The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-22
THE SALT LAKE HERALD: SATURDAY. AUGUST p. 1908

to their own use and hav paid their
employees only such wages as trade con-
ditions compelled.
The Homestead strike occurred after the
Republican convention of 1892, but before
the Republican candidate wrote his let
ter of acceptance. He could not ignore
the strike. for it presented an object les
son which even a high-tariff Republican
could not fail to see. So Mr.. Harrison,
the candidate. referring to the strike,
said:
L regret that all employers of labor
are not just and considerable and that cap
ital sometimes takes too large a share of
the profits5s' TOO large a share of the
profits?" Yes; more than that. The pro-
tected manufacturers have secured, In
many cases, a tariff of more than twice
the percentage paid to workmen in
The net profits of the steel trust last
yea were just about equal to the entire
amount paid in wages, and the wages
constituted less than % per cent OF the
total value of the product. According to
this statement, each working man en-
ployed by the steel trust earned, on an
average. not only the amount paid TO him,
but 100 per cent profit besides for his en-
ployer. And, l may add, while these ben
eficiaries of protection have been pre-
tending to make the tariff avs for the di-
rect benefit of employees. these same en-
ployes have, as a rule. been kept close to
the hunger line, while many of the en-
ployerS nave become the poSSeSsors of the
swollen fortunes which now menace
the nations morals as well as Its bust
ness.
And yet the Republican party was not
willing that a single item or the steel
schedule should be touched and the Re
publican campaign committee will not
dare to publish, before the election, the
contributions that have been made to the
Republican campaign fund by the men
most largely interested in the steel trust.
How the Scheme Works.
Let me show you how the tariff OPP
crates. 1 nave here a statement made by
Mr.. H. +. Miles, chairman of the tariff
committee of the National Association of
Manufacturers and head of the agricul-
tural implement trust. The statement ap-
pears in the American Industries of Nov.
the Republican ticket and making a spe-
cial fight against the labor plank of the
Democratic platform. Here is what Mr..
Miles says:
Il have made money every year out OF
the tariff graft. Not much. but still a lit
tie.
The tariff barons raised their price s5o,-
600 to me- made a charge against the
jobber of $4,000 and / know hat he
charged more than $4,000 for the $50, 900
he paid me. Before reaching the con-
sumner the s50.O0 charge became about
$4,000 to be paid by the agricultural
consumer.
THE manufactures who would prosper
must make a double profit, one by the
shrewd management of his business and
| another by still shrewder manipulation in
Washington.
W. have no great difficulty in shop
ping abroad for we could get as high
prices as at home. We are so held up,
however, by our supply people that to
most of us there is very scant profit in
foreign business.
when congress gave us As per cent we
needing only 20 per cent, they gave us a
congressional permit. If not an invitation,
70 consolidated form ono ora9f frlSf and
advance our prices % per cent, being the
difference between the 20 per cent needed
and the 40 per cent given"
Tariff Doubles Prices.
Mr.. Miles shows how the tariff raises
prices to those who, in manufacturing,
lave to buy other manufactured prod
ucts. This expense is transferred to the
next purchaser. The jobber charges a
profit on the tariff as well as on the cost
of the article, and each person who han
dies the product collects a profit, so that,
according to Mr.. Miles, the first charge
reaches the consumer. Mr.. Miles in an
other article estimates the total loss to
the people at $JG0.0 900 annually. The
the tariff law is an invitation to cOnSoli-
date, and that having been given the tar
if on the theory that il is needed, the
statement of Mr.. Miles also shows that
manufacturer naturally assume that it Is
intended hat they shall take advantage
of 1t, even if they have to combine to do
so.
How will Mr.. Taft explain to the aver
age man the benefits of protection? He
can easily convince a trust that it profits
by the tariff, but what about the victim
of the trust?
No Republican leader will now deny
that reductions ought to be made, but
who is to make the reductions? The only
answer given by the Republicans is that
the tariff ought to be reformed by its
friends: that is, that those who made the
last tariff law should be intrusted with
the making of a new tariff law. But sup
pose the people adopt the Republican idea
and intruSt the making of the tariff law
to Republican congressman; what will be
the method of procedure? Fortunately
for the voter, Mr.. Miles explains this also
In the April, 1908, number of American
Industries, Mr.. Miles says: 1.-The people
instruct and trust congress to grant just,
equitable and ample protection"
Is not that just what the Republican
leaders claim to favor? They want you to
instruct and trust congress to grant just.
equitable and ample protection" And
what does that mean2 Mr.. Miles says
that congress trusts the ways and means
committee" And a Republican leader
will tell you that this is also proper.
Then what? Mr.. Miles says that this
committee trusts such persons as Mr..
Dalzell," and that ''they-they trust the
trusts"
A Confidence Game.
The method of procedure is simple. It
is a case of confidence. The voters have
confidence in Republican leaders,; the
leaders lave confidence in a Republican
congress; a Republican congress has con-
fIdence in the ways and means commit
tee; the ways and means has
confidence in the men who represent the
trusts. and the trusts write the tariff
law and thus secure to themselves the
right to levy tribute upon the public. So
| accustomed have Republican leaders be-
come to allowing the protected interests
to write the tariff schedules that so emf
nent and honorable a man as Senator
| Hoar of Massachusetts, said, in discussing
the Mckinley bill. then before the sem
ate:
Instead Of coming before your sub
committee for a formal hearing on our
Massachusetts industries, i thought the
best way was to carefully prepare a table
of all the various industries, perhaps some
sixty or seventy in all, and ask Brother
Aldrich to go over them with me and
ascertain what the people wanted in each
case. and if there were any cases where
the committee had not already done exact
" what the De~titiOnerS desired or had not