The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-08-11
TARIFF REDUCTION.
Democratic Idea of Trust Reg
uIation.

DSittVVa 0AiS tNVd VI tLuSt NY
uIation.
WOULD STRANGLE INDUSTRY
Removal Of Protective Duties. Sure to
Bring Disaster to Farmer and Labor
er-Forelsn Trusts Would Wax Fat
at Our Expense.
Democratic adherence to the doc
trine of free trade and the incapacity
Of Democratic leaders to deal wisely
or intelligently with economic and
business questions Of vital consequence
to the nation are again demonstrated
conclusively In the tariff plank adopt
ed by the Democratic national con-
vention at Denver July 0, 1908, says
the American Economist.
We favor immediate revision of the tar
if by the reduction of import duties
Democratic Platform, 1908.
Democratic revision has always
meant reduction. There has never
been time when the hand of the
Democratic party was not raised
against tariff duties imposed for pro-
tective purposes; never a time when,
having the power, that party failed to
lower tariff duties with the distinct in
tention Of eliminating protection in
whole or In part; never time when
Democratic revision Of the tariff did
not bring with 1t business depression,
Industrial paralysis, idleness. want and
misery Democratic history once more
repeats itself on the tariff question.
Articles entering into trust controlled
products should be placed on the free
Democratic Platform, 1908,
Trusts exist In all producing coun-
tries, in free trade Great Britain as
well as in protected Germany, France,
etc. The Democratic party is appar-
emily blind to the fact that more than
so per cent of the industrial output of
the United States is from establish
ments outside of trusts. Their products
are not trust controlled. Yet they
would be made to suffer the same free
trade penalty as that applied to trusts.
Innocent and guilty would suffer alike,
except that the innocent would suffer
most, and the guilty, by reason Of
united capital and more compact or
ganization, would suffer least. Great
est sufferer of all would be American
labor. Free trade in trust controlled
products means practically free trade
in all Industrial products Therefore
it must mean the destruction of the
American wage rate and the lowering
Of the American standard of living
down to the foreign basis. What that
would mean to American business
and trade In all lines every intelligent
being, even though a Democrat, must
know. The Democratic proposition
of free trade In articles competing
with trust controlled products would
transfer American production from
one set of trusts to another set Of
trusts, from trusts In our own country
to trusts abroad. The only American
trust that would profit by free trade
Is the importing trust, made up of inn
porters, foreign steamship representa-
tives and merchants who get larger
profit on the salefof imported goods
than on domestic goods of like char
acter. Foreign trusts would be in
clover, with a consuming market Of
people as dumping ground
for surplus production. Instead Of
$8O0,OO0,00O year Of competitive Inn
ports we should have $1,000, 100000 or
more. Five million American wage
earners would either lose their jobs or
else be forced to have their wages cut
In two in the middle. The Democratic
idea Of trust regulation through free
trade Is to hand over American bust
hess to foreign trusts 1t Is charac@
teffstic Bourbon idea.
Material reductions should be made IN
the tariff upon the necessaries Of hfe.-
Democratic Platform. 1908.
What are the necessaries OF lfe7
Principally food, clothing and rent.
Fully seven-tenths of all necessartes
are primarily the products of Amer
lean farms. Practically all foodstuffs
and the great bulk of materials enter
ing into wearing apprehension and
wool, for example, come from the
farm. Therefore the American farm
er, both directly and indirectly, must
be the chief sufferer from material
tariff reductions upon the necessaries
Of life directly in the. importation Of
cheaper farm products from other
countries; indirectly. but none the less
surely, from the diminished purchasing
power and reduced standard of living
Of American wage earners. Nine out
Of every ten persons who work for
wages are engaged In producing some
thing or other Of the articles classed
as uecessaries of life. 1t must follow
that material reduction Of the tariff
on imports Of competing accessories
would carry with It a material reduc-
ton of the income and spending ca
pacity Of several millions Of people.
So the American farmer would catch
it both ways. going and coming. The
American farmer has learned much
in the past eleven years OF what a
protective tariff does for him.
Muck Bakers.