The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-23


 words, they are seeing that the condi- ton actually exists which was describ- ed by Secretary Taft at Columbus in these words: Whenever the tariff inn posed is largely in excess of the diff 1 lferentlal between the cost of produce 1 ton in the two countries, then there is formed at once a great temptation to mOnopolize the business of produc- ling the particular product, and to take advantage of profit in the excessive tariff"
 The Republican members of con- gress who are urging some intelligent action for the purpose of Relieving the | Republican party of the burden it is staggering under, point out that an in tolerable situation exists with refer ence to certain schedules in the tariff They specify offhand the iron and steel, the sugar and the woolen sched- Jules, and the provision in the present tariff which authorizes the imposition of a tremendous retaliatory duty on petroleum and it's products. Just now they are busily pointing out the en- barrassing situation in which the ad- ministration has placed itself with refernce to the Standard Oil company, The prosecutions which the Depart ment of Justice has conducted and the sentences which it has had impos- ed have been followed by the publi- cation of reports on the Oil industry prepared by Herbert Knox Smith, commissioner Of the Bureau of Cor lporation of the Department of Com Imerce and Labor. In an installment of his report published on Monday, August 12th, MT. Smith declared again and again that the Standard Oil com lpany is selling it's product abroad Imuch more cheaply than it is in the United States, thus making the Amer Iiean consumer pay an exorbitant price It is pointed out here, how lever, that MT. Smith does not ,make any strong point of the enormous pro lection which the Standard Oil com pany enjoys against the oil of Russia, the ouly considerable competitor in American in the business. It is free ly predicted here that the document of Commissioner Smith on the foreign business of the Standard Oil company will be used with effect in the tariff discussion this winter.
 It is too early to make any predie- ton as to the probable outcome of this discussion. It is not too early. how ever, to describe the situation now rapidly shaping. First of all the
 
 Any attempt on his part to force ac- ton on the tariff. either in the revi- sion of few schedules or in the set ting up of a tariff commission, would undoubtedly be combated by some great corporate interests such as rep resented in the Standard Oil company the United States Steel Corporation the American Sugar Refining company and the allied capital invested in the manufacture of beet sugar. The American Protective Tariff League would be arrayed against any action by the Slxtieth congress, and it has a humber of very staneh supporters in the House and Senate. On the other hand, urging revision or the first step towards it under the form tariff commission would porbably be the National Association of Manufacturers composed, as Secretary Taft said in his Columbus speech, almost wholly of Protectionists and I think we may therefore safety say of Republicans and representing "all classes of manu- lecturers in this country" and "a ma jority of the manufacturers of conse- quence." Back of these is very large class of consumers in New England and the large cities, where the increas- ed cost of living has become an actual pinch on the wage earner, and prac- tically the entire Middle West and Far West.
 President Roosevelt himself has nev- CT been a great student of the tariff. It is believed that he is now for the first time going to the very bedrock of this great subject. In the earlier days of his administration of the national government he described himself as an "agnostic"; but he has frequently in his speeches and in his writings declared himself in favor of revision of sched- ules which were too high and held that revision could be accomplished without msettlng and injuring seriously the business interests of the country. He has had an adherence of splitting his party. At the beginning of the Fifty ninth Congress he was strongly in fa- vor of sending a special message rec on nmending that the Committee on | .f ,f, ID resentatives take up immediately the question of revising the schedules of several of the more notoriously highly protected interests. He was swerved from that course by the argument that he would split his partE It is apparent ly the same argument that has pre-. vented Secretary Taft from taking a more advanced ground at this time Speaker Cannon, Representative Dalzel and other close standpatters in the House at that time assisted by Sena, tors Aldrich of Rhode Island; Lodge oI Massachusetts; Gallinger of New Hamphire Platt and Depew of New York; Hopkins of Illinois; Vice-Presi. dent Fairbanks of Indiana, Penrose ot Pennsylvania and others, succeeded 1T rounding. up" an overwhelming ma. iority of the House Republicans agains the policy of action and in favor O. letting well enough alone"
 Since then President Roosevelt has fought shy of the tariff. All referenc, 10 it in recent messages have beer eliminated except in his annual mes sage of last winter in which he alluded t1 tax on swollen fortunes as some thinp fhAt mighf be considered mhnr