The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-03-01
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make change in this schedule desr
able, everybody viii be prepared for Il
and can estimate Just how much of q
change ii ought to be.
This eliminates the now customary
shock of surprise. Thus we have high,
ly important part of the work of law.
making brought down to an almost an.
tomato basis; at any rate, we can al
ways be sure of an automatic warning
of what had better be done; and if Con-
gress doesn't do it, or the president
wthholds his approval from tariff
amendment manifestly right, the people
will know where to place the response
bility. At one stroke we can get rid OF
a lot of the old scandals about log
rolling and favoritism and the charges of
perjury and bribery which were freely
banded between the parties in past
times; make our tariff changes gradual
instead of precipitate, and partial in
stead of sweeping; and be able to defend
a rate, when fixed, by showing with
substantial accuracy the Measure of
protection it extends to the home pro-
ducer. Can any reasonable citizen OBJ
iect to such a logical and self-consistent
law, as a substitute for our present
practice of revising the tariff by rule.of-
thumb?
Payne Tariff Act for Illustration.
"For very recent illustration, take
the Payne tariff act. There has been
loud cutlery against it on the part
OF public speakers and writer's, some
times for cause and with a fair motive,
and sometimes for the mere purpose OF
stirring up the people by showing them
only half the facts. Now, let us sup
pose that three years ago, instead of
having to depend wholly on newspaper
abstracts of the tariff hearings, few
published speeches in Congress, and edi-
torial comments which necessarily re-
fected the political or personal feeling
OF each commentator, the people at large
had had within easy reach non-parti-
san bureau of information from whose
files they could ascertain just what the
condition of the iron and steel trades,
the wool and wooden trades. and all the
rest, had been at the time OF the passage
of the Dingley tariff act in 1897, and
what changes had occurred in them, or
in any part of the world, since then.
They had put the Republican party in
power for four years more, and had a
right to hold it to account for carrying
out, as well as was humanity possible.
the promises of its platform of 1908,
including the clause demanding revi-
sion of the tariff with the obvious intent
that the revision should be downward.
isn't it plain that instead Of seeing
a law turned out by Congress in the
hnf he I1o Ia,
and having the air rent afterward by
accusations and recriminations for thirty
months continuously we should have
witnessed cool headed, direct, and or
Derby procedure leading up to the pass
age and PRONUNCIATION of the act. and
then either a general popular acquies-
eence in the result, or an opposition
based on facts which could be proved
from original sources If challenged?
Can there be any difference OF intel
ligent opinion on the question which of
these pictures makes the plelsanter i'm
preston on the mind, and which presents
our institutions of elfgorernment in
the more dignified aspect As it was.
neither Congress nor the American pub
lie had the firsthand knowledge needed
for the proper performance of its part
Congress, to enable it to frame bill
most responsive to the demands Of the
platform; or the people, to eriticise just
~ an act which Congress had evolved
with such poverty OF equipment for the
task"
But, you are aware that a good many
object on prudential
grounds to the sort of tariff you have
set up for your idealy"
81 am not unmindful of the argument
made by some timorous critics, that the
effect of reducing our tariff to what they
call the competitive basis will be that
IT will really drop below that, and cause
our markets to be flooded with cheaply
made foreign goods, so that our produc-
ars will be driven out of business by
protection Well. there are
two answers to that. The first is that
the platform whose promises we are
trying to fulfill does not contemplate |
such cut in rates as would cripple |
my American industry II takes into |
recount the right of the American pro-
lucer to a reasonable profit The diff |
'erence between the foreign producers |
igures and those of the American pro- |
lucer, which | want to see used as |
he measure of protection for the Amer |
can, is the difference between what each |
Expects to get for his goods allowing |
or fair competitive profit for himself I
have already said this in another form,
nut it will bear repeating, as it is a
,oint on which so many people speak APP
,arently without understanding or at
east without consideration.
"The second answer is that Congress
5 never so Indifferent to the will or
he welfare of our people as to cut to
he quick in such matters. We are as
ar from the bald ideal of free trade as
rom that of the Chinese wall. Each
las had its day and gone its way. II
5 everywhere recognized now that the
oreigner is not going to be turned loose
n our markets. His only function is
hat of restraining influence. We con
ider what he might do if we let him
ave his way, in order to keep the
emands of our manufacturers for pro-
ection down within bounds which will
e Just to the consuming public as well
; to ourselves"
Doubtless you are still hearing echoes
+ the criticism called forth by your
elton on the wool and wooden tariff
ommitting yourself to reduction. and
hen vetong the first bill which offered
GU substantial one?'
Certainly, hear them; but they only
rake me wonder how their authors can
ecome so absorbed in one phase of
ubiect as to lose all sight of another