Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1909-08-27
The New Tariff Law and
the Presidents Statement

evil was fixed the moment it received
the executive signature and become
a law. The American people will
estimate it mainly by its influence up
on the cost of living. 1t was not re-
quired as stimulus to increase
manufacturing. 1t was not enacted
primarily to secure the Philippine
concessions, the corporation tax, or
the customs court. These were mere
incidents to the main legislative pur-
pose. The great object of the extra
ordinary session which has just closed
was revision of the tariff downward
upon the necesSaries of life, sufficiently
to reduce the cost Of living. The
legislation will be judged by it's effect
upon the bills which the American
consumer pays month by month.
BY enacting a tariff law that in no
wise meets the demand of the country
for downward revision, Congress has
only postponed a little longer the
| time when the people will
secure what they had right
to expect OF the session just
ended. The struggle for an honest
tariff has only begun. There will be
no stopping or falteriug until Gus
| toms law is written on the nation s
! statute books that rests on the Scienti-
| tic basis Of the difference between the
cost of production here and abroad.
There will be no abandonment of
the protective principle. Time and
experience have fixed that tenet
| indelibly into the nations political
thought. But the events of the last
few months have made very clear the
difference between a tariff for protec-
tion, and a tariff for monopoly. 1t is
| the iniquity of the latter that must
be assailed.
, President Taft approved the new
| law. He has told the country why he
did so. But even if the Presidents
| statement does come as a disappoint-
ment to those who had hoped for
more vigorous stand on his part
against the very general increases of
the Dingley rates that Aldrich was
able to embody in the new law, still
there is hopeful significance in the
Presidents intimation shat tariff re-
vision is not closed book as far as
his administration is concerned.
Those who fought for general revi-
sion downward from the excessive
Dinghy rates, in accordance with
party pledges, will be of good cheer
and bide the time when the leaders in
Congress can no longer ignore the
demands of an aroused public.
The lesson has been a costly one to
the people; but it has been well-learn-
ed. Day by day, ever since the be-
ginning of the special session, they
have followed the course of the
Payne-Aldrich bill. They have watch
ed the arbitrary methods of the leaders
the secret conferences, the active par
ticipatiOn of the tariff-fattened in
terests in the framing of the bill, the
political trickery and Juggling, the
clever insertion of mum berless "jok-
ers,' the trading and jubbling, of
one schedule for another, the specious
declarations that the party had not
promised downward revision, the con-
temptuous Indifference of Aldrich and
his associates to any facts that had
bearing on the cost of production
of commodity both in this country
and in foreign countries-except
those brought forward by tariff bene-
ficiaries. They have observed these
things well-and understand their
meaning.
The tariff-favored trusts won out
this time, as statistics prepared by
government experts have demonstrate
ed, but their victory will unquestion-
ably be short-lived. The recent
object-lesson in tariff making has
revealed more clearly than anything
else could have done, the pernicious |
character of the excessively high |
tariff that now prevails. Sooner or
later the people who must buy cloth |
ing and food, and the thousands and |
one other necessaries of life, will |
profit by there newly-acquireG know
ledge and send representatives to |
Washington who will revise the tariff |
down ward. La Follette's Magazine |