Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-12-30

Il IDdlfli1ln iIiutiNptu SdN > HIS pa ~
will not for moment consider free
| wool unless in the extraordinary con-
tingeney of discovering unexpected
ifacts" in the data submitted by Taft's
tariff experts. He also declares that
| the first tariff legislation to be taken
up by the House will be the steel
schedule. contempla ting reductions Of
from 80 TO 40 per cent. In an address
before the Southern Society of New
York, recently, Mr.. Underwood said:
Let us approach the solution Of the
tariff problem with the determination to
do what is right, what is safe aud what
is reasonable ! am not in favor of going
10 free trade conditions or of being so
radical in our legislation as to injure
legitimate business, but the period OF ex-
clusion has passed and the era OF honest
competition is here,
to protect ineffieiency. This is clearly
illustrated in a comparison of the wool
and steel industries. Wool has had a
specific duty that amounts to a tax of
about 90 per cent of the average value
of all wooden goods imported into the
United States. and the duties imposed
have remained practically unchanged for
40 years. During that time the wool in
dustry has made comparatively little
progress in cheapening the cost of its
product and improving its business
methods.
We mast confess that Mr.. Under
woods would-be epigram-"To protect
profits Of necessity means TO protect
inefficiency.' strikes us as meaning
less pIay2on words. We wonder if he
realized what he wanted the public to
understand from such an expression.
Were there any meaning in Mr.. TN
derwoods phrase, we wonder how he
accounts for the marvellous progress of
the nation how we have reached an
annual production of $4,000, 900, coo
worth of manufactured products; how
the South CHS home) in % years has
increased its industrial potency 100
fold; how worsted mills in the United
States in 25 years have increased their
spindles from 100000 TO 2.075,000; how
all these industries have furnished
work and American wages for millions
of American people living on an
American scale
The American Economist says that
ever since the first protective tariff
law was passed by the first American
Congress in 1879, the policy of this
country has been TO protect profits"
by protecting industrial production.
That is what protection is for, TO in
sure profits in the investment of Am
erican capital and the employment of
American labor. We have done moth
ing else but protect profits Some
times, to be sure, under the rule of
free traders, like Chairman Under
wood. the protection has been made
quote and the profits have been for
time nearly or altogether wiped out
by foreign competition. But for the
most part the republic has in the past
12S years continuously and systemati-
cally protected profits
Have We, Mr.. Underwood, protected
inefficieney'' all the time Mr. Under
wood should know if he does not that
during this period of century and a
quarter we have protected the highest
efficiency known in the worlds his
tory. He should know that this eeun-
try holds the supremacy among all ma
lions and all forms of production, and
in total and per capita wealth is fore
most among all the nations, He should
know that our total and per capita of
savings is far greater than in any
other country and that the American
standard of living is at a range never
reached by any other country.
If Mr.. Underwood does not recognize
in these contrasts of American SUI
premacy the benefits of protected
profits" and protected effieiency,s"s We
may expect that his report on the date
furnished by the. tariff commission to
be for political purposes only.