The Democratic advocate., 1908-08-14
TARIFF AND THE TRUSTS.
Our Own People Robbed Through
Duties ON Imports.

The Democratic party Is much in
debted to Judge Taft for having in
his acceptance speech left more clear
the great issue that centres in the
tariff. With much circumlocution he
speaks of aggregations of capital, law
full and unlawful, denominated Trusts,
both of which he holds it to be neces-
sary to restrain" but not to "des-
troy" 1t will be the business of the
Democrats to unravel the maze of So
phistry with which the Republican
candidate seeks to envelop the issue
and set it plainly before the Ameri-
can people in the progress of the cam
paign.
There is little or 40 question of
lawful and unlawful Trusts in this
contest Industrial combinations that
owe nothing to favoritism of tariff
Legislation are safely left by the DEM
focratic policy and platform to the
operation of the laws of trade. When
competition is free they can exist only
by the greater economy of their meth
ods and by the better quality and
cheapness of their products. With
such combinations, When they can be
found, the Democrats have no war.
But as Judge Taft we'll knows, it
is the lawful Trusts favored by tariff
iniquity with which alone the Demo-
Gratis are dealing in this great con-
test for economic reform. The Steel
Trust, with the largest aggregation
of manufacturing capital in the world,
is a perfectly lawful combination. 1t
is organized in strict compliance with
existing laws. So are the Lumber
Trust, the Sugar Trust and the Earth
enware and Glass Trust and their con-
geners that prey upon the American
people under cover of the tariff SO
far from being unlawful, these preda-
tory combinations are the creatures
and proteges of the law.
Now, therefore, when it is seen by
the abundant evidence Of the returns
OF commerce that these Trusts are
profitably competing with all comers
in the open markets of the world un-
der conditions of absolutely free
trade, what the Democrats simply pro-
pose is to deprive them of the means
of further despoiling the masses OF
the people. Not by the futility OF in
functions, which Judge Taft suggests,
for they are violating no laws; but
by removing the tariff prop that sus-
tains them in their depredations.
WleQ, 1Or one oXdIuplS OuC VI luou-
sands, the Steel Trust is profitably
sending abroad railway bars and
building materials in competition with
European manufacturers, wherein lies
the necessity of protecting the Trust
with the respective duties of $3.50
and $40 ton against foreign competi-
tors in the home markets? So far as
the Trusts are concerned, the tariff
serves neither for protection nor for
revenue, but only as an instrument
of plunder. The duties are merely
taken out of the pockets of the people
to swell the spoil in the Golfers of the
Trusts.
What the Democrats propose is not
to destroy the tariff but to extirpate
the manifold iniquities of the tariff:
Descending from the generalities OF
speech beneath which deceit is too apt
to lurk to particulars and details OF
legislation, the sophistries of Candi-
date Taft are completely exposed, and
he stands as the typical representative
of the party of stand-patters who
could not reform the tariff If they
would, and would not if they could
Phila. Record.