Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-01-14
Mistsllanrous 8eadins.
PARKER ON THE TARIFF.
Former Presidential Candidate Dis.
cusses Subject Interestingly.

taken from them through tarin stat
utes to fill the Golfers Of the pro-
tected interests. Yet great as that
loss is, it in no wise compares with
the damage resulting to them in the
decay Of political morals, due to the
successful efforts to utilize the gov
ernment for political purposes. The
steady lowering of political ideals,
which has occurred, will diminish or
cease when, and only when, business
and politics are rended. To that end
the gradual reduction Of the tariff
to a revenue basis should be en-
tered upon and persisted in. Doubt.
less, to prevent such result, a panic
will be threatened by the protected
interests, and may be precipitated,
but their elimination from govern
mental control will be Of infinitely
greater value to the people than the
cost Of one or even many panics.
That panic is easily within their
combined power no one doubts. That
the power will not be exercised ex-
cept as last resort common sense
teaches. But that their mastery will
be surrendered before exhausting this
last resource only the blindly credu-
lous can believe. Their leaders in
clude many Of the most masterful
men Of the generation. And they
have always at their command vast
power-in situations shrewd1y Gre
ated to meet emergencies, in service
able men without number, in money
almost without limit
The Protected interests.
The combined power of the pro-
tected interests in this country as
they exist today cannot be measured,
hardly even imagined, by the wisest
men. What one of their units can
do toward helping itself to property
that 1t wishes was described before
a committee Of the United States SEN
ate having under consideration the
absorption Of the Tennessee Coal and
Iron company by the United States
Steel corporation. One can but mar
vel at the ability which conceived and
the audacity which created the situ-
alton from which the latter emerged
with It's greatest competitor in It's
arms, ready to receive the generous
and abundant thanks Of a grateful
people for having stopped the panic
by this Seizure with the executive
sanction"
The last national commitment OF
the party in power promised re-
vision Of the tariff. While we must
admit that revision Of the tariff Is
a revision whether up or down, the
president insisted that good faith re-
quired reduction Of duties in many
cases,
In an address which I delivered on
the subject at Princeton University
on March 13 last, two days before
the assembling of congress in extra
ordinary session, had this to say:
"Rumors persist that the ways and
means committee have found a way
to revise the tariff by lowering the
rate of duty and at the same time
increasing the actual amount Of the
duties to be paid, the plan being,
while lowering the rates Of duty, to
appraise the value Of imported goods
not at their market prices abroad,
as now, but at the prevailing prices
in the United States, necessarily
much higher since included therein
is great part Of the protection al
ready afforded by the present abnor-
NAL rates of duty. By that plan a
smaller rate will nevertheless produce
a larger actual amount Of duty.
Upholdins Party Honor.
1T seems to them certain to satisfy
the people who demand a reduction
Of duties to have the appearance of
upholding the honor of the party. In
that it seems to keep its pledge,
while, best Of all, assuring the contin-
ued loyalty and contributions Of the
interests'-the beneficiaries Of special
bounties from government origin
ally organized and still processing to
exist in hostility to special privilege" ;"
The president in his recent mes
sage at the opeing Of the regular ses-
sion of congress had this to say of
the discretion given to him under the
maximum and minimum" clause of
the act passed last summer:
THE discretion granted to the ex-
ecutive by the terms 'unduly dis
criminatory' is wide. In order that
the maximum duty shall be charged
against the imports from a country
1t is necessary that he shall find on
the part Of that country not only
discrimination in it's laws or the prac-
tice under them against the trade of
the United States, but that the dis
ordinations found shall be undue;
that is, without good and fair reason.
I conceive that this power was re-
posed in the president with the hope
that the maximum duties might nev-
er be applied in any case, but that
the power to apply them would en-
able the president and the state de-
partment through friendly negotia-
ton to secure the elimination from
the laws and the practice under them
of any foreign country of that which
is unduly discriminatory. No one Is
seeking a tariff war or condition in
which the spirit of retaliation shall
be aroused"
Demanding Justice.
Let us hope that justice may result,
but be assured that it will not unless
the people make their demand loud.
In the beginning Of the country 1t
was never suggested that tariff for
the purpose Of socalled protection
a tax upon the people for the benefit
Of the producer-could under ordi-
nary conditions be justified either In
the domain of morals or Of econom-
ics Had any statesman Of that day
desired that result he would not have
dared to give expression to his wish.
He knew too we'll the Anglo-Saxon's
deep-seated hostility to unjust taxa