Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1911-08-29
~ particular right to tariff duties.

any particular right to tariff duties
They are given as a part of a sup
4 posedly wise policy to develop on
/, In dustries and preserve cur market
for car own people.
We low have a Tariff Board in
vestigating the difference in the cost
of production at home and abroad.
trust we may soon have a perma-
nent tariff commission, eliminating
the question entirely from politics.
1t is a business, a commercial ques-
ton, and should have no place in
politics. What strange bedfellows
it makes in politics! 1t partakes
somewhat of the amusing to see the
| free-trade Senator from Mississippi
! (Mr. Williams) and the high-taritf
Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Penrose) blowing out the gas and
4 crawling under the same political
counterpart.
The complaint of the day is the
high cost of living. 1t has been
argued by some that the purpose of
the present bill was to reduce the
high cost of living. The President,
as / understand it, has not claimed
that it will reduce the cost of liy-
ing, but that, in his judgment, it
will prevent further increase, at
least for while.
We are living in an extravagant
age. We are money mad and rae
ing through life at neck-breaking
pace, piling up fortune on fortune,
men worth millions striving for
more, never stopping to think that
there is no pocket in the shrOud.
The rich are Haunting their riches
in the faces of the poor. We see
some of our citizens at the corona
ton of King endeavor to Guido
the aristocracy of Europe, even TO
the wearing of knee breaches, il
necessary to properly ape royalty.
Trusts and combinations are re-
sponsible for the high cost of liv-
ing, not the farmer. Let us grap-
pie with them if we want reduction
in the cost of living. The farmer
| has stood for protective tariff all
these years; has believed in plant
ing the factory beside the farm, and
thought in doing this he was help
| ing to build up great home market
| and benefiting the entire Nation:
and all he asks now, and all he .ev-
er will ask, is that the protective
tariff laws be of equal operation.
He is not asking for governmental
| favors-merely equal treatment.
This, he insists, is justice, and this
he will have. When trusts and COM
binations are controlled, when the
law of competition shall again be
enthroned, the cost of living will be
reduced, and not till then. am
one of those who do not believe VIC
should be in hurry to adjourn.
do not understand the cry that bust
ness is disturbed by Congress re-
naming in session. 1t must be pc
culiar business that is disturbed by
the exercise of governmental consti-
tutional rights. Many important
matters demand attention. believe
that Congress should remain in ses|
sion and grapple with the trust
problem. I have been strongly in
hopes that we might enact some adj
equate pension laws for the relief
of the men who freely offered their
lives sfor their country, and would
gladly stay here until December to
secure pension legislation.
We must get back to more simple
living in this country. We have for
gotten how to practice economy;
have forgotten it in the Govern
ment. l have thought that the SEN
ate might well commence to teach
to the country lesson in economy
by abolishing lot of useless COM
missions. We are surrounded on ev-
cry hand by commissions; commits
sions to the right of us; commits
sions to the left of us. Canadian
Boundary Commission, Mexican
Boundary Commission, Monetary
Commission. filled for the most part
by those who have been repudiated
by their constituencies.
Mr.. President, I am honored by
representing, in part, great agri-
cultural State, in many respects the
greatest State in the Union. In 1910
1t stood third in the value of crops
raised, exceeded only by the empire
of Texas and the great Common
wealth of Illinois. Mr.. Blaine, when
he was Secretary of State. upon be-
ing asked by some friends from Eng
land, who were making tour of
the United States. what was the