The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-09-29

ard of all power-the executive.
Now comes this assault thus ear.
ly in our national life upon the
most wonderful instrument ever
struck off at given time by the
brain and purpose of man.? How is
it possible to gain followers in such
cause? The answer IS, there is a
great unrest among the people And
why this unrest?-with the national
wealth mounting higher and higher,
with work for everyone, and the
/ people all enjoying a greater meas
ure of comfort than do the people
of any other country? Partly, be-
ing still more rapidly than income
and wages. The salaried men, the
wage Garner, the people with small
incomes, whether from investments,
farming or business, find it yearly
more difficult to make both ends
meet, let alone putting aside lit
tie money to educate the children or
provide for declining years. While
the dream of saving Is passing, the
story of vast increases in the ma
tional wealth and abnormal increase
of individual fortunes is being daily
recited. The majority having been
politically taught that government
is responsible for good times, many
of them have come now to wonder
whether the machinery of govern
ment Is not at present geared to
enrich the few at the expense of
the many.
"As a rule our people are blessed
with too much sense and are far
too manly and generous TO regret
the good fortune of others. SO, too,
are they too right-minded and just
to countenance the employment of
government to accumulate wealth for
few at the cost of all. 1t is the
growing belief, however, that this
happened, that has led many OF
them to swallow the nostrums and
apply the plasters of numberless
political quacks. Through all the
mazes Of deceitful teaching and
ridiculous panaceas, intended by the
party in power to hide the greatest
political wrong of the century, the
people have been cropping towards
the light and the truth.
The great bulk of the larger for
tunes have wrung from the people
through the aid of direct legislation
aided by non-enforcement of law.
That is, through the tariff and the
combinations to prevent competition
and in restraint of trade, created for
the purpose of securing from the
public every dollar which the tariff
statute made possible.
The first tariff act was in 1889,
and the average duties were S1a per
cent. Now the average is so per
cent.
'In 1912 the average was 80 per
cent. By the Walker Act of 1916,
they were reduced to an average OF
about % per cent. This worked so
well that in 1857 the average was
further reduced to 20 per cent. 1t
probably never would have been in
creased but for the war, for the
census of 1860 disclosed a higher
percentage of increase of capital
invested in manufacturing was great
er than during any similar period of
our history.
The tariff beneficiaries however
availed themselves of the exigencies
of the Civil War to secure two in
creases; the first to an average of
37la per cent, and the second to an
average of AZ per cent. And now 46
years later the average is 80 per
cent.
The republican party is responsi-
bic for this increase from the av-
erage of 20 per cent as it stood in
1862 TO 50 per cent as it stands to-
day, and for the thousands of mil
lions of dollars that through it have
been taken from the people to create
the swollen fortunes that President
Roosevelt denounced so vigorously.
Strange, is it not, that he did not
then suggest that the way to pre-
vent their creation in the future
was TO reduce the tariff which made
them possible,
The republican platform of 1908
seemed to recognize this injustice.
True il did not in terms promise
revision of the tariff downward.
Bat its promise OF a revision of the
tariff by a special session of con
gress to be called Immediately after
CONTINUED On PAGE FOUR