La Junta tribune., 1912-03-02

test and partisan rancor begins to
tear down any tariff a. soon az II Is
built. The only certain thing about
our tariff IL uncertainty. No matter
which party wins an election on the
tariff issue. the business and indus
try OF the whole land il sure to be
disturbed till another tariff upheaval
Is forced upon the nation.
There IL no economic or natural
reason why American business. indus.
try and prosperity should be upset by
these freakish and Wholesale tariff
changes. No other country tolerates
them or could survive them II It did.
Our tariff policy 10 fixed. We have
settled the ancient debate between
protection and free trade. We Ameri.
cans are protectionists--red-b blooded
and we mean that that
red blood shall not be poisoned by
fraud. We mean that the policy shall
not be destroyed by excess. We
mean that protection shall not
betrayed by extortion.
A tariff high enough to give Ameri
can producers our home market 50
long as they make honest goods and
sell them at honest prices and yet
low enough that when they produce
shoddy goods and sell them at dis.
honest prices. foreign competition can
correct both evils-this is the defin-
ition OF the protective tariff for
which Abraham Lincoln stood and
the republican party does battle to-
day.
Honest protection IL necessary to
our peoples well being; but II If
even more necessary that our tariff
shall be made steady and Its changes
natural instead Of being uncertain
and its changes volcanic. Our tariff
must be made a matter OF business
instead OF a matter OF politics. No.
body ever dared suggest that rail
road rates or internal revenue were
anything but business questions: yet
the tariff IL more q business ques.
ton than either
What. then. In the common sense
thing to do with our tariff! Our tar.
IFS have been made without our law.
makers knowing the facts Common
sense says that We should find out
the truth and build our tariff on that
genuine. permanent. non-partisan
tariff commission to find out these
facts is the first common sense
thing we must have to make our tar.
IN wise and steady. Many years ago
began the fight for this simple
and fundamental reform. II Is no
experiment Rival nations long since
have put the idea into successful
practice. How childish that we
Americans. the fathers OF modern pro
lection. should let other nations adopt
our own pclicy and improve upon II
yet refuse to adopt these improve.
mcnts of our rivals.
Although common sense and hon.
est methods Of treating our business
and tariff problems are the main
questions before the people. they
ought not TO be- and are 80 only be
cause we have dealt with them as
exclusively political questions In
stead Of economic questions. Long
ago these questions should have been
out Of partisan discussion. and we
should have met and solved more
human problems. OF these child
labor is the first waive asid.
from this discussion the fact that
many hundreds OF thousands Of little
children ARE being either killed or
worse by an iniustrialism insane
with greed. and deal with II only as
II affects our immediate present
True. that the destruction OF these
myriads II these American children
goes on. true, that the ruin OF their
minds. souls and bodies dcbauches
the nations citizenship for the IN.
ture: true. that We are sowing the
dragons teeth Of the nations tomor.
row whose dread harvest our success
sors must reap. True. all this: but
I shall speak only OF how II works
with US today.
The defenders Of child labor say
that II can be handled only by the
states just as they said that slav.
cry and lottery tickets and obscene
literature and the sale Of diseased
meat and poisoned food could be han
died only by the states. hut we
know that this twentieth century
evil can be handled only by the ma
tIon Just A. those nineteenth cen.
tury evils could b. handled only by
the nation. II YOU In Colorado have
good child labor law which your
husincsS men mvat observe they can