Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-20
Population of Los Angeles soo.oo'
PROTECTED INDUSTRY


that of slavery no single public
question has approached the. tariff IL
interest and importance-at least since
the time OF the war of 1912 it has beer
constantly before. the country in one
form or another until quite recently
1t seemed to fall into state of sus-
pended animation q little while after
the passage of the Dingley act Of 1897
when the Spanish war, followed by a
wave of industrial and commercial ex-
pansion, coincident with great crops
and profitable markets everywhere
conjoined to produce such an era of
general prosperity that many things,
and the tariff among them. were for
gotten. Possibly that subject still
might be little remembered had it not
been revived unpleasantly by disclos-
ures concerning the manner in which
the present law, ostensibly designed
to protect the whole American people
in their productions and handiwork,
has been perverted by certain gigantic
monopolies and distorted into means
to rob and Cypress them.
AS one fragrant instance of such per-
version we have seen that the tariff
upon manufactures of iron and steel
has been susceptible of such manipu-
1ation by captains of industry of the
Carnegie and Morgan type, that they
and their copartners in the game have
been able to amass fortunes which
would make Croesus look like pau
per. annex the national savings with
steel trust shares representing nothing
whatever but tainted water and pay
dividends on about $500, 1000 of such
fictitious values, largely by taxing
American consumers the utmost limit
permitted by tariff protection on the
one hand, and backed by the excessive
profits so realized at home, invading
foreign markets and selling their wares
in London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna
at prices greatly below those charged
to their own countrymen at the trust
shop door in the United States.
1t may be said that one such in
stance, or fifty for that matter, would
not constitute any argument against
the general principle of protection to
American enterprises, nor against the
system in vogue built upon it. That
is true, but not more so than the state
ment that the case cited offers good
evidence that whatever there may be
in existing laws and regulations giving
monopoles legal power and opportun-
ity to Cypress and loot the American
people. as certain of the great trusts
have been and are doing outrageously
and dangerously, is matter demanding
prompt and vigorous investigation and
remedial treatment of a most drastic
sort.
Probably no other citizen more
clearly appreciates this than does
President Roosevelt, whose Repub-
lican craftsmanship often is seen to be
more or less modified and illumined
by sound Democratic ideas and prin-
ciples. 1t is quite thinkable that were
he at the beginning instead of nearing
the end of a term in the White House
he would be found attacking congress
with all his strength and usual de-
termination, in an effort to at least
secure the elimination of the trust
jokers from the existing protective
tariff law. But Mr. Roosevelt, albeit
an eminently good and worthy man,
is not too much so to unfit him for the
business of practical politics in which
he long has been engaged with signal
success. With all his reputed honesty
of purpose and directness, and his con,
stitutional inclination to hit a head on
sight, still at times he is quite capable
of a certain degree of opportunism,
and his next political friend, Mr.! Taft,
is still more so.
The latter, no doubt voicing the senr
timents of the Republican presidential
succession syndicate, has taken the
public into his, or their, confidence
in this connection, and frankly admit
ting the necessity for revision of the
Dingley act in cases where it's pro-
visions enable the trusts to protect
themselves in nefarious practices at
public, is yet of the opinion that no
one should be permitted to- NEEDLE
with the subject save those alone who
were the architects, engineers, plas-
terers and log rollers of the original
structure, working too, we may be
excused for suspecting, not without the
advice and consent of the interested
trust benefciaries themselves.
Aside from this important consider
alton Mr.. Taft suggests that, while
revision of the kind above mentioned
is urgently necessary, it is not enough
so to justify the injection into pres
identiaI campaign of a question the
answer to which it might be difficult
for his party to find in the back of the
book. We may accept 1t as a truism
that the Republican leaders, whether
Of the Roosevelt-Taft school, or of the
safe and sane" section led by Aldrlch
and Allison, greatly would prefer to
see the, country later if at all on this
issue. Hence it is net surprising that
statesmen like Mr.. Taft should prefer
to see 1t postponed until after the cleo