The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1909-08-05
Washington Letter.

have become a matter of completed
history, it will be found that never
before has such task presented itsel
to political party for adjustment. anc
it will be shown that only party hav-
ing in view the best interests of the
whole country without regard to sec
ton or class could have finally agreed
upon any bill whatever. It would
have been impossible for the Demo
cratic party to have agreed, or for the
Populists or the Socialists party,
excepting body made up of men
who could sacrifice personal interests
and sectional interests for the best
good of the whole country. It is a
most thorough vindication of Republi-
canism as embodied in the example of
our President and party leader and of
our Senators and Representatives in
Congress. It has shown US as we
could not have known it in any other
way, the personal character of Mr..
Taft and his methods of carving out
what he believed to be wise and hon
est results. There was no big stick
flourished; thery were no threats used;
| there was no coercion-simply calm
and deliberate persuasion until, for the
most part, he accomplished his pur-
pose.
At all times in our history the mem
bers of all political parties have been
more or less divided over the schedules
and rates of a tariff law. We are
geographically so vast country, and
our interests are so widely diversified
that it would seem almost impossible
to harmonic and agree on rates ap-
plicable to all sections and all inter
ests, and never was this so apparent as
at the present. Naturally as produc-
ton and consumption increases and
methods become more varied, as ma
chlnery becomes more effective, and
as both capital and labor increase in
such enormous volumes, as has been
the case during the last decade, the
various needs and wants of different
sections must be very far apart. It
is almost to be wondered at that any
tariff bill could be agreed upon by
these various interests, and by men
having such divergent views; and it
is to the honor and glory of the Re-
publican party as a whole that it could
give the country a law agreed upon by
its majority and signed by its Presi-
dent.
1t remains, of course, to be seen
whether the operation of the law will
be successful, whether we shall pros
per as we have under proceeding tar
ifs. 1t remains to be seen whether
sufficient revenue will come, both from
the duties on imports and the internal
revenue. It remains to be seen
whether importations will increase to
such an extent as to displace domestic
productions, and it remains to be seen
whether we become a country giving
| full employment to our wage-earners
at the highest wages on the face of the
earth, or whether the wages must be
reduced and the purchasing power of
the people curtailed.
One thing, however, should result
from the operation of the new law,
and that is if not lower prices, GER
tainly no increase. There is not an
item in the bill that will warrant an
increase in price by the manufacturer
or merchant-not one, and if this is
attempted it will be an imposition
that should be resented by the people,
and not charged to the operation OF
the law. This has been Mr.. Taft S
design and this has been the thought
in the minds of those, who have agreed
with him in the reductions carried by
the bill, and should this result obtain
without a decrease in the volume OF
employment, then surely the work OF
the extra session of 1909 will be of
ipestimable value to the country and
rebound to the credit of the Republi-
can party who promised it and carried
ont lie r,ladUes