The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-11-11


was well, out for the last 81 odd years
the enormously increased patronage Of
the executive has increased his power
to an extent never dreamed of by the
founders OF the republic and which
should set men to seriously thinking
as to whether so much power in the
! hands OF one man is entirely salutary.
Failed to Keep Faith.
me reasons Tor our victory in 1910 are
not far to seek The whole story may be
summed up in the single statement that
the Republicans failed utterly to carry
out their campaign promises and to keep
faith with the people. In order to get i'll,
they promised to revise the tariff down.
! On that promise they won and without
Having got in, they raised the tariff rates
on an average of III per cent and for so
polls as they richly deserved to be The
people Should be dealt with honestly,
are entitled to that square deal of which
we hear much and see so little. Can
didates for office ought to mean what
they say and say what they mean. That
IS the only rule of political conduct fit to
live by
There were three stages in the Repub-
lican promise to revise the tariff down.
the house Mr. Chairman PAYNE of the
ways and means committee, declared that
if the Republieans carried the eiection
they would revise the tariff. To do him
Justice, he did not say whether they
would revise it Up or down He did not
and he was very particular not to declare
that they would revise it down. I said
then and repeat it now that his declara-,
ton was equivocal for the word revise
comes from two Latin words which liter
ally mean to look over again and revision
has come to mean to revamp, to change
simply that and nothing more. So that it
may mean up or down.
Failure of Tariff Revision.
The second stage was when the Re-
publican national convention met, a
declaration was made in their platform
down. That declaration was also equivo-
cal, and was intended SO to be, so that
they could say in one place that it meant
revision up and where the eX1genc1es of
the case demanded they could blandIy
claim that it meant revision down; but
that game would not work. There were
a great many Republicans who honestly
believed in tariff reduction and they be
gan to clamor so loudly for an unequivo-
cal statement that the leaders became
This clamor brought the tariff ques-
ton to the third and last stage which
was this About a month before the cleo
ton Republican speakers and papers al
concerted arrangement, that the platform
promise meant reduction of tariff,
which declaration won back the Repub-
lican tariff reformers and the Repub-
licans elected President Taft by over
whelming majority and the house of rep
had the senate by almost two-thirds ma
jority and having all three branches of
the legislative department they were in a
4tC2AtAO1A Et+OeA0NA
did as they pleased.
After months of toll and sweat they
enacted the Payne-Aldrich-sm tariff
bill, which was not a redemption of their
promise to lower the tariff. On the con-
trary it was a bald and bold violation
of that promise.
do you know how bad that bill is? It
is bad that on the crucial vote-the
vote to recommit the bill. which would |
have killed it dead the men who lived
before the nood-we were defeated by
only votes A change of three votes
would have given US the victory in a
house whose roster showed a Republican |
of a.. Do you know what that
means? It means that % patriotic Repub- |
leans could not stomach that bill and |
voted with us to recomnlit it. The vote /
on the bill was delayed several days to
give the Republican leaders time to whip |
in enough of the rank and file to make /
4 majority. The strongest speech made |
against the conference report in that bill |
was made by Hon. James r. Mann of 1
Chicago, the present Republican minority |
eader. I yielded him 20 minutes of my
line on that momentous occasion. If ev-
cry Republican had voted with us that
lay that wanted to we would have de-
'eated the bill by at least 100 majority
md all over the land today are Republican
x-rnern bers who wish they had voted
With II they had done so their names
would not now be preceded by the I'M
pleasant 'ex-
by passing such an outrageous bill as
he Payne-Aldrich-S tariff bill the
Republicans forfeited the confidence of
he voters to a large extent and lost con-
roll of the house of representa- tives-aIso
osing United States senators, 6 COVER
lors and multitude of minor Offices
This chapter in our political and legis-
alive history ought to be a lesson and
warning to public men that honesty and i
-eracity are qualities highly priced by
he American voter and that when he
inds he has been deceived he will punish
hose who perpetrated the wrong.
MANY of the rates of the present tariff /
aw are so high on the necessaries of life II
s to be prohibitive.
Take blankets as an example. In this
climate everybody uses
blankets. They are a necessity of life L
We cannot get along without them.
Tariff on Blankets
ne tarlH on blankets 8 feet long and
osLng not over 40 cents a pound is SO
ents specific per pound plus so per cent
tatute and when the average voter
eadS 1t he knows just as much about it
s he knew before he began. Why is it
tated IN that mixed up way? To muddle
Who of this great audience ever bought
blankets by the pound? There is not one
t you that ever bought blankets by the
ound or heard of anybody else doing it
f blankets is. Why doesn't the law use
ards instead of pounds? To muddle you
that's why.
But how much tariff tax IS 80 cents a
ound specific plus 80 per cent ad valorum?
seduced to simplest arithmetical form it |
leans that in 1904 1t amounted to 1929
er cent taxes. Stated in still palmer ,
hape it means that when you pay S2825@ I
or blanket, one dollar is what the +
lanket is really worth and you pay the s
Their 81. S21z for the poor privilege of pay
lg a dollar for a blanket that is only !
Torth dollar. How do you like it?
THAT tariff is so nearly prohibitive that I ;
1907 only 5000 worth of that sort of ,
Iay4 Jra+c INN fnd iTfa TT,,5t tod