Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1910-09-10

celebration Monday and deliver an
address.
Roosevelt made two speeches on
the tariff today; the first, delivered
at Sioux City, Iowa, contained ref
erence to the Taft administration. In
the second, made here late this after
noon, he amplified his views on the
tariff, declaring that although the
Payne-Aldrich bill has given rise to
grave dissatisfaction, the fault lay
with the system under which the tar
iff laws are made, rather than with
the men who make them. In his ad-
dress here, he spoke as follows:
Whenever men just like ourselves
probably not much better, and GER
tainly no worse-continually fail to
give us the results we have a right te
expect from their efforts, we may
just as well make up our minds that
the fault lies, not in their pesonality,
but in the conditions under which
they work, and profit comes, not
from denouncing them, but in seeing
that the conditions are changed.
This is especially true Of tariff-mak-
ing. 1t has been conclusively shown
by experiments repeated again and
again, that the methods of tariff
making by Congress, which have
now obtained for so many years,
cannot, from the very nature of the
case, bring really satisfactory re-
suits.
with the present tariff made by
the same methods as it's predecessor,
there is grave dissatisfaction. The
people know that there are some
things in it which are not right, and
therefore they tend to suspect that
the (as l think more numerous)
things in it which are right. They
know that the system on which it
is made, the same system on which
its predecessors were made, encour-
ages scramble of selfish interests
to which the all important general
interest of the public is necessarily
more or less subordinate There
was time when this scramble was
regarded as the natural course in
tariff making and was not resented.
Now the people demand, and rightly,
that the profit Of the special inter-
ests shall be subordinate to the gen.
eral welfare in every case. 1t is this
attitude of the people, which must
be met in dealing with the present
tariff and with the proposals to
amend the present tariff. Very lit
tie improvement, indeed, will follow
any attempt to revise the tariff by
the methods heretofore used. The
thing to do is to change methods.
81 believe this country is fully
committed to the principle of pro-
lection; but it is to protection as a
principle; to protection primarily in
the interest of the standard living
of the American Workingman. / be-
lieve that when protection becomes,
not a principle, but privilege and
preference-or, rather, a tumble
of privileges and preferences-then
the American people disapprove of
it. Now, to correct the trouble, 1t
is necessary, in the first place, to get
in mind clearly what we want, and,
in the next place, to get in mind
clearly the method by which we hope
to obtain what we want. What we
want is a square deal in the tariff
as in everything else; a square deal
for the wage-earner; a square deal
for the employer; and square deal
for the general public. To obtain
it we must have a thoroughly efflci-
ent and well-equipped tariff COM
mission.
"The tariff ought to be a mater
ial issue and not a moral issue;
but if instad of a square deal we
get a crooked deal, then it becomes
very empathatically a moral issue.
What we desire in tariff Is such a
measure of protection here and
abroad; and as the cost of pro-
duction is mainly labor cost, this
means primarily a tariff sufficient
to make up for the difference in Ia
Dor cost here and abroad. The
American laboring man put on an
equality with other citizens, so that
| he shall have the ability to achieve
the American standard Of living and
the capacity to enjoy It; and to do
this we must see that his wages are
not lowered by improper competi'
ton with inferior wage-workers
abroad-with wage-workers who are
paid poorly and who live as nc
Americans are willing to live. But
the American public does not wish
to see the tariff so arraged as to
benefit primarily few wealthy men
"As a means towards the attain
ment of its end in view we have al
yet devised nothing in any way a!
effective as a tariff commission
| There should be a commission o.
well-paid experts; men who should
not represent any industry; wht
should be masters of their subjects
Of the very highest character; ant
who should approach the matter
with absolute disregard Of every out
side consideration. These mel
should take up in succession eacl
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