tariff
will afford sufficient protection to every
industry that needs it.
President Roosevelt's tariff utterances
are almost identical with those Of the
Illinois republicans, but he goes further
and deeper into the mire of shifty in
constituencies.
There is neither logic nor reason in
his assertion that "the question of re-
from the question of dealing with the
so-called trusts; that is, with the con-
troll of monopolies and with the super
vision of great wealth in business, es-
pecially in corporate FORM
The great industrial trusts could not
exist without the absolute monopoly Of
the American market, which is bestowed
by prohibitive tariff. They can be de-
: stroyed at single stroke by depriving
them of the shelter of prohibitive
: tariff, allowing them only such margin
of protection as will keep out foreign
competition that might prove ruinous.
1t is certainly easier, and it would be
better for the country to destroy them
in this way than it could possibly be to
| regulate them by any device of legisla-
t ton, or by prosecution or governmental
:. control.
The democratic party proposes to de.
t stroy the greedy and INSCRIPTIONS mo-
n nopoly, while fostering the deserving
a industry and the American labor when
5. carries it on. In the language of Will
liam Jennings Bryan, the democratic
party does not propose to regulate the
stealings or unjust gains Of law-createc
: nonopolies, but say to them that they
shall not steal at all.
President Roosevelt and the lllinoi:
republicans would prune the robberie
of the taritf-made trusts, but would no
eradicate them. But we mistake thu
- temper Of the country if it does no
= urgently demand that the axe be landed
;. vigorously to the root of that evil tree
= The grudging and guarded way il
- which Mr.. Roosevelt admits the posi-
:, bic necessity of tariff changes prove
:. that he and his party are altogether to
> tender in their friendship for the Ding
ley tariff to be safely intrusted with it
. reformation.-S Louis Republic.
y -
. Winneshiek county invested $3.50