Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-07-09
ATTEMPT OLD TRICK
REPUBLICANS AGAIN RESORT TO
EVASION.
Denial That Unreasonable and in Some
Gases Prohibitive Tariff Schedules
Have Fostered Trusts Cannot
Deceive People.

Is the Republican party responsible
for the trusts and combines that are
sheltered by the tariff? AS every
trust or combine will be found to have
some monopoly behind it, the party
that has fostered this monopoly, prin-
cipally by enacting high and in some
cases prohibitive tariff rates, which
prevent competition from abroad, must
be held responsible. How is it pos
sible to separate the two questions of
tariff reform and control of the trusts,
| which are so blended with each other?
To escape from this dilemma of the
the trusts, the Republicans declare
that tariff revision and regulation of
the trusts are absolutely separate and
distinct questions. Thus President
Roosevelt in 1908 declared in a speech
to his fellow citizens:
"One point we must steadily keep in
mind. The question of tariff revision,
speaking broadly, stands wholly apart
from the question of dealing with the
trusts. No change in tariff duties can
have any substantial effect in solving
the so-called trust problem"
With all due Difference to President
Roosevelt, we submit that he Is in error.
While it is true that no amount of tar
if revising could effect a complete So
luton of 'the so-called trust problem"
it is and long has been notorious that
a number of trusts are sheltered by
schedules that enable them to practice
all oppressive extortion.
Why have the Republicans refused
to reform the tariff schedules that
protect the trusts? If the Republican
leaders are correct in saying that mo
change in tariff duties can have any
substantial effect in solving the trust
problem" why keep these high sched-
ules on the statute book? These tariff
schedules do not produce revenue, be-
cause they are too high in most cases
to permit the importation of foreign
products.
The much boosted trust busting of
President Roosevelt has never attacked
those industrial combines that fatten
by the tariff, but he has confined his
efforts to another class Of combina-
tons of which the Northern Securities
merger is the type. Results show that
was a waste of effort, for the combina-
ton still exists between the Great
Northern, the Northern Pacific and the
Burlington railroads, and the rates
they charge have not been reduced
by the dissolution of the merger.
The prosecution of the Standard Oil
trust, with the resulting large fines,
has not reduced the price of oil to
consumers, nor have the fines been
collected, and probably never will be.
The Standard Oil trust was fined for
receiving rebates from the railroads,
and the trusts may still be secretly
receiving rebates for aught any of us
know. If the tariff law had not been
adroitly changed by the proviso that
protects the oil trust from competition,
the price of oil would undoubtedly
have been SO per cent. less than it
has been for the past ten years. Other
wise the fear of foreign oil being i'm
ported would have forced the trusts to
keep down the price Of it's products
to prevent loss of trade.
1t is only nov just before election,
when the people have been aroused
by the discovery of how greatly they
have been %plundered by the tariff pro-
tecting the trusts, that some of the
Republican politicians are willing to
declare for tariff revision after cleo
ton If the dark political clouds
should again roll by and the people
again show their belief in Republican
promises by electing a Republican adj
ministration and a Republican con-
gress, would not the Republican man
ayers indorse the position of President
Roosevelt quoted above and decline to
reform the tariff?