Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-09-10

1
time it was denied by the Republican
organs, and by the Republican leaders
in Congress- That the standpatters At
least have had TO admit the truth of
the Democratic contention in spite Of
SO long denying it shows the unrelia-
| bility of Republican political state
ments when it seems necessary to them
to deceive the people. Perhaps the first
admission by Republican official of a
great trust selling cheaper abroad than
here has now appeared in the report
published by the Department of Labor
and Commerce from the Bureau of Cor
porations. This last report on the
Standard Oil Trust says: The course
of American and foreign prices in the
last five years covered By this report
has shown greatly increased diverg
ence in general, the American prices
going up and the foreign prices showing
marked decline" The report also
gives the price and margin of profit in
the United States and in foreign conn
tries which show greatly to the uisad-
vantage of the American consumers
The statement made by Republicans
that petroleum is on the free list
which it is-and therefore is not pro-
tected by the tariff, either overlook, or
purposely mistake the fact that al
though petroleum is on the free list, it
Is at the same time very highly pro
tected by reciprocity proyiso which
the Republican managers oblgingly
tackled on at the end of paragraph 626
of the tariff law, which is the same
paragraph that puts petroleum crude
or refined on the free list 1t is known
that when the Dingley law was being
secretly concocted by the Republican
members Of the ways and means com
mittee, not in the public rooms Of that
committee at the Capitol, with the
Democratic members present, but in a
private room at the Arlington Hotel
in Washington, that the trust represent
atiyes were invited to present schedules
covering their products and it is evident
the Oil Trust people, or perhaps Sena-
tor Aldrich, prepared the proviso which
| actually protects the trust 100 per cent
That proviso stipulates that on petro-
leum and its products produced in any
foreign country" there shall be collect
ed when such goods are imported"
duty upon said crude petroleum Of its
products so imported equal TO the duty
imposed by such country" AS Russia
and the other important oil-producing
countries levy duties on kerosene and
most other refined products of pctro-
leum averaging about 100 per cent it
follows that the Standard Oil Company
is one of our most highly projected
trusts. The Treasury Department holds
that the rates of duty to be assessed
are not those levied by the country
from which the refined products may
be imported but those levied by the
country which produced the petroleum
from which the imported produces were
made.
No wonder the Department OF Com
merce and Labor has at last discovered
what the Democrats have always cain
ed that the Oil Trust and most other
trusts are selling cheaper abroad than
TO our own people and the tariff pro
tects them in so doing, because their
foreign competitors cannot export oil
and other products to this country
without paying the tariff tax. The
Standard Oil and other trusts are thus
protected in charging not only the price
they are willing to sell their products
for, but to add to that price whatever
further profit the tariff protects them
in charging Thus the American peo-
pie are plundered by the trusts through
the Republican tariff law, which virtu-
ally the protected interests made and
dictated to the Republican leaders.
Yet knowing and now admitting these
facts the Republican leaders declare
they cannot revise the tariff at tie
coming Congress To appease the hon
est Republican voters who believe with
the Democrats that part, at least, of
the protection to trusts should be re-
duced to a revenue basis, they now
pose, as they often have before, to
promise to revise the tariff after the
presidential election.
The Republican leaders, however, are
nearly all inyeterate standpatters, and
even those who now promise to accede
TO the popular demand for tariff reform
still stick to the platform declaration
of 1904 that protection which guards
and develops our industries is a cardi-
nal policy of the Republican party" As
cardinal means of fundamental i'm
portance, of course, no good Republican
from Roosevelt to Cummins with his
iowa idea" but will stick to protecting
the trusts and fry the fat out of them
as heretofore.