Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-12-06
POINT TO CONSIDER
REPUBLICANS CANNOT EvApE RE,
sPoNsIHiLiTY.
Whether the Tariff or Railroad Rebate
Evil Is the Mother of Trusts, the
Party In Power Has Done Much
to Foster Them.

"F| A-.N
President Havemeyer of the sugar
trust stated to the industrial commits
sion in 1898 that the tariff is the
mother of trusts, but now comes the
belated opinion of Attorney General
Moody that mot the tariff but the
railroad rebate is the mother OF
trusts" Whichever Of these impor.
tant Republican opinions Is the right
one is not of much consequence, for
all impartial investigators are agreed
that the tariff and railroad rebates
are both closely related to trust plum
dering and either may well be the
mother and the other the father OF
these predatory corporations. But the
chief thing is to remember that the
Republican party has been standing
pat while the trust fostering was in
cubating and now the trust infants
have grown to the stature of giants
the Republican party is still continu-
ing to prevent legislation that will
take from the trusts the monopoly
they enjoy through tariff protection.
There is no escape for the Repub-
Iican leaders, from President to state
Legislator, from the fact that since
coming into power in 1897 and enact
ing the Dingley tariff, that the trust
era has accompanied that trust-foster-
ing law. Nor can it be denied that
since the tariff was so greatly in
creased in 1897 it has been accom-
panied by a similar advance in the
price of nearly all commodities, until
now the cost of living, according to
Dun's and Bradstreet's index figures,
is close upon so per cent. higher than
before the Dingley law was passed.
As the Republican leaders have
taken all the credit for any advantage
to business from the trust boom and
have even attempted to appropriate
the blessing from favorable seasons
and resulting good crops, they must in
return be held responsible for the
enormous increased cost of living and
the great loss to those whose incomes
have not kept pace with their in
creased outgo. The Republican lead
ers must also explain to the farmers
why the price of wheat and other az.
ricultural products has fallen under
the trust fostering tariff, which they
have assured the farmers was to pro
tect them as, we'll as the trusts. As
long as poor crops abroad apparently
kept up this Republican deception, by
making a demand for our surplus
wheat and other farm products and
their price naturally was advanced, the
Republican theory, that the tariff ben
Gifted the farmer, appeared to the UNI
thinking to have good grounds for be.
ing really responsible for prosperity,
But that Republican idol has been
shattered by the reduced demand for
wheat and other farm products and
the fall in the price .
1t is therefore incumbent on the Re
publican leaders, who have been go,
ing up and down the .lan1 claiming
that prosperity is due to the tariff, tic
OApluih Ihlo blCdCu III tuC IdllH Wdlls
that has allowed the low priced farm
products to get into the tariff fort
ress alongside of the high priced
trust products. They must also ex
plain why the trusts are to continue
to have a monopoly under the high
tariff law and the farmers shall still
be forced to sell at prices fixed in the
free trade markets of the world In
competition with the surplus Of ethel
countries that have like products to
dispose Of.
A revision of the tariff is obviously
demanded 81 that the trusts shall
lose their enormous protection and the
consumers-farmers and other people
alike-will be protected from paying
the high prices that the trusts are
protected by the tariff in imposing OF
all the American people.