Arizona republican., 1907-08-01
PHOENIX ARIz.. AUGUST l, 1907.
THE ISSUE AND THE MAN.

THE ISSUE AND HE MAN
 Senator Foraker in. his letter of day before yesterday to the Ohio state re- publican committee, directed attention tc a fact to whici. The Republican some weeks ago had occasion to al- mde in connection with the premature efforts of a small coterie of the re- publicans of this territory to arrange for a pledged delegation to inc next national convention. that is, that it would be highly improper for the re- publicans of Arizona to bind them selves to any candidate previous to a knowledge of his attitude toward whatever might become an important or dominant issue of the next cam paign. We spoke more particularly of the tariff question. MT. Foraker in his letter mentioned that MT. Taft had already declared in favor of revision, presumably at the next session of con gress. At any rate. he was unequlv- ocally for revision. It remained to be seen whether the republicans of Ohio were for revision and that could not possibly be determined before a con- Iention could be held.
 It is a fact that the republican par ty is widely divided on the question of the tariff and this division will grow sharper until congress meets. and still sharper if congress should take noI action. hitherto strong advocates of a pro- tective tariff, and the chief supporters of both the Mckinley and the Dingley bills. are generally now in favor of a revis ion of the schedules. Their changed position is easily accounted for since the bulk of our imports now consist of manufacturers materials. either raw or partly manufactured. Of these two classes the latter greatly predominates. Also of this class. much of the material originates in this country and is shipped to foreign countries where it Is partly manufac- u AD lO Oc converted into the finished product.
 Hitherto. laboring men engaged in the manufactures have found their in terests to be with their employers. for a protection of manufacturers was a protection of labor They will howev CT. part company with their employers on the proposition to reduce the sched- ules of partly manufactured products, since that would bring them into cOm- petition with cheaper foreign labor.
 While the so-called standpatters concede that conditions have changed as to some of the schedules of the Dingley act, they point out the impro- priety of undertaking a sweeping re- vision of a system which has brought the country the greatest prosperity it has ever known and is still bringing it. And they show that any revision which would be satisfactory to the manufac- turers would be a fatal Arrangement of the system. Almost every citizen IS pleased with some feateres of our tariff and dissatisfied with some. All could not have a revision which would meet their views so that if revision is undertaken it will be made to meet the views not of the farmer, the la borer the merchant. not the wool grower. the cattleman, or the general consumer. but it will be such re- h.. la he a.tf and best organized interests demand.
 We have alluded to this single com pleXity in the tariff question. merely to show how complex it has become; how sides have been changed until even the leaders have become hesitant. Of the avowed candidates for the pres idency. only two have made definite declaration. one is Speaker Cannon. uncompromisingly against revision. and Secretary Taft for revision.
 President Roosevelt once a tariff re- former of the Cleveland school, is silent or at sea. Within two years he was against an early revision and later for an early revision. Since then the Manufacturers Association has failed to draw any sort of an expression from him and lately 1t threw out the sugges- tion that he had become either a stand-patter or fatal temporizer.
 If this great issue which must be settled one way or another before the next republican national convention. is so cloudy to the leaders. how opaque how impossible is 1t for republicans to decide who shall be the champion of