The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-07

indicated. and it's foundation must not be too radically or too suddenly disturbed. When we act we should act with caution and prudence, like men who know what they are about and not like those in love with theory. It is obvious. that the changes we make should be made only at such a rate and in such way as will least interfere with the normal and health full course of commerce and manufac- ture. But we shall not on that ac- count act with tinidity, as if we did not know our own minds, for we are certain of our ground and of our ob- ject. There should be an immediate revision, and 1t should be downward, unhesitatingly and steadily downward.
 It should begin with the schedules which have been most obviously used to kill competition and to raise prices in the United States, arbitrarily and without regard to the prices pertain ing elsewhere in the markets of the world, and it should, before 1t is fin ished or intermitted, be extended to every item in every schedule which affords any opportunity for monopoly, for special advantage to limited groups of benefciaries or for subsidiz- ed control of any kind in the markets or the enterprises of the country until special favors of every sort shall have been absolutely withdrawn and every part of our laws of taxation shall' have been transformed from system of governmental patronage into system of just and reasonable charges which shall fall where they will create the least burden.
 Tariff DemoraIizes Politics.
 There has been no more demoraliz- ing influence in our politics in our time than the influence of tariff legis- lation, the influence of the idea that the government was the grand dis penser of favors, the maker and un- maker of fortunes, and of opportuni- ties such as certain men have sought in order to control the movement of trade and industry throughout the continent It has made the govern ment a prize to be captured and par ties the means of effecting the capture.
 
 of the most virile and enterprising na7= tions in the world timid fretful, full of alarms; has robbed them. of self confidence and manly force until they have cried out that they could do nothing without the assistance of the government at Washington. 1t has made them feel that their lives de pended upon the ways and means committee of the house and the finance committee of the senate Gin these later years particularly the finance commit tee of the senatel. They have insist ed very anxiously that these commit tees should be made up only of their friends until the country in its turn grew suspicious and wondered how those committees were being guided and controlled, by what influences and plans of personal advantage Govern ment cannot be wholesomely conduct ed in such an atmosphere Its very honesty Is in jeopardy For what has the result been? Prosperity? Yes, if by prosperity you mean vast wealth, no matter how dis tributed, or whether distributed at all, or not; if you mean vast enterprises built up to be presently concentrated < under the control of comparatively small bodies of men, who can deter mine almost at pleasure whether there shall be competition or not. The nation as nation has grown immensely rich. But what of tho other side of the pie turee 1t is not as easy for us to live asn used to he. Our money will not buy as much High wages, even when We can get them, yield us no great comfort.
 Tariff Causes High Prices.
 Moreover, We begin to perceive some things about the movement of prices that concern us very deeply and fix our attention upon Che tariff schedules with a more definite determination than. ever to get 10 the bottom of this mat ter. We have been looking into it at trials held under thee Sherman act and in investigations in the committee rooms of congress, where men who wanted ta know the real facts have been busy with inquiry, and we begin to see very clearly what at least some of the methods are by which prices 'are fixed. We know that they are not fixed by the competitions of the mar ket or by the ancient law of supply and demand, which is to be found stated in all the primers of economies, but by private arrangements with regard to what the supply should be and agree ments among tbe producers themselves Those who buy are not even representz ed by counsel. The high cost of living ls arranged by private understanding. We naturally ask ourselves. How did these gentlemen get control of these things?+ Who handed our economic laws over to them for legislative and contractual alteration? We have in these disclosures still another view of the tariff, still another proof that not the people of the United States, but only very small number of them, have been partners in that legislation.
 The trusts do not belong to the peri cd of infant industries. They are not the products of the time, that old la borious time, when the great conti- nent we. live on was undeveloped, the young nation struggling to find itself and get upon it's. feet amidst older and more experienced competitors. They belong to a very recent and very so- phisticated age, when men knew what they wanted and knew how to get. it