Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-12-04
REVISING THE TARIFF.


A visit to Washington just now is
incomplete unless one visits the room
of the Committee on Ways and Means,
where its members are gathering in
formation for Congress to better enable
is the way it is put to the gullible pub
lie. The word REVISE is well chosen.
1t really means nothing, and was in
tended to mean nothing by those who
employed it during the recent cam
paign. The room is in the new office
building of the lower house of congress,
magnificent marble structure South
east of the capitol. The building is not
fully completed as yet, but the room in
which the committee meets is pratial-
ly 20, enough at least to enable them
to have an elevated stand, and sit in
semicircular fashion like judges of a
Superior Court. On the left as you
look toward the committee sits Nicho-
las Longworth, the Presidents son-in-
law. The pictures seen of him have
done him no injustice. He is very bald
and will not impress you as man of
more than ordinary ability. You would
walk ever him in any crowd unnotic-
ed, If looking for men. He sat the
most of the time we were there with
his nose stuck into large rose pinned
on the left lapel of his coat, and paid,
seemingly, no more attention to what
was going on than TO the swish of the
Potomac's waters against the not very
distant banks. Exactly opposite sat
Bourke Cochran and Champ Clark,
active, alert, anxious to get at facts,
pressing witnesses with questions,
drawing out and piling up informa-
ton, serving their constituents and the
country. The contrast between such
men is very great. Yet as we see there
and elsewhere, intellect and ability are
not in demand for public position by
the Republican party. That party
instals weak vessels and the powers be-
hind the throne manage to use those
weaklings as best suits their purposes.
Thus they gain their ends without re-
sponsibility. This will be a great
fiasco, this tariff revision. The leading
papers-all Republican of course-give
no real space or place to this investi-
cation. They do not want the facts,
they are embarrassing, the tariff lords
are in hole all the time. They are
universally for an increase in rates.
Not one has appeared who has asked
for reduction on his product, all have
asked for raised rates. 1t is true that
the shoe manufacturer wants hides put
on the free list-he does not sell hides
but just then in come Swift and Ar
mour, who have trust in hides, and
with them the leather people who are
in a combination with Swift and Ar
mour in taking the hides, and tell the
committee that free hides would break
the farmer. They would not give him
p cents a pound for beef. 1t is the
hides thai save him. The shoe people
brand this as UNANIMOUSLY false" when
talking on the outside, and as 'mis-
leading when testifying before the
committee. The fact is that no pro.
tected industry has the nerve to talk
about anybody elses rake-off, lest il
hurts them. A steel manufacturer was
testifying when we entered the hall.
He was for a PRoHIBITIvE tariff on
steel. Chairman Payne read an article
from Andrew Carnegie just printed in
the recent Century Magazine,in which
Mr.. Carnegie has stirred all Tarifdom
or Stealdom as it is sometimes put, by
asserting that the tariff ought to be
taken off Steel and Oil. The steel
manufacturer was asked to give rea-
sons why he SO materially differed
with Mr.. Carnegie, who is looked on
as the great high priest of the steel in
dustry. He said that he could only
answer that Mr. Carnegie was not now
in the steel business, which meant
either that Mr.. Carnegie wilfully mis-
stated facts, or that ones mind would
change 80 soon as one changed his pc
sition rs manufacturer. In all of the
discussion and evidence nobody but
the laboring man seems to be consid-
cred by the tariff lords. If reduction
is recommended by any member of the
committee "that is just so much out OF
the pockets of labor is the reply. If
the article is recommended for the free
list, that means total destruction of the
industry. For instance, if free paper
or free wood pulp is advocated, Canada
will then furnish all the paper and
pulp, and our paper and pulp mills
will rot down. If free coal is advocat-
ed Nova Scotia will furnish all of our
coal and orr mines will close. If oil is
to be put on the free list Russia will
send her Oil in here cheaper than we
can dip it up from flowing wells, and
the wells will pour their stuff into the
nearest rivulet and it will float away
unbarrelled, a--nauseating, malodorous
eXcreSence.
One would not burn frewood lying
in ones own back yard if the tariff
were taken off it. He would have
such wood brought from Africa in
preference. Thus goes the tariff tale
when told by the tariff protected wit
nesses. Congress meets on December
18th. Nothing will be done then. This
Congress dies on March 3rd. Then
Mr.. Taft, who will be inaugurated on
the 4th of March, will call Congress in
special session to consider the tariff.
In the wind up if facts can be gotten
before the public, which we much
doubt, for it is not divulged as to who
are the owners of the greatest trusts