The Coconino sun., 1912-10-25
THE DANGER THAT
 WAS ESCAPED
WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF DEMOCRATIC TARIFF BILLS
 HAD NOT BEEN VETOED.
The Disaster Which Threatened One County in Connecticut Would Have Been Experienced in
 Almost Every County in
 the United States.

greatest, if not the greatest, tariff ex.
 perts in the United States. He rep. \ resents Fairfield county, Connecticut,
 in congress, and he has recently pub
 lished startling document in which he shows the effect the Democratic
 tariff bills passed during the recent session of congress and vetoed by
 President Taft, would have had upon these industries if enacted into law He lists the factories in alphabetical order and shows in connection with each one just the percentage of re. duction in the duty upon the article which it manufactures. The showing flls four pages of newspaper and it has not only awakened Connecticut to a shuddering realization of the dan ger it has escaped, but it has aroused all New England to the menace of Democratic victory.
 Mir. Hill shows beyond question that if these Democratic bills had passed practically every industry in his dis. trict and in the, entire state of Con. necticut would have been put upon a free trade basis and a very large proportion of them would have been obliged to close their doors. Manu, lecturers from all over the country who have seen this exhibit are writ. ing to Mir. Hill to thank him for mak- ing it and to tell him that they had no idea how near to extinction they had been. They had not realized the deadly menace to their industries which was hidden in the Democratic tariff bills and they had not realized the immeasurable debt they owe to President Taft for vetoing them. One correspondent from Delaware writes that Congressman Hills disclosures had "set the state on fire" and that Is hardly too strong a term to use to describe the intense interest aroused.
 Another article which has recently appeared and which has produced al most as startling an effect upon those to whom 1t was immediately address ed as that of Congressman Hill, is an editorial in the American Sheep Breeder" This editorial calls atteH- ton to the fact that neither Colonel Roosevelt nor Professor Wilson made any reply whatever when asked what their attitude would be on the ques. tion of protection to the wool indus try, while President Taft answered by wire, calling attention to his veto of the wool bill and the expression of opinion which he gave in that veto.
 The editorial very properly draws the inference from the silence of the Bull Moose and Democratic candidates that the wool industry need not hope for any consideration at their hands, and it quotes the message of President Taft to show that he realizes the ab. solute necessity of protection in order that the industry may prosper, and that so long as he is in the White House no free wool bill can become a law.
 The American Sheep Breeder" goes to many thousand men engaged in the sheep industry and it Is not in any sense a political newspaper It is devoted to the interests of the sheep industry, however, and it's ex. pression of editorial opinion that President Taft and the Republican party alone can be trusted to safe. guard that industry, can hardly fail to concentrate upon the Republican ticket the vote of all those vitally in terested in that industry.
 The Democratic managers realize the deep-seated distrust toward their party which exists on account of it's attitude on the tariff question and are trying desperately to make it appear that the tariff plank In their platform does not really mean so very much They plead that the Democratic pro- gram would be to reduce the tariff gradually so as not to disturb busi. ness, with the idea that ultimately the country could reach a free trade basis by easy stages-which is like the old story about gradually reduc- ing the feed which is given to your horses until by dint of habit he learns to do without any feed at all
 But the country will not be deceiv- ed. The country knows perfectly well that Democratic victory would mean long period of tariff agitation with nothing certain except that in the end bills would be passed under which 1 there would inevitably be enormous importations of foreign products with corresponding contraction and stagna tion of domestic trade and manufac- ture. The country did not fail to take | note of the tariff revision bills passed | by the present Democratic congress under the boast that they did not con tain a line of protection. The coun- try knows that but for the courage ous vetoes of President Taft these 1 ruinous Democratic measures would now be on the statute books and in 1 all probability the industries affected | by them would be languishing and 1 thousands of men out of work.
 It is the knowledge of these facts that is responsible for the strong and ! steady drift toward Taft that is re- UII Il.