Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-20


seeks to kill all its competitors, all
that is necessary is to turn loose upon
n the dogs of foreign competition ana
there will be an end to It's tactlCs'
Others exemplify their position by the
parable related recently by loriner
Attorney General Bonaparte. a iarin-
er. according to the parable had io'
of hogs. Some of them Were iar, ond
grown porkers, others were shotes anu
the remainder were pigs. Now the
farmer had them all in one pen, anu
when feeding time came the porkers
got most of the swill, the shotes so'
a little and the pigs next TO none
The farmer couldn't stand Tor the me
crowding out of the pigs so ne cur oil
the swlll entirely. Result: wnoio uI',
non full of hungry, sduealing, measly
razorbacks. To the nina of Mr.. Bona
narte the minute protection is taken
away because the trusts get an uhuuS
share of ii the whole Industrial Worlu
would come to the unhappy END OF tne
norkers. shotes and pigs. Another
prominent political leader declares
that 1t is no more right to stop pro-
lection because of the evils that grow
II brings about than 1t would be 10
blot out representative government
because a few representatives nave De-
trayed their trust. l.,
The net theory of the Democrats IS
that the trusts add the tarin 10 tnelr
prices at home and thereby make un-
told millions out of the American con-
sumer. One of their statstclahs,
BYRON w. Holt, has figured the matter
down to rather a fine point. He esti-
mates that the American people con-
sumo s14, 900 000, 900 worth OF products
q year and that the trusts make d
tariff profit of. 10 per cent thereon OF
total of more than S2'O00,ooVVVo.
Viewing the situation from another
standpoint-that is. taking the difter-
ence between American and European
nrices-he finds the tariff profits $780,
900 900. The student of the Congress-
ional Record is impressed by the fire.
uuency with which such tables as
those prepared by Mr.. Holt are used
in the course.of a single session. III
the house and senate had 10 listen 10
their reading they would have the
pleasure of hearing the same thing
read from a dozen to half a hundred
times.
One of the greatest arguments
against any intimate relation between
the tariff and the trusts in past years
was that petroleum was on the free
list and that yet Standard Oil was the
greatest trust of them all. A year ago
Representative Kustermann of Michl-
gan exploded that argument. He
called the attention of congress to the
fact that while petroleum was appar-
emily on the free list it was in reality
subject to duty ranging from 100 to
200 per cent. He called attention to a
little Joker in the Dngley bill, which
provides that any country which levies
an import duty on American oil shall
pay a like duty when importing oil
into the United States. 1t so happens
that Russia is the one other great oil
producing country on the globe, and
that she levies a very high duty
against American oil. Consequently,
when Russia seeks to enter her oil into
American ports the rate is fixed by
her standard-which is practically a
prohibitive rate.
When Representative Lustermann
was telling the house about this, the
Democrats thought they had a Won
derful Indictment against the trainers
of the Dingley bill. But their applause
and Joy was shortlived, for Mr.. Lus-
termann promptly informed them that
the very same clause was in the Will
SON Gorman law, and was placed there
by Democrats. Mr.. Lustermann, who
is a strong protectionst, estimated that
this little "countervailing duty" joker
costs the American people $4,000
day.
The paper trust has been getting the
benefit of a tariff of about Sc ton on
print paper. In speaking of this in
the house when the duty on wood pulp
was under discussion. Representatlve