Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1909-05-18
Tarin for Incidental revenue.

Tariff for Incidental Revenue.
The country need not be surprised If
before Senator Aldrich and his Com
mittee on Finance get through with
the Payne bill the tariff is made even
more thoroughly protective of monopo-
ly than the outrageous Dingley act
against which even a large portion of
the Republican party has, for at least
four years, been in open revolt.
Senator Rayner, of Maryland, truly
depicted the spirit and purpose of tar
if revision as we see II on the Repub-
lican side of the Senate when he de
clared on Wednesday that the Aldrich
bill is for protection only. that its pur-
pose is not to provide revenue, but to
prohibit importations, that it does ev-
erything to tighten the grasp of mo-
nopoly upon the commerce of the
country and gives nothing to the con-
Stunning public.
The first Republican national plat
form-that of 1S56-did not mention
the tariff The tariff plank of the plat
form of 1860 was virtually a plea for
tariff for revenue with incidental pro
lection, though not in these words, and
the same is tru> of all the Republican
platforms for thirty years after the
party put its first presidential candi-
date into the field.
The policy of the party as it is now
expounded. by Senator Aldrich has
been revol1tionized to mean tariff for
protection with incidental revenue.
Every schedule in the Dinghy act
which shelters monopoly Is scrutin-
lied for opportunity to make dts rates
prohibitive, and in computing the diff
ference between the foreign cost OF
production and the cost in this coun-
try, every sophistry and false method
is resorted to in order to minimize the
foreign cost and exaggerate the do
nestle cost
If the provision asserting that the
true basis of protective taxation is the
difference between the home and the
foreign cost was honestly put into the
Republican platform of 1908 its au-
thors did not have in mind the posi-
bilities of such tricks as Mr.. Aldrich
and his disciples are resorting to in
order to make that declaration farce
and a sham.
They are making the low costs of
production in the most modern foreign
plants the standard of the foreign cost,
while the cost of production in the
clumsiest and most but-of-date and
WORKOUT plants is the standard of
cost in this country.
BY this method, always making the
output of the most modern En- ropean
plants the standard of cost abroad and
retaining in the estimate the output
of every Anticipated plant In the United
States, disregarding costly and extrav-
agant methods, the gap between the
home and foreign cost may be made to
go on widening to the hearts content
of the most ardent monopoly tariff en-
thusiast. This could not be done if
the home cost were based on the show
ing Of an up-to-date and thoroughly
modern American plant
The viciousness of the cardinal
principle of the Republican tariff plank
of 1908 is seen, also. in the difficulty,
in fact the impossibility, of ascertain
ing just what the cost of production
in any case really is. There are SO
many ways of making the returns that
no committee Of Congress can arrive
at uniform basis of computing the
actual amount
One manufacturer will ascertain the
cost by counting what he pays for
raw material, labor, coal and admins
tration. Another will add something
for wear and tear of machinery. Still
another will count in interest on bonds
outstanding or add expenditures for
betterment and improvement of plant.
1t should be remembered, too, that for
a strike period the cost of a certain
quantity of output Is very much great
er than for period of equal length
when all hands are at work and every
thing running smoothly. So, also, the
cost of making sales can be made run
up cost of production illimitably.
The inquiry is bewildering and i'm
possible Of convincing results. But by
giving the benefit of every doubt to
high cost of domestic production, and
holding foreign cost down to the low
est ascertainable minimum, the Senate
Republicans can use the platform of
1908 to get a margin of protection as
much wider than the Dingley margin
as may be necessary to make the new
tariff prohibitive Of imports.-St.
Louis Republic.