The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-09-03
CYNICISM AND
 THE TARIFF
DOES A HIGH TARIFF POLICY COST
 IN MORAL DETERIORATION?
DANGERS OF DOUBT
Has the Spread and Increase of For tunes Made Us Skeptics of the Higher Things in PoIitics?-The Greatest Product of Politics


 Greatest Product of Politics.
 Editorial in the September Century.
 Eminent and honorable men have differed irreconcilably as to the eco- homie phases of a high tariff. Some have held that it is the basis of the CTS find that basis in our extraordin- ary natural resources and in certain aptitudes of the American character. So we have regarded it as an essen- tial to the establishment and growth of manufactures and secondarily to the existence of extensive national trade, while others have regarded a protective tariff as itself "a conspi- racy in restraint of trade.' Some point to the great achievements of capital under the operation of the tariff and say, See what we have become;" oth- CTS cite the accomplishments of the capital which is not beneficiary of the tariff, and say, See what we, might have been." These are differences of opinion measurable in dollars and cents, and if all the data were pro- in the mass, the policy of protection were financially advantageous to the country. Until such a balance can be struck, the desirability of such a policy is likely to be judged in general by the benefit it affords to the class or individual concern.
 But there are other ways of gaug- ing the value of a public policy, and one of the most important is it's effect upon the character of the people. Granted, for the. sake of argument, that the high tariff policy has been of enormous use in building up the country nateriarlly, has this been done at a countervailing expense of moral deterioration?
 4 The question we wish to raise is one which may fairly be addressed primarily to all patriotic and we'll meaning citizens who may be direct beneficiaries of the tariff. It would be idle to deny that, as regards the equality of men before law-making bodies, there is throughout the coun- try an arrant skepticism. Ask any ten men.young in idealism or old in experience-What is the strongest in huence to obtain indulgence, whether by favoritism or evasion, and nine will answer Pull We are not say ing that these are right. Honest leg ssssllaztors ssslatzors can tell of many instances in which forbidden and abhorrent forces have failed to overcome caus- es thrice armed in justice. But the cynicism is there, and it has grown with the last half century to an alarm ing extent. Even men who are devot- ing themselves day and night to the betterrnent of their time, though they exhibit not the 'falt ering' that is 'tsin,'' cannot rid themselves of the doubt which the poet calls "disloy- alty'' Many are the braver for their fighting, but the less efficient for their doubt. As for ''the man in the street, justice on it's merits has become With him a missing and a byword.
 From what chief spurce has come this pervasive dfstrust of the square in, fI.o iI1O a s. tration of 1aW-most pervasiVe in re- gard to State legislatures and muni- cipalities which has caused the fin- ger of scorn to be pointed at us? Does any candid advocate of a high tariff fail to see that it is due in large part to the object lesson which that sys- tenn presents Of inequality before the law, special privilege? This may or may not be in return for political SUD- port The time has long gone by when legislation in Congress can be infiu- enced directly by money. Every scan dal makes a new moral record, and the Credit Mobilier exposure had it's use in quickening the sensitiveness Of legislators. There is no difference be- tween the personal honesty of a pro tectionist and that of any other rep resentative, and some of the highest types in' both Houses are men who are convinced that skies would fall with the abandonment of this time-honored BuL 4UIle tilO1O, and inequality is a denial of Democ- racy and lie to our professions. It has brought us dangerously near to political hypocrisy in pretending to be something we are not, and this by consequence has made us almost a na- tion of cynics.
 Now the question to be taken into account is whether all the class pros perity of great magnitude due to the tariff, followed as it has been by a wake of lesser prosperity to others, is worth what it has cost in helping to take the heart out of the popular faith in Republican institutions. The enor- nous increase of wealth is spoken of as though it were an unn1ixed good. But has not the very spread and in crease of fortunes made US skeptics of the higher things in politics? Shakes peare read one great temptation of life alright when he wrote:
 Great preys make true men thieves.
 Wealth has noble uses, but it has also a hypnotizing power which stills the conscience and makes us oblivious to the facf that the greatest product