The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-08-22
Lodge as a Revisionlst.


is never profound, is credited
with speaking for President
Roosevelt at Nantasket Beach
concerning Tariff revision. He
says that there will be no revis-
ion until after the President and
Congress to be elected next year
have gone into Office in 1909, but
that 1T will be undertaken by
the Republican party-that they
will go to the country lin the ma
tional campaign of next year, on
the question of revising the Tar
iff along the protective lines"
The Massachusetts representa-
tive of President Roosevelt de-
nies that there will be any re-
vision that would lower duties to
the point where importations
could hurt American working
men. Then what kind of revis-
ion would it be? And what diff
ference would a revision make if
it did not permit foreign wares
to come into this country more
freely than they now come? Eas-
ier than Lodges theorem would
be the squaring of a circle, and
clearer to the comprehension the
proving of a fourth dimension.
The argument of those who
wish the Tariff revised, with re-
duction, is that the importations
from foreign countries would un-
dersell domestic products and
therefore bring down the prices
to consumers here. If the for
eign goods do undersell our home
products and therefore lower pri-
ces, then they must supplant the
domestic products. And if we
buy the foreign articles at the
lower prices in place of the home
goods at the higher prices, then
such a revision to a lower scale
must hurt the American wage
Garner and American capital, be-
cause, since their products are
no longer taken, they must eth
er go out of business or meet and
beat the cut. If our home pro-
ducerS must get down to the low
prices of the foreigners the cut
must come out of the wages of
the American workingmen after
American capital has stood all the
diminishment of profits that it
can suffer without Impairment of
principal. When it can no Ion
ger earn an adequate return it
will ask labor to take less wages
in order to hold our markets ag-
ainst the foreigners. If labor OBJ
jects, capital will quit rather than
destroy itself by continuing an
improbable business. If labor
takes less in order to continue at
work, the wage earnerS are hurt
by the revision that has lowered
duties to let in foreign imports.
If capital quits because our labor
fights the cutting of wages or be-
cause it is impossible for Ameri-.
can wage earners to sink their
standard of living to that of the
wage earners abroad, then, just
that much more is the working
man hurt.
All this is very clear, as we con-
template the demands of those
who honestly demand a lowering
of the duties that we may buy
products more cheaply than they
may now be had in this country.
They may be wrong in thinking
the country could possibly be ben
Gifted by lowering prices at the
cost of reducing the earnings of
our wage earners or of throwing
them out of employment entirely.
They may be .supremely selfish in
seeking to achieve something
that would lower prices for them
at the expense of those who would
have less work and pay or no
work and no pay at all, and con-
sequently at the expense of the
American people generally, since
the whole country best prospers