Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-10-20
HOW TAFT DOES
POUND BRYAN!
Continued from Page One.)

the cOnduct OF large business enter
the American conscience
You would think from the state
ments of Mr.. Bryan" he added, that
no progress had been made, but the
progress is truly remarkable. Through
the passage of the rate bill. the rail-
roads themselves have abandoned re-
bate, have abandoned determinations
and have taken away the chief instru-
mentality by which unlawful trusts and
monopolies have been maintained"
Judge Taft followed this with his en-
dorsement of the combination of capital
for legitimate purposes. He said:
"The combination Of capital is just as
essential to our progress as the comhina-
ton of the parts of a machine and the
fact that the capital is great and the
number of plants needed are many is no
reason for denouncinS them as illegal un-
less they are used for an illegal purpose
The normal legal purpose of such COM
bination is to reduce the cost of produc-
ton by inducing economy in the manage
ment of the capital. 1t is only when I'M
due means are taken to stif1e competition
that they cross the line of legality, and
then they ought to be restrained and pun
ished. Therefore, Mr.. Roosevelt and the
Republican administration have directed
their attention to prosecuting the exact
evil which is the attempt to monopolize
Mr.. Bryan, on the other hand, proposes
to take steps which shall destroy the en-
tire business.
"He proposes that we shall abolish the
tariff on what are called trust-made ar
ticles. If you are going to take off the
tariff on trust-made articles you are 60
ing to destroy the trusts all right; there
will he NO difficulty about that, and you
are going to throw out of employment
the millions of men engaged as wage
earners in those great businesses, and
you are also going to destroy the indie
pendent competitors of the trusts, for
they are just as dependent on the tariff
indeed. more so, than the trusts them
Selves
Mr.. Taft's expressions on the tariff
We're:
'"rhe Republican party is in favor of.
and IS pledged to, thorough and genuine
revision of the tariff on weli-under-
stood principle, and that is that every
industry, every product of the farm, the
mine or the factory, in this country shall
be protected against foreign competition
by customs duty equal to the difference
in the cost of production here and the
cost of production abroad That includes
three elements and perhaps more. but
three certainly-uhe cost of material, the
cost of LABOR and the manufacturers
profit or the interests on capital You
take those three elements abroad and add
them together and those three elements
here and add them together and take the
difference, and that measures what the
customs duty ought to be. The normal
operation will be to reduce the tariff so
that it shall continue tc be the difference
between the cost OF production abroad
and the cost of production here but so
that no legitimate industry in this coun-
try shall suffer, and where peculiar cir
cumstances have prevented that reduc-
tion in the cost of production here the
tariff shall be revised and elevated, if
need be, in order to make the same meas
ure of production. But, AS I say, the
general result will probably be q revision
downward
Now 1 am only going to occupy YOU
long enough to point out that the last
thing that YOU ought to do in order to re-
store prosperity is to put in power the
Democrats with MI Bryan at then head
HE went around the world and his
Democratic friends in this neighborhood
said. to Use their own expression: He
has become safe and sane from an OBJ
.ervation of the nations of the world
Mr.. Bryan resented that jmputaton and
he proceeded to demonstrate it's injustice
by coming home and proposing-what?
He, Jeffersonian Democrat, proposed a
centralization. He said that there was no
solution Of the railway problem except
that the government should buy all the
interstate railways, and that the states
should buy the interstate railway, a CEN
tralization of power which. it seems to
me. would make any patriot ard any
friend Of this country tremble at the
thought of what power it might put in a
man down in Washington controlling such
an enormous amount of power"
In conclusion Mr.. Taft denounced the
Bryan scheme CT guaranteeing national
bank deposits and gave in detail his here