Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1909-04-23
TARIFF BILL SHAM.

At the National Democratic Club Jefferson
day dinner on Wednesday Of last week.
Asserting that the reductions in the
the ~ and for relief, Governor Harmon
declare that real relief never would be
Cbt A except under a legislature and
execut following Jeffersonian rules and
ueato- taxation as a means Of public
ieyeno and not of private gain.
So, ial privilege can take no form how
ever ecious. and assume no garb, not
vta it. flag Of the Union" said Governor
liauno which can hide it Or win favor
from political descendants of Thomas
Jefier n. Nor can tolerance of it by them
te Won by any real or promised advantage.
pablo r personal. 1t would cost too dear
n the nd, as witness the tariff taxes and
fheir God of trusts and monopolies which
have aggravated the natural inequalities
in the distribution of wealth and spread
harm and discomfort among the people.
The steady tendency since the Civil War
had been to exalt the Federal government
at the expense Of the State, said the speak
er, one result being the neglect of economy
and the embarkation of the government
into extravaeant enterprises. He instances
the action of the last Congress in appro-
priating two billions of dollars, and the
raising OF salaries of officials in the face of
a growing shortage of revenues. and con-
tinued:
Now, instead of seeking methods of
retrenchment to meet present confessed
deficit Of more than hundred millions,
the President and Congress are devising
additional taxes to exact from the dimin-
ished means Of the people and proposing
to issue bonds besides State officials who
would propose such course would not
dare to 60 home TO their constituents and
would be forever disgraced if they should
take it.
After twelve years Of false pretenses.
at last confessed, have bred and fattened
countless monopolies and trusts. 1t is
proposed not to shake off their grip but
just to loosen it a trifie here and there so
the people may not be utterly devoured.
But. sincere, though this tardy and ten
der purpose doubtless was on the part Of
some. the signs of the practical denial or
pretended fulfllment of even this slender
relief multiply daily. Old devices are be-
ing employed and new ones invented to
maintain the favor-taxes undiminished.
with or without false show of reduction
lower rates to be applied with higher modes
of valuation; cunning phrases whose eff
feet is now known only to their authors or
to a few experts; duties ostensibly to re-
taliate on other countries, but really meant
to secure monopolies of our home market,
as in the case of the innocent looking
clause in the present law which has made
the Standard Oil trust improbable to COM
petition.
THE wage-earners, for whom there is
the usual show of deep interest are not
present or represented in the pulling and
hauling which is going on, so as to secure
the advantages professed to be for them.
The increase caused by the tariff in prices
charged the people of this country will
mostly 60. as it has always gone. to make
unnatural profit for the employer whose
solicitude for the workman does not even
take the form of fair division of the spoils
And the burdens are being laid, as always,
chiefly on the waee-earners themselves
and other citizens of small means.
Nobody who can reason effect from
cause, or the future from the past, expects
any real relief to the people who consume
and. therefore. have to pay, no matter
what the present Congress may do or pre-
tend to do. Some luckless interests whose
pull has grown weaker or been overcome
by counter-pull. like the wood pulp paper
trust. may with great ceremony be anoint-
ed with the oil of sacrifice for the salvation
of the other. but the reductions. when real
will be mockery of the cry for relief and
leeches. mamma, diamonds false hair, and
other necessities of life will not be over
crowded by newcomers on the free list
while the open increases in charges bid
fair TO equal if not to exceed the reductions.
THE only real gain will be in the forced
and belated confession that the people
ought to have relief. But real relief never
will be secured save by President and a
Congress who enforce Jeffersonian rules and
deal with taxation as primarily means
of public revenue. and not of private gain.
ut is hardly fair for Republicans at
least. to charge with inconsistency Demo-
cratic Congressman who take hand in
this selfish scramble. In the last campaign
the Republican candidate for President
openly offered share of the tariff spoil
for Democratic votes When special favors
are the order of the day it is natural for a
representative to think he ought to secure
share for interests at home. Todo other
wise requires high courage. and we are
proud of the many who show it in face Of
the decentralization which leeislating for
private, instead of public, interest always
produces.
but seeking share of special favors
when they are going is quite consistent
with the belief that there ought to be no
favors to anybody. and with willingness
to vote accordingly if opportunity should
be given. But no such vote is now posi-
BILE. No proposal to abolish all special ia
vors and legislate for the general good
alone could be brought before this or any
other Republican Congress, and would
serve no purpose if it could. except to give
occasion to express the Democratic view.
which everybody knows already"
Gov. Harmon attacked the policy of spend
ing hundreds of millions of dollars for a
canal at Panama on the part of what, he
said. was country practically without
ships. taxed against the possibility of buy
ing any. and with the only proposed means
of encouraging shipping the payment of
l,.ooe .,,l,eslsa. f1x,n.ol e., 49,.