Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1912-09-13
DEMOCRATS PLAN
To EDUCATE Mr..
AVERAGE CITIZEN
Will Simplify Fundamental Prob
lens and Illustrate by Com
parative Figures.
GIVES A SURPRISING TABLE.
Says on SIS Suit Purchaser Pays
$10.76 Payne-Aldrich Duty
-98 Cents on 81 Hat.
GIVES A SURPRISING TABLE.
BY Austin Cunning n m.


There are millions of people in the
United States who know about as
much of the inside workings of the
Republican tariff system as they do
about Madam Curie's process for max
ing radium or of the methods pur-
sued by that Ontario concern in man.
ufacturing calcium cyanide-a fertil
izer found in the nitrogen of the air.
And there are some members of Con-
gress who by their speeches have dis
played but little knowledge Of it, there
fore the masses who have their daily
bread to earn by the sweat Of their
brow and no time to study compli-
Gated tariff law need not think they
are stupid or dull because of that ig-
norance of it. 1t is the foremost issue
between two great political parties, is
the tariff, in what bids fair to be an
unprecedentedly strenuous struggle for
national supremacy this fall.
Because of the complex and perplex-
ing nature of the question, and the
vital importance of it considered in
connection with living conditions gen.
orally, Democrats are banding togeth-
er to preesnt the fundamental prob
lens to the people in a manner SIM
plified and understandable. They are
preparing to demonstrate plainly and
forcefully to Mr.. Average Citizen, by
the presentation of comparative fig
ures and by exhibitions of articles of
ordinary consumption in town and
country homes, just how the protec-
tive tariff system extorts from him a
heavy tax that certain monOpOlistic
Industries in which he has slight or
no concern may be further enriched
and perpetuated.
1t is proposed by the Democrats to
impart to the millions of stockholders
in the government all Of the informa-
tion that the Republican trustees" of
the government, as Governor Wilson
calls them, have been keeping to them
selves and profiting thereby. A cam
paign of education and enlightenment
Is planned. 1t Is intended to bring the
ship of state into a dry dock, and re-
veal in the light Of day an enormous
mass of barnacles clinging tenaciously
to its hull and impeding its progress
on the sea of prosperity. And then it
will be urged that the many, many
owners of that great vessel supervise
the scraping off of those barnacles-
that they take away from a negligent
captain and crew the task of removing
from its bottom the heavy and expen-
sive burden, and do it thoroughly
themselves.
Two earnest advocates Of simplify
ing the tariff arguments in this cam
paign and, to use hackneyed phrase,
of bringing home to the people" the
true state of affairs, are Representa-
tive James l.. Slayden of Texas and
Representative Ben johnson of Ken
lucky. Mr.. Slayden has interested the
Democratic campaign managers in
plan of his whereby exhibits of agri-
cultural implements, made by the
highly protected harvester trust,
bought in foreign and in domestic
markets and tagged with the foreign
and domestic prices, be shipped about
the country accompanied by able DEM
Ocratic speakers. Representative John
son, who has steadily increased his
Democratic majority in his six years
in Congress by educating his constit-
uents with regard to the tariff, would
out the country provided with cold
cash figures for illustrating to the peo-
pie in patent fashion just how much
they are contributing to the till of the
moneyed interests by the payment of
protective ad valOrems and compen-
satOry duties which are confusing on
their face and almost meaningless to
the lay brother, and yet which are
daily draining from the purse of the
many for the benefit of the few.
Bearing on Mr.. Slayden's plan, the
plainspOken Democratic presidential
nominee, in Pennsylvania, the other
day said:
THE American manufacturers who
make agricultural implements sell
them much cheaper on the other side
undersell the local manufacturers of
agricultural implements, and prove by
their eagerness for the foreign busi-
ness and their rapid expansion of it
that they can afford to do so even at
the additional cost of the ocean
freights. 1t was very natural act
on the part of the Democrats in Con-
gress, therefore, to put agricultural
implements on the free list, to put
fence wire on the free list and the bag
ging and ties which the Southern far
mer needs and uses for his cotton"
If it can be shown to the farmer at
country fairs, or anywhere, through
actual exhibition of the goods" as
Mr.. Slayden suggests. that where he
pays $500 for a Mccormick harvester
here, the German, French or English
farmer can purchase the same ma
chine for SIS, it is hardly likely he
would want to vote for reinstatement
of a stanpat Republican administra-
tion that adheres to the high protec-
tive tariff policy, or for Bull Moose
candidate for the presidency who is
also a protectionist, and more, whose
finances are being collected
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