The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-10-05
SHOWS FOR ITSELF
REPUBLICAN PARTY's RECORD ON
THE TARIFF.
Rubber Schedule of P~ayne-Alorich
Bill Is Typical Example Of Revi-
sion as Accomplished by Its
"Friends."

With the declaration Vice-President
Sherman made In his speech in Enid,
Okla, that the present and future
prosperity of the nation is dependent
upon the tariff" no intelligent citizen
Of these United States will take issue.
| With his further declaration that the
election of a Democrat at the ap-
preaching election will retard the ef-
forts of the Republican party to form
ulate a scientific tariff every sane
observer of political movements Will,
however, take instant issue.
That the Republican party could
under any circumstances approve or
assist the formulation of a scientific
tariff may at once be determined by
consideration Of its actual perform
ances. The cardinal tariff doctrine OF
the Republican party, uppermost alike
in parchment and practise, is that the
tariff should only be revised by the
friends of the tariff" The. present
law, which is now about a year and a
month old, is the latest concrete ap-
plication Of this Republican doctrine,
and 1t is already. stamped with the in
%effaceable seal of popular condemna-
ton.
The rubber schedule is a typical ex-
ample of what revision OF the tariff
by the friends of the tariff really
means. No schedule in the act Of Au-
-, Z 1nnn ff~-l- - I4ftar i11,,Cfro.
ton of what the friends Of the tariff
can be counted on to do when they
undertake the task of revision.
1t is pretty well understood now
that the rubber schedule has for its
friend at the national capitol the one
man who can be said to be of most
potent influence when anything is pro-
posed that bears on the tariff sched-
ules. The chairman Of the senate
committee on finance, Nelson W. Al
drich, senator from Rhode Island, Is
himself a dealer in rubber.
While Senator Aldrich has admit
ted in a communication, prepared for
publication a month ago, that he is a
%stockholder and a director Of the In
tercontinental Rubber company, he de-
MES that either he or any member of
his family "has ever had any pecuni-
airy interest as to whether the duty on
manufactures of rubber were 80, IS
or 300 per cent" but in the same let
ter he admitted that his company
produced yearly 10. ZOO. 900 pounds of
rubber in Mexico alone, Iand that Of a
tota worlds product in 1908 of 49,
000, 900 pounds the Intsrcontinental
company marketed 10000, 900 pounds.
Unfortunately, he neglected to say
how much of the product his company
marketed was sold in the United
States, but it is probably fair to say
that the bulk If not the whole Of its
product found it's market here. .
Mr.. Aldrich is peculiarly construct
ed if he felt no concern in the meas
ure of protection accorded to.the GUS
toners with whom he Is doing bust
ness. He may say that an advance in
the duty on manufactures Of hard rub
Der amounting to II per cent. was not
to his personal advantage, but he will
find 1t difficult to convince the Ameri-
can people. What happened in the re-
vision of the rubber schedule upward
is exactly what must always happen
when "the friends of the tariff" do the
revising.