The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-06-17
NEWSPAPERS AND THE TARIFF

NEW SEAEEltAS AND THE IAf6lEF.
Attention has already been called
in these columns to the fact that. for
the most part, all of the important
newspapers of the country including
those of the most Republican partisan
stripe, fail to see anything of good in
the Aldrich tariff bill. They are de-
nanding with all their power that the
leaders in congress be true to their
pledges to the people and revise the
tariff downward. This most import
ant matter is e1ucidated with more
detail than it has been before by a re-
cent dispatch to the Kansas City Star
from one of its correspondents in
Washington. as follows:
sit isn't within the memory of the
oldest correspondent when a party
measure has been so widely con-
demned by partisan and Independent
newspapers as the Aldrich tariff bill.
Memory is uncertain as to the Will
son bill, which President Cleveland
was obliged to denounce. But many
of. the oldest inhabitants insist that
the Wilson bill, with its heavy reduc-
tions on most schedules, except cot
ton and steel. wasn't SO bad after all.
''In any event there can be do doubt
of the nearly universal criticism of
the Aldrich measure by Republican
and independent newspapers that
supported the Republican ticket in
the last campaign. The Pittsburg
newspapers are generally favorable
for obvious reasons. But in other
cities the verdict is adverse.
'1n New York the Tribune is max
he
Times, World and Evening Post, all
of which are friendly to the present
administration. The Herald is the
only New York newspaper of import
ance that upholds the finance COM
mittee. The Boston Herald and the
Boston Transcript are very dis
satisfied. The Philadelphia North
American is bitter in it's denunciation
of the breaking of campaign pledges
''In Chicago the hostility is almost
universal. The Tribune. Record Her
aid and Evening Post are all alarmed,
while the Inter Ocean, a standpat
newspaper, has said that while the
campaign promises were foolish, once
made they ought to be carried out.
The Indianapolis News would be ex-
pected to be critical but it is Joined
by the Indianapolis Star. which has
been a good Republican.
an st. Louis the Globe-Democrat
expresses it's dissatisfaction, while the
St. Paul Dispatch and the Minneapolis
Tribune are off the reservation. On
the coast the chief Republican news
paper of the northwest, the Portland
Oregonian, has been pounding the
hill while the Spokane Statesman
Review, has been highly dissatisfied.
ut is only occasionally that a
standpat organization newspaper is
found, like the Philadelphia Inquirer,
for example, that is satisfied with the
work of the senate
Surely this almost universal dis
approval by the press of the country
of the Aldrich tariff scheme
ought to be needed 1t is fair to as
sumo that it represents the senti-
ments of the clientele of these great
public organs, who in the aggregate
are the people of the nation. the con-
sumers. who are most directly con-
cerned in an honest revision of
the tariff downward. Certainly the
newspapers are in closer touch with
the opinions of their public than are
the senatorial powers thatb They only
get near the people once in six years
when they come up for reelection.
But things will be different in this
respect when all of the states follow
the lead of Kansas, Oregon and few
other commemorative, by giving the
people the power to nominate their
candidates for the United States sem