Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-10-08
Five Campaigns.

1
Speaker Cannon declares that he
"has been through five tariff re-
visions, and has seen the demoraliza-
ton that ensued from them" This
is not saying much for the republi-
can tariff revisions of 1888 and
1890, and especially of the Dingley
tariff of 1897, to which he has so
frequently attributed a greater de-
gree of prosperity than is due to the
sunshine and the rain, to the in
dustry of American farmers, to the
skill of American mechanics, and to
| the enterprise of American manu-
facturers and merchants The most
recent of these revisions that was
undertaken by the democratic party
was the tariff of 1894, against which
an insensate howl of calamity was
raised by the protectionists before
| it was introduced in congress and
kept up until the bill became a law
when business prosperity was at
once resumed. All the tariffs en-
acted in this country put together,
adds the Philadelphia Record, never
caused as much decentralization as
was produced by the panic-mongers
/ in their Misrepresentation of this
exceedingly moderate measure. By
their partisan clamors they filed
manufacturers with needless alarms,
arrested the wheels of industry and
threw many thousands of working
men out of employment. When the
results of this cold blooded cam
paign were thus realized they
Nr-I, \
their own acts upon the tariff which
| extended the free list of industrial
materials and made a reasonable
reduction of protective duties.
The veteran speaker, again draw
ing upon a treacherous memory, as
serts that under the Payne law
the free list is larger than it ever
was from the foundation of the gov
eminent" While works of art 20
years old or over, and a few ar
ticles of which there is little or no
importation, were added to the free
list, no important object of com
merce in which the favorite trust
have an interest (save hides) was
made free Of duty. The transfer of
wool and lumber alone to the free
list by the tariff of 1894 was worth
more than the whole free list now
| under the Payne-AIdrich act. When
wool was made free an enormous
importation of the finest heeces en-.
sued and the mills of this country
turned out an abundance of cloth
rivaling the best products of the
looms of Europe. When, in 1897. the
existing schedule of wool and wool
ems was substituted for the SEIZED
ule Of 1894 the reign of shoddy was
resumed, with its enormous adul.
terations of the clothing Of the
: American people, to the serious IN
jury of the health of the poor and
with a vast increase of the SNUG
Cling trade.
Speaker Cannon's memory betrays
e him once more when he declares
that 1.-The average ad valorem rate
on importations is less than under
: any tariff law for the last &C
= years" He forgets the democratic
republican tariff of 1857, which
: reduced the duties on imports to ar
average of 10 per cent. as we'll as
: the Morrill, tariff of 1860, which die
, not propose to go beyond the rates
, of the democratic act of 1916. Now
the average rate on dutiable i'm
ports is over 40 per cent. But what
deception turks under this talk Of
averages" under a tariff which i'm
poses nearly 100 per cent on wool
en- clothing, fannels and blankets
upward of 60 per cent on silk fab
RIGS; 43 per cent on cotton goods; {
clandestine prohibitory duty of Al
percent on building materials OF
steel; so per cent on earthenware
and still higher rates on many i'm
portations of glass and glassware
and upwards of As per cent on re
fined sugar.
These are among the enormitie:
) of tariff robbery that have melted
a mighty popular revolution which
is not to be queIled by generalizinE
about averages. The people too vel
understand what is meant by the
exorbitant duties on these import:
in grievously enhancing the cost o.
} all the domestic commodities of the
same kind to swell the profits of the
, trusts. Nor is the revolution to bt
diverted from it's. high purpose b!
7 such additions to the free list a:
cotton seed when the producers have
5 no interest in the duties, or by sucI
deductions as that on linseed oil
: from 20 to Is cents a gallon while
r retaining the protection.
Speaker Cannon tells the whole
story of the Payne-Aldrich tariff de
t ception and fraud when he says we