The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-20


 .iThe suppression of monopoiies and the abolition of secret rebates and dis eliminating privileges by the railroads, will lessen the possibility of such enormous accumylations as those which have aiready taken place. The evils of too great concentration of money or of any kind of property in few hands are to be best remedied by the gradual effect of long course of leg islation and not by measures having an immediate and radical effect that are apt to Involve injurious conse- quences to the general business com
 T have thus reviewed at great length what have properly come to De known as President Roosevelts poll cies and have discussed, them with what l hope you will think is entire candor. I have attempted to point out one or two instances in which would qualify details of future policies which he has sketched, but with these minor exceptions as to method. l am glad to express my complete, thorough and sincere sympathy with, and admlration for, the great conserving and consery- attve movement which he has with wonderful success initiated and carried so far against bitter opposition, to preserve to us the institutions we have Inherited from our fathers"
 Mir. Taft then proceeded to defend the policies of President Roosevelt and
 
 | the two men.
 Tarir And The Trusts.
 Continuing his remarks MT. Taft said: T come now to the question of the the unlawful trusts. The Dingley tar- | fir was adopted immediately after the | elec3on of MT. Mckinley. Since that time we have passed through the | Spanish war and have had a decade | of prosperity and an increase and ex- l pansion of trade unexampled in the his- tory of this or any other country.
 The Republican principle of the pro- 1 tective tariff is. as l understand it, that through the customs revenue law tariff should be collected on all im- l ported products that compete with l American products, which will at lea st equal difference In the cost of pro- 1 duction in this country and abroad. and that proper allowance should be made In this difference for the reason l able profits to the American manufac- turer. The claim of protectionists, and | 1t has been abundantly Justified in the l past, is that protection secures a high rate of wages and that the encourage ment it gives to the home industry l operating under the influence of an energetic competition between Ameri- can manufacturers, induces such im- provement in tho methods of manu- fracture and such economies as to re- duce greatly the price for the benefit Of the American public and makes n l possible to reduce the tariff without oeprlving the manufacturer of need ed protection and a good profit
 The present business system of fha | country Tests on the protective tariff and any attempt to change it. to a free taaae t % pasls VIII certainly lead only
 1t is the duty of the Republican party however. to see to 1t that the exceed substantially the reasonably permanent differential between the cost or production in the foreign countries and that In the United States and therefore, when changes take place in the conditions of production likely to produce very large reduction In the cost of production in the United States, It Is time that schedules be re-exam- ined and If excessive that they be re- duced so as to bring them within the Justification for the rule, by which the amount of tariff to be imposed un- der the protective system is properly determined.
 Whenever the tariff imposed is largely in excess of the differentfaI between the cost of production in the two countries, then there is formed at once great temptation to monopolize the bushes business of producing the particu. profit in the excessive tariff. This de- nies to the people. altogether the econ- omies of production that competition under a protective tariff should de- velop.
 : Some Schedules Excessive.
 'In the enormous progress in the ! manufacturing plants and the im- provement in methods which have been brought about in the last ten years in f this country, there Is the strongest ! reason for. thinking that-in many in ! of production in this country and l abroad, has been reduced. This is an : opinion of mine formed q priori be- : cause am sincere believer in the efficacy of the protective system uiti- mately to c1eapen the cost of produc- ) tion. The opinion has been confirmed ) by conversation with manufacturers } and others who knew something of | what they speak
 T am not myself a tariff expert and am not sufficiently familiar with the cost of production of the various articles covered in the many schedules to point out the particular ones In which such a change has taken place; , but my general conclusion formed as above finds striking support in the ac- tion of the National Association of Manufacturers of the United States l appointed by that body for the purpose, investigated the question whether the tariff had not in respect to many ar ticles by a change in conditions be- . ''This National Association of Manu- lecturers is composed almost wholly safely say. therefore, of Republicans. I am advised that the Association rep resents all classes of manufacturers mmanufacturers m of conseauence are
 
 members. The committee reports: We are all Protectionists-there are a very few brilliant exceptions. but so few that we may repeat the state ment, We are Protectionists. The committee lays down in it's report the following doctrine which seems to me of the orthodox Republican type:
 Protection, as the word implies, requires that the tariff schedules be such as protect our manufacturers san Stgd;as competition, and maintain our high wage scale and standard of living. The minimum measure of protection IS, therefore, as President Roosevelt said, The difference in the cost of produc- tion in this country and abroad. ' These | protective schedules, thus figured, must carry with them very ample margin for safety. It must make full allow | ance for the possibility of hard times l abroad and good times here; for dump ing, and all other contingencies; This | done, it is truly protective; and 1t Is only so, as it covers these features | and nothing more.
 After referring to the fact that l fbara yvara sofne articles in which the