The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1910-01-07
BATTLE IS ONLY
BEGUN
SENATOR CUMMINS GIVES
WARNING TO STAND
PATTERS.
Fight for Tariff Reform and More
Progressive Principles, He Says,
Will Go on More Seriously than
Ever and Will Win In the End.
Speech at Des MOines.

| ~A oAA~A w IA w III Iii IAlC Allu.
Speech at Des Moines.
Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 1.-THE
fight for tariff reform and more pro-
gressive principles will go on more
seriously than ever and will win in
the end. -
Thus declared Senator Albert B.
Cummins in an address here tonight
at the Progressive Republican organi-
zation dinner.
Much interest attached to the sena-
tors address, as it was regarded as
furnishing the keynote for the pro-
gressive fight in this state
with respect to the tariff said
Senator Cummins, ''the standpatters
feel it makes little, if any, difference
how high the duties are if they be
high enough to exclude importations.
"When they approach their subject
their first, and I have sometimes
thought, their only concern is for the
producer. They are so much afraid
of hurting him that they close their
ears to every voice save his and as
sumo that, knowing what he wants,
he will not ask more than he deserves.
The echoes of the platform of 1908,
which contains pledges Of the Repub.
lican party to the people, have be-
come so faint in their councils that
they are drowned in the cries of i'm
poverished manufacturers.
Home Competition Destroyed
''On the other hand the prorgessives
remember that we promised the Amer
lean people that the duties on import
ed competitive commodities should
be measured by the difference between
the cost of production in this and rival
lands and that we made the promise
in order to give at once protection to
the producer from unequal competi-
tion and protection to the consumer
from extortion. We know that in
many fields of industry home compe-
tition has been substantially destroyed
and so we intend to subject our home
producers to the fire of foreign COM
petition, if prices are raised above a
fair and reasonable profit.
II do not attempt to obscure or
minimize the extent of our defeat, but
if any one harbors the delusiOn that
the passage Of the recent tariff law
ended the fight for fair and reasonable
protective duties, it would be wise
for him at once to reform his conclu-
sion.
'The progressives, after years of
struggle, brought the convention to a
full acknowledgment Of the justice of
their position.
Standpatters Obstruct Progress
'With respect to further regulations
of interstate commerce the standpat-
tiers occupy just the same position that
they always have occupied. It is sufi-
Gent to say that the agitation for the
strengthening of the law regulating
common carriers became acute about
1899.
cit finally resulted in the amendment
of 1906. 1t was long, weary cam
paign. The standpatters were either
silent or in opposition.
sJoseph G. Cannon was then, as
now, the most conspicuous member
of the national house of representa-
tives. In all those years have never
heard single utterance from him that
could by any possibility be construed
into friendliness toward the cause that
was struggling on through all these
dicfiulties. Aldrich was then, as now
one of the leaders Of the senate and if
any standpatter can discover solitary
expression on his part that helped the
movement to its final fruition, would
be glad to have it pointed out. Hale,
Payne, Dalzell were then, as now,
prominent in the congress of the Unit
ed States, but challenge the memory
of all who hear me to recall one single
sympathetic word in the interest of the
people in their struggle with the rail
ways. Congress in 1890 adopted what
is known as the anti trust law. 1t is
clearly seen, however, that it needs
amendment. The spirit of the statute
is to preserve the force of competition
n business.
81 have referred to these things in
order to call your attention to the fact
that the standpatters are not helping
to solve the problems. They content
themselves with the constant reitera-
ton of the fear that if we touch any of
these things we may overturn the fall
rio of commerce and destroy the pros
perity for which all lovers of the hui
man kind are seeking. When it is pro-
posed to further regulate railway rates
they shudder lest we may hurt the rail-
ways.
Too Radical Sometimes
ST am quite ready to admit progress
sives sometimes try to do things that
are unwise, but without them nothing
would be done, wise or unwise. If the
standpatter can justify his existence,
by the consciousness that he sometimes