The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1909-09-09
STONE RAPS
TARIFF HARD.
Senator Says New Law is Only
of Benefit to Plundering
MonOpOlies.

New England made a large haul"
when the new tariff was adopted, ac-
cording to United States Senator Viii
liam j. Stone, to Republic reporter.
''They did not sweep the platter
Clean" said the Senator, ''but their
Representatives went home with
much legislative booty of inestimable
value"
Interrogations regarding the ex-
pected results Of the new tariff arous-
ed the Senator to denounce the docu-
ment and to declare that the ''Repub-
lican party is owned body, boots and
breeches by the money power"
He criticised President Taft and the
Republican Congress for violating the
pledge for downward revision made
by the Republican National Conven-
ton, and said 'if the Democrats Of
the country will get together now, in
ject little iron in the blood and put
on their fighting harness., a golden
opportunity awaits them to win in
coming campaigns,
The Aldrich-Payne tariff, Senator
Stone charges, is about one and three
fourths per cent higher than the gen.
eral average of the Dingley tariff.
Monopolies, he declares, will prosper,
and the consumer will be plundered
without hope of retrieving under
present conditions. He said:
From the standpoint of a radical
protectionist the new law should al
ford the greatest satisfaction, but
from every other standpoint it is bad.
Last year the Republican National
Convention pledged that party to a
downward revision of the tariff; or,
in other wards, to a reduction Of the
confessedly exorbitant rates of the
Dingley law then in force. The coun-
try at large had become acutely con-
scious that the rates prescribed by
the Dingley law were excessive ant
that they furnished the opportunity
far and fostered industrial monopo
lies.
The cost of living has risen rapid,
and enormously in this country il
recent years, far beyond that obtain
ing in any other country, and the PEG
pie generally came to believe, an(
correctly to believe, that they wer,
the victims of monopolistic control O.
the major part of our more important
industries.
Tariff Makes Monopolies.
The belief was widespread that this
monopolistic control was due to the
exorbitant protective tariff rates EN-.
bodied in the Dingley law. Hence,
the demand for lower rates, such as
would open the way for sharper
trade competition, and thus compel 9
fairer and squarer deal. The Re-
publicans declared in their platform
that the difference in the cost OF pro-
duction in this country and in other
countries should be made the basis Of
the tariff law. Confessedly, the only
difference worth mentioning in the
cost of production here and abroad
was in the cost of labor.
| If the capital invested, raw material
and the cost of maintenance and
Operation are substantially the same,
as they are, in the United States apd
in the leading industrial nations Vi
Europe, then the only difference in
the cost of production must be in la
Dor wage. The Republican party
was pledged to make that difference
in labor wage The basis of their pro-
posed tariff Legislation. They have
not kept the faith; they have not re-
deemed their pledge.
On the contrary, while there has
been reduction on many of the 4, COX
and odd articles covered by the law
the rate Of duty on the great bulk o.
articles which enter into common ano
everyday consumption have been in
creased, and the general average o.
the new law is about 1 "a per cent
higher than the general average o.
the Dingley law, which it supplants.
Reason to Be Dissatisfied.
/ If the people were dissatisfied witt
Al M. <11.v Ic.,x A.. Lnx,~ q, e,,.<oIx