Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-05-11
A DECEPTIVE PLANK.

I'VE believe in a protective tariff
measured by the difference between
the cost of production here and
abroad" These words IRE taken from
the Indiana Republican platform
adopted a couple Of weeks ago.
The Republican national platform of
1904 said, 1.-THE measure OF protection
should always at least equal the diff
ference in the cost of production at
home and abroad"
And the platform Of 1908 affirmed
substantially the same thing. 1t said,
1.-The true principle of protection is
best maintained by the imposition OF
such duties us will equal the difference
between the cost of production at home
and abroad"
Now, all these declarations Of prin-
ciple look very plausible. but they
conceal a mischievous fallacy all the
same.
They contradict the elementary fact
that foreign nations can make some
things cheaper than we can and that
we cannot afford to spend our time in
making for ourselves such goods as
we can get more cheaply from those
nations.
You would not think it economy for
a merchant earning $500 a week to be
doing washing which he can get the
ChinamaD to do for a dollar a week.
would you? And yet many sane peo-
pie think it economy for high grade
American labor to be employed on
jobs that are unworthy of it and are
only lit for the foreign ''pauper." to
give him his classical title
The right principle is to keep Ameri-
can labor employed in lines Of produc-
ton where it will reap the largest
product and to buy everything else
that we need from the foreigner, pay
ing him back with the goods that we
produce. That is true economy and
common sense.
The other principle, the one we are
| adopting now, is to keep producing
every thing-the thing we are fit to
produce and the thing we are not fit
: to produce-and then to charge the re-
sulting deficiency to the account of
| the poor American consumer
However. we are fit to produce a
great many things more cheaply than
| the foreigner. 10 look at the tariff
schedules it would seem that we can
| produce next to nothing. We have
plenty of coal. plenty Of iron. plenty
of technical skill and intelligence and
q nation can expect. Ought we not,
then. to be able to undersell the for
eigner with his obsolete ways and his
impoverished territory? We ought,
and we are There is no need for a
tariff so far as protection to labor is
concerned. but there is need for a
tariff to protect monopoly. That is
! just what the tariff is for and what
it does.
THE difference between the cost OF
production at home and abroad" Be
fore the tariff was made did its fram
ers ascertain what that difference
was? They did not. They rejected
the idea lis absurd. They went ahead
| and put up the schedules to suit the
appetites Of the tariff gluttons and not
the interests Q: the consumers.
When Senator Owen of Oklahoma
asked Senator Aldrich why the diff
ference in cost of production had not
been compiled us basis for framing
the tariff Aldrich's answer was thai
"he would have a clerk compile fol
him list of publications relating tt
the tariff. but would be unable to fur
nish him with the Intelligence to di
gest them
That is how the tariff trainers me
the honest deuland Of those who want
ed the party pledge to be literally kept
The machine politicians had no inten
ton to keep this pledge when the!
made it. And they had the best of al
reasons for their action. A true in
vestigation Of the relative cost Of pro
duction would have shown that tn
tariff was not necessary. and they dit
not want this danlning fact to b.
brought out.
Thus have the voters been deceived
and thus they may be deceived agail
If they are not Watchful.
THOMAS SCANT0N