Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-08-29
TROUBLE IN REPUBLICAN
RANKS

n UR esteemed contemporary, the
Oregonian, one of the leading Re-
" publican papers on the Pacinc
coast. evidently has conscience which
compels 1t to tell the truth sometimes,
Notwithstanding the fact that the tell
ing of it may require it to agree with
the Democratic candidate for presi-
dent and the platform on which he is
running.
In a recent issue of the Oregonian,
under the caption, "Mr. Bryan at Des
Moines,'' appeared the following cdr
torial utterance upon Mr.. Bryan's tariff
speech:
"As an essay on the tariff Mr.. Bryan's
Des Moines speech is admirable. All
that he says about the iniquity OF
Dingleyism is true. 1t does corrupt
the government by setting up busi-
ness partnership with the protected
interests. 1t puts the public offices up
for sale and causes party success to
depend too much upon contributions
from those who devour the substance
of the people. Nor can 1t be denied
that the tariff has also corrupted bust
ness. It has taught the protected inter-
ests to look to the government for their
profits instead of to their own initia-
tive. 1t has given them an opportunity
to combine for the explicit object OF
raising prices and robbing the con-
sumner. 1t has placed them in the posi-
ton Of the tax farmers IN France be-
fore the revolution. who kept two
thirds OF the taxes they collected and
handed over to the state only one-third.
For Mr.. Bryan is undeniably correct in
saying that the barons get large part
of the proceeds of the tariff tax which
is levied upon certain articles. If nine
tenths OF a protected article are pro-
duced at home and only one-tenth
imported, then that one-tenth pays the
tax to the government, while the other
nine-tenths pay It to the interests.
sMr. Bryan is also right in contend
ing that when the tariff is too high 1t
ceases to produce revenue. The cry
that the schedules must be kept at the
prohibitive mark In order to carry on
the government is nonsense. A pro-
hibitive tariff by virtue of the fact
that 1t excludes imports can produce
nothing for the treasury. 1t is only
from imports that the government
profits. When imports are shut out
then the interests profit, and they
alone. In so far as a tariff is pro-
tective, 1t must OF necessity fail to
produce revenue. The more protection
it gives the less revenue; the more
revenue the less protection. These are
facts of common knowledge, and 1t Is
absurd to assert that they are less
true when Mr.. Bryan states them than
when they are read In a textbook OF
economics. He is right again when he
says that the tariff does not raise
wages. In the beginning 1t was not
even asserted that the tariff would raise
wages. The contention then was that
by pilfering here and there from other
industries 1t would enable the protected
industry to pay the current scale OF
wages, and this was true. But even
thus it's manifest tendency was to lower
wages, because 1t extorted from the
non-protected industries part OF their
profits. Wages, as Mr.. Bryan says, are
regulated by the law of demand ana
supply in the labor market, tempered
as other tyrannies have been by the
rebellion of those who are subject to
it. Labor unions have somewhat raised
wages. The American workman's high
ideal of comfort has helped to keep
them at a certain level. Other causes
have contributed to make wages high
in the United States, but here as every
where else in the world the employer
pays what he must pay, and not a
penny more. In general, labor has not
been benefited by the tariff. BY the
very hypothesis which lies at the root
of protectionism II there had never been
a tariff worlkmen would have received
in naturally developing industries the
same wages which they have earned
in the artifcially protected ones.
Truth is truth, whether Mr.. Bryan
speaks it or some other man."
Certainly no Democrat could ask
more complete agreement with his
party's attitude upon the tariff or with
the Interpretation of that attitude by
it's candidate for president.
1t is true that the Oregonian closes
it's editorial with the somewhat lame
plea that the people should trust the
Republican party to reform the tariff
and relieve them of its iniquities, for
the reason that the Republican leaders,
such as Plat, Depew and others, who
perpetrated the present tariff laws
upon the people are dead or dying and
new leaders have taken their places.
This deduction does not appear to be
fully convincing, for the reason that
the present leaders OF that party will
some time in the future be "either dead
or dying also.
A Democrat who read the editorial
suggested that the members OF the
Mormon church might make the same
plea for the correctness of the doctrines
of their church as expounded by their
present leaders for the reason that its
former leaders. Joseph Smith and
Brigham Young, have both been gath
cred to their fathers.