Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-03-15

Letter from Ex-Governor Barstow.)
Mr.. Editor:
That part of the Republican platform
of 1908 which refers to the tariff reads
thus:
Gin all tariff legislation the true
principle of protection is best main
tanned by the imposition of such duties
as will equal the difference between the
cost of production at home and abroad
together with a reasonable profit to
American industries, the aim and pur-
pose of the republican policy being not
only to preserve, without excessive
duties, that security against foreign
competition to which American manu-
facturers, farmers and producers are
entitled, but also to maintain the high
standard of living of the wage-earners
of this country who are the most direct
benefciaries of the protective system. !"
This was Republican doctrine in 1908
and will ramain so until another con-
vention forms another platform. 1t
contains a pledge of protection to
farmers, and when Mr.. Taft attempts
to give free trade to farmers on what
they have to sell to their nearest and
almost only competitors, while high
protective duty was still levied on near
ly all manufactured articles that he
has to buy, think it is time to express
some opposition to his becoming our
candidate again.
In January, 1911, Mr.. Taft completed
his Canadian bargain which seemed to
place farmers in class by themselves
to be slaughtered by free trade and
was direct violation of the Republican
platform.
When Mr. Harrison was elected pres
ident in 1910 with John Tyler as vice
president, land Mr.. Harrison died with
in thirty days. it was found that Mr..
Tyler had become Democrat and the
Wings ever after characterized him as
''the traitor president. Mr.. Tyler did
not depart from the wing platform of
1910 any more than Mr.. Taft has
departed from the Republican platform
of 1908.
Mr.. Taft has violated the pledge of
the Republican party made to the
people. Many great lawyers claim
that his compact with Sir Wilfred
Laurier was unprecedented, unauthor-
lied and contrary to the Constitution,
which requires that all revenue bills
shall originate in the House.
When he found what a storm his
attempted bargain had created he made
a series of speeches attempting to de-
fend his course. Among them he said,
at least twice, that there was no more
difference in the economic condition
existing between the border states of
the United States aud Canada than
there was between the states of Ken
lucky and Tennessee.
Senator Dillingham;, in vigorous
speech at Montpelier. Immediately de-
nounced this statement as untrue and
said, in no equivocal term, that the
reasons given by Mr.. Taft were mis-
leading. He also asserted that if the
Taft bargain became a law it would
result in severe and continued injury to
Vermont farmers.
Colonel N. j. Bachelor, Master of
the National Grange, also about the
same time, showed in several addresses
the utter fallacy of Mr. Taft's claim
and said that the proposed bargain was
made without regard to the Republican
platform and that the principle of pro-
lection laid down in that platform has
been completely ignored.
But neither of them said one-half
what they might truthfully have said in
this respect.
Now hay and apple dealers tell me
that they find wages in Canada to be
from one-third to one-half lower than
they are in Vermont.
Land is lower in Canada than in the
United States. One of Sir Wilfred
Laurier's committees found that farm
lands in Michigan, eleven miles west
of Detroit, were selling at 5000 per
acre, while eleven miles east of De-
troit in Canada, the same quality of
land was selling at $50 per acre.
Then again, to show Mr.. Taft's mac
curacy, it may be said that farmers
in the Province of Quebec do not pay
one-half the taxes the Vermont farmers