Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1909-07-01
Vermont and .he Tariff.

AS matter OF fact, it is plain enough
to any even half-experienced observer Of
public affairs that no attitude that Yer
mont's senators could take on this tariff
question could by any conceivable inter
probation please everybody in the state.
And when it is considered that the great
tariff question itself is divisible into q be-
wildering confusion OF subsidiary, inter
dependent and collateral questions upon
which there is no human likelihood of
agreement in all time to come, the situa-
tion becomes all the more perplexing.
So fair-minded men generally agree that
there is nothing left for a senator or repre-
sentative in Congress but to do his duty
as be sees it and to reflect by his vote the
prevailing sentiment OF the best intelli-
gence of his constituents whenever he
may be able to determine it. Sometimes,
even then, duty calls him to vote against
what appears to he public opinion at
home; sometimes the man at Washington
has opportunity for broader view of the
question than the men at home, and at all
times he must cast his vote for the wei
fare Of the nation at large and not the
mere expedient of local satisfaction in his
own district alone.
This being said, however, the Messen-
ger believes it is still true that, while the
people of Vermont probably would not
undertake the direction of their sepators
as to specific votes on very many OF the
schedules submitted to their judgment,
believing that to be the province of more
particular and intimate knowledge of
the technical subjects frequently involved
IN the decision), they are firmly persuad-
ed that the general policy of tariff revi-
sion should be downward, they are firmly
convinced that the attitude of Senator AL
drich and his associates is opposed to the
larger interests of the nation and the Re
publican party, and they are hopeful that
their senators will through bout this whole
matter be consistently identified with
every proper effort for the general seal
ing down OF the duties in some instances
and of their utter abolition in others.
The people OF Vermont are protection
lists, where protection is needed, but they
do not believe many OF the ''infant indus
tries'' of two decades or more ago longer
stand in need of the Chinese wall tariff that
has enabled them to fatten themselves so
enormously, and to fatten themselves, as
most men believe, at the expense of the
consumer.
The people OF Vermont are inclined to
be conservative by instinct and by habit,
but they are resolute and venturesome in
emergency. They are beginning more
and more to believe that there can be
such thing as too much conservatism
about this tariff question and the attitude
OF the Republican party toward it. They
are not willing to encourage a plunge
into such a radical departure Of policy as
to be mere recklessness that may leopard
lie the public economy beyond years of
recovery, but they are willing to see such
experiments made in the way Of tariff re-
vision as will give q fair test to the con-
stantly increasing public notion that the
tariff is too high and that the rank and
file Of the people will be more contented
and individually more prosperous under
lower system of duties.
II is fair to say that the people of YER
mont have materially revised their views
on the tariff in the past ten years. II
will not do for any man in public life in
this state to believe that the fine old high
protection campaign oratory of 1888 and
1892 would go down with Vermonters
today as it did then. The people have re-
vised their minds on the tariff; now they
want to see the same kind Of revision ex-
tended to the tariff itself. They want to
see their senators and congressman line
up in general way with the more liberal
elements Of Congress because they firmly
believe with the beloved Mckinley in his
Buffalo speech that fsthe day of exclusive
ness has passed. st. Adams Messenger.