The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-23
REVENUE TARIFF.
Is Advocated by Andrew Car
negie in Magazine Article.
Says Infant Industries Are
Nearly All Grown Up.
NEED NO PROTECTION.
The Steel Manufacturers Can
Defy Free Competition.
Infants Nursed by the Nation
Should BE Weaned,

X,
article from Andrew Carnegie, deal
ing with the tariff, will appear in the
forthcoming December number of
Century magazine. The ironmaster
takes the position that infant indus
| tries no longer need protection, that
the steel and other industries have
now grown beyond the need of tariff
protection, that duties on luxuries
used by the rich should be maintained
! but that those on manufactured
articles should be reduced greatly or
abolished entirely when no longer
needed. Mr.. Carnegie's article is en-
titled my Experience With and
Views Upon the Tariff
He first reviews the tariff move
ment down to the present Dingley
law, giving a number of anecdotes in
leaders of the various periods. He
adds,
Much water has run under the
/ bridges since then. Many changes
changes can be judiciously made in
the tariff. There is do doubt about
this; but, on the other hand, I have
been led to the conclusion that con-
ditions have changed so greatly in the
interval that the tariff should now be
viewed from a new standpoint.
THE writer assumes a decided
majority of our voters are agreed:
First, that it is advisable for new
countries to encourage capital by
protective duties, when seen to be
necessary to develop new industries.
Second, that after full and exhaus-
tive trials, if success be not finally
attained, such protection should cease
except as noted hereunder.
Third, that should the experiment
succeed protection becomes unneces-
sary and should steadily but gradually
be abolished, provided that the home
1y,1x Of iCln oh fn1U
sary for the national safety shall not
thereby be endangered"
Further on Mr.. Carnegie says:
I'VE have become by far the great
infant industries of the past have
reached maturitv- and, speaking gen
orally, are now cutie able. to protect
themselves. The infant in the nurses
arms that congress in 1871 nursed so
tenderly will appear next year before
its guardian as the stalwart champion
who has conquered in many fields,
thus proving himself worthy of the
protection bestowed upon him in his
youth and fully vindicating the pro-
tective policy pursued.
No Longer Protective.
"While the tariff, as a whole. even
today, has ceased to be primarily bene-
fetal as measure of protection it has
become of vast Importance from the
standpoint of revenue, and it IS to this
feature I bespeak the special attention
imports not for protection, but for
needed revenue should not become a
party question. Reasonable men of all
parties may be expected to approve
this plan of obtaining revenues"
After giving tables showing that the
bulk of tariff duties are collected on
luxuries used by the rich, Mr.. Carne-
gle says:
happy contrast to others almost ex-
empt the poor and heavily tax the
rich, just as it should, for it is they
who have the ability to pay as required
by the highest economic authority"
Mr. Carnegie says of future tariff
legislation;
''The next congress dealing with the
tariff will probably be inclined at first
to reduce duties all around and per-
naps to abolish some, but its first care
should be to maintain present duties
them upon all articles used almost ex-
cIusively by the rich. and this not for
protection but for revenue, not drawn
from the workers, but from the rich.
THAT is the first and prime duty of
Congress- We should not forget that
government expenditures have in
creased enormously in recent years
and that additional revenue is re-
ssIts second duty is to reduce duties
greatly upon manufactured articles
and to abolish entirely those no longer
Need No Protection.
"The writer has co-operated in max
ing several reductions as steel manu-
facturers became able to bear reduc-
tions. Today they need no protection,
unless, perhaps, in some new special
ties unknown to the writer, because
steel is now produced cheaper here
than anywhere else. Notwithstanding
the higher wages paid per man. Not
a ton of steel is produced in the world
at as small an outlay for labor as in
our country Our coke coal and iron
ores are much cheaper. because more
easily obtained and transported, and
our output per man is much greater,
owing chiefly to the large standardized
orders obtainable only upon our con-
tfnent, the specialized rolling mills
machinery kept weeks upon uniform
shapes without change of rolls, and
several other advantages.
''The day has passed when any
foreign country can seriously affect
our steel manufact cturers, tariff or no
tariff. The republic has become the
home of steel and this is the age of
steel. 1t may probably be found that
there exists the small manufacturers
of some specially in steel which still
needs a measure of protection. The
writer hopes, if such there be the
committee will give patient attention
to such cases 1t is better to err on
the side of giving these too much,
rather than too little support. Every
enterprise of this kind should be fos-
tered. The writer speaks only of the
ordinary article and forms of steel as
being able to stand without pro-
lection He hopes there are today
pioneers in several new lines re-
quiring protection which will be gen
erously given temporarily. The com
nittee should welcome such special
cases.
Mr.. Carnegie says that several other
features of the tariff should be care