Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-08-11
THE PAYNE TARIFF BILL.

senator MCCumD6r aQCly Sdlu Ill
his address before the senate on the
adoption of the conference report
on the Payne tariff bill, that much
misinformation had gone abroad
with regard to the provisions of the
bill. 1t is safe to say that great
many of the critics of the bill among
the newspaper editors Of this state
have not studied or made themselves
familiar with the provisions of the
bill at all, but have taken their cues
from larger newspapers and have
permitted their prejudices against
the senators from this state to lead
them into all kinds of mistaken crit
icisms They have taken advantage
of a popular wave of sentiment to
do an injustice to the representa-
tives of this state who voted for the
bill, and are satisfied they have
created a false impression to their
injury, irrespective of the justice of
their criticisms.
The Payne tariff bill is not an
ideal tariff bill. Indeed, there is no
standard in this country for an ideal
tariff that Is practicable, and to
which a majority Of any party could
be rallied
This is a big and broad country,
and has diverse and various inter-
ests. What is beneficial to one Sec
tion Of the country may not be held
beneficial to another. No senator or
representative from a state is likely
to vote squarely against the COM
u,ercial and industrial interests of
his state.
An instance Of the difficulties of
making tariff might be cited in the
grain and agricultural products
which this state raises and in which
it is most interested. It might be
for the benefit of millions of people
if the price of wheat were reduced
and bread made cheaper. It would
certainly be to the interest of the
millions who eat bread but do not
raise it. But, for the sake of keep
ing the price of our agricultural pro-
ducts firm and insuring a fair re-
turn to the farmer for his labor, the
tariffs are retained upon these pro-
ducts 1t is retained on the theory
that II the farmer prospers he will
buy more of the goods of the manu-
facturer, and thus contribute a share
of his prosperity to the wage work
ers. And so the tariff is adjusted
through it's various schedules, where
the protective principles enters. AS
President Taft has said, the republi-
can party did not promise a free
trade tariff. 1t promised a revision
of the tariff downward. A study of
the schedules, and especially with
reference to those articles that enter
into the building and development
OF new state, will show that the
promises of the party have bee1
kept.
The revision of a tariff bill IS al
ways the occasion Of a struggle with
in the :arks Of the party dominant
in congress. It was true at the :ime
of the passage Of democratic
tariff bill, and it is likely that it al
ways will b. tue of tar legislation.
Some Of the so-called rep II lean SEN
ators have fought the tariff legisla-
ton proposed from the beginning.
They stocd cut against anything that
was proposed, they could hear of no
compromises, and they dna.:y voted
against the ELL.
To have defeated tariff legislation
at this session would have been to
leave the Dinghy law in effect and
to nnllify the reductions that the
!, Payne bill has made. 1t would have
meant also the defeat Of the repub-
Hcan party in many doubtful states,
and the likelihood Of q democratic
congress to give us such a tariff as
r we had when the democrats were in
power before. The stagnation Of in
dustry, the reduction Of prices, the
condition Of the industrial world at.
4 that time Is well remembered. We
take It the farmers Of this state do