New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-01-01
THE YEAR All HOME.

hlieT HedT3s ufe luUHLuS Oh ldDoF at
Washington the Payne tariff law dis
placed the Dingley tariff law, 4 COM
plete revision of our tariff system is a
political accomplishment of great impor
lance. Changes in tariff rates affect d.
rectly hundreds of thousands of persons
engaged in commerce and industry In
directly they affe"t every consumer.
which means every citizen and every
alien resident within our borders. Every
new tariff law is therefore a milestone
In political and economic history.
The tariff law of 1909 has been bitterly
assailed as not accomplishing enough in
the way Of reducing duties, lowering the
cost of living and abating supposedly
excessive advantages given to the do
nestle manufacturer. A tariff law is
necessarily more or less a compro-
mise and can seldom meet the wishes
even of the legislative majority which
passes it. But whatever the shortcom-
ings Of the act of 1909. it must be con-
coded that 1t marked a significant de-
parture in the policy of the Republican
party and opened the way for more
rational treatment of tariff problems and
for their dissertation from merely parti-
san politics. A Republican administra-
ton and Republican Congress for the
first time undertook revision intended
to moderate protective duties. The Re-
publican national platform Of 1908 hal
laid down the principle-enirely acrepc
able TO the great body of the voters Of
the country-that the protective duty
should equal the differential in cost OF
production here and abroad and allow,
il, addition, a reasonable margin of
profit to the domestic producer. But on
attempting to apply the principle it was
found that no machinery existed for de-
termining with any accuracy the differ
cntial in cost Of production. and Con-
gress, acting in the dark, hesitated 10
make reductions in protective RATES not
clearly shown to be necessary am equi-
table
The situation was unfortunate, yer IL
cannot be said that Congress vas not
justified in erring on the side Of caution
rather than on the side of recklessnesS.
The Payne laws highest merit was the 8
ii tried TO make the recurrence of sucb
Il II lioN
means for ascertaining the differentia
i'm cost of production here and abroad
and for checking the claims for protec
ton made by domestic producers. II
thereby laid the 20 hndation for scien-
tific revision of the schedules in the
near future. MOREOVER, it modernized
our tariff system BY establishing max
imum and minimum schedules. thus al
lowing the President TO return conces-
part Of other nations by enforcing alter
native scales of duties known definitely
in advance. The double schedule thus
obvated the necessity of burdensome
resort to special reciprocity treaties or
10 retaliatory legislation in individual in
stances The Payne law also did tardy
economic justice TO the people of the
Philippine Islands, giving free admission
TO the products of the archipelago to an
extent which will permit natural
growth of trade between the United
States and its Far Eastern dependency.
In many important respects, therefore,
the Payne law marks an advance on the
three other tariff laws of the last two
decades.
4 significant political development Of
the extra session was the breach created
in the Democratic party on the issue Of
taxed or untaxed raw materials. An in
fiuenial element in the party in both
the Senate and the House of Representa-
tives cut loose from the tariff doctrines
of Messrs. Cleveland. Mills and Wilson
and adopted what is practically policy
of moderate protection, disguised under
a demand for equally distributed tax
alton on all imports, whether raw ma
ter!als or manufactured articles. Sen
ator Joseph ". Bailey, Of Texas. led the
secession, and he and William J. Bryan
ar. nov at swords points on the tariff
question. The Southern Democracy.
as Speaker of the House of Representa-
tiyes, seems TO be drifting rapidly
toward a revival of -.andallism.
An incidental result of the extra ses-
sion was the submission by Congress to
the state legislatures of a proposed
amendment to the Constitution enarg-
ing the direct taxing power OF the fed.
eral government. No constitutional
amendment had been submitted since
1869. and there had come to be popular
belief that no more experimentation Of
that sort would be attempted. Only one
state acted on the amendment in 1909
the Legislature of Alabama voting TO
rafify it.
The federal government has vigorously
pushed its attacks in the courts on com.
binations operating in restraint of trade
and has won numerous victories. The
decree Of the United States Circuit Court
for the Southern District of New York
dissolying the Tobacco Trust has been
taken on appeal by the trust to the
United States Supreme Court. and the
Attorney General has asked that court
Ia appoint receiver for the combina-
ton. The federal Circuit Court for the
StE Federal Circuit, IN a unanimous
opinion, has held that the STANDARD oil
Company of New Jersey is operated ip
violation of the provisions of the Sher-
man antitrust law aud must dissolv q
as y holding corporation Sensational
frauds in weighing sugar a. the port of