Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-04-23
is ALL DECEPTION
AMBIGUITY THE NOTE OF THE
OHIO PLATFORM.
Policy of Attempting to Deceive the
People Is Plainly to Be Seen
Republican Leaders at
Their Old Tricks.

AS the platform adopted by the late
Republican convention of Ohio was
approved by President Roosevelt and
Secretary Taft, the tariff plank of
that platform, therefore, may be re-
garded as the prototype Of the tariff
plank Of the coming national conye
ton, if the same Republican faction
control it as controlled the Ohio o Il
vention.
AS many people believe that what
Mr.. Roosevelt declares, must be the
gospel truth, and that similar avowals
from Secretary Taft are of the me,
too," variety, it becomes of impor-
lance to investigate just what was
promised on the tariff issue in that
Ohio platform which said:
"a revision of the tariff by a special
session of the next congress, insurinS
the maintenance of the true principle
of protection by imposing such GUS
toms duties as will equal the differ
ence between the cost of production
at home and abroad, together with a
reasonable profit, to the end that,
without excessive duties, American
manufacturers, farmers, producers and
~wage-earners may have adequate pro
lection"
The only promise in that plank that
can be understood is that the next
congress shall be called in special ses-
sion for tariff revision. What kind of
revision, whether to revise the tariff
higher or revise it lower, is not stated,
1t promises the trusts they will still
be protected by duties that will equal
the difference between "the cost OF
production" at home and abroad, and
on top of that protection "a reasona
BILE profit"
Fancy the Republican st%andpatters
of the next congress, if they have a
majority, considering "the cost OF
production" How will they find out
and from whom will they inquire what
ton of trust products here and Of
similar products abroad? judging
from the past the trusts alone vii
furnish them such inside information
The managers of those corporation
that control the steel, the cotton, thu
wooden, the pottery, the glass and The
other products of the trusts protected
by the tariff will thus again fix thu
tariff schedules. Under such a revi
sion of the tariff there would be thu
same ~disgraceful spectacle as oc
CURED at the Arlington hotel in Wash
ington in 1897 when the Republical
members of the ways and means con
mittee were receiving the trust mar
ayers and attorneys with their pre-
pared schedules that were adopted b
the committee, in many cases almos
without change from the way the me-
, nopolists demanded.
The Republican plan of cOnfusin
and ~deceiving the voters of the cou
try by an ambiguous tariff plank is a
old trick; it has been worked in low
to defeat the Iowa idea;" it was use
in Massachusetts to blind the eyes
Republican partisans. Hon. Willial
L. Douglas, who was elected governC
of Massachusetts on the tariff issu
described it when he said:
THE Republican party of Mass
chusetts has %retreated under the she
S ter of an ambiguous phrase from tt
9 high ground which it occupied lat
0 year. Either the leaders of the part
were insincere last year, or they al
~insincere this year. What does pre-
ent action mean? Does 1t mean frt
= hides, free coal, free iron, free woo
pulp, free lumber? Does it mean /
ciprocity with Canada? Does it met
n anything that the people of Mass
chusetts, irrespective Of party affili
lions, are so generally demanding
Those leaders who talk so vaguely
present action are in reality oppC
ing tariff reform. Their action co
sists in adopting ambiguous phras
o to deceive the people; in 'standil
pat on the Dingley schedule, and
ringing the alarm bells of the trusts