The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-12
FORCE THE FIGHTING.


 Mir. Bryan. we are told. lis going to force the fighting" That is a good idea and he should force it along the enemy's weakest line. That line is the tariff. On this question the Repub- Iicans are very far from unity. They are badly divided, and although they may patch up compromise that will enable them to work together for suc- cess and the offices. 1t cannot be a very earnest fight on the part of some of the most prominent and influential among them. When we consider the division among them on this subject, and reflect that there is not as much warm enthusiasm for Taft as he and Roosevelt wished and expected, we may easily understand that success Tor them is far from assured.
 The tariT Is a present issue. vital issue and a thoroughly Democratic is sue. There is wide dissatisfaction over it in New England and in the West. The present law is not only iniuuitous. partial and unjust within and of itself. showing unjust and in- defensible favoritism towards certain protected interests. but 1t is some thing more. It touches with rude and a number of Northwestern States It loads raw material coming from British America with an import duty that is onerous and in some cases pro- hibitive. That makes it odious to those manufacturers near the Northern bor- der who want raw material brought in free of duty. or saddled with very light tariff.
 The feeling between stand-patters stances. and that tends to cause i'll feeling between the two sides. "Di- vide and conquer Is a good motto. but as our enemies are already divided on the tariff issue Democracy's plain duty Is to take advantage of that division and force them to fight 1t out on that line. Make them defend the tariff, if they can. but in any case do not all low them to dodge 1t. Force the them, for there can be no doubt as to Republican apathy, or to the dis1atis- faction among many Republicans on the subject As an evidence of this we quote very plain expression from The New Bedford Standard. which doubt less expresses the sentiments of the fair-minded Republicans of Massachu- setts. The Standard says:
 That phrase in the Republican national platform which enumerates as one of the purposes of protective tariff the assurance of "a reasonable to cause trouble before the campaign is over. Heretofore the end and aim of a protective tariff has always been guardianship of labor from disastrous competition with the pauper labor of the old world Previous to this year year that such a tariff was made for the purpose of guaranIeeing pront to the manufacturers. The assumption has in any competition, if only his work ea eaiamte Were that tbeIp wages should be reduced to the level of "the miserable hordes of Europe"-or words to that understood that in some branches of industry protection has ensured profit which might be considered satis- reasonabIe or unreasonabie; but no crude confession of the fact has been tolerated. Among the masses of the voters, this announcement of a princf- pie to govern the revision of the tariff will not cause a hilarious enthusiasm.
 That reasonable profit" clause in the platform should not deceive any one. though it was put there for that purpose. Just what is a reasonable profit for American manufacturers Is a question that will be decided by the protected interests and their friends, and we may feel assured that 1t will be as much as the trusts want. It Is Iican speaker not long ago. He stated In effect. that his idea of revising the tariff is to make the duties higher where they are too low, and reduce them where they are too high. Is any one so simple as to believe that bene- fit will come to the great masses of the American people through such re- vision as this? Yet 1t is by and through such intentionally deceptive bak Iicans hope to mislead the voeers and elect their candidate.
 Force the fighting. MT. Bryan. and keep the enemy on the defensive on this vital issue.