Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-10-20

bug is political immortality. ''In all
tariff legislation" says the national
Republican platform adopted at Chi
cago, 1.-The true principle of protection
is best maintained by the imposition
of such duties as will equal the differ
ence between the cost of production at
home and abroad" Before the war
the slave owners of the south contend
ed that slavery was for the protection
Of the slave So now the United States
Steel corporation, the sugar trust, the
meat trust and the hundreds of other
monopolies that are plundering our
laboring men through the increased
cost of living are so interested in them
that for their protection alone they
sustain the beneficent tariff. They ac-
tually give millions to campaign COM
mittees that voters may be bought,
that lobby may be maintained, that
congressman may be interested, that
the right men may be made judges,
that newspapers may be subsidized,
and they do all this to keep the labor
ing people from falling into pauper-
ism. In every market in our country
today the wives of workingmen. grip
ping in their hands the price Of their
husbands labor, are paying to the
great trusts for the necessaries of life
at least 60 per cent more than they
paid even ten years ago. Our laboring
man does not need charity, but he does
need justice.
If congress should attempt directly
to fix the prices at which our domestic
ucts, the United States supreme court
would declare the act unconstitutional.
Yet congress indirectly by means of its
taxing power and its right to regulate
foreign commerce has maintained stat
utes for fifty years permitting the do
mestic manufacturer to enhance the
price of the necessaries of life to every
man and woman in our land. The
source Of the trusts could be easily de-
stroyed by removing the tariff, but that
would stop contributions to campaign
| disbursements, SO our politicians con-
! tinue the tariff and then as remedy
prescribe penal statutes, an interstate
commerce commission, administrative
/ tribunals and other similar measures.
| The trust magnates own the mines
and minerals, they own n considerable
part of the remaining forest lands,
they own the great railway systems,
they control the majority of manufac-
tories and hold the franchises of the
cities. Through these acquisitions they
have become the rulers of our republic
without holding any office whatever
But the people are slow to see the
danger of such vast and irresponsible
power exercised by few men because
they plot in secret and mine and coun
termine our public life. Eventually II
they are not stopped they will reduce
the American people to servitude. Oul
smaller manufacturers are beginning
to realize what this means. They art
coming to understand that they receive
little benefits from a protective tariff
and that the great combinations which
sell them their raw material are the
only recipients of It's benefits. Sixty
two per cent of all importatiOns int
our country today are for use In oul
manufactures, and more than one-thirt
of this 62 per cent is subject to duty
A large proportion of our manufactur
ers will Ey and by appreciate Thu
truth, and when they do appreciate !
their financial interests will make then
fighting force against protection.
al, FRANKLIN PIERCE.