The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-22

ming over 200 American locomotives in Japan today. We are able to go into that country and sell the products of our fac tories. So that the efficiency of the American workman is more important than the difference in the wage.
 Labor Cost of Clothes
 'The total cost, labor cost. of suit of clothes, the suit l have on today, the | labor cost involved in it-a woolen suit of clothes-is only 20 per cent of it's value. You take a plain cotton sheet that you 1 find in the homes of anybody-the total | labor cost in that sheet is only 21 per cent | of it's value. The tax at the customs house amounts to 5S per cent of it's value. It amounts to 134 per cent more than the entire labor cost of the fabric.
 Now my. friends is this tariff levied | to protect labor or is it levied to protect profits? The real distinction between the democratic party and the republican par l ty on the tariff question is that the dem ocratic party leyies it's tax at the GUS toms house to support the government and solely for that purpose; the republi- can party levies it's tax at the customs house primarily to protect American in dustlies and incidentally to pay reVeune to the government
 Willing to Pay Fair Taxes NOW none of us want to pay taxes, of course. It is disagreeabe duty. But as patriotic citizens of the union We are all willing to face that duty and pay our share of tax. But I take it we don't want to pay tax to make one man rich a the expense of all the people of the United States If it be contended solely that we needed this protection to build up our manufactures here. give employment to labor they might have something in the argument. but the tax is so high that it not only equals the difference in cost at home and abroad, but that a great bulk of the tax is levied to protect profits. ...,.. .-.-+ =, My friend, that you have in your hand l that woolen hat the total labor cost of | that woolen hat is 20 per cent of its value; the tax at the customs house is 8 per cent of its value Before compe- tition can come into this country and | compete with the manufacturer of that wooden hat, they have got to pay S5 per 1 cent of it's value and the total labor cost is only 20 per cent.
 What the Difference Means What does the difference mean? Sixty | five per cent of it's value written in the law of the land to protect profits. My | countrymen, are you ready to indorse q | party that stands for the practice and | the principle of protecting profits? Now that is the issue. The republican party | in it's platform says that it is in favor of keeping the tariff high enough to protect the difference in cost at home and abroad ] together with a reasonable profit paid | to the American manufacturer. A reas- enable profit That was quite con l cession.
 For forty years they have been lowing tariff that protected unreasonable prof | it's, and when they. heard the 'lumblinS { | coming from the American people, they l proposed to make the concession to you i.1. .l.T.. profits; reasonable profit in tie interest of monopoly, because when you protect | profits you are bound of necessity to protect monopoly. I don't care whether | they are reasonable profits or unrea son. | able profits. when you. say that I can come into that door with my goods at the | same cost as you can come into this door, or that our cost will be balanced in this room to trade in. we may have fair com petition, but whenever you say it shall cost me 20 per cent or per cent more = come into that door to trade in this room than my competitor has to pay. then all my competitor has to do is to drop his price below the amount of the profit you fix for me and you drive me ont and drive competition out of the door with me. &
 What Republicans Stand For
 Now that is what the republican party
 stands for.
 The President of the United States today is travelling oyer this broad land and he is proclaiming that he intends to inforee the Sherman Antitrust law
 and that he intends to overcome the
 monopoly
 Why does he want to enforce the Sher-
 man Antitrust law and prevent nlonop-
 oily? Because he wants competition to
 regulate trade and regulate prices and
 prevent combinations in restraint of the
 trade from fixing the price that the
 American people shall pay for the neces-
 sties of life. And yet that same Presi-
 dent in that same breath proclaims tc
 the American people that if the tariff is
 revised downward, it shall only be re- !, vised downward in accordance with his principles. and that the manufacturine
 interest in this country shall have their
 profits protected. Why Build Any Tariff Wall
 Now answer me this If We want
 competition within the walls of this coun-
 try to regulate prices and prevent mo
 nopoly, why should we build a tariff wall around the United States that prevents
 competition from crossing it and that
 builds up monopoly? There can be no
 question that the growth of trade trusts
 in tho United States sprung from the
 tariff laws that encircle ...: country