The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-22

sired? And the Senator Burrows men tioned is the same Senator Burrows who acted as temporary chairman or the last republican national convention and sounded the keynote of the cam paign.
 How long will the republican farm CTS, merchants and laboring men per init a few men to make the tariff laws for their own pecuniary advantage and at the expense of the rest of the coun- try?
 Threat of a Panic.
 "I cannot pass from this part of my subject without calling attention to the i fact that Secretary Taft has allowed him. ! self to be drawn into the use of an argu- ment which the beneficiaries of protection have been employing for a generation ] Speaking of the gradual substitution of i revenue tariff for the protective system, he says in his notification speech: " The introduction in power of party with this avowed purpose cannot but halt ] the gradual recovery from our recent ] financial depression and produce business disaster, compared with which our recent panic and depression will seem small in deed
 Here is threat of a panic if the re- publican party is not retained in power.
 
 in 1896, but I am surprised that repub- lican refers to it in the present campaign. we have had three panics since the re- publican party was born: the panic or 1873, the panic of 1893 and the panic Of 1907. The panic of 1873 came after the re- publican party had been in complete con- trol of the federal government for F years, and Il years before our party sue ceeded in securing control of the execu- tive branch of the government. The start ling panic and dpression' of 1873 occurred In the very midst of republican rule, just after a republican victory, and under a high tariff. Is 1t not strange that Secre- tary Taft should forget this panic, when he warns us to beware of any departure from the protective system?
 'The panic of 1907 came after the repub- licans had been in complete control of the federal government for more than ten years. They had had an opportunity to do everything that they wanted to do and to undo everything that needed to be undone, and we were under such a high tariff that even Secretary Taft admitted the neces- sity of revision. This panic was so bad that banks felt it necessary to do some thing that they had never done before, namely, arbitrarily limit the amount of money that depostors could draw on their own accounts. Ex-Seeretary Shaw says that the stringency of 1907 was the se- verest the world has ever witnessed. With this panic fresh in his mind, is it not strange that he should argue that his , election is necessary to prevent panic?
 T have referred to two of the three panics, both of these coming under condi- tions which compel the republican party to accept the responsibility for them. Now, let us consider the panic of 1893. If that could be properly charged to the democratic party, it would only be one 6pmnoratiC iC n nj fO But can 1t be rairly charged to the demo- crats? It came, it Is true, few months after the inauguration Of a democratic president but 1t came while the Mckinley high tariff was still in effect and before single republican law had been repealed, and 1t came from causes that were in op- eration before the election In fact, 1t was the failure of the republican party to do Its duty and satisfy the people that brought about democratic victory, and these causes would have brought on a panic, even if the republican party had re- mained in power. Now this is the record, and yet, in spite of this record, the repub- lican candidate presumes to threaten a panic in case of democratic success
 Tariff Handicap.
 "We cannot hope to invade foreign mar kets to the extent we should until we relieve our manufacturers of the handicap that protection places upon them in the purchase of materials they have to use. Neither can we hope to continually in- crease our exports without increasing our imports. Trade must be mutual if it is to be permanent. President Mckinley recog- nized this, and in the last speech that he made he pointed out that we must buy from other nations if we expect to sell to other nations.
 ''The democratic plan does not contem- plate an immediate change from one sys- tenn to the other; it expressly declares that the change shall be gradual, and a gradual change is only possible where the country is satisfied with the results of each step taken. We elect a Congress every two years and a President very four years and the people can soon stop any policy if the results of that policy are not satisfactory. But we believe that the experience the people have had with protection for protection's sake has led them to favor restoration of the tariff by gradual steps to a revenue basis, and we are convinced that the advantages following each step will be so pronounced and that the benefits will be uni- versally enjoyed that there will be no cessation in the progress toward sys- tenn under which the tariff will be levied for the purpose of revenue and limited to the needs of the government. The low tariff law of 1S46 did not produce a panic on the contrary it was so satisfactory that when the republican party wrote its first platform 10 years afterward the pro- tective principle was not indorsed. "The democratic party has declared for an income tax as part of the revenue system, and for constitutional amend- ment as means of securing this tax. Secretary Taft announces in his notifica- tion speech that he is in favor of an in- come tax whenever the revenues are so low as to require it. and expresses his belief that it Is possible to secure such a tax without a constitutional amendment. If it is possible to frame law which will avoid the objections raised to the income tax law of 1894, well and good, but that is uncertain If an income tax Is de- srable, surely Secretary Taft cannot con- sistertly oppose the adoption of con- stitutional amendment. If the principle