The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-23

day, we only asked to be allowed to
live to ourselves uninterrupted. The
period of the hermit. nation is past The
time has now come when the United
States must take a leading part in the
commercial activities Of the world.
AS the nation increases in progress
and power, as time and space continue
to be anrihilated, so must our com
merce broaden. In the infancy of our
country men did business in their i'm
mediate communities. with no thought
Of going beyond We have now reach
ed the point with swift ships and fast
trains, instantaneous communication
with every part Of the globe that the
trade of the world awaits the harvest
ing of aggressive industrial enterprises.
With our new possessions in the ORR
ent and the prospective completion of
the Panama canal our trade should be-
come International, and international
trade cannot be q Onesided transaction.
One can not always sell and never buy.
AS long as trade restrictions, giving
special privileges to a few, continue we
cannot hope to dominate the commercial
maTts of the world. Trade restrictions
abroad breed trade reta1iations at home,
which are even now being felt The re-
latiOn OF buyer and seller is reciprocal.
With protective privileges removed and
the tariff on a revenue basis. American
ships would carry American products
into every land, and in return pour into
the lap of the nation the golden fruits
needs no special privileges to protect it;
it needs only freedom of opportunity to
exercise its faculties and employ its re-
sources.
Neither can the protective tariff be
defended on the ground that it benefits
the laboTing man. The law of supply
and demand regulates the price of Ia
Dor. It used to be argued that as the
American laborer received more the
American products could not be sold at
the same prices as those made by
cheaper European labor. But these same
products the handiwork of the greater
skilled and better paid American labor
er are now sold abroad in connection
with the lesser paid European laborer
without decreasing in the least degree
the wages Of the American laborer. La
Dor asks no largess of the state. It
wants but freedom and equality of Op-
portunity to produce, to possess, to ex-
change and enjoy the fruits of its handi-
cra-t.
"Entrenched behind the indifference
of the people, this protective tariff sys-
tenn has distorted the functions of a free
government into tools Of greed and We
hicles of oppression. Masked in the
guise Of protection to American indus
try, assembling as a friend to Aneri-
can labor. the protective tariff operates
as a cloak for cunning. as a shield for
monopoly, tax upon industry, a fine
upon labor, and finally. in its last an
a1ysis it is a graft and a false pretense,
conceived III BIG6Q anu bIUuSAL IOEtn III
avaricc.
THE tariff is essentially a consumers
tax, tax upon eonsumption. upon the
things of daily use. And, as every tax
upon consumption terds to limit con-
sumption. it must. precisely in the same
proportion, tend to limit and discourage
production. for it is the consumer alone
who affords employment 70 the pro-
Queer. Therefore, when burdens are inn
posed upon the consuming public to the
same degree and to the same extent
shaclles are put upon the productive
forces of society Whatever tends to
restrict or diminish the demand for that
which labor produces. also tends in the
same degree to rob legitimate industry
Of its employment. discourage labor and
place a consequent premium upon in
dolencc
Fortified behind the wall of protec-
ton. these gigantic noropolies 7 have
spoken Of have sprung up. But for the
tariff barriers to foreign competition
they. could not exist, but for these same
barriers they could not stife COMPETE
ticn at home. Nor does the government
derive any benefit from the proceeding.
When a tariff is high enough to protect.
it must prohibit Importation, ara when
it does that the government derives no
revenue Thus do protective tariffs i'm
poverish thes government on the one
hand ard rob the peepla on the other.