The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-24
THE HIGH TARIFF
 SUSTAINS TRUSTS
Mayor Rhett of Charleston
 Talks Al Big Rally
PARTY ISSUES DISCUSSED
WageEarner Has Had His Eyes Opened By the Panic Says the
 Mayor, and Will Learn to
 Vote IntelIigently.

Thompsonville. Conn. October 2s-
 Mayor Robert G. Rhett of Charleston. g.
 C.. was one of the speakers at a demo-
 cratic rally held here tonight at Frank
 lin hall He said:
 'The question uppermost in the minds of
 most of you who face me tonight are:
 How are factories and foundries to be
 opened and operated again? How are in
 dustries to be made profitable and the unemployed to obtain work? Every oth- CT question is insignificant beside these
 "The panic of last fall and the suf- i ferngs of the past year have caused the
 country to do more Intelligent and un-
 prejudiced thinking than it has done in
 many years. For so long a time had the
 republican party inscribed upon it's ban
 ner the dividend and the full dinner pair and so profoundly had that party i'm pressed the country with the belief that l these were the products of protection 1 and of republican rule alone. that the
 events of the past year have stunned the 1 public and completely shattered it's faith ] in both the principles and preeepts of i that party.
 "The tariff principles which govern the
 two parties are distinctly opposite. The i one stands for taxation both for the pur-
 pose of government and for the purpose
 of supplying revenues to favored indus ] tries. The other party stands for taxation for government purposes alone One
 stands for a tariff on imports that will
 equal the difference in the cost of pro- i duction at home and abroad and reas- enable profit'-that is to say, that will ] keep out imports altogether and thus ! cease to be tax at all. The other stands i for tariff which will raise the revenue needed for the purpose of government, ! and incidentally, protect those industries
 which are in need of it to keep labor upon ] the plane to which 1t has raised itself" l Arguing, then, that the high tariff sus- i tains the trusts, he went on to say: i Not only were the merchants and manufacturers allured by this skilful l painting of prosperity, but the laborers | and wage-earners generally were won
 with the assurance that they would share 1 in this prosperity by having their wages l raised The wage-earner has had his 1 eyes opened He has learned that while 1 his wages advance his cost of living ad- | vances also. and advances faster. In the l past F years the advance in wages has | been 19 per cent, but the advance in 1 the cost of living during the same period i has been 49 per cent. Therefore, man l earning $500 a year, with living expenses l costing s550 in 1896, would be earning STA | year with living expenses costing $S19 | in 190S.''
 1 Turning to the democratic position on 1 the tariff he said; "The democratic plat l form contains no raids upon prosperity. l Not a single line can be found which 1 holds out menace to legitimate business. ] It's tariff plank contains three proposi- 1 tions.
 "The first proposition is to repeal the l tariff on articles which are Illegal under our present statutes. Remove the cause l of the monopoly and it will disappear To i leave the cause and attempt to control ] the effect would be but pretense.
 The second proposition is to reduce the l tariff on articles which are sold abroad l cheaper than at home, so as to equalize
 this difference.
 i The third proposition is to make all i other reductions so gradual as not to i destroy, depress or disturb the business of
 any sound or legitimate industry"