Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-01-25
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

President Taft has just taken an
action that is worth hundreds of thou
sands of dollars annually to the paper
trust by refusing to remove the tax
from print paper and wood pulp.
When the reciprocity bill was pass
ed a provision was tackled to it pro-
viding for the free admission of print
paper and wood pulp from Canada.
This provision became law whether
the reciprocity act was agreed to by
Canada or not. Therefore, although
reciprocity failed, print paper and
wood pulp are now admitted free from
Canada.
AS soon as this provision became
law, five nations which ship paper to
America, and which have treaties with
this country in which we agree to ex-
tend to them the same concessions
that we extend to s'the most favored
nation demanded their treaty guar
anteed right to also send print paper
and wood pulp into the United States
free of duty.
"Since you have given particular
concession to Canada, you must, under
our treaties, extend the same conces-
sion to u.s." declared the paper pro-
-ducing countries of Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, Germany, and Austria-H Hun
gary. Obviously, this argument is un-
answerabfe.
However, the President has an
nounced, through the Treasury de-
partment, that a tax will be collected
as heretofore on all print paper inn
ported from any other country than
Canada. The President advises the
European nations to appeal to the Gus
toms Court of Appeals, which, it is
declared, is only subterfuge. Presi-
dent Taft has declared he is willing to
concede the justice of demand for
cheaper paper, but when the oppor-
tunity offers, his acts refute his words
and show that he is willing to violate
treaties with five friendly nations
rather than to give even the slightest
concessions to freer trade.
The tariff on print paper is to all
practical ends a tax on intelligence,
because in this day and age the great
mass of the people receive their edu-
cation on public questions through
the newspapers. With print paper
practically controlled by a trust, the
price has been Systematically boosted
so as to work a hardship on the pros
porous publishers, and to make print
paper nigh on to prohibitive to many
of the small, country publishers whose
earnings are not any too great at best
Meanwhile there is pending bill
introduced by Senator Hepburn, which
proposes to repeal the Canadian reci-
procity act. Having been rejected by
Canada, the law is dead without being
repealed. But if the act is repealed,
the live added section providing for
free print paper would also be re-
pealed, and the old tax on paper even
from Canada would be restored Since
the tax ON Canadian print paper has
been repealed, 81 independent paper
companies, aggregating capitalization
of eighty-three million dollars, have
started up in opposition to the trust,
bringing reductions in prices already,
and arousing the hostility of the pa
per trust
A LIVE SUGGESTION.
Why would it not be good idea
for all Democrats, everywhere to
hereafter taboo the use of the word
tariff" and in its place use the term
s'tax" which is what tariff really is?
If every Democratic writer and
speaker would use the term 'sThe
Payne-Aldrich tax BILL" instead of
''The Payne-Aldrich tariff BILL" from
now until the polls close on November
5, there need be little conjecture as to
the outcome of the election.
Who doubts that if the Dingley tar
iff bill had been known and referred
to generally as the Dingley tax bill,
and the Mckinley tariff bill as the
Mckinley tax bill, and the Payne-Ald-
rich tariff bill as the Payne-Aldrich
tax bill, the Republican party would
not be in power to-day.
The word tariff" is too indefinite.
There are hundreds of thousands of
men who may be brought to believe
that it would be to their advantage in
some indirect, mysterious way to vote
for tariff, but who could not be ca
joled or coerced into the conviction
that it is to their individual interest
to vote to put an enormous tax on
everything they eat, wear, and use.
Ii DSulOCldtIC GulIOIO Will 1ldhC II
a standing order in their Offices to
substitute the word "tax" for tariff, "
in every article having to do with pro-
lection, and if every stump speaker
will carry on a similar crusade, and
if the movement will be made nation
wide, the problem of reversing Re-
publican victories at the polls will
have been solved.
Think this over!
OUR TERRITORY"
One of the Chicago packers, in the
trial now going on at Chicago, COM
planned that Swift infringed on our
territory The disputed territory
was in New York and Vermont, and
the question naturally arises: How
did that territory, or any other terri
tory, come to be the exclusive prop
erty of Swift or anybody else?
The answer is simple. Because