The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-07-23
THE FATHER OF THE TRUSTS.

THE FATHER OF THE TRUSTS.
| The republican party declares for a
revision of the tariff, and it goes with
out saying that the democratic platform
will do the same.
This might seem to Indicate that rad
ical revision is assured. But all that
it really means is that the tariff ques-
ton is practically eliminated from
campaign discussion.
The friends" of high protective
tariff are afraid of the issue which
twice in twenty-four years has caused
them defeat. By promise of revision
they turn the mind of the public from a
system of extortion which is the very
backbone of thousand monopolies.
A tariff levied for revenue to support
the government is tax; but tariff
levied to benefit private interests is an
extortion.
A tariff for protection plumbers for
private use--yes, worse, for it destroys
the levy made for the good of the gov
eminent. The higher the tariff the less
the imports; and this continues until
monopoly is without limit and the gov
ernment without revenue.
We have some SO,0OOOOO people. The
one pursuit of all this multitude is max
ing living. This can be done in two
ways, and no third.
One is by honest labor, the other by
theft. The great mass, recognizing
this fact, labor honestly, or offer honest
labor, for their living. We're the entire
population to do this few would be rich,
but all would be comfortable.
A minority, however, prefer theft to
labor. Greed added to cunning enables
such to steal, and they steal with i'm
punity. 1t is singular that man thus
constituted is not content with robbing
another of his living, but is impelled by
his brutal nature to rob many. He will,
if he can, seize on and possess himself of
the subsistence that belongs to thous-
and.
We long have been assured that if the
government takes care of the wealthy
that class will care for the poor. To
use the glib language of the political
arena, the capital favored by the tariff
will .rovide work for labor.
God help the men dependent on such
a delusion as that! There is nothing
more cruel than million dollars, unless
it be several millions.
A tariff fed millionaire may drive his
automobile from castle to castle with
his digestion undisturbed and his
dreams undistorted although he knows
that his wretched workmen are toiling
in privations or idling in hunger to
which he would not subject his dogs.
However there is no good in denounc-
ing the class. 1t is the system which
makes such class possible that is sub
ject to attack.
"Ding doom the nests and the rocks
will flee AVA" says Scotch proverb.
The protective tariff is altogether a
commercial affair, and under it more
than 100000 miles Of operating railway
have passed to the control and virtually
the ownership of few men; the vast
steel interests of the land are conduct
ed by small board; even our circulating
medium is the property of some few
thousand corporations that contract or
expand it to suit their own selfish pur-
poses; trusts multiply, until food,
clothing, shelter-in word, all we live
on-are worked through monopoly to
make millionaires.
| And the foundation of all this stu
pendous structure to facilitate plumber
of the people rests on the robbery en-
couraged by tariff for extortion.
Its friends" will remedy it-when
the devil takes bath in holy water.
-Des Moines News.