The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-01
GOV. BALDWIN
 BLAMES TARIFF
Make it Lowe and You Will Find Remedy For CurtaiIing
 Trusts, He Says SPEAKS AT NEW BRITAIN
Let Us Pull Together, He Urges, and Forget Politics For the Mo
 ment.

New Britain, Feb. 1-Governor Sim con E. Baldwin, in speaking before the local Business Mems Association at their annual dinner here, last night dwelt upon a reduction in the tariff as a remedy for the curtailment of the trusts. He spoke as foiIows:
 This gathering represents the busi- ness interests of an important city important to Connecticut, and import ant to the country. I may eo fur ther, and say, important to the world; for foreign lands have contributed a population; and furnish a market for more, I dare say, of her manufactured products than may be generally sup posed.
 New Britain knows something Of manufacturing trusts-of what they are good for, and what they are bad for One thing is certain. Business interests, in our time, tend irresis- tibly towards large combinations. It is a law of political economy. It is Scientifically requisite in the interests the consumer, as well as fair profits to the investor.
 "In part it comes from this: One man Of first rate ability can be an ef- great. He will know enough to pick out the right assistants. He will know enough to leave details to them. He will be content to plan great things, and oversee results from the begin ming to the end.
 There are few men born with that ability, and it must be inborn, if 1t exists. Education, business training can help to develop it. They cannot create it. They cannot turn aver age man into a genius, and the head | of a great business combination must be genius, product of nature, quite as much as your poet or your artist There are plenty Of men who can direct a business where they sell S1OO, 900 of goods in a year: a good many who can sell ten or twenty times that; but few indeed who can l head the colossal forces of one of the | great modern trusts.
 May Abuse Power. | But if you put immense power in any one mans hand, there is i'm mense risk that he may abuse 1t. He may cover up his tracks; he may mask his weapons, but when, by vir- tue of his position and of his legal | advantages, he can crush out all competition, the temptation to use that power to the uttermost is great | and constant I say legal advant- ages. Here is the point I want to dwell on
 "The doctors, until recent times, used to. treat patients in a way to check the development or perma- hence of symptoms, rather than the development Or permanence of the disease.
 "A consumptive was racked by a dreadful cough. They gave him some thing to ease it, without trying whether plenty of fresh air, always free. at hand, might not renew the wasting tissues of his lungs. They shut the window that ought to have been opened wide. We have got a new school now. A school that pre- | by striking down to the root of the | matter.
 That. believe, is the only way to meet, and to fully meet, the trust problem. Federal and State laws can do something, but neither much. Tariff the Germ.
 "The tariff is the germ of the trust disease. The tariff, it is now admit sive. Without tariff to nurse it, or rather to eIectrify it, none of these immense, nationwide, worldwide trusts would ever have existed. The tariff is the disease I say, let us apply the methods of modern medi- cine Let us take this recent report of the tariff experts seriously. Here both sides in politics seem ready to agree is entitled to acceptance as a true statement of fact.
 ''It demonstrates, to begin with, that wool and cotton tariff rates are ex- cessive.
 Let us demand that they be cut down. Let us demand a larger free list, and a free list that means some thing-means something to every household.
 This lays the axe at the root of the tree. To take up the trusts, one by one, and dissect them, cannot per manently change the working of the l laws of trade. It is trimming off the 1 top branches. The tree may be all the stronger for 1t.
 'sNot that the tariff on every article should be so dea't with as to. bring | instant ruin to any established indus l try, built upon the faith of this tariff | rate prescribed by law. Only what is gradually effected endures.
 Let Us Start at Once.
 But let us begin at once. Let the | voice of the country demand that this | great trusts be recognized and reme- | died by fair, reasonable, but immed- | fate legislation. Let us get it out of | the way, before we are involved in all | the heat and unreason of a President ial election.
 "GentIemen: I talk to you as a citi- zen of Connecticut to citizens of Con- necticut. We are a manufacturing State Some of our manufactures are unduIy benefited by. the existing tar if. They sell their goods abroad far cheaper than we can buy them at home It is an unwise tariff law that | thus favors the foreigner at our ex- pense It is a law that has wrought worse injustice in other States than here.
 Let us get this issue settled right, and settled now. Lines of legis' ton that the people insist on now, will be followed in years to come, whichever party wins in the coming Presidential election.
 Let us call on Congress, in a voice | that will be heard, to cease pulling | apart and begin pulling together; to | forget politics for. moment and make | the start in the right direction
 
 DROWNED IN WHEEL PIT.