The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-08-29
publieans Of Missouri have no earth
ly use for it.
/. a EoREeoNE coNcL usloN.

FOHEGONE CCNCLOSION.
There is craze among politicians
at the present time for further down
ward revision of the tariff. This mid
summer madness is not shared by
the substantial business men of the
country aside from the importers OF
4 foreign goods. nor by the great body
| of farmers. The former desire MOTH,
i ing SO mach as that stable conditions
be maintained and business be allow.
4 ed to proceed unhampered by uncer-
tainty as to future prices. They de-
4 plore the present agitation as inimical
! to the business interests of the coun-
cry. The farmers are now receiving
/ the largest returns for their products
| they have ever received, and look with
distrust upon any meddling with the
protective tariff which made their
present prosperity possible. They are
strongly opposed to reductions of duty
Oh Canadian wheat, hay, oats, potatoes
and like farm products and on the adj
mission of Mexican cattle and horses
on terms that would bring them into
competition with their own But
farmers and business men alike are
powerless in the present juncture
against the continued agitation of the
professional politicians. They can only
raise their voice in protest to find 1t
drowned by the clanlor for further re-
vision downward The result of it all
is well stated by Major Rathbun, the
veteran editor of the Marion Register,
in brief paragraph in that sterling
Republican newspaper The paragraph
ia it's entirety, is as follows
when the protective tariff sched-
ules are revised downward until the
fires are banked in the American mill
and factory, until their doors are
closed, until their operatives are idle,
until the wage of every wage Garner
who can get employment goes down
with the schedules, until the cultfva-
ton of the farms and all that THERE
products will bring will leave the
farmer in debt. day of reckoning
will come for the downward revision
lists and they will find themselves po
liticallv dead and damned Nothing
is. nothing can be surer."
If revision downward is persisted
IN these things will occur as surely
as night follows day The country
has had experience with downward
revision of the tariff several times In
its history, and with but single ex-
ception, in which other causes inter
Tened, the result has always been the
same. There is no surer or more
speedy way of bringing on a period
OF hard times than by continual agf-
tation of the tariff question and the
reduction of schedules. Major Rath-
bun assumes nothing in the above.
His forecast is not guess. 1t is an
epitome of American experience with
tariff legislation as recorded In his
tory. The ultimate result, as he so
forcibly says, will be the political dam
nation of those who revised the pro-
tectiFe schedules downward This
viii be just punishment, but it will be
only slight return for the havoc
wrought to every legitimate business
interest.
The present generation, many of
whom have no personal knowledge of
the practical effects of downward re-
vision after downward revision of the
tariff. would do well to profit by the
experience of previous generations
and be warned in time. It should
not be necessary for them to see
everything go to smash in order to
profit by the plainest lessons In our
history.