Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-09-04
rarin war in Prospect.

IrOTeNIIDUlSllI
end of its string, in spite Of Speaker
Cannon capturing President Roosevelt
to 4 policy of inactivity on the tariff
on the score of party necessity This
stand-pat policy will bold good few
years longer if the Republicans control
the Congress to be elected next fall,
and then carry the national election
in 1905 as they would then have more
than an even chance of doing Yet
there is canker worm eating at the
heart of protectionsm that will compel
tariff revision in spite of the stand
patters. for the markets of the world
are about TO be closed to our manufac-
tured products, although our exports
~of food and raw material will still con-
tinue as long as we can sell the cheap
est to those countries that must pur-
chase.
The canker worm is the ayarice of
the trusts and manufacturers, who have
prevented the ratification of reciprocity
treaties with foreign countries, notably
Germany, and in retaliation she has
created Il new maximum and minimum
tariff law. which as to its maximum
rates is virtually prohibitive. Germany
now holds that we have no favored ma
tlon agreement with her, in her sense
of the term, and is incensed at our not
fulfilling our agreement to levise some
of the administrative conditions I'M
posed on imports. as provided in the
Payne bill of last winter. Germany APP
pears to feel that our administration
has broken faith with her by accepting
notifications of her tariff, while still
imposing the utmost requirements of
our own. Germany evidently believes
that President Roosevelt. who eXhib-
tied such control of Congress on m%uy
matters he was interested in, showed
considerable Indifference in urging on
Congress what he had promised Ger
many.
Blu. the German statesmen do not
understand as we do. how helpless
President Roosevelt is directly he runs
up against the trusts and intrenc-ed
monopolists. They never sleep. ere
never tired and have the men and the
money to fight tariff revision in any
form. The subsidies every schedule of
the tariff gives some one a subsidy-is
the breath of their nOstrils; without
those special privileges they would not
be able to pay dividends on watered
stock and their foster mother would
no longer nourish them.
Those OF the trust, however, nat
rely upon exports, such as the Beef
Trust and Steel Trust, not to mention
other manufacturers of smaller scale,
will soon feel the pinch of a surplus
they cannot dispose of, and will be
more willing to make concessions for
at least some sort OF tariff revision
That is the canker worm gnawins at
the heart of protection that is sure TO
lead TO its destruction. How long these
protected interests can stand the pain
and strain when the pinch comes is I'M
certain; they may decide to decay by
inches and then again the long -headed
ones may decide that selling their cur
plus cheaper to our own people Is as
profitable in the end as selling 1t to
foreigners.
A Democratic victory this fall ,7ill
hasten the ultimate outcome and spare
the inevitable tariff war" with Ter
many and countries that we should be
at peace with.
Tariff reform will reduce the cost Of
living and thus add to the incomes of
every one but the favored nonopollsts.