The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-24
noosEyr1r on PROTECTION.

ROOSEVELT ON PROTECTIOM
The Presidents Tariff Board. we are
told, is now bringing its energies 10
bear on schedule K"--the WOODEN
tabon tnation-probably the most abom-
Unable feature of the supremely aeoH-
Enable Payne Aldrich tariff measure
(which the President recently charac-
terized as the best tariff measure the
country ever had, Characterization
(which Mr.. Roosevelt reiterates in the
lOutlook of the 18th instant. Both MI.
Roosevelt and Mr.. Taft, however, nave
anissivings, and the former. IN MS ar
ttice, says that it is nevertheless true
Nthat this best OF all tariffs is unsatis-
factory. Like MIR. Taft, he perceiHes
isomewhat late in the day the necessity
iof revision, and. like Mr.. Taft. he ex-
tpects great things from the Tarii
Board and the proposal TO revise the
lschedules one at the time.
| MIR. Roosevelt says the tariff is
moral issue; but If Mr.. Roosevelts
scheme is to revise the tariff, and yet
lpreserve inviolate the principle OF
iprotection, his solution of this moral
tissue will probably be immoral--that Is
ito say, If 1t is conceded to be immoral
Ito compel one man to surrender his
property without any consideration iof
sthe use and benefit Of another.
Mr.. Roosevelt, curiousiy enough, con-
sidering his activity in all public at
fairs, seems to have gotten back to the
doctrine reached by protectionists, SO
long ago exploded and laughed out OF
sounds like excerpts taken from a
lcampaign hand book Of the Seventies"
NlIe tells US that the American work.
Ing man must be protected; his stand
ard of living must be upheld; he must
mot be made to compete with the pau
ussr labor of Europe, and hence the DIFF
a.ence in the cost of production must
10 taken into consideration in impos-
ding a tariff. These things must be in
,quired into. he says, by a commission
of "well-paid eSperts-men who should
not represent any industry. but should
be masters OF their subjects; of the
very highest character, and who should
approach the matter with an absolute
disregard of every outside considera-
ton" These men," he continues
should take UP in succession each
subject with which the tariff deals and
investigate the conditions of produce
rtion here and abroad; they should find
out the facts, and not merely accept
and thag should report to Congress on
leach eSaSect as soon as that subject
has been covered. Then action can be
ltaken''
AS for the tariff protecting the
IAmerican working man from foreign
scompetition, let US look at this for a
moment. The production of iron and
steel made possible the steel trust
when that trust was formed Mr.. Car.
ynegie and s;hi.s forty robbers" divided
among themselves some thing in the
meighborhood of half billion dollars
in stocks and bonds; paid them for {
plant which about twelve months be.
fore they had sold an option on to Mr.
lFrick at one hundred and twenty five
millions of dollars, which was no
taken up. 1t was explained at tina
t1ime that whereas the plant had no
represented more than about forty mil
dion dollars of actual investment. ye
Its earning capacity made the price %
zone hundred and twenty-five millio,
asked not excessive.
Perhaps not before in the history o
fthe world has SO stupendous q prof
fbeen made by the owners of an indus
trial plant in the same length of tim
as was made by the Carnegie people j,
she deal with the steel trust. The stee
trust itself, capitalized at some billio
and half, of which some eleven hun
tdred and fifty million was water,
pure and simple, has within few year
made so gigantic an income over an
above all expenses as to change thi
water" into actual value, These &C
ylossal profits are net prohts, Substar
tally, the protective tariff Is respor
sible for them. Under no other cor
ceivable system would such profit
have been possible, would such fol-
tunes have been built up in so shol
a time. 1t has no parallel in histor
or fiction, unless it. be found in tn
wonders worked by the slave Of III
Lamp in the Arabian tale.
We would be glad to learn from NJ
Roosevelt or any one else. what pal
of these fabulous. unearned. protection
made profits went to keep up tt
American standard Of living for wag,
earners They constitute the net pr
,ceeds resulting from the protection
made monopoly of the trusts, and we
paid by the American consumers
the trust products The wages al
costs OF production We're paid befo
the proGts were declared. And n
where in America were worse cond
tions found than among the ste
+ workers at P!ttsburg This Is mere
one instance Illustrating the workin