The National tribune., 1908-12-10
TARIFF REVISION.

most thought in mems minds. In a
way the question of protection enters
Intimately into the life of every man
land woman in the country. Tho he
may not think so, every mans business
land income depend upon those OF ms
Ineighbors. Unless they have an IN
come he can have none. The more
tthev 'T,ave~ihe more he is likely to have.
If they are made poorer he is most like-
lv to feel it. This is great fundamen-
tai fact which too many are likely to
lose sight of. If a man raise crops his
| income depends upon the amount of
money his neighbors may have to buy
them. If he sell goods, manufactures
employe of any kind. it is precisely the
| same thing. We all live upon, with and
thru one another. It must be so.
The tariff is an exceeding wise and
very skilful system to give our own
people the most that may be of the
wealth they produce, and save them as
far as possible from injurious competi-
ton with people of much lower stand
ards Of life in foreign lands. Il recog-
rizes that transportation of goods for-
long distances across the ocean is tax
upon both the consumer and the pro-
ducer-that both have to pay for every
middleman. every railroad and every
steamship, and that an enlightened Ma
tional policy inperatively requires every
effort to bring producers as closely to-
gether as possible, with different por
tions of our people producing every
thing that the other portions need. In
fact. this is the only policy that can be
! followed by any Government worthy
-ef- the name.
But to do this fairly and equitably is
the greatest problem that can present
itself to the mind of the thinking pa
ltriot. While we want and must have
every class of producers prosperous, it
lis vital that they should not have an
undue share of the wealth of the entire
people. and into this enter the most
perplexing questions. They are ques-
tions, too, which are only befogged by
the windy declamations of professional
trust busters. They must be settled by
intense study, careful calculations. and
full consideration of all the elements
involved
For example, the trusts. are to-day
giving us the cheapest and best shoes
that we have ever had. The American
shoe is far the best, the cheapest and
the most elegant in the world. 1t is
undeniable that this superiority comes
from the nluch-abused trusts. BY their
combinations they have been able to
Introduce the best possible methods and
machinery into the manufacture of
shoes. They have sought out and en-
ployed the highest skill, and introduced
economies that were impossible in the
old-fashioned shoe shop In doing 50
they have extinguished the old-fasn-
ioned shoe shop, for which we are sin
cereIy sorry. Where once a shoemak-
!er's shop was an Indispensable part of
/ the small village it is hard to-day to
find native American engaged in max
ling shoes outside the great factories
But in return the factories have given
Us q much better shoe at less than half
4 the price charged by the oId-fasiIioneI
+ Shoemaker. The advantages to the com
reluctantly let our dear old shoemaker
go.
Now comes another stage in the de-
velopmeht. Tho the Shoe Trust has
done very profitable business. ana the
it is selling shoes all over the world
at a profit even against the cheapest
labor that 1t can encounter, it wants
!. to make still more money, and demands
free hides End leather
Should it have them? There is a field
for discussion. The prices of hides is
, an important factor in all farming cal
culations 1t enters into the price OF
. beef, and has distinct relation TO the
price OF corn. hay and pasturage. The
duty on hides is one of those levied in
the interest of the farmer. The ques-
ton comes at once whether the Shoe
Trust is not getting enough, and wheth-
er there is any need of diminishing the
profits on farming to add to its already
satisfactory gains? II the buyers Of
shoes were to get the benefits of free
leather then there would be no ques-
ton. But will they?
, This is the frame of mind upon
which all the tariff questions must be
approached. The first postal we have
! received in answer to our invitation
last week to free discussion comes
from a valued comrade. and says:
: The tariff should be revised Re-
: move the duties entirely from wood
: pulp. Stop the destruction of our for
ests. Reduce the duties on fruits and
products in our Northern States.''--E
a W. Finch, NJ. D., New Rochelle, n. Y.
Now. what have our readers to say to
. that?