The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1909-03-31
PRAISES PAYNE BILL
Crumpacker Of Indiana Is
Its Warm Defender.
IS BETTER TAAN DlNGLEY ACT
Congressman Says Protective Tariff
Must Stimulate Domestic Indus
tries and Protect American Labor
Predicts Big Revival.

Must Stimulate Domestic jnouS-
tries and Protect American Labor
Predicts Big Revival
Washington, Mar. 26.-Declaring
that the chief commendatory feature
of the Payne tariff bill is the placing
of certain crude, raw materials used
in manufacture on the free list, Rep
resentative Crumpacker Of Indiana,
the most pronounced downward re-
visionist among the Republican men,
bers of the ways and means commit
tee, in speech in the house yester-
day discussed at great length the pro-
lection idea, and some OF the most
important schedules in the new bill.
He said that tariff bills are peculi-
arly the result Of compromise, and
said that he had no doubt that the
Payne bill is great improvement
over the Dingley act.
Real Object of Protection.
"The object of protection" said Mr..
Crumpacker, lis to stimulate domes-
tic Industries along natural lines,
where the resources of the country
are capable of supplying the entire
domestic demand, thereby creating
home competition and securing to the
people the comforts and accessories
of life at stable and reasonable prices.
Customs duties that are not levied in
harmony with this principle are not
logical protective duties. It is not
the policy of protection to simply sur
round special interests with condi-
lions under which they may make in
creased profits. Neither should it be
the object of protection to simply in
crease the price Of commodities
Mr.. Crumpacker said that the tariff
plank of the national Republican plat
form of 1906, which declared that the
duties ought to be sufficient only to
ton in the United States and in for
eign countries, securing a reasonable
profit to the producer, is an ideal prin-
ciple He stated, however, that the
difficulty is in making a practical ap-
plication of that principle, because
of the constant fluctuations in the
cost of production in America and
abroad.
Talks About Trusts.
protective duties should not be I'M
necessarily high" continued Mr..
Crumpacker. ut is often charged that
a protective tariff creates trusts.
Trusts are combinations growing out
of the passion of avarice, and they are
created to stife competition and in
G%o
not trusts. Trusts exist in free trade
countries as we'll as in countries that
maintain protective tariffs. The chief
difference is that in free trade coun-
try there is no tariff behind which a
combination can find shelter in in
creasing prices unjustly and imposing
upon the people, while in a protection
country, if the tariff is higher than is
necessary to cover the difference in
the cost of production, combination
may degenerate into trusts and raise
prices clear to the top of the protec-
ton wall with entire safety"
Must Protect Labor.
Mr.. Crumpacker said that the vital
purpose of protective tariff is to
increase opportunities for the employ
ment of capital and labor in the de.
velopment of the natural resources. If
there were no projections to Ameri-
can labor, he said, the level of wages
in this country would gravitate to the
level of wages in foreign countries,
and he declared that the present tariff
policy tends to keep up a high stand
ard of wages and living.
Notwithstanding the high scale Of
wages in this country, he said, the
| United States can successfully COM
| pete with the entire civilized world in
many lines of production, because it
has the greatest market of any coun-
try, and because it's 90,0O0,O00 people
have consuming capacity equal to
that of almost half the entire popula-
ton Of the globe. It's natural re-
sources, he said, are not excelled by
any country and conditions are such
here, he continued, that the capacity
and efficiency of labor can be in.
creased in a greater degree by ma
chinery.
Praise for Payne Bill.
AItdCklnS lHe ldTlH 1Of revenue
only" policy of the Democratic party,
Mr.. Crumpacker declared that this
was sham and fraud. He discussed
the maximum and minimum pro-
visions of the Payne bill and declared
1t to be wise provision.
II predict for this BILL" said Mr..
Crumpacker, IF it shall be enacted
into law, the sincere approval of all
the people of the country who are in
terested only in promoting the general
welfare. Following it's enactment,
confidently look for such revival of
industrial activity as will foreshadow
another era of prosperity more splen-
did, If possible, than that which fol-
lowed the enactment of the Dingley
law in 1897"