The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-01

avenues for perjury and other fraud
for special pleading, for appeals to the
most sordid political motives. for the
exercise of gross favoritism and the
wreaking of petty revenges.
What have we to offer as a sub
stitute? A system which keeps al
ways at the disposal of congress, and
open to the people, a chart Of the
worlds producing activities, corrected
almost from day to day. The changes
noted in the foreign cost of production
of various commodities are doubtless
individually slight; in one case they
may swing, pendulum-like, a little this
way and a little that, ending their
agitation at about the same point where
it began. In another, there may be
steady trend to one side for d while,
due to causes not difficult to discover
through the machinery of the tariff
board but by the time the divergence
has become so marked and continues
so long as to make a change in this
schedule desirable, everybody Will be
prepared for it and can estimate just
about how much of change it ought
to be- This eliminates the now Gus
tomary shock of surprise. Thus we
nave a highly important part of the
work of law making brought down to
an almost automatic basis.
For very recent illustration, take
the Payne tariff act. There has been
a loud cutlery against it on the part of
public speakers and writer's, sometimes
for cause and with a fair motive, and
sometimes for the mere purpose Of stir
ring up the people. Now, let us suppose
that three years ago, instead of having
to depend wholly on newspaper alb
stracts of the tariff hearings, a few
published speeches in congress, and ed
itoria1 comments which necessarily re-
feCted the political or personal feel
ing of each commentator, the people at
large had had within easy reach a
nonpartisan 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 peen at
the time of the passage of the Dingley
tariff act in 1897, and what changes
had occurred in them, in any part OF
the world. since then.
The Better Way.
isn't it plain that instead of seeing
a law turned out by congress IN the
uav the Payne law was turned out,
and having the air rent afterward by
accuse tions and recrimlnatlonS, we
should have witnessed cool headed,
direct and orderly procedure leading
up to the passage and. PRONUNCIATION
of the act. and then either a general
popular acquiescence in the result, or
an opposition based on facts which
could be proved from original sources
if challenged? Can there be any dlt-
question which of these pictures
makes the pleasanter impression on
the mind, and which presents our in
stitutionS of self government in the
more dignified aspect?
But, you are aware that good
many protectionists object on pruden-
tial grounds to the sort of tariff you
have set up for your ideal.
Il am not unmindful of the argu-
ment made by some timorous critics,
that the effect of reducing our tariff
to what they call the competitive
basis would be that it would really
drop below that and cause our mar
kets to be flooded with cheaply made
foreign goods, so that our producers
would be driven out of business by
insufficient protection. Well, there
are two answers to that The first is
that the platform whose promises we
are trying to fulfill does not contem-
plate such a cut in rates would
any. American industry.
THE second answer is that congress
is never so indifferent to the will or
the welfare of our people as to cut to
the quick in such matters We are as
far from the bald ideal of free trade
as from that of the Chinese wall.
Each has had its day and gone it's
way. 1t is everywhere recognized now
that the foreigner is not going to be
turned loose on our markets His only
function is that of a restraining influ-