Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-07

Il
OF the nation are asserting themselves
/ against every form of. special privilege
and private cOntrO.. and are seeking big
ger things than they have ever hereto
fore achieved.
Two Great Requisites.
There are two great things to do.
| one is to set up the rule Of justice
and Of right in such matters as
| the tariff. the regulation Of the trusts
| and the prevention of monopoly. the
adaptation of our banking and cur
| rency laws to the very uses to which
| our people must put them, the treat
ment OF those who do the daily labor in
our factories and mines and through
out all our great industrial and COM
mercial undertakings, and the polit-
| zeal life Of the people of the Philip
pines. for whom we hold governmental
power in trust, for their service, not
our own. The other. the additional
duty, is the great task of protecting
our people and our resources and Of
keeping open to the whole people the
doors of opportunity through which
they must, generation by generation,
pass If they are to make conquest of
their fortunes in health, in freedom
| in peace and in contentment. In the
| performance OF this second great duty
We are face to face with questions of
| conservation and Of development.
and mines and waterways, of the
! building Of an adequate merchant ma
rine.
I'VE have got into trouble in recent
years chiefly because these large
things, which ought to have been han
| died by taking counsel with as large
| number OF persons as possible. be-
| cause they touch every interest and the
life of every class and region, have in
| fact been too often handled in pri-
| vate conference. They have been set
| tied by very small and often DELHI
| erately exclusive groups of men who
ton, or. rather. for themselves in the
/ terms Of the whole nation, very hon
estly it may be. but very ignorantly
sometimes. and very shortsightedly.
/ toO-a Door substitute for genuine
common counsel. No group of direc-
/ tors, economic or political. can speak
| for a people. They have neither the
point oof view nor the knowledge. Our
/ difficulty is not that wicked and de-
signing men have plotted against US.
but that our common affairs have been
/ determined upon too narrow view,
/ and by two private an initiative Our
task now is to erect a great readJust-
ment and get the forces of the whole
| people once more into play. We need
| no revolution: we need no excited
\ change: we need only new point OF
| view and a new method and spirit Oh
| counsel
| How Tariffs Have Been Revised.
..The tariff question, as dealt with in
our time at any rate, has not been busi-
ness. It has been politics. Tariff sched-
ules have been made up for the purpose
| of keeping as large a number as possible
of the rich and influential manufacturers
of the country in good humor with the
| republican party. which desired their
| constant financial support. The tarlH
L Of fn
the phraseology Of the schedule was often
\ deliberately contrived to conceal VINO,
when you come down to the hard 1acts OF
| the matter, have been represented In re-
cent years when our tariff schedules were
being discussed and determined, not on
/ the floor of Congress- for that Is not where
they have been determined, but In the
committee rooms and conferences: Inat
/ is the heart OF the whole affair. VIII
you, can you. bring the whole people into
the partnership or not?
I'VE do not ignore the fact that the
business of country like ours Is ex-
| ceedingly sensitive to changes in leglSla-
ton of this kind. 1t has been built up
| however ill-advisedly, upon tariff sched-
ules written in the way have indicated
and its foundations must not be too radi-
caIly or too suddenly disturbed. When
we act we should act with caution and
prudence. like men who know what they
are about, and not like those In love with
a theory 1t is obvious that the changes
We make STOulu ne iHdd' OHis az SuSiA q
rate and in such a way as will least
Interfere with the normal and healthful
course of commerce and manufacture.
But we shall not on that account act
with timidity. as IL we did not know our
own minds, for We are certain OF our
ground and Of our object. There should
be an immediate revision, and it should
be downward unhesitatingly. and steadily
downward
THE nation as a nation has grown i'm
mensely rich. She is justly proud of her
industries and Of the genius of her men
they set their minds to. and we have been
and command. their laurels are many
the great honors that are their due and
we must preserve what they have built
up for us.
High Cost Of Living.
But what of the other side of the pic
ture? 1t Is not as easy for us to live as
II used to be. Our money will not buy
as much. High wages. even when We
can get them. yield us no great comfort
We used to be better of with less, be-
cause q dollar could buy SO much more
The majority of us have been disturbed
to find ourselves growing poorer, even
though our earnings were slowly increas-
ing Prices climb faster than we can
push our earnings up. We know that
they are not fixed by the competitions OF
the market, or by the ancient law or
supply and demand which 10 to be found