The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-06
Is TIT A REMEpY, ,

The Chicago Journal has settled 1t, or thinks it has. There are so many settlers these days. and they settle things in so many ways that we are never sure about any of them. How ever, not to do The Journal injustice, we shall copy its remedy. as follows:
 Tariff revision need not be extensive to suit the people and to relieve them from the exactions of robber trusts. All that is needed is a law making 1t man datory on the Secretary of the Treas ury to place on the free list goods that are sold abroad by American manufac- turers at a lower price than they are sold in this country.
 Such a law would instantly remove virtually all popular objections to the tariff, for the people believe in the the ory of protection and do not wish 10 where 1t is needed. They only want relief from trusts which bleed them un- mercifully and at the same time com pete In the markets of the world with the "pauper foreign labor" we hear so much talk about in presidential cam paigns.
 The Secretary of the Treasury could furnish this relief If he were compelled dence is presented to him that the sew ing machine trust for example Is sell ing its products all over the world for half the price it charges American pur- chasers. or that the steel trust Is sell ing steel rails in Japan for $1O ton less .than American railroads have to pay, then he should be forced by law al once to place sewing machines and steel rails on the free list.
 Such action would immediately bring the sewing machine trust and the steef trust to terms, would prevent further robbery of American citizens and would do no injury to anybody but the trusts themselves, which are enriching them selves at the expense of Americans.
 Many. if not most, of the manufac- tured products of the United States are now produced at so low cost that they can be sent by rail to the sea board, rehandied there, sent across the ocean and then rehandled a second time and still be sold in competition with the products of foreign manufacturers: But they are sold behind the tariff wall is just so much money stolen, from American purchasers.
 Any one reading that would think 1t the easiest sort of problem to settle, but is it? All that is needed" quoth The Journal, is such a law as 1t sets out. of course-peThaPs-sS "e might say that all that is neeoed 10 effect a revision of the tariff is to go ahead and revise 1t, but that assertion would not afford much enlightenment. How, in the first place. does our con- temporary think 1t possible to enact such a law? It ought to know that change which will eauaiize the tariff, remove the. burdens of the people and block the way of the trusts and monop- olies Is just what the party in power doesn't want and will not have. They are not built that way. If such law could be enacted and enforced. and If it would have the effect stated by The Journal it would knock the props from under the Republican party and let 1t down in the mud. or send 1t sailing in to the atmosphere like the famous Gilderoy's kite.
 No, the party now holding the reins of government, including most of the fat offices, wants no such law, will not have such law and would not enforce 1t. Does The Journal think a Republi- can Secretary would fairly and faith fully enforce a law which would put the party at such disadvantage be- fore the powers which uphold, sustain. and finance the party7 Not if 1t knows itself. and t generally does when its own interests are concerned. Saying nothing of the difficulty of getting the information which would enable the Secretary to carry out law of this kind so as to make 1t eftectual. there would come difficulties in the way of its enforcement that would prove in- surmountable.
 We agree with the Chicago paper when it characterizes as infamous" the practices of many manufacturers who sell their goods to foreigners cheaper than they do to home consum- CTS, even though all shipping charges to foreign ports must be paid by che manufacturers here. That Is infamous. We admit. but the remedy proposed is chimerical. It might be done by Democratic Congress and a Democratic President. but not under the Republi- cans.