The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1912-06-06

cratic leaders promise "a bona fide in
v~estigation," and emphatically declare
that political effect will be tabooed.
A worldwide trust, backed by a 75,-
600 600 LOAF guaranteed by Brazil, has
been hauled into court to prove it is
not operating in restraint Of trade and
contrary to the Sherman law. Coffee
to the value of $40, zoe, 600 is stored in
New York, and withheld from sale as
a part of the trust plan to regulate
prices.
The tariff debates are now on in the
senate and have progressed far
enough already to make of the hope
of early adjournment only a swiftly
fading dream. Nothing new is de-
veloped in the discussion. The re-
%publicans, realizing that with the
house majority against them there is
no possibility of intelligent revision
along the lines which they have advo-
Gated and which have been indicated
by the Investigations of the tariff
board, are willing to let the democrat
ic measures go to the president for
his veto with only p~erfunctory opposi-
ton on their part. The democrats
are shaping their speeches with a
view to framing catchy campaign
documents rather than for any other
purpose. They are ringing the
changes on the time-worn claim that
the removal or reduction of duties
would work a great saving to the Oh.
sumner, 1t is unfortunate for the dem.
ocrats, however, that whenever this
policy has been tried it has worked
Il in exactly the opposite way. The
reduction in the tariff on hides was
followed by advances in the retail
price of leather, boots and shoes.
The same thing was true in lumber
and in half a score of other articles.
Nevertheless, the same claim is being
made over again and it is urged with
particular vehemence in the case of
sugar which is the only article for
which absolute free trade has been
proposed by the democrats. 1t is be-
ing asserted that two cents a pound
would be saved to the purchaser of
sugar under a free trade regime. 1t
is pointed out by the senate finance
committee, however, that in 1890,
when sugar was put on the free list,
the sugar trust promptly increased
its charge for refining by forty-five
cents a hundred pounds, which at the
present time would result in putting
into its own pockets over $50, 000, 900
of the $50, 900, 900 lost in government
revenue instead Of passing it along to
the consumer The committee finds
further that there is nc probability of
any permanent reduction in the retail
price OF sugar from the adoption of
the democratic bill and hat even if
the price was reduced by the full
amount of the duty it would mean a
saving of only seventy-two cents a
year for each person. And they right
ly conclude this is no adequate offset
for the destruction of the domestic
sugar producing industry in which
more than 500, 900, 900 is invested and
the ruin of the beet-growing farmers
of nineteen western states which
would follow the adoption of free
sugar.
Opinions upon the Lorimer matter
have been as diversified as the views
upon the presidential situation-but
most anybody could have told the
Honorable Vice President before he
went to Chicago that Mr., Lorimer
would not assent to a proposition that
he resign. Lorimer has already had
so much grief that so slight a thing
as throwing him out Of the senate viii
perhaps add but little to the already
badly ruffled state Of his feelings.
A Waahington ~ava tha