The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-07-21
a Republican View of
The Tariff infection.

While We cannot read in the tarih
plank of the republican platform a
promise for a downward revision of
the schedules, yet we credit the in
surgents OF that party with sincerity
in declaring that the plank was in
tended to be interpreted in that way.
To the ordinary student of politics
the impression given by the wording
Of the plank was that while adhering
in belief to standpat doctrines the
true blues of the Chicago convention,
Roosevelt's packed house. were quite
willing to deceive the innocent, offer
ing them an opportunity to be hum
bugged-which they, of course, as is
usual with the class, took immediate
advantage of.
1t is, indeed, difficult to understand
how a politician of the experience,
the inside information and the mental
acumen CT Senator La Toilette, of
Wisconsin. could have been taken in
by his party's platform; but, if one is
to Judge from his recent attitude in
congress he certainly was deceived.
And now in the magazine published
by the senator may be read an attack
on the republican majority in Wash
ington more bitter and more men
acing than anything we have noted in
the democratic press.
The Journal is pleased to be re-
lieved from giving its own views by
publishing these of La Toilette which
hit true to the mark. 1t is pleased,
because anything it might say, as a
democratic newspaper, concerning the
Ubiquitous abomination being i'm
posed upon long suffering peo-
pie by the Payne Aldrich-Taft COM
bination, would fail to produce the
same effect as the expressions of one
who ranks high in the councils of the
republican party:
The Aldrich tariff bill has passed
the senate in all substantial particu-
lars just as the senator from Rhode
Island dictated it. In substantially
the same form it will become a law.
1t will stand as the browning infamy
of its sponsor and it will hang as the
odd mar of the sea" upon the neck
of the political party responsible for
its enactment.
All efforts to harmonic it's sched-
ules with any recognized principle of
tariff legislation are hopeless, for it
is not based upon principle but upon
greed and graft and pull" Its pass
age in the senate was promoted by
cheap triekery, jobbery, ohicane and
manipulation.
There is hardly a powerful special
interest or great trust combination in
the country that is not made it's spe-
eial beneficiary. 1t protects the
smelter trust by a differential duty
on pig lead over and above the duty
on lead in ore which exceeds the cost
of smelling. 1t perpetuates excessive
duties for the benefit of few cutlery
manufacturers in New York and New
England.
1t maintains exaggerated duties on
sewing machines, typeWriters, ma
chine tools, and similar mechanical
appliances of which the American
manufacturer dominates the markets
of the entire world and which he sells
abroad for fraction of the price at
which he sells to the consumer in this
countrS,
It perpetuates the Dutch Stand
ard" graft of the criminal sugar trust,
which secures to the trust a practical
monopoly Of refining with the power
to levy toll on all the cane sugar con-
sumed by the American people.
II enacts enormous increases in the
duties on cotton goods and taxes
every household in the land for the
benefit of a clique of cotton manu-
factureFs who are active in big bust
ness" and influential in republican
politics in Rhode Island and some
other New England states.
II protects" the wooden trust by
the imposition of duties Of 100. 120
and up to 100 per eent.-duties which
clothing manufacturers say viii in
crease the cost of clothing oRe-feurth
including a so-caIled Compensatory
duty which is a fraud upon the wool
farmer and the public alike.
1t increases the duties on high
grade electric light carbons-a COM
modify Of universal use-for the
benefit of a self-confessed and abso-
lutte monopoly. It is accessory to the
extortion of the lumber trust by con-
tinuing the duty on rough lumber
with differential duties added for fin
ished lumber that exceed the mill cost
Of finishing
It re-enacts the duties of the Ding
ley law applying to IS per cent. of the