Mower County transcript., 1908-12-09
IsI0!|Nl|'l !

!! HI ln lolUN[
s=s,.a.za4 as II;
AN IOWA BUSINESS NAN
PLAINS CLEARLY THE PRES
ENT IN1oUITIEs OF The
ARIF.
Taft is right about the tarih and
If the Republican congress we have
Just elected does not give us re-
vision of the schedules which will
wipe out the iniquities Of the tarim
there won't be any Republican con-
gress next time 4{
This unqualified opinion was ex-
pressed last week in Washington, p. |
c., by Oscar H. Robinson Of 5Des
Moines Iowa., and he said it was
the opinion of the majorit ty-l
of the business men of the
great middle west, the only ones
holding to the contrary belief being
a few mossbacl1 standpatters.
Mr.. Robinson is one Of the expon-
ents of the Iowa idea" and says a
car load of western business men
plan to go to Washington to sde
Senator Cummins sworn in, is in a
position to be peculiarly we'll in-
formed about the state of sentiment
in the middle west. His business Is
of a nature to bring him into cons
tact with representative business
men and farmer in more than one Of
the states west of the Mississippi
river.
sBut what do the people Of the
middle west mean by tariff revision ?1
Mr.. Robinson was asked. What ia
particular do they want done?,, Is s
! s'Do they want the cost of produc-
tion of commodities in this country
ascertained and the cost Of making
the same things abroad ascertaineda
and then they want the tariff .heles
to the difference between the two
That tells it in a nutshell. They bee
lieve Americans are able to. meet the;
world when the conditions are. equal:
and all they want of the tariff is the
equalization of conditions. That. they
believe. will bring the highest meas.
4 ureofsrevenue to the government and
! g1v6gevery industry all the protect
tion 1T is entitled to. s
What they want removed is the
tariff which gives an American
manufacturer or producer an abso4
flute monopoly in his nne and they
i insist that it must be removed. What
justice is there about a tariff which
enables producer to charge the
American people two prices whereas
when he sells abroad in competitIan
with the rest of the world he charges
kbutSonespriee3 I ran aerosss2 s2n N1el tnt
Illustration of the. way this Vf6Tks
wherever you confer monopoly, not
long ago.@I was in one of the smaller
Iowa cities about 200 miles from
Des Moines, and, while waiting for
my train, observed some men laying
a new brick pavement. I examined it
and saw that it was identical with
some then being laid before my home
in Des Moines. - (
T" How much do you get yard
for this pavement?' asked the fore
man. .E VA - -,
!" The contract is 81 cents he
said. a
Who has the con tract?'
He named a Des Moines firm: And
then he wanted to know why ]
asked Ell Ss .sjag@a
81 ask, said I, because that very
same firm is at this very time laying
this Identical pavement in front Of
my house in Des Moines and is
charging $1.35 a yard. =
You see, Des Moines manufact-
ures paving brick and the city coun-
Gil had legislated that all paving in
2 the city must be done with brick
made in Des Moines and laid by Des
Moines people. That, of course, shut
out all competition from outside from
outside and the consequence was that
I was charged $1.35 per square yard
for a pavement laid by a firm which
could afford to ship it's brick zoo
miles away from home and lay the
same pavement for 81 cents a yard
. There was a case Of protection tC
home industries overdone: If our city
government had legislated that the
preference must be given to Des
Moines brick and to Des Moines con
tractors only when they met the
price of outsider competitors, 1t
would have been all right. But to alb
solutely sew the city up and leave il
4 at the mercy of its own brick men
was neither justice to the rest Of the
population nor craftsmanship on the
part Of the governing power.
In the same way hold that
when the tariff permits any line of
II business to have a monopoly Of the
q l5American market, with no opportun
tity for the consumer to get relief, it
lis going too far. 7 am willing, and II
4 believe we all are willing to have
! congress 50 legislate that condi itions
4 will be equal; as between our pro-