New-York tribune., 1909-07-28
EHORT-SIGHTED POLICY.

The Far Western Republican Senators WIZ
are fighting to defeat conference report pun
ting hides the free list ana ther :! !lhP"
tbizers in obstructing a moderate downward We
vision of the tariff are taking dangerous r'SN
They have far more 10 lose by defeatlHG l'
adjustment of tariff rates such as the propoSeu
conference report offers than by approving H.
If they have the power to force deadlock De-
tween the House of Representatives ana lhe
Senate on the question of free hides ana use
that mower thev will commit a grievous DUN
der They NAV win a nominal ana temporai!
victory. but that victory will in the long rul
be fatal 10 what they regard as their personal
and political interests.
The Sena tors standing out for a duty on hides
represent protection sentiment carried 10 the
extreme They also boldly advocate the theoiS
of a sectional distribution of tariff faForS lnuS
reducing tariff legislation to a problem in bal
ancinp the demands Of localities against one
another regardless of the effect of such par
gaining on the eduitahIeness and efficiency OF
the tariff system as whole or its value as
a means of national Development IN hS
speeches pleading for the retention or dutH
on hides Senator Warren, of Wyoming lald
emphasis on the compensatory character OF the
protection which ne was asking. He declared
that whereas New England received protectlon
on hundreds of manufactured articles, Wyoming
and the Mountain STATES ldN Only tAlVc u ANN-
products which it was possible TO protect and
argued that in consequence, those products
ought all 10 be protected. if only to preserve
inst balance between the Rocky Mountain sec
ton and New England. But such an argument
for protection. not on economic hut on geo
graphical grounds makes travesty of rational
protection Protective duties should he laid on
articles not because they happen TO he pro-
duced in one state or in another, hut because
,r,oAfA AfTFarf Ifh
NAV drive them out of the market and thus
check domestic production and narrow the de-
mand for domestic labor. If no such results are
likely 10 follow protective duties are just as
much out of place on Wyomings few products
as on New Engiand's many
The Senators who make the plea that hides
must be protected simply because they are an
important by-product in certain communities
cannot afford to challenge the almost uhahl-
nous opinion of the country that protecton
should be applied not TO placate local interests
in various sections but according 10 some hXed
economic principle \ deadlock on that issue
can have but one ending. Rational tariff revis-
ion NAV be delayed for a time. but when II is
next attempted the voters will see to it that
the theory of barter between sections and the
parcelling out of protection among special in
tprests is definitely discarded. Every industry
asking protection will have to make out A case
for itself proving a diferential in cost or pro
duction and not depend on the argument that II
Massachusetts gets one set Of duties Texas must
have another and Wyoming another
There will be no more bills framed in the
Senate like the Adrich bill. 1t is the last Of its
kind. The "stand-patters" in the upper house
would be extremely unwise To risk what they
have obtained in the pending revision by re-
jecting a conference report and inviting another
experiment in tariff making next year or the
year after. With the President the House OF
Representatives and the country arrayed
against Them they would be driven TO the de
fensive and would a revision undertaken
over their heads involving reductions in the
wool and cotton schedules, left practically in
tact in the House bill of 1909. The range
Senators and the few other high tariff extre-
mists in the Senate will show intelligent self
interest if they cheerfully cooperate in getting
the conference report through.