The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-19

The chief function of the next admin
! istration is to complete and perfect
the machinery by which these stand
ards may be maintained, by which the
law breakers may be promptly re-
| strained and punished. but which
shall operate with sufficient accuracy
and dispatch to interfere with legiti-
mate business as little as possible.
The Republican administratio
which is now drawing TO close mas
engaged in completing and perfect
ing the machinery. in applying the
standards and working out the prac-
teal results of established Repubhcan
policies, including also the Mckinney
policies of a protective tariff and
sound finance.
Stands with Mckinley.
The Republican party stands now,
as Mckinley stood. for a protective
tariff. while the Democratic party
stands against the principle of pro-
lection and for a tariff for revenue
only. We stand not for the abuses
of the tariff, but for its beneftcent
uses. No tariff can be devised so
moderate. so reasonable that 1t Will
not be rejected by the Democratic
party, provided it's duties be adjusted
with reference to labor cost so as to
protect American products against be-
ing driven out of the market by for
eign under-selling made possible
through the lower rate of wages in
eign merchant service has been driven
off the face of the waters because
with American sailors wages and the
American standard of living, it could
not compete with foreign shipping. 1
have said that We do not stand for
the abuses of the tariff. The chief
cause of abuse has been that we have
outgrown our old method of tariff
making. Our productive industries
have become too vast and complicat-
la
tensive for any committee of con-
gress of itself to get at the facts to
which the principle of protection may
be properly applied. The Republi-
can party proposes to remedy this de-
fective method through having the
commission through scientific inves-
tigation, that the president and
congress shall have the basis for the
just application of the principle of
protection. The Republican congress
included in the Payne-Aldrich bill a
clause under which the president had
authority to appoint such a board to
make such Investigations and report
the results to him. The president APP
pointed the board.
The Tariff Board.
Its members are drawn from both
political parties. Their competency,
integrity and fairness are unquestion-
ed. They have reported upon the
wooden schedule; they have reported
on the cotton schedule. The president
has transmitted their findings to con-
gress. The Democratic house of rep
reSentatiVeS ignores and repudiates
them. In January, 1911, the last Re-
publican house of representa- tiVeS
mission with much broader and more
effective powers for compelling the
of witnesses and securing
Information, charged to report it's
findings to the congress. The bill
passed the senate with some amend
ment, but it was delayed there by an
avOwed Democratic filibuster until it
reached the house so late in the SEES
sion that vote upon it was prevent
ed by another Democratic filibuSter
ocratic and the tariff commission bill
is dead. The Democratic party does
not want the facts upon which a just
protective measure can be framed, be-
cause they mean that there shall be
no protection for American industries |
In the last session and in the present |
session of congress the Democratic |
house has framed and passed a series |
of tariff bills for revenue only, with |
complete indifference to the absolute |
destruction that their enactment |
would bring upon great American in
dustries. Some of them have fallen |
by the wayside in the senate and |
some of them have gone to the .presi- |
dent to meet his wise and courageous |
veto.
THE American people now have to
pass. not upon the abuses of the tar
iff, but on the fundamental question |
between the two systems of tariff |
making.
The national currency which the
election of Mckinley rescued from dis |
aster at the hands of a free silver |
war basis of government bonds and |
is no longer adapted to our changed |
conditions. 1t is inelastic; its volume |
does not expand and contract accord |
ing to legitimate demands of business |
No congress could by its ordinary
methods get beyond the surface of the |
vast and complicated problem. new |
system adapted to American condi- |
tons is of vital importance to the |
prosperity of the country and the Sc |
curity of every business and every |
man whose support is directly or in
directly dependent upon American |
business.
The Currency Commission.
Z For the solution of this question the |
policy of the Republican party estab
lfshed monetary commission which |
has made most thorough and ex- |
haustive study of the financial systems |
OF all civilized nations of their rela- |
lions to our own system and the needs |
of American business. The commits |
sion has reported q bill for the estab-
hshment of a new system of reserve |
oSSOSA1SAOAS WHICH the currency
will be elastic: the business will find /
ready sale for its commercial paper;
the people at large will exercise con-
troll instead of little group of large |
bankers and the danger of panics will |
disappear. The president has recon-
mended the conclusions of the COM
mission to the congress where the pro-
posed bill is under consideration. 1t
is for the interest of every business
man in the United States that the /
party controlling the government shall
not be changed until this policy has
been carried into execution.
Upon the recommendation of the
president. the powers of the inter