Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-09-11

Tariff Closely Allied
with the Trnss Question.
The tariff question is very closely allied
TO the trust question and the reduction or
the tariff furnishes easy means of linn
iting the extortion which the trusts prac-
tice
While absolute free trade would neces-
Sarily make a trust impossible, still II IS
probable that very few manufacturing es-
adjustments would dare 10 enter into
trust if the President was empowered TO
put upon the free list articles competing
with those controlled by trust.
Tariff Fosters Idea of
Voting for selfish Reasons.
But one of the worst features of tar.
III levied not for revenue but for the avowed
purpose of protection is that it fosters the
idea that men should use their votes TO
advance their own financial interests. The
manufacturer has been assured that il is
legitimate for him TO vote for Congress
men who, whatever their opinions on other
subjects, will legislate larger dividends into
his pocket; SheepgrowerS have been en-
couraged to believe that they should have
no higher aim in voting than to raise the
price of wool; and laboring men have been
urged TO make their wages their only con-
Germ.
For a generation the FAT has been fried
out of the manufacturers by the Republican
Campaign Committee and then the manu-
facturers have been reimbursed by legiSla-
ton.
With the public conscience educated to be-
lieve that this open purchase OF legislation
was entirely proper, no wonder that insur-
ance companies have used the money of
their policy holders to carry elections--no
wonder that trusts have FASTENED 10 pur-
chase immunity from punishment with lib
eral donations.
There never was a time when the tariff
reform could be more easily entered upon
for the manufacturers by selling abroad
cheaper than at home, as many of them
do have not only shown their ingratitude
toward those who built the tariff wall for
them, but they have demonstrated their
ability TO sell in competition with the
world. The high tariff has long been
burden TO the consumers in the United
States and it is growing more and more
menace to our foreign commerce because it
arouses resentment and provokes retalia-
tons
The railroad question is also interviewer
with the trust question. Nearly all the
private monopolies have received rebates or
secured other advantages over competitors.
Absolute equality of treatment at the hands
of the railroads would 90 far toward Grip
ping the trusts and | rejoice that the
President has the courage to press th1S
question upon Congress While the law, as
it was finally distorted by the Senate, is
not all that could be wished, ii deserves
fair trial.
Public Ownership of
=
Experience has demonstrated that munich
pal corruption is largely traceable TO the
fact that franchise corporations desire to
control the City Council and thus increase
their dividends. If the railroad managers
adopt the same policy the sentiment in IA
vor of the ownership of the railroads by
the government is likely to increase as rap
idly throughout the country as the seilti-
ment in favor of municipal ownership has
increased in the cities.
| have already reached the CONCLUSION
that railroads partake so much of the ma
ture of monopoly that they must ultl-
mately become public property and be man
aged by public officials in the interest of
the whole community, in accordance with
the, well-de6ned theory that public owner
ship is necessary where competition Is I'M
possible.
Believing, however. that the operation
of all railroads by the federal government
would result in a Capitalization which
would all but oblterate state lines | pre-
fer to see only the trunk lines operated
by the federal government and the local
lines by the several state governments.
Some have opposed this dual ownership
as improbable, but investigation in Europe
has convinced me that 1t is entirely prac-
tlcdDle.
As to the rights of governments. federal
and state, to own and operate railroads
there can be no doubt. If we can deepen
the water in the lakes and build connecting
canals in order to cheaper railroad trans
build railroad and cheaper rates the
whole year; Ii we can spend several hundred
millions the Panama Canal to lower
trans-continental rates we can build rail
road from New York to San Francisco to
lower both trans-continental and local rates.
Railway Magnates Fear
Force of Public Sentiment.
If any Of you question the proprlety of
mentioning this subject | beg to emind you
thq President pO1ld have secured
the passage of the rate bill had he not APP
peaed to the fear of the more radical rem
edy of government ownership, and nothing
will so restrain the railroad magnates from
attempting to capture the interstate com
merce commission as the same fear.
The high-handed manner in which they
have violated law and ignored authority
together with the corruption discovered In
high places, has done more to create senti-
ment in favor Of public ownership than all
the speeches and arguments of the Oppo-
nentS of private ownership.
Just one word more in regard to the
trusts Some defend them on the ground
that they are an economic development and
that they cannot be prevented without great
injury to our Industrial system.
The Democratic party, If understand It's
position, denies the economic as well as the
political advantage of private monopoly and
promises to oppose it wherever it manifests
itself. It offers as an alternative compe-
tition wherever competition is possible and
DuDlls monopoly Wherever circumstances are
such as to prevent competition
Socialism presents a consistent theory,
but theory which. in my Judgment, does
not take human nature into account. Its
strength is in its attack upon evils the eX-
istence of which is confessed. Its weak
ness is mat it would substitute new dis
ease-if not a worse One-for the disease
from which we suffer.
Would Gust Trusts that
American Citizens Can Live.
As | was leaving home ! set forth my
reasons for opposing the Socialist doctrine
that the gCvernL ent should own and ope-
rate all the means of production and trans
portation; my observations during the past
year have strengthened my conviction on
shat subject. Because / am anxious to pre-
serve indlvidualism. | earnest in my
desire to see the trusts exterminated, root
and branch, that the door Of opportunity
may be open to every American citizen.
The Democratic party is not the enemy
of property or of property rights; 1t Is,
on the contrary, the best defender of both,
because 1t defends human rights, and hui
man rights are the only foundation upon
which property and property rights can rest
secure.
The Democratic party does not menace
a single dollar legitimately accumulated;
on the contrary, it insists upon tie protec-
ton of rich and poor alike in the enjoy
ment of that which they have honestly
earned. The Democratic party does not dis
=
lates each individual to the highest en-
deavor by assuring him that he will not
be deprived of the fruits of his toll.
If we can but repeal the laws which
enable men to reap where they have not
sown laws which enable them to garner
into their overlooking barns the haryests
that belong to others-no one Will be able
to accumulate enough to make his fortune
dangerous to the country.
PIutocracy Rests Alone
Special Privileges.
Special privilege and the use Of the tax
ing power for private gain-these are the
twin pillars upon which plutOcracy rests.
To take away these supports and to eie
vate the benefciaries of special legislation
in the path of honest effort ought to be the
purpose Of our party.
And who can suffer injury by just tax
alton impartial laws and the application
of the Jeffersonian doctrine Of equal rights
to all and special privileges to none ?-only
those whose accumulaTions are stained with
dishonesty and whose immSd methods have
given them a distorted view Of business so